Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

361–370 of 529 posts

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#362

Post by morgante »

DavidSJ wrote: post #358
ktRolster wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure there are some who complained of that, but nobody I know did. Look up "Bush Hitler" and you'll see plenty of images. It's the American national past-time to compare our president to either Hitler or the Antichrist, depending on your persuasion.

All the crying wolf from the left about Bush being a fascist is one of the reasons why, now that we have a real wolf and many conservatives are calling the Republican candidate a fascist, lots of people aren't listening.

Excellent point. The National Review is hardly known for being liberal, yet even they are calling Trump a fascist and refusing to support him. [0]

[0] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436808/donald-trump-fa...

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#363

Post by CalRobert »

Getting out: Your guide to Leaving America

The title is a bit provocative but if you're looking to move from the US to another country it's a great place to start. I've given it to a couple of footloose people in their twenties who wanted to move abroad but were intimidated by dealing with visas and expense. (Remember, not everyone works in fields where countries are clamoring to give out visas!)

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#364

Post by iamben »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #194
davewasthere wrote: post #151

The most: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. Think I've bought almost a dozen copies over the years. Although that book wasn't really a gift, more a loan I never got back. Others: Lord of the Rings - I gave this to the guard who detained me in Russia. I thought it was the best revenge. The life changing magic of tidying - to my partner. We're both messy. I've read it, she hasn't... neither of us have changed. 1Q84 by…

1Q84 is probably my favourite Murakamai book so far.

I love fact it took the entire first book to get 'weird'. It just teeters on the edge before dropping right off the cliff.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#366

Post by stan_rogers »

durga wrote: post #16
AlphaGeekZulu wrote: post #14

Douglas Hofstadter: Gödel, Escher, Bach

I tried to read this book but never quite understood it. What's it really about?

At its base, it's an exploration of how a conscious mind can arise from unconscious matter. For anyone who's attempted to read the thing and never quite gotten what Hofstadter's on about, the central theme is encapsulated in the dialogue ... Ant Fugue, with the emergence of the character Aunt Hillary from her component ants, who don't directly participate in "her" consciousness. Literally everything else is a long explanation -- from various angles -- of how, given sufficient complexity, the rules don't adequately describe the system, and the system need not be aware of the rules that give it rise. The mathematics, computer science, music, art and "spirituality" are all frames of reference for exploring and (to a limited extent) proving the central thesis: consciousness is an emergent phenomenon.

Re: Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?

#368

Post by Ntrails »

jen729w wrote: post #225

Hyperion by Dan Simmonds. It, and the follow-up Fall of Hyperion, are by far and away my favourite sci-fi books. Given them to 5+ people over the years and every one has loved them.

I was gifted my copy, and have gifted 3 copies to others now. Pay it forward :)
Post reply on HN