A Canticle for Leibowitz I ended up staying up all night reading most of the book
It's a bit too bleak for me, but it's certainly beautifully written.
Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
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Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#12The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings both stand alone as unparalleled fantasy novels. Buy a version with no foreword or footnotes and just, immerse yourself.
Great recommendation, thanks! Unfortunately for me, they’re probably my favorite books of all time. :) Cheers!
If you never listened before, can I recommend (to both of you) the lovely BBC radio dramatization of it? The cast is excellent and it plays out over multiple hours so they didn't have to chop it about too much.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(1981_...
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#13Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges probably tops the list for me.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#14For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want to approach via a gentle i…
Aargh, Formatting! Try 2 :
For the value of ‘best’ that includes
(a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and
(b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right,
here are some in no particular order:
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman
Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke
Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein
(These you might want to approach via a gentle introduction if you did not study Philosophy to degree level)
The Rediscovery of the Mind, John R Searle
Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler
The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse
A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh
Diaries, Samuel Pepys
Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer
A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor
The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester
The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
Bevis, Richard Jeffries
The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith
The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse
Hitch-22, essays, Christopher Hitchens
Collected Essays, William Hazlitt
Venice, Martin Gayford
The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski
The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch
Too obvious a list, perhaps, but some gems for all that! Happy reading.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#15”The Count of Monte Cristo”, one of my favorites. It’s a classic the general story being jailbreak/revenge. A little slow paced at times but the writing is fantastic.
If you enjoy fantasy novels I would recommend ”The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett, it’s outstanding.
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#16For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want to approach via a gentle i…
Aargh, Formatting! Try 2 : For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want…
I remember reading The Selfish Gene as a teenager and being struck by how it made evolution seem almost obvious.
Wodehouse is an embarrassment of riches of course.
Good recommendations!
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#17”The Count of Monte Cristo”, one of my favorites. It’s a classic the general story being jailbreak/revenge. A little slow paced at times but the writing is fantastic. If you enjoy fantasy novels I would recommend ”The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett, it’s outstanding.
PTerry wrote so many that everyone has a different favourite ;)
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#18”The Count of Monte Cristo”, one of my favorites. It’s a classic the general story being jailbreak/revenge. A little slow paced at times but the writing is fantastic. If you enjoy fantasy novels I would recommend ”The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett, it’s outstanding.
Can second this! Read Monte Cristo last year and still think about it.
I’m also working my way through discworld chronologically, just read “Eric”. Highly recommend this series :)
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#19Sartre's Nausea
Re: Ask HN: What are the best books you've ever read?
#20The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb