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Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes

20 readers recommend it across 17 discussions

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THE WORD OF MOUTH

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Original Hacker News comments, in the readers’ own words.

chistev
1. Animal Farm by George Orwell 2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [1] 3. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley 4. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette Mccurdy 5. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris 6. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe [2] 7. Cosmos by Carl Sagan 8. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins [3] 9. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson 10. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander [4] 11. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka 12. Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan [5][6][7] 13. Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide to Atheism by Richard Dawkins [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076596 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47452253 [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48326741 [4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539535 [5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751771 [6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49740712 [7] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49739256
chistev
Hard to choose for myself who made the post. But some of my favorites are - 1. God: The Failed Hypothesis Book by Victor J. Stenger 2. The God Delusion Book by Richard Dawkins 3. Berlin: The Downfall 1945 Book by Antony Beevor 4. A Song of Ice and Fire Novel series by George R.R. Martin 5. A Short History of Nearly Everything Book by Bill Bryson 6. Billions and Billions Book by Carl Sagan 7. Flowers for Algernon Short story by Daniel Keyes 8. I'm Glad My Mom Died Book by Jennette McCurdy 9. Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad Book by Peter Bergen 10. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space Book by Carl Sagan 11. The Metamorphosis Novella by Franz Kafka 12. The Selfish Gene Book by Richard Dawkins Gun to my head, pick one? The God Delusion.
avip
Who has time for books nowadays? Some lovely tales so short u can read'em over coffee: - Asimov's Profession, his best short story IMHO - Mimsy Were the Borogoves - just reread it, it's as great as it was when I was a teen! - Flowers to Algernon is sad, but a must - Everything from Lem's Cyberiad - Everything from Borjes` Fictions
btschaegg
Hard to pinpoint. In terms of entertainment books, it'll probably come down to a tie between Douglas Adams' Last Chance to See and Walter Moers' The City of Dreaming Books, or maybe something by Terry Pratchett (although I couldn't single out a book there, either). The reason for those is just that I can't imagine ever being bored reading them. Maybe also Flowers for Algernon (Daniel Keyes) for being a really creative concept (the way the story is told) and for being a wonderful example on how interesting modest sci-fi can be without resorting to "LAZERZ!!!". Edit: Another contestant: Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Physicists. Grim yet humorful. I generally really like Dürrenmatt's dark endings. Edit 2: And another one: Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann, specifically for how well he got me to understand Gauss' weird reactions and motives without going into his work at all. Before I've read it, I would have sworn that a book that tries to present one of the greatest mathematicians would need loads of math in it.
feignix
Fiction: 1. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes because it's so beautifully written and made me experience a flood of emotions. 2. The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Again, a very touching, charming book about a little kid's world(universe?) view, told through his adventures. Non-fiction: 1. The subtle art of not giving a F*ck - Mark Manson Opened my eyes to what I was possibly doing wrong with my life. 2. Radical Acceptance - Tara Brach Still currently reading it, but I wish I'd found it earlier.
Jasamba
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes. This is easily the most moved I have been by a book that was equal parts a theory of intelligence and equal parts a realization of how important of an ingredient intelligence is to enable one to be aware of the fact of being 'alive', to have been given a variable amount of intelligence to process this fact for the next 80 years or so and that this variability in intelligence influences how that turns out.
miduil
This Saturday as a birthday present for a 14 year old friend of mine, who haven't been reading so much lately: * Persepolis, first version * Dark Angel, by David Klass I've just started reading "Flowers for Algernon", I guess this can also be a good birthday present. I think gifting books is something very difficult, in my experience I never wanted to get books for present.

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murtza
Here are two fiction books that I really enjoyed and learned from: 1) Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. This book is an emotional roller coaster. After reading it, you will better understand what life is like for the mentally challenged. 2) Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. You will get a glimpse into the life of Russian aristocracy in the 19th century. More importantly, you will learn about love and human relationships.

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