Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
I got asked recently, and I think it's an excellent question.
What's the "best" book you've ever read? By "best", in means whatever you mean.
I got asked recently, and I think it's an excellent question.
What's the "best" book you've ever read? By "best", in means whatever you mean.
Non-fiction: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors by James Hornfischer. US Navy destroyers, escort carriers and destroyer escorts face off against Japanese cruisers and battleships. The Japanese had many times the firepower of the US, yet incredibly brave US sailors and airmen attacked anyway. Incredible story of courage under terrible conditions and odds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Stand_of_the_Tin_Can_...
Fiction:
Project Hail Mary is very enjoyable, don't read spoilers and you'll enjoy it even more.
The Discworld City Watch series of books, starting with "Guards! Guards!" The characters are hilarious, there's so much humour yet still enough space for meaningful prose. Terry Pratchett was taken from us too soon.
One of the previous posts mentioned that it changes for them frequently, and I'm pretty much the same way. But for right now:
Fiction: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Non-Fiction: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"The book of joy" by the Dalai Lama and Desmund Tutu (they were lifelong friends)
Dungeon Crawler Carl (series)
Sinusoidal Circuit Analysis
For nonfiction I think about Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood by David Simon (and Ed Burns for The Corner) a lot. They are very funny and very sad and really changed how I see the world. So I cheated, two books.
The 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
Came to say The Selfish Gene for nonfiction. Changed the way I thought about things.
Godel Escher Bach is the best book I've read. Very interesting topics and the sheer creativity of the writing is amazing.
Henry George’s Progress & Poverty conducted what can only be described as a coup on my worldview, and I am not alone in that experience.
It is an incredible argument that will just utterly transform how you understand a walk down the street.
If you’ve been seeing references to the Land Value Tax (LVT) here on HN, this is the book that originated the concept. Like most conceptual breakthroughs, it didn’t emerge solely from George with no related ideas in the vicinity, but this is definitely “the book” behind it.
Nonfiction: "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" by Taleb has had the biggest influence on me.
Fiction: I dunno but maybe "Anathem" by Neal Stephenson.
'Bashō, dichter zonder dak' with the subtitle 'Haiku en poëtische reisverhalen' by professor Willy Vande Walle, a Belgian Japanologist. It's a translation of Basho's travel diaries with a lot of contextual information, kind of like Martin Gardner's 'The Annotated Alice', if you've read that one. It's an amazing intellectual tour de force by one of the foremost experts in his field, and it helps that the original works are of very high quality of well.
Unfortunately I don't know if there's an English equivalent, and considering how awful of a language Dutch is to learn it may be easier to learn Japanese, read the originals, and look up all the references yourself.
My favourite fiction is Ready Player One. Great story and very nerdy!
Fiction: Independent People by Halldór Laxness or Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
Non-Fiction: The Feynman lectures on Physics.
Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut. Like others could change any day you ask. Social commentary is probably at the top followed by well researched recent historical works.
Anything from Sagan: Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God could convert the Pope to agnosticism.
Stephen Ray Gould: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin: will both challenge every preconceived notion you've had, link seemingly impossibly unrelated phenomenon together using similar models and patterns, and leave with a much more intuitive understanding about complexity, randomness, and chaotic systems.
A Briefer History of Time: For those who truly would like to exalt their personal God of the Gaps to the small unit.
Sagan’s Demon Haunted World was probably the reason I ended up going into the sciences!
To each their own. Mine likely 3 body problems: dark forest book
The absolute best for me: The Malazan book of the fallen.
Book 1 is really hard to get into and doesn't reward as much. But if you stick with it, as early as the end of Book 2, you'll know what you're in for.
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.
It's also impossible to give a bad answer, what are you worried about? Go for it.
"Books are not oranges."
As an aside, what do you mean by this? I would have an even harder time giving and answer to the best orange I've eaten.
The Hobbit. My brother read it to me when I was just starting to read. When he was done I asked him to read it again. he said no and I learned to read in earnest. I was often shooed out of the adult section of the library. I have read lots of books by now.
I got to thinking -- a handful of books is approximately one book.
And who ranks their oranges?
Depends on the books of course but the old pulp paperbacks were such you could hold 5 to 10 maybe. Today a tablet could hold 1000s (? how many I don't know ?)
Non-fiction: Pale Blue Dot. Fiction: The Diamond Age.
There are always better books than the ones I read, and there will never be the best. I’ve tried selecting a few that I can remember at all times, the most interesting book to me, and I’ve listed them on my website at https://brajeshwar.com/#books
If I had to return and re-read, I’d re-read “Leonardo da Vinci.”
There are too many…
But I’ll pick The Psychology of Money. There are few books that have so drastically changed my view of reality and affected my behavior.
(Bonus because I couldn’t help myself: Getting things done, Man’s search for meaning, Surrounded by idiots)
The Boy's Second book of Electronics by Alfred Morgan(1957) introduced me to electronics in the 1970s, and lead to a technical mindset and lifestyle.
The Engineers Notebook by Forest Mims really taught me the basics of electronics.
What do you care what other people think by Richard Feynman(1988) introduced me to the idea that nobody is really as much of an expert as you might think.
1632 By Eric Flint, and the subsequent series, got me thinking about the nature of civilization and all the things that go into making it.
There are a lot of books in this world, and they all helped author who I am.
"the way things work", the book with all the woolly mammoths in it. Learned a lot from it
That is the literal pillar; physically and figuratively the foundation, of my knowledge corpus; aptly the bottom book in my corner-turned-library.
I spent hours as a kid, slowly parsing, contextualizing, researching every iota and minutiae of that book.
I had an encyclopedia just to help supplement that book.
Nonfiction: Thinking, Fast & Slow
Fiction: Project Hail Mary
John McPhee's "The Curve of Binding Energy".
I am That - talks with Nisargadatta Maharaj. Best for me.
One Hundred Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. When you are young, it is a remarkable book to read.
This book is one I re-read religiously, but the first time was as a young adult and I agree with you, remarkable. It seems to have a correcting effect on my psyche when I stray too far into anxiety and burnout.
> I think it's an excellent question.
Because?
The best book I've partially read is the New Testament. The best book I've actually read is Taleb's Antifragile.
I think this is as meaningful as the question "what's the best food you've ever eaten?", which is to say, it's not a very meaningful question.