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Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

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Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#86

Post by furyofantares »

RandomBacon wrote: post #65
dreamer7 wrote: post #25

Harry Potter!! The writing is simple but the wisdom is profound. Everytime I have reread one of the books in the series, I discovered something new. One particular scene made such a strong impression on me about being calm in difficult situations. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, when Harry is flinging Dumbledore's precious instruments around, Dumbledore remains monk-like still.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality If you like Harry Potter, and you read HN, chances are you'll love HPMOR. The premise is that Harry Potter was raised by people who cared and taught him the Scientific Method. He then uses that approach to solve and understand things. I never thought I would like fan fiction until I came across HPMOR being recommended so many times elsewhere.

I loved HPMOR even though I have a difficult time reading fiction generally. And I have no familiarity with the Harry Potter universe.

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#87

Post by simonbarker87 »

raintrees wrote: post #11

Much of Neal Stephenson's work provides me inspiration, similar to William Gibson's work. It envisions future tech/life that stirs me to see if I can create some of it.

I’ve loved every book of his I’ve read. SevenEves is my favourite book of any I’ve read (I actually loved part 3) but for a series nothing beats the Baroque Cycle

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#88

Post by ryan_w »

Hunter x Hunter by Yoshihiro Togashi - I recently started reading manga again and had heard about the series. It's an amazing feat of visual storytelling, jumping genres all the time, an incredible and vast world, and complex characters you can't help but love or hate. On the surface it looks fun and lighthearted but that facade is quickly thrown out to explore mature themes, ultimately culminating in an exploration of the morality of humanity and depression.

Others would include:

The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series - I read this when I was a kid, even got all of the books autographed by the author! It was the first series I read that I remember deeply moving me. The books subvert the traditional "chosen one" protagonist, and even the hero questions this. It's fun reading, he has a huge ego that constantly gets taken down. As a kid reading along wanting him to be this epic hero, almost self inserting myself into the fantasy, I fell in love with all the Greek mythology and characters. It's been a long time since I re read them, but I still think back with nostalgic glasses. It probably won't hold up as well going back, but I think they're timeless enough.

Sherlock Holmes - I've always been a fan of mysteries and well...it's Sherlock Holmes. Between all the copies and collections I own I either have them all or multiple copies of the same stories. I know I definitely have duplicates from different publishers with slight variations. But loved it as a kid and made me interested in science.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

Re: Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?

#89

Post by jamesrcole »

danbmil99 wrote: post #83

Philip K Dick. Everything he wrote

I find his works a mixed bag. I thought “A Scanner Darkly” was quite good. I really liked the crazy, out-there nature of “Ubik”. But then I found “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”, and some short story collection I read, to be pretty ordinary.
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