Ask HN: What are some must read books?

[melonbar]

Life is too short to read crummy books. So after reading the review on Blade Runner 2049 which touched on PKD and Nabokov I have decided get Pale Fire. I am curious what you would recommend on top of that (I was also planning to get A Confederacy of Dunces). That said, take a penny leave a penny, if you haven’t read A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again or Gibsons’ Neuromancer, try and make time. They’re exquisite!

[meristohm]

Thanks for the recommendations. I’m feeling old, so I’ll add:

Edith Grossman’s translation of Don Quixote (1609! The more things change, the more they stay the same)

Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (I thought I knew the story until I actually read the book—whoah, that opened my eyes to our relationship with technology and industry and how we use energy)

Dracula, by Bram Stoker (from Blindboy’s podcast episode “Paddy Dracula” I learned Stoker is from Dublin, son of a Protestant mother who told him stories, bedridden until seven years old, about the horrors of cholera)

Moby Dick, by Herman Melville (further awareness of how we convert resources, this time before petrol, and for the descriptions of sea life and human relationships)

For background, I’m also into contemporary sci-fi and fantasy and would have an easier time going without electricity than without books, unless I was part of a community that carried on storytelling traditions.

Two others: Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard, both about ecology and reciprocity, guiding how I garden, parent, and relate to the bleeding edge of life in general.

[jackconsidine]

Don Quixote is 900 pages of gut-busting humor that will ruin most comedy for you. And Moby Dick was an incredible read (if you're into audiobooks, Anthony Heald is the perfect narrator for Moby Dick IMO).

Will have to check out the others!

[melonbar]

Wow thank you for taking the time to write this list I really appreciate it! I have always wanted to read Don Quixote but had trouble figuring out which translation. This is awesome I will for sure be getting that one and perhaps some others. Have a great Monday.

[innocentoldguy]

To your recommendations of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula, I'd add Gaston Leroux's The Phantom of the Opera. That is by far my most favorite of the classic "monster" books.

[handrous]

> Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (I thought I knew the story until I actually read the book—whoah, that opened my eyes to our relationship with technology and industry and how we use energy)

Can confirm, the novel is very unlike every film adaptation I'm aware of. It also, incredibly, hits its themes even harder than those do.

[ashika]

  Through the lacings of the leaves, the great sun seemed a flying shuttle weaving the unwearied verdure. Oh, busy weaver! unseen weaver!--pause!--one word!--whither flows the fabric? what palace may it deck? wherefore all these ceaseless toilings? Speak, weaver!

Love Moby Dick

[arduinomancer]

Just to add a counter opinion: I found Moby Dick a real slog to get through

It has very detailed descriptions of whaling which I didn't find interesting

[aerovistae]

The Harry Potter series remains the most enjoyable books I've ever read. The Pillars of the Earth comes close though.

Terrific sci-fi reads were Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Hyperion, Ringworld, and to a lesser extent A Deepness in the Sky. Also Excession, whose human characters are poorly developed and written but whose world-building and AI characters are amazing.

Terrific fantasy reads were The Time-Traveler's Wife, as well as The Name of the Wind and its sequel The Wise Man's Fear. The latter two have rather bad writing and TERRIBLE female characters, but the story is extremely engrossing anyway and some of the ideas are really original (the Cthaeh!).

Catch-22 was an amazing read as well. Watership Down, After Dark, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, and Blood Meridian all dazzled me.

Oh, and The Sandman, Watchmen, Maus, and Persepolis for graphic novels.

For short stories: MMAcevedo (https://qntm.org/mmacevedo), The Last Question by Asimov, The Library of Babel by Borges, and The Dead by Joyce (whose final sentence is my favorite of all English-language writing).

Lastly, The Design of Everyday Things changed how I saw man-made items.

Edit: I almost forgot-- Ecclesiastes, from the Old Testament. I am not religious and this work stands out strongly from all the other writings collected in the bible. It's a poetic work on finding purpose in a world that lacks any inherent meaning. Considered one of if not the most well-written book of the entire bible. Recommend the NIV translation.

[tenpoundhammer]

As a counterpoint to the praise of "The name of the wind" I read it on an HN recommendation and didn't enjoy it. The writing, characters, and story were all boring and poorly constructed, I kept thinking to myself, 'This is starting to get exciting I bet something good will happen' but nothing ever did. The world building and magic system was pretty well thought out but within the confines of 'The name of the wind' it was never put to good use.

If you like great world building and magic systems I would recommend Brandon Sanderson series 'The Stormlight Archives' or 'Mistborn'

[mindcrime]

The downside of reading The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear is that the third book isn't written yet, and no one seems to know exactly when it's going to appear (if ever). That is, unless something has changed very recently regarding this.

[MerelyMortal]

If you like Harry Potter, and you're a regular reader of HN, I highly recommend Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (HPMOR).

I'm not a "fan fiction" person, but after seeing it recommended so many times, I gave it a try. It is very good.

[melonbar]

Wow, I love this edit, I’m agnostic myself but that seems rather neat. I remember reading about how Warren Buffet, despite not being particularly religious, has read the Bible like 7 times or something. I always found that rather interesting. Thanks!

[gaws]

> The Name of the Wind and its sequel The Wise Man's Fear. These are far from terrific. There are better -- and actually finished -- fantasy series out there.

[handrous]

People take issue with them, but picking something off Adler's or Harvard's (five-foot-shelf) or Bloom's Great Books lists will almost never lead you wrong.

But, here we go anyway (and yeah, some of these are just off those lists):

1) Shakespeare's big four tragedies are, in fact, out-fucking-standing. Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth. IMO Hamlet reads the best of those. Any would be fine to watch, as well, and may be better that way. The language, especially, is easier to understand when performed, because you have body language, tone, and other context to work with.

2) Gilgamesh. I like Mitchell's edition.

3) The Odyssey. Iliad's a bit of a bore, but with a few incredible scenes that really stick with you. The Odyssey, though, is great. Screw the haters, even the "Telemachy" portion is good.

4) Revolutionary Road by Yates, for a certain kind of struggle with identity & purpose that I suspect will resonate and provide a useful mirror for lots of folks on here.

5) Woolf's To the Lighthouse is probably my favorite book, so I'll throw that on here.

6) The 20th century gave us tons of essayists (some of whom also wrote novels and such) who are great reads. Orwell, C.S. Lewis, and Forster all come to mind.

7) Maugham wrote a lot of novels, and most of them are well worth a read.

8) Farmer's Riverworld series are probably my favorite very dumb books.

[CalChris]

Yes, The Odyssey is great (even if Telemachus is an entitled twit). The Iliad is great if very straightforward. The Aeneid is great, well the first half is, but like Romeo and Juliet after Mercutio dies, The Aeneid flags after Dido does the thing that she does.

[asmos7]

I've never read Shakespeare but so I'm curious to hear what you think makes it outstanding? I've tried reading a bit before but I was weighed down by words and phrases that we no longer use and found myself losing the meaning.

[carabiner]

For non-Americans, this is basically the US high school required reading list.

[fumblebee]

BIOGRAPHY: The Power Broker by Robert Caro - one of the greatest biographies you'll ever read. Long but absolutely first class. I've been meaning to read his trio of books on LBJ but for now they're on the later-base.

CLASSIC FICTION: The Master and Margarita Novel by Mikhail Bulgakov - a magical text of immense imagination. Had it not been released posthumously Bulgakov would no doubt have gotten shipped to a gulag or worse.

CHILDREN'S BOOK: The Little Price by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - I read this charming book at the age of 28 and found it to be one of the most enchanting books I've ever read. Full of life lessons.

NON FICTION: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid - Once every while you read a book that forces you to view the world in a whole new light, this is one such book.

COMEDY SCI-FI: The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams - delightful book with immense irony and is absolutely hilarious.

[dilippkumar]

> BIOGRAPHY: The Power Broker by Robert Caro - one of the greatest biographies you'll ever read. Long but absolutely first class. I've been meaning to read his trio of books on LBJ but that on the laterbase.

I started reading this based on another recent recommendation on HN. So far, I'm absolutely loving it. I second this recommendation (based on what I have read so far)

[stnmtn]

The Brothers Karamazov. It really is as good as it's reputation would make you think

It's fascinating to read a novel written 200 years ago in a country completely unlike mine, but see so many traits and characters that I know and have met in my life today. Dostoevsky has this un-nerving ability to see through people like they are transparent, and show their innermost depth in a few sentences

[mr-ron]

How to win friends and influence people.

Its the book I wish I read in high school and college. I genuinely believe the world would be a better place if everyone were to read that book.

[TeeMassive]

Funny, I am currently listening to this book on Audible. A lot of people think that it's a book about manipulation but it's really not. It's a book about leadership through reciprocity. If you want people invest in your goals you have to contribute to theirs.

Win Your Case by Gerry Spence is also a favorite of mine of the same vein but applied to confrontational situations, but the advice are based on the same foundations.

[arduinomancer]

I don't get why this book is so hyped

Did anyone else read it and think "well duh" to most of it?

Seemed like common sense

[e12e]

I'm wary of labels such as "must read" - but a couple of books I'm glad I read:

"Dahlgren" by Samuel Delaney (and most everything else I've read by him as well).

"Earthsea" by Ursula LeGuin - and "Powers".

"Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson.

"Holy Fire" by Bruce Sterling (I also enjoyed Islands in the Net, Zenith Angle and Schismatrix).

"Foundation" trilogy + prequel by Isaac Asimov.

"Brave New World", Aldous Huxley.

"Deepness in the Sky" / "Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge.

"Something wicked this way comes" by Ray Bradbury.

And a couple of comics/visual novels:

"V for Vendetta" and "Watchmen" by Alan Moore (David Lloyd/ Tony Weare and Dave Gibbons / John Higgins).

Dave Sims: "Cerebus" (I don't think I've finished this yet, but the first ten volumes or so is.. Something else).

[melonbar]

Fair enough haha, thanks this is a great list, Foundation has always been something I wanted to read.

[cpr]

Any of P G Wodehouse's major works (ignore his incunabula, anything before 1915, though early Psmith is still amusing), if you want some laughter to lighten the pains of life.

The Jeeves & Wooster series, of course, but also any of the Blandings Castle series. And the glorious Golf Omnibus. (Always used to think of golf as utterly boring, but PGW can make it hilarious.)

See https://wodehouse.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_books_by_P._G._Wod....

[dilippkumar]

My recent favorite books:

Epic Fantasy: The Malazan series. (Gardens of the Moon, the first book is a challenging read and has a bit of an anticlimatic end. Don't judge the series till finishing the first three books. They get easier to read starting book 2).

History: The making of the atomic bomb by Richard Rhodes. (The title is misleading - it's not about the manhattan project really. The book traces the history of nuclear physics, starting from Rutherford realizing that most of an atom's mass must be concentrated in a nucleus - and step by step, follows all the turns and surprises as a group of people pieced together what an atom must be made of. The book makes an unavoidable turn into the manhattan project and ends with Hiroshima/Nagasaki, so yes the Manhattan project does make a significant part of the book, but it's really not the focus of the book).

Design: The Elements of typographic style by Robert Bringhurst. (A beautiful book about typesetting beautiful books).

Nature: Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake. (A fascinating book about fungii. I'll never see trees the same way again).

Autobiography: A man for all markets by Edward O Thorp (Claude Shannon shows up and helps the author try to cheat at Roulette using wearable computers! A lot of fascinating stuff).

More history: The Anarchy by William Dalrymple. (A book on the British East India company went from being a merchant company to eventually becoming the British Raj).

[unmole]

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

Factfulness by Hans Rosling et al.

Both of these books profoundly changed the way I look at the world.

[kristjansson]

+1 for Wallace. Basically everything in that collection and Consider the Lobster is worth reading.

Absolutely unrelated, but I'd recommend Vaclav Smil in general - Energy in Nature and Society and Energy and Civilization are two I've read and enjoyed. A bit dry as reading material, but well-worth for his energetic perspective on human and biological systems.

[axegon_]

Pfffff you really asked the impossible question here. Best I can do is scan through the books on the shelves next to me:

* Beyond good and evil: Nietzsche

* The Temple of the Golden Pavilion: Yukio Mishima

* Steppenwolf: Hermann Hese

* Library of babel: Borges

* The Brain: David Eagleman

* The Magical Mountain: Thomas Mann

* The Dark Tower: Stephen King(actually tons of King books - I am a bit of a fanboy)

* Factfulness: Hans Rosling

* William Blake: selected poetry

* Dostoevsky: The idiot

* Captain Nemo: Jules Verne

* The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Adams

[whynotkeithberg]

The dark tower series is one of his best IMO. Unfortunate he ended the series earlier than planned... Was supposed to be quite a few books longer but I remember reading (and I could be remembering wrong) in the foreward to one of his books that the weight of people sending him letters such as "I'm terminally ill, i was hoping you could tell me how it ends before I pass" and all the other contact he got led him to cut it a bit short. That said, I think it's his best work.

[melonbar]

So I’ve read Hitchhiker’s but was always curious about the others he wrote, any thoughts? Thanks!

[sdedovic]

I don't know about must-read but here are my top 5 books:

- Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

- Anna Karenina, Lev Tolstoy

- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert Pirsig

- Manufacturing Consent, Noam Chomsky

- Dune, Frank Herbert

[tharne]

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is a vastly underrated book. It was decades ahead of its time.

[mystickphoenix]

Non-violent Communication - One of my top 5 books easily. Changed how I think about the language we use in everyday communication with other people, and more importantly, the language I use with myself.

[mrandish]

+1

Despite its unfortunate mis-titling, it's a fantastic book.

[rg111]

Which ones would make your other spots for top-5 or even top-10?

[sufficer]

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is as timeless as ever.

[unmole]

The ideas are timeless but the translated prose can feel dated. The Gregory Hays translation though is very readable.

[melonbar]

One of my all time favorites!

[r_c]

Surprisingly, didn't find 'The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy' in this list. Must read !

[5F7bGnd6fWJ66xN]

How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini, 2021 edition

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, 2nd edition 2014

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury, 2011 edition

Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations by William Ury

Bargaining for Advantage by Richard Shell, 2nd edition 2006

Thinking Strategically by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff

Nonviolent Communication: A language of life by Marshall Rosenberg, 2015 edition

The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker

[drno123]

The power and the glory by Graham Greene. Crime and punishment by Dostoevsky.

[rg111]

I am looking forward to reading the whole thread, but while people are at it, you can check this out:

https://hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app/category/0/all-t...

You could also find nice websites and collections if you Google "Hacker News books".

Hacker News has become one of the most impactful places in determining what to read.

I have read at least 10 books as suggested in HN comments by others within 4-5 months after deciding to do so.

I have a list of almost 70 books that I am going to check out, and a shortlist of ~20 books that I am definitely going to read- all from HN comments.

HN is a great place to find out new books- whether it is about tech, fiction, or non-fiction.

The books suggested here amazingly diverese in nature. I highly recommend reading books suggested in HN many times according to your choices to whoever reads this.

Happy reading!

[CalChris]

Must read?

1984 and Animal Farm.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It.

Emma and Pride and Prejudice.

Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid.

A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The Great Gatsby, Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence.

War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

Don Quixote.

[rg111]

> Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid.

I didn't read the Odyssey, but read both Iliad and Aeneid.

I read Iliad first, and then Aeneid. Reading Aeneid right after reading Iliad was a great experience. It felt like I was reading a sequel! It felt right at home.