The Poor Soldier Svejk is up there
Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
781–790 of 980 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#782Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace It’s kind of cliche for a white male nerd of a certain age, but it has stuck with me. How imaginative the book is, the huge mix of characters and stories in the book, and the style of writing are incredible. The pace of interesting ideas is very fast and engrossing, and the language used to describe things is complex but not overly so.
It’s on my to-read list, but starting is daunting. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (the essay collection) was amazing. I think about it often.
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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#783Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, there's careers being made, egos being stroked, and insecurities being salved. It's not just a shared interest community. YC isn't a benevolent organization, and many of the folks, hereabouts, have some pretty serious cred (and money/power). Lots of folks want to get on their good side, and may think that frontin' is the best way.
Note that you're one of a minority of people here who aren't using a pseudonym. I don't use my real name here precisely so that I don't have to worry about what other people will think about me when reading my comments.
I’m not sure it’s a minority. Folks out themselves, all the time, and I encountered a couple of companies, when I was still job-searching, that required my HN ID, in the application.
But the main reason I do it, is because it forces me to behave. I may come across as a bit “stuffy,” but I challenge folks to find anything I’ve posted here (or anywhere, in the last eight years or so), that would be considered “troll-ish.”
I used to be a troll. I feel the need for some atonement.
Also, I found out that we are nowhere near as anonymous as we think we are.
If we participate in a public forum, I feel as if we need to be aware that we each have a personal Responsibility to add to it, and that we should just assume that we will be held to account for our words.
Just like IRL.
I know, I know. That’s a “quaint” attitude, but it’s the one I have.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#784100 Years of Solitude is my favorite. I majored in Spanish literature in college, that was my first exposure to Gabriel García Márquez (I read it in the original Spanish, but I'm told the English translation is faithful and very good).
I've struggled through 2 or 3 Marquez books in Spanish (I'm far from fluent), and have read all of them in English. Gregory Rabassa was an excellent translator and ,from my unexpert point of view, captured the essence of Marquez' work. Translated literature is interesting and I've recently read a few differing views on the "best" translations of Homer. I've resigned myself that I simply must trust the masses in some…
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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#785Came here for the recommendations in the comments. Thank you all internet strangers!
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#786Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slate_Star_Codex Its at least a bit interesting that this idea that "Ayn Rand exists as a roundabout litmus test for assholes" is quite weird, one I've never heard before, except from him. To arrive independently at the exact same, weird conclusion, there must be something to it.
If you want to believe that I'm this person there's nothing I can say to dissuade you. But I'm not him.
... no one said that.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#787Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes by Jacques Ellul.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#788Earlier quoted context omitted.
Dunno, testing people like that is such an incredibly unhealthy and misguided way to talk to people that I have a very hard time thinking I'm missing out here. Maybe that's just me though
Unhealthy for who, exactly? People who I won't get along with? Isn't it better that we don't interact, in this case? People aren't infinitely malleable - and I have no right to demand behavior from others. So, in my mind, it's better for everyone if we're separated from each other. Do you hang around people that dislike talking to you? I don't recommend that. I don't think anyone recommends that.
Honest small talk can reveal similar biases without resorting to a too clever by half ruse.
Unfortunately, I have a problem where I love jerks, so we'd probably be good friends.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#789Earlier quoted context omitted.
For those of us who really hated HPMOR and didn't finish it, this review explains the issues in it better than I can: https://danluu.com/su3su2u1/hpmor/
Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is happening in the book. "When Hermione DIES Hariezer does nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." - in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future revival, etc. Also many of the things that "do not make sense" are actually from the canon, and EY is making fun of their ab…
> Well, lets just say this guy does not understand what is happening in the book. "When Hermione DIES Hariezer does nothing, and a few weeks later Voldemort brings her back." - in the book Harry steals Hermione's body from under the nose of all wizards, and keeps it hidden and frozen for a future revival, etc.
The reviewer predicted that this is exactly what Harry did when he got to Hermione's body disappearing.
I think you've cherry-picked a misleading quote - the reviewer at that point is pointing out that Harry is not changing his primary focus to actually be solving death, just ranting about how terrible it is.
If Harry were being rational and focusing on the problem, as the reviewer points out, he might conceivably investigate the relevant prior art and research from the wizarding community, like Death's Door and the Philosopher's Stone.
Yes, he steals a body to preserve against the day someone does beat death, but he doesn't actually reorient to trying to fix it himself, is the reviewer's claim.
That fits with my vague recollections of slogging through a big chunk of it, but it was probably seven years ago, so I could be way off.
> Also many of the things that "do not make sense" are actually from the canon, and EY is making fun of their absurdity.
As one who read the original series multiple times, I'm pretty confident none of the things that reviewer calls out as nonsensical are from the original series.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#790Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not just liking a book, as if they named some cliche young adult novel. It’s the magnum opus of the author’s philosophy as a novel. They’re dismissing them for the philosophical views they’re celebrating. It’s the other end of the spectrum from disliking someone because their favorite book is The Grapes of Wrath or A Brave New World. I actually agree with the values expressed in those books, and I can also under…
I can like a book without agreeing with it.
Ok but your favourite book?