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Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
811–820 of 980 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#812Many, but one of my personal, is Catch 22. The complexity of the structure, the humor, and the painful exhibition of human stupidity makes it a book for the ages.
'Catch 22' had quite an effect on me when I read it as young man. I'm not sure whether I will read it again, I'm worried it might dissapoint some 40 years later.
I went back and read it after reading it as a teenager fairly recently.
It still worked for me. It didn't quite have the same impact and the it sags a bit in the middle but it's still a great book that well, shaped the way I see the world.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#813The truth is, if you ask me this 100 times, you'll probably get 100 different answers, because it's impossible to really pick just one (well two, separating by fiction/non-fiction). But for today I'll go with: Fiction: Neuromancer Non-fiction: The Selfish Gene
> Fiction: Neuromancer I've tried twice to read this, but it looses me about 10% in for some reason. Is it worth continuing past that? Does it get "better"? Or does that just signal that the whole book isn't for me?
It might be worth reading the short stories in 'Burning Chrome'.
Also, there is an excellent BBC audio drama made from the book. It's on Youtube.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#814Earlier quoted context omitted.
>It’s very specifically not based on how you use the land. Sorry but you are wrong. Farmers and homeowners pay less than investors. If you build expensive stuff on the property (put another way, if you USE it to do something expensive) you generally pay more. Again, I don't need to read a whole book, much less one based on pure idealism and with no thought given to real economic data and real human nature, to know th…
> If you build expensive stuff on the property you generally pay more. This is not Land Value Tax. Georgism is an argument against this concept of taxing based on what you do with the land.
So, am I to understand that prime beach real estate is to be taxed the same as a plot in a desert or swamp? There is clearly a lot of trouble with taxing land, because an inherent part of its value is what you can do with it. People pay premium for land that is useful and desireable. The structures placed on land and the values thereof are proportional to this desirability and economic utility.
Furthermore, it might be necessary to use land for farming or warehouses when it is more profitably used for residential structures. A free market might eventually sort out higher food prices that can cover the taxes, but I think we can all agree that it's better to not arbitrarily increase taxes on a necessity like food.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#815These 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…
I liked the first Belgariad book I got, but after a few more, I felt like reread the same book over and over. Same for Mallorean.
The Black Company is great, especially the first book.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#816Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah you gotta go around assuming that anyone might lie to you about their favorite book in order to use your reaction to determine something about your personality. This behavior is normal and good.
You missed the point, I’m afraid. What’s neither normal nor good is writing someone off as an idiot because their taste in books differs from yours.
Exercising your judgement about how other people exercise their judgement is good actually.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#817Everybody has already mentioned most of the best books I've read, so I'll mention one that I haven't seen on this thread yet - The Little Schemer. Unless you're actively working through a bunch of problems/examples, reading most books is a form of passive learning. That is, you are simply being told information. The Little Schemer is the only book I know of that is written almost entirely in the form of increasingly…
Totally agree. Loved this book. Reading "The Little Prover" right now. I can't get enough of this style of textbook writing.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#818Probably Catch-22
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#819These 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…
Scifi here but the most embarrassing one I have to admit to loving is the stainless steel rat series by Harry Harrison.
Awesomeness counts.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#820Earlier quoted context omitted.
>> It's old, but the beginning especially is just a non-stop adventure. It always drags a bit for me after the first third, but picks up again and continues to be great throughout. Yeah, as much as I love Count Monte Christo as a story, being it a movie ( https://youtu.be/qesn8pV9yu8?si=ssccZfQGf9F1fCk3 ), series ( https://youtu.be/bF1Z7irZLdY?si=oDF0OnB-1NWVfwZq ) or anime ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gankutsuou:…
Tangentially: the 2024 version [1] of the movie has been a huge success in France (quite deserved in my opinion), and is about the open in the US. The imagery of the movie has a definitive "Batman" vibe - sort of "full circle", even though, apparently CoMC was not _really_ an inspiration for the Dark Knight, as the legend went. [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo_(202... [2] https://scifi.…
Thanks - I will check it out.
The trailer looks a bit generic and definitely has a bit different vibe than Im used to (me not knowing French does not help at all :) ). Also the Count after transformation seems to have a different style - feels not as distinguished as old school actors in previous movies. But maybe it will be exactly what this story needs.