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Ask HN: What are some must read books?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#81

Post by tenpoundhammer »

aerovistae wrote: post #59

The Harry Potter series remains the most enjoyable books I've ever read. The Pillars of the Earth comes close though. Terrific sci-fi reads were Ender's Game , Speaker for the Dead , Hyperion , Ringworld , and to a lesser extent A Deepness in the Sky . Also Excession, whose human characters are poorly developed and written but whose world-building and AI characters are amazing. Terrific fantasy reads were The Time-Tr…

As a counterpoint to the praise of "The name of the wind" I read it on an HN recommendation and didn't enjoy it. The writing, characters, and story were all boring and poorly constructed, I kept thinking to myself, 'This is starting to get exciting I bet something good will happen' but nothing ever did. The world building and magic system was pretty well thought out but within the confines of 'The name of the wind' it was never put to good use.

If you like great world building and magic systems I would recommend Brandon Sanderson series 'The Stormlight Archives' or 'Mistborn'

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#82

Post by rg111 »

CalChris wrote: post #51

Must read? 1984 and Animal Farm . Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn . Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It . Emma and Pride and Prejudice . Iliad , Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid . A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray . The Great Gatsby , Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence . War and Peace and Anna Karenina . Don Quixote .

> Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid.

I didn't read the Odyssey, but read both Iliad and Aeneid.

I read Iliad first, and then Aeneid. Reading Aeneid right after reading Iliad was a great experience. It felt like I was reading a sequel! It felt right at home.

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#83

Post by rg111 »

mystickphoenix wrote: post #12

Non-violent Communication - One of my top 5 books easily. Changed how I think about the language we use in everyday communication with other people, and more importantly, the language I use with myself.

Which ones would make your other spots for top-5 or even top-10?

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#84

Post by aerovistae »

melonbar wrote: post #77
aerovistae wrote: post #59

The Harry Potter series remains the most enjoyable books I've ever read. The Pillars of the Earth comes close though. Terrific sci-fi reads were Ender's Game , Speaker for the Dead , Hyperion , Ringworld , and to a lesser extent A Deepness in the Sky . Also Excession, whose human characters are poorly developed and written but whose world-building and AI characters are amazing. Terrific fantasy reads were The Time-Tr…

Wow, I love this edit, I’m agnostic myself but that seems rather neat. I remember reading about how Warren Buffet, despite not being particularly religious, has read the Bible like 7 times or something. I always found that rather interesting. Thanks!

If you do read it, try to spot the point where the authorship switches. It's believed that at some point after the original author's death, a later cleric decided to expand the original work. The change in writing style is extremely apparent.

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#85

Post by rg111 »

CalChris wrote: post #16
vr46 wrote: post #9

Chaos by James Gleick The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

You really need to know your Russian history to really appreciate and get Master and Margherita . You probably know enough to read Animal Farm but M+M is Russian, capital R.

Someone in an HN comment already said this and they suggested reading it with a companion book, so I collected one.

I haven't started reading it yet.

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#86

Post by e12e »

melonbar wrote: post #57
e12e wrote: post #35

I'm wary of labels such as "must read" - but a couple of books I'm glad I read: "Dahlgren" by Samuel Delaney (and most everything else I've read by him as well). "Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin - and "Powers". "Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson. "Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling (I also enjoyed Islands in the Net, Zenith Angle and Schismatrix). "Foundation" trilogy + prequel by Isaac Asimov. "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley. "…

Fair enough haha, thanks this is a great list, Foundation has always been something I wanted to read.

I was pleasantly stunned when I recently re-read Foundation - after reading them in junior high school, some 25 years ago. I actually remembered most of the characters (note, there's pretty much a protagonist per chapter and the original trilogy spans... 10? thousand years).

On a different note - Hurki Murakami's non-fictional account of the Tokyo subway gas attack "Underground" is a harrowing, but rewarding read. And while tragic, "Norwegian Wood" is lighter, and also great (I actually think his best book among those I've read is "South of the Border" - in a similar sense that "The great Gatsby" is good (unsurprising as Murakami translated Scott Fitzgerald).

https://www.cupblog.org/2013/05/07/haruki-murakami-on-transl...

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#87

Post by sleepysysadmin »

Here's my recommendations without any particular order and just books ive read recently and havent sorted into the library.

Factfullness by Hans rosling: The world is awesome, stop focusing on some tiny negatives that are being mispresented by the media.

Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir: Contemporary top scifi author

Starship Troopers by Robert A Heinlein: The movie was awesome, until you read the book and see the movie as an abomination.

Pheonix and Unicorn Projects by Gene Kim: Devops > ITIL.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: Stoicism, how to be a good leader, how to live life.

How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie: Everyone should be forced to read this multiple times. I really need to re-read.

Lying by Sam Harris: Seriously don't lie. You'll find things get better unexpectedly.

12 rules for life by Jordan Peterson: Here comes the downvotes.

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#88

Post by mindcrime »

aerovistae wrote: post #59

The Harry Potter series remains the most enjoyable books I've ever read. The Pillars of the Earth comes close though. Terrific sci-fi reads were Ender's Game , Speaker for the Dead , Hyperion , Ringworld , and to a lesser extent A Deepness in the Sky . Also Excession, whose human characters are poorly developed and written but whose world-building and AI characters are amazing. Terrific fantasy reads were The Time-Tr…

The downside of reading The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear is that the third book isn't written yet, and no one seems to know exactly when it's going to appear (if ever). That is, unless something has changed very recently regarding this.

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#89

Post by ryandvm »

I would put the Discworld series out there. Not because they will change your life, but just because they're so damn enjoyable to read. A lot of them are also suitable for reading together with children. My daughter (11) and I both loved The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents.

Re: Ask HN: What are some must read books?

#90

Post by tharne »

sdedovic wrote: post #32

I don't know about must-read but here are my top 5 books: - Brave New World, Aldous Huxley - Anna Karenina, Lev Tolstoy - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig - Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky - Dune, Frank Herbert

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a vastly underrated book. It was decades ahead of its time.
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