Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#1

Post by pyzhianov » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 3:33 PM UTC

I'm looking to read more classic books. What are your personal favorites? Extra points if it's something not commonly recommended. I'm open to pretty much anything

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#2

Post by warrenm » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 3:39 PM UTC

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#3

Post by warrenm » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 3:58 PM UTC

warrenm wrote: post #2

Flatland by Edwin Abbott

(ftr - I am using the definition of "classic", as I make suggestions/recommendations, applying to works produced more than a century ago)

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#4

Post by warrenm » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 3:58 PM UTC

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin

Regardless of whether you are Protestant or not (or religious or not) - understanding the theological philosophy of one of the great thinkers of the Protestant Reformation is a wonderful addition to your own mental maps fo the world at large

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#5

Post by FerretFred » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 3:59 PM UTC

"Confessions of an English Eater" by Thomas De Quincey. An autobiographical work in which the author details his unfortunate descent into Laudanum addiction. It all started well, but ended badly...

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#6

Post by warrenm » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 4:00 PM UTC

The Travels of Marco Polo (I prefer the Modern Library edition translated by Manuel Komroff (it was published in 1931, but the source dates to the 13th-14th centuries))

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#7

Post by markus_zhang » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 5:40 PM UTC

Anything by Dostoevsky, but specifically "Notes from Underground" and "The Brothers Karamazov".

"Jean-Christophe" by Romain Rolland.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#8

Post by northernman » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 6:33 PM UTC

FerretFred wrote: post #5

"Confessions of an English Eater" by Thomas De Quincey. An autobiographical work in which the author details his unfortunate descent into Laudanum addiction. It all started well, but ended badly...

I think you mean "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater"

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#9

Post by phaser » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 7:05 PM UTC

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?

#10

Post by __rito__ » Tue, Aug 13, 2024, 7:10 PM UTC

Does it have to be old to be a "classic"?

If not, by far, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez is my favorite novel by a Nobel winner. It's great, epic, and lovely to read.

If you include epics, Mahabharata is actually a grand, epic book with war, friendship, love, sex, politics, realpolitik, strategy, and has a reach story line with scores of great side-stories.

I also genuinely enjoyed Iliad and Aenied.

I was also surprised at how good Candide by Voltaire was to read. Had a ton of fun reading it.