Fiction - [Trouble on] Triton by Samuel Delaney. It just has so many relevant big ideas told in a very subdued way via a not very likeable but appropriate character.
Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
51–60 of 980 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#52The Boy's Second book of Electronics by Alfred Morgan(1957) introduced me to electronics in the 1970s, and lead to a technical mindset and lifestyle. The Engineers Notebook by Forest Mims really taught me the basics of electronics. What do you care what other people think by Richard Feynman(1988) introduced me to the idea that nobody is really as much of an expert as you might think. 1632 By Eric Flint, and the subse…
"the way things work", the book with all the woolly mammoths in it. Learned a lot from it
Grew up with the original "The Way Things Work" [1] (found out later it was an English translation of the German book, "Wie Funktioniert Das").
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#53I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very meaningful question.
Sure, but for the rest of us it might suggest a food we had not yet tried.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#54Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#55I've moved enough times to have thinned my book collection down quite a bit. Books that I can't quit, the original "The Boy Mechanic" books, "The Complete Tales of Uncle Remus", "Jingo Django" (I have quite of few of Sid Fleischman's books, actually), a set of "The Book of a Thousands Nights and a Night" (the Arabian Nights) ... to name a few.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#56Fiction: Hyperion by Dan Simmons (especially The Consul's Tale)
Non-Fiction: Peopleware (opened my eyes when I was a young newcomer to the industry)
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#57House of Leaves
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves
You must use a physical book, it's full of typographical and color changes to impress context different then just the words. Every time I re-read it, I look though a different lens and get something different from it.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#58Godel Escher Bach is the best book I've read. Very interesting topics and the sheer creativity of the writing is amazing.
i have the book and tried to read it many times, but never grokked it tbh. ;-)
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#59Anything from Sagan: Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God could convert the Pope to agnosticism. Stephen Ray Gould: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin: will both challenge every preconceived notion you've had, link seemingly impossibly unrelated phenomenon together using similar models and patterns, and leave with a much more intuitive understanding about co…
After seeing Carl Sagan's Cosmos I got and read the coffee table book "Cosmos" I really liked it at the time(about 10-12 yo). It was pretty influential but I do not know if I could sit through the book again.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#60I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very meaningful question.
Sure, but for the rest of us it might suggest a food we had not yet tried.
Fair enough. I feel like I've been seeing a lot of questions on Reddit along this line that comes off as very low effort to generate engagements so that's really the reason behind my comment but I see how my response also comes off as snarky.