A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates, by the RAND Corporation, 1955. Preferred is the 2001 edition w/ new forward.
Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
901–910 of 980 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#902Steppenwolf 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.”
I like Hesse and I like Steppenwolf even though neither is my favorite -- but there is a fragment in Steppenwolf that I will never forget, that I have used often, and that anchors the love side of my love-hate relationship with the German language:
"...um im Gasthaus [...] das zu trinken, was trinkende Männer nach einer alten Konvention »ein Gläschen Wein« nennen."
English: in order to drink in the pub that which drinking men, according to an old convention, call "a little glass of wine."
But trust me, it really works in German.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#903These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars. I prefer junky fantasy books. I'm really too old and cynical to give a damn what y'all think of me. I probably liked David Edding's Belgariad series, along with the Mallorean series, the most. I reread them, regularly, and go through all ten books, in a couple of weeks. They are an easy read. Also, Glen Cook's Black Company books ar…
These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#904For me it is more Plato less Prozac, I read it at 14 and it really influenced me.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#905Late to the party, but for anyone looking for inspiration:
Fiction: Death in Venice (Der Tod in Venedig) by Thomas Mann[0]
Nonfiction: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard[1]
Illustrated: The Insect God by Edward Gorey
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#906Dead Memory, a graphic novel by Marc-Antoine Mathieu.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/329097.Marc_Antoine_Ma...
It describes the collapse of a rectiligne society (The City) based on hyperconnectivity and hyperinformation and poses the base of The Circular Foundation.
It has been written in the end of XX century and seems to have anticipated issues of our society related to communautarism and the loss of some part of our memory.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/606849.Dead_Memory
Aside this album, the author made a great série inspired by the readings of Kafka, Julius Corentin Acquefacques, and explore way to take avantage of code of narration found in comics.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#907Earlier quoted context omitted.
> These threads often end up, with everyone trying to prove they are literary scholars I see a wide variety of answers ITT. Some are very "literary" fiction e.g. Ulysses , others are lighter fare like Harry Potter , there's also a wide variety of non-fiction works from self-help to electronics manuals to philosophy. Have you considered that other people might actually have different tastes than you, and aren't trying…
C'mon. This is HN. People are trying to posture and prove all kinds of things. Of course folks have different tastes (I'm the redneck engineer, in my family. Most of my other siblings think James Joyce is da thang , but they are also into posturing). But it also intimidates folks into not sharing some really good stuff.
> But it also intimidates folks into not sharing some really good stuff.
Do people really care what some other Internet rando thinks about their book preferences? FWIW (though of course could be missing some), I haven't seen any recommendations that have been dumped on. Heck, your comment recommending "junky fantasy books" is currently #2 for me, in a very long thread.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#908Can we just skip all the Atlas shrugged swellhead arguments? They take up all the air in the room/(scroll in the page) of every best book thread. Just bump it up if you agree, provide an alternative if you don't.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#909Anna Karenina
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#910One of the previous posts mentioned that it changes for them frequently, and I'm pretty much the same way. But for right now: Fiction: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Non-Fiction: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
To be clear, both are fiction, it’s just that one is fantasy and the other is set in modern reality.
I'm sure you meant, both are non-fiction.