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Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#251

Post by araes »

killthebuddha wrote: post #207
Dove wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is splendid. Some of the most vigorous writing I've ever encountered. I agree, it is highly recommended.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD Edit: On a more serious note, this book actually changed the way I think in a very concrete (and positive) way. The book spurred me to start consciously reflecting on "what about X, specifically, is surprising" and/or "what about X, specifically, is confusing". It's impossible to quantify, but the habit has definitely, definitely, boosted my ability to disentangle complex situations and make b…

Skulls for the Throne of Skulls! We march upon the Abyss!

Seriously though. "Codex Chaos" is pretty super sweet, if sweet is skyscraper size demons of the darkness of mankind. Excellent light reading.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#252

Post by ComputerGuru »

aristofun wrote: post #2

Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is impossible to give a good answer to the question. Books are not oranges.

Au contraire !

I was a ridiculously voracious reader (if I saw it, I wouldn’t put it down until I’d read it) and my answer was always “hard to say, no favorite.”

But then one day you read that book that stands out from everything else (to you, for various personal reasons that might not translate the same for the next person) and suddenly, just like that, you have a favorite book.

I wish you will discover this feeling one day!

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#253

Post by downut »

twoodfin wrote: post #50

Taking “best” to mean, “About to be banished to a small, rocky island in the North Atlantic, can pack one book”: Ulysses , and it’s not particularly close. The book is fractally intricate and intellectually puzzling in the best sense—something new and special to notice every time you pick it up. But it also wears like old leather, and I find myself returning to favorite chapters simply to sink indulgently into the ch…

I was scrolling down the comments thinking, huh, what if I just kind of threw it out there that Ulysses is my favorite book, by far. What would happen? Bunch of young'uns dumping on me?

Well bring it on. It is in fact, not particularly close that Ulysses is my favorite book.

It hadn't occurred to me though to just reread chapters as they appeal, I'm heading out to reread the calvacade one. Then there is that pub with the dog... And the newsrooom... what a great day, thanks!

I started Ulysses when I was in my early twenties, stalled, and then picked it up again and finished it straight off 35 years later. Same copy! Pissed off I didn't push it through way back when.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#255

Post by bcantrill »

Obviously a very reductive question -- even if sharpened slightly to "most influential" book. I will reduce it even further: one of the few books that I have read twice (and the only one that has exerted different, profound influence on me on each read) is Tracy Kidder's "Soul of a New Machine." This is a book that every engineer should absolutely read, though not without an uncritical eye for Tom West and Data General. I wrote about my second read of "Soul" five years ago[0], and I know that there are folks who have read it on my recommendation -- and I don't think anyone has regretted it.

[0] https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2019/02/10/reflecting-on-the-so...

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#256

Post by unboxedtype »

Dove wrote: post #128

There can be only one answer to that - the Bible . Twenty years ago, I was convinced the content alone justified the claims of a divine origin, which opinion has only grown stronger in the years since. Even if you don't believe in it, it is worth reading as literature - an extraordinarily epic story, and a lot of stuff to say about humanity and divinity along the way. Everything else, comparatively, seems to me like…

Glad someone mentioned that. I couldn't say it better.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#258

Post by SigmundA »

I love hard sci-fi and I keep going back to Blindsight: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm

Making a distinction between intelligence and consciousness was interesting and I think applies to current AI systems, at least that what came to mind when seeing ChatGPT for the first time.

Also vampires being real apex predators brought back from extinction with a decent explanation as to why they don't like crosses is just entertaining to me.

Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?

#259

Post by colinator »

Borges: Selected Non-fictions. Think his fictions are good? His non-fictions, imho, are even better. You can read three sentences and feel like you just listened to a symphony - you get that constant Borges wit, erudition, mystery. The English translations are SO good. Are they even better in Spanish?
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