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Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#671

Post by dartharva »

edanm wrote: post #119

Impossible to pick just one. I'll give a few that haven't appeared yet: Fiction: Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Eliezer Yudkowsky) Non-fiction: Rationality - from AI to Zombies (Eliezer Yudkowsky) Probably no books have impacted me quite as much as these two, barring early-childhood books that have impacted me from a young age. Fiction: Worm (by Parahumans) Best "superhero" fiction ever created. Just on…

> Fiction: The Mistborn Trilogy - Brandon Sanderson. Best fantasy books ever, IMO.

I highly recommend listening to the GraphicAudio adaptation of this series. It's what got me into audiobooks.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#672

Post by NortySpock »

llamaimperative wrote: post #130
loveparade wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What people forget to mention is when they have read a book. I read the Selfish Gene when I was a teen and it left a lasting impression. It was published in 1989. How the Mind works was published in 2011. Reading the Selfish Gene today as an adult, when you've probably read a dozen similar books already, is not going to have the same effect. It's going to be pretty boring. That's why asking for book recommendations i…

What similar books are there to The Selfish Gene? I read it not too long ago and found it astonishing. People are generally enthralled by Sapiens which is just a very mediocre extension + shallow interpretation of Dawkins’ thesis.

"The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture" by Darrel Ray follows in the footsteps of The Selfish Gene to certain logical conclusions about clusters of related memes/concepts (specifically: how religion(s) formed and evolved as clusters of overlapping concepts)

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#673

Post by Izikiel43 »

joshdavham wrote: post #446

The best books I read last year were the "Three Body Problem" books by Cixin Liu. It's a science fiction series about aliens, space travel and the universe and they're easily the best books I've read in a while. I genuinely can't remember the last time I got that absorbed in a series. I'd read until the early hours of the morning and sometimes just sit at the edge of my bed for like 20 minutes just contemplating the…

Agreed, I read the 4 of them in 4 days, easy reads, very interesting. I like how 4 (which Cixin Liu recognized as canon despite being a fanfic originally) completed the story vs how it ended in 3.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#674

Post by pks016 »

creature_x wrote: post #173

Steppenwolf By Herman Hesse. It's remarkable how a fictional character written by someone a century ago can resonate so deeply with a modern person. But then again, that's a common thread amongst great literature. I recommend this book to anyone struggling with loneliness or feeling like they haven't found their footing in this world. “Learn what is to be taken seriously and laugh at everything else.”

My favorite is Siddhartha.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#675

Post by tootie »

spicyusername wrote: post #62

I was very influenced by Kurt Vonnegut when I was a teenager. Coming of age is a perfect time to learn that the fact that life is absurd doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't laugh, just the opposite. Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse Five are some of my favorite books of his. As an adult, I've been very influenced by the late Daniel Dennett and his naturalist philosophy. Books like From Bacteria to Bach and Back or D…

Vonnegut was such a genius. His books mostly light reading. Funny and fully of goofy sci-fi tropes. All building up to revelatory philosophical lessons about human nature. "We are what we pretend to be" hit me like a ton of bricks. Right up there with "We are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you any different."

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#676

Post by tb_technical »

dyauspitr wrote: post #553
tb_technical wrote: post #142

"The best book I've ever read was Atlas Shrugged in 8th grade. Changed my life." Not because I remember anything about it, or believe anything it espouses, or even like it all that much, but because it's a useful filter for obnoxious people in meatspace. If someone I don't know too well asks me what my favorite book is, I say Atlas Shrugged. If they react inappropriately, I'll be cordial and treat them with respect,…

So you’re using a book as a political filtering mechanism. I don’t see how that particular book has any relevance to this discussion then. You might as well just switch it out with “The Turner Diaries” or something similar.

Pretty much, yeah. Any controversial political book will do.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#677

Post by Izikiel43 »

dmonitor wrote: post #502
joshdavham wrote: post #446

The best books I read last year were the "Three Body Problem" books by Cixin Liu. It's a science fiction series about aliens, space travel and the universe and they're easily the best books I've read in a while. I genuinely can't remember the last time I got that absorbed in a series. I'd read until the early hours of the morning and sometimes just sit at the edge of my bed for like 20 minutes just contemplating the…

I was interested in the series until I heard the worldbuilding bit about how the aliens have FTL 12-dimensional supercomputers the size of an atom that can cause hallucinations and interfere with particle accelerators from orbit. Author basically just gave the antagonists god-powers to prove some kind of point about how hopelessly pathetic humans are?

> FTL

They are not FTL, they are lightspeed.

They managed the computers through quantum entanglement.

It's not god powers, imagine 21st century humanity vs middle ages humanity. Like Arthur C. Clarke said, "advanced enough science is no different than magic" or something along those lines.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#679

Post by afthonos »

carabiner wrote: post #508
krupan wrote: post #294

Nobody has mentioned: - The Lord of the Rings. It is the secret gateway for us nerds to get into literature and poetry (do not skip the poems!). Read all the reference materials like The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, J.R.R.'s letters, the books his son Christopher edited and published, etc. If the poems seem weird or don't make sense, research why they are worded and structured the way they are. - The Master and Margarit…

Obscure wtf? It's a classic of Russian literature and taught in every Russian lit class.

Famously well attended courses, those, in the English-speaking world… ;-)

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#680

Post by Izikiel43 »

carabiner wrote: post #508
krupan wrote: post #294

Nobody has mentioned: - The Lord of the Rings. It is the secret gateway for us nerds to get into literature and poetry (do not skip the poems!). Read all the reference materials like The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, J.R.R.'s letters, the books his son Christopher edited and published, etc. If the poems seem weird or don't make sense, research why they are worded and structured the way they are. - The Master and Margarit…

Obscure wtf? It's a classic of Russian literature and taught in every Russian lit class.

> taught in every Russian lit class.

Most people outside of russia and probably ex soviet republics don't have mandatory Russian literature classes.

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