Most of my reading recently has been non-fiction, and I'm looking for recommended good fiction books to read.
Any must read fiction?
Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#2Carl Hiassen's books regularly cause me to laugh so hard I have trouble breathing.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#3Dostoyevsky
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#4I don't read much fiction myself. "Siddhartha" by Herman Hesse was recommended to me by 3 different people on 3 different occasions, so I decided to read that one. It's a great little book that will make you stop every few pages and think about life.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#5While I cannot recommend any particular books, I can recommend that you look into the "Hard Science Fiction" genre. They are very realistic, yet still have a cool aspect of fiction. The Wikipedia page for Hard Science Fiction has a list of good books in the genre.
Besides that, off the top of my head, I would say books by Isaac Asimov (Foundation series) or Arthur C. Clarke (Space Odyssey series).
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#6The Martian (Andy Wier)?
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#7Dostoyevsky
+1 - Dostoyevsky is a must have.
There are many fictional books that tell so much truth about humanity, but I would recommend Karel Capek's novels as those aren't very popular nowadays. Particuraly: The "Absolute at Large" and "War with the Newts".
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#8My vote (behind Dostoyevsky and Hesse) would be Kafka, Vonnegut and Joyce.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#9While I cannot recommend any particular books, I can recommend that you look into the "Hard Science Fiction" genre. They are very realistic, yet still have a cool aspect of fiction. The Wikipedia page for Hard Science Fiction has a list of good books in the genre. Besides that, off the top of my head, I would say books by Isaac Asimov (Foundation series) or Arthur C. Clarke (Space Odyssey series).
My standing recommendation in the SciFi genre would be any Culture novel by Iain M. Banks. Truly utopian SciFi, and an interesting depiction of a post-labour, post-scarcity, post-human, AI-symbiotic, "human" civilisation.
It's not hard SciFi, but close. Banks really understood that spaceship battles are about mass, velocity and energy, and technobabble doesn't save the day.
Re: Ask HN: What are some great fiction reads for someone that reads non-fiction
#10I'm a little partial to The Great Gatsby. F. Scott Fitzgerald writes as though painting through the forrest with a brush made of wind.
I've never seen the movie, and I don't intend to; the writing in this book takes the imagination on a ride like I've never felt before or since