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Ask HN: What's your favorite book you've read? ↗

The books people recommended

2025-07-15 · 15 points · 26 comments · 25 books named by at least one person here and at least 3 people overall. The number on the left is how many people named it in this thread.

  1. 2Barbarian Days

    Barbarian Days

    William Finnegan

    2 here · 7 all-time · #955 overall

  2. 1

    Gödel, Escher, Bach

    Douglas Hofstadter

    1 here · 347 all-time · #1 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 2,713 ratings on Amazon
  3. 1

    Sapiens

    Yuval Noah Harari

    1 here · 197 all-time · #4 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 133,705 ratings on Amazon
  4. 1

    The Selfish Gene

    Richard Dawkins

    1 here · 178 all-time · #7 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 8,966 ratings on Amazon
  5. 1

    The Art of Computer Programming

    Donald Knuth

    1 here · 127 all-time · #14 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 203 ratings on Amazon
  6. 1

    The Martian

    Andy Weir

    1 here · 103 all-time · #25 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 187,449 ratings on Amazon
  7. 1

    Siddhartha

    Hermann Hesse

    1 here · 97 all-time · #31 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 18,150 ratings on Amazon
  8. 1

    1984

    George Orwell

    1 here · 94 all-time · #34 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 126,118 ratings on Amazon
  9. 1

    Project Hail Mary

    Andy Weir

    1 here · 88 all-time · #38 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 281,070 ratings on Amazon
  10. 1

    Animal Farm

    George Orwell

    1 here · 48 all-time · #90 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 94,716 ratings on Amazon
  11. 1

    Flowers for Algernon

    Daniel Keyes

    1 here · 33 all-time · #160 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 40,104 ratings on Amazon
  12. 1

    A Short History of Nearly Everything

    Bill Bryson

    1 here · 30 all-time · #187 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 19,783 ratings on Amazon
  13. 1

    A Song of Ice and Fire

    George R. R. Martin

    1 here · 26 all-time · #219 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 83,380 ratings on Amazon
  14. 1

    Nexus

    Ramez Naam

    1 here · 21 all-time · #288 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 3,715 ratings on Amazon
  15. 1

    The Gulag Archipelago

    Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

    1 here · 20 all-time · #313 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 5,474 ratings on Amazon
  16. 1The God Delusion

    The God Delusion

    Richard Dawkins

    1 here · 18 all-time · #354 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 14,138 ratings on Amazon
  17. 1Made to Stick

    Made to Stick

    Chip and Dan Heath

    1 here · 16 all-time · #386 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 1,888 ratings on Amazon
  18. 1The Metamorphosis

    The Metamorphosis

    Franz Kafka

    1 here · 13 all-time · #476 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.3 out of 5, 3,692 ratings on Amazon
  19. 1Middlemarch

    Middlemarch

    George Eliot

    1 here · 10 all-time · #652 overall

  20. 1Systemantics

    Systemantics

    John Gall

    1 here · 8 all-time · #831 overall

  21. 1Pale Blue Dot

    Pale Blue Dot

    Carl Sagan

    1 here · 7 all-time · #918 overall

  22. 11632

    1632

    Eric Flint

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1089 overall

  23. 1Your Money or Your Life

    Your Money or Your Life

    Vicki Robbins

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1242 overall

  24. 1Killer of Men

    Killer of Men

    Christian Cameron

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1248 overall

  25. 1Lost Connections

    Lost Connections

    Johann Hari

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2223 overall