Ask HN: What are some good books?

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" - Lewis Carroll<p>"Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There" - Lewis Carroll<p>"Dracula" - Bram Stoker<p>"Frankenstein" - Mary Shelly<p>"On Education" - Bertrand Russell<p>"The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy" - Douglas Adams<p>"Animal Farm" - George Orwell<p>"1984" - George Orwell<p>"Lord of The Flies" - William Golding<p>"Brave New World" - Aldous Huxley<p>"Gulliver's Travels" - Jonathan Swift<p>"The Selfish Gene" - Richard Dawkins

* <i>The Quincunx</i>, Charles Palliser (historical fiction: "Those for whom this...will be a special treat are those who enjoy solving word or logic puzzles. To be enjoyed to its fullest, this is a book that benefits from active participation on the part of the reader."<p>* <i>Playing at the World</i>, Jon Peterson ("Explore the conceptual origins of wargames and role-playing games in this unprecedented history of simulating the real and the impossible.")<p>* <i>The Years of Lyndon Johnson</i> (v1-4, 5 in production), Robert Caro. (If you ever wanted to see how political power actually works in the US, you can't beat this biography of LBJ, which reads like a (very long) novel.)

<i>The Unincorporated Man</i> by Dani Kollin &#38; Eytan Kollin. It's a sci-fi set a couple hundred years in the future where everyone is incorporated at birth. Just like you can own shares in a company, you can own shares of another person. It's my second favorite novel. It has some interesting ideas.<p><i>Ender's Game</i> by Orson Scott Card. Don't let the movie fool you. The book is very good. It was at one point it was on the suggested reading list for the United States Marine Corps.

Nobody has suggested Umberto Eco yet.I would try The Island of the Day Before or Baudolino before Foucault's Pendulum.<p>Alistair Reynolds is space opera done nicely (if you want to look in that direction). Chasm City stands on its own, but there are some similar works there.<p>Twain fits in with some of your other comments.

Has anyone read <i>Information: The New Language of Science</i> by Hans Christian von Baeyer?<p>I just read <i>Metaphors We Live By</i> by Lakoff, George and Johnson, Mark. It's an interesting study of how metaphors unconsciously drive thinking and perception.

<i>Blood Meridian</i>, Cormac McCarthy.<p><i>Philosphical Investigations</i>, Ludwig Witgenstein.<p><i>The Analects</i>.<p><i>Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs</i>, Ableson and Sussman.<p><i>The Hamet</i> and <i>The Town</i> and <i>The Mansion</i>, William Faulkner.

If you liked DFW and Borges, you may like Matt Ruff (especialy "Set this House in Order", "The Mirage" and "Fool on the Hill"). It's not as complex but the style is similar and really enjoyable.

<i>Silverlock</i> by John Myers Myers - a fantasy novel written in 1949 with hundreds (maybe thousands) of allusions to mythology, history, and classic literature. It's a lot of fun.

Some authors and a rec or two for each.<p>DFW - Infinite Jest<p>Pynchon - Really anything, but in particular Against the Day, V, and Gravity's Rainbow.<p>Rushdie - Shame and Satanic Verses, a lot of good other ones.<p>Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon<p>Gaddis - JR, hence my name.<p>Heller - Catch-22

Nobody has listed "Anything by Terry Pratchett" yet?<p>Of course, it very much depends what you like. Your list contains a lot more nonfiction than I usually read in book form, for instance.

<i>The Abstract Wild</i>, Jack Turner<p>Honest and challenging, without being sentimental.

<i>Heaven is real but so is Hell</i> by Vassula Ryden

Take anything from Fyodor Dostoyevsky.