Ulysses

<< But it also intimidates folks into not sharing some really good stuff. That is probably the saddest part that good things don't have enough time/chance to spread. I like to think that there are more Adams, Pratchetts out there, but they remain largely undiscovered due to this society pre-approved list of things you can 'consume'. And good here does not automatically mean "Ulysses" ( which I hated -- and quite possibly misunderstood ). Some stuff can be just lazy popculture level navel gazing, but it does not mean it can't be fun as it revels in excess at the same time ( Rick and Morty comes to mind -- yes, it is not a book, but I am making a point.. how many kids you see reading for fun ). << People are trying to posture and prove all kinds of things. Agreed, but it still does not seem as bad as other internet locales. And maybe it comes with socialization. At certain point we learn no one really cares. I know I stated some mildly pretentious stuff before. Seemed like a big deal then; now it is just an amusing memory.

Taking “best” to mean, “About to be banished to a small, rocky island in the North Atlantic, can pack one book”: Ulysses, and it’s not particularly close. The book is fractally intricate and intellectually puzzling in the best sense—something new and special to notice every time you pick it up. But it also wears like old leather, and I find myself returning to favorite chapters simply to sink indulgently into the characters, dialog, and setting. Anybody who says no one has actually read Ulysses is unknowingly half-right: You can certainly get to a point where you’ll never finish reading it.

Someone else mentioned Thomas Hardy's "The Mayor of Casterbirdge". It's the one of his 5 major novels I haven't read. "Far From the Madding Crowd" and "Return of the Native" are okay, but the two that really are magnificent are: "Jude the Obscure" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/153 "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/110 You can sense his fury at the society he was depicting. You might not want to read either of these, particularly "Tess", if you're prone to depression. Frederick Jackson Turner, "The Frontier in American History" (1921) - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22994…

In the sense of a piece of writing that was meant to be a book, Ulysses. Otherwise, the collected works of Shakespeare.

Ulysses. Surprised I haven't seen it mentioned yet, as it normally is in book threads on HN. The reason that it had, and still has, such a positive influence on my life is the plethora of literary tools which it possesses. It allows for infinite play and imagination, while still being the apparent product of extreme dedication and earned mastery. In fact, I prefer Portrait of The Artist as a Young Man as a novel, and I'm sure that the Wake is a perfect encyclopedia of language, cryptography, history, et al. But Ulysses takes it as an (humerous, profound, tricky, psychoanalytic, poetic, radical) example of the process of artistic experiment, the practically infinite range of the possible, and the unforgiving merit of deep study and eclectic knowledge. I go back every so often to bounce my own ideas and troubling sentences off of it, more often than not just to get a little bit of validation.…

I decided to try reading the classic literature this year. The books that stood the test of time. I started with Brothers Karamazov by F.Dostoyevsky Middlemarch by G.Eliot After that I plan to continue with East of Eden by J.Steinbeck Ulysses by J.Joyce They all have incredible characters, deep thoughts, delicious language. Sure, not an easy read after contemporary fiction, but I noticed that the more classic literature I read the better I understand and enjoy it. Also, I own Folio Society's copies of last three titles, and it's an an additional pleasure to hold, touch, and read physical books.

I couldn't get past the first three pages. I had no idea what was happening. Am I thick? Or is it a difficult text?

Infinite Jest Ulysses The Selfish Gene The Histories of Herodotus Moby-Dick Gödel, Escher, Bach

If you want "crazy-to-grasp", you want Ulysses, To the Lighthouse, Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Moby Dick, House of Leaves, etc. Not that "crazy-to-grasp" approximates "good" in any way.

Some favorites: Pale Fire by Nabokov Ulysses by Joyce Et Tu, Babe by Leyner Metamorphosis by Kafka (more a long story) Things Fall Apart by Achebe Hamlet and Coriolanus by Shakespeare The Code of the Woosters by Wodehouse The Doorbell Rang by Stout

James Joyce, Ulysses.

I'm on a David Foster Wallace kick right now: Working through The Pale King, his collected essays and his short stories. Already read Infinite Jest. It's hard to say what qualifies as "essential reading" when it's impossible for a human being to read even one tenth of the great, all-time classic books. There just isn't enough time. My advice would be to read at least a few books that have reputations for being difficult. War and Peace, Gravity's Rainbow, In Search of Lost Time, Ulysses, etc. (The reason I'm only listing near-undisputed classics here is because these books are difficult, and in some cases very, very long [looking at you, Proust], and the assurance that it is all worth it helps you keep going when your brain hurts.) These books survived despite their difficulty because reading them is a mind-expanding, sometimes life-changing experience. Reading shouldn't be essentially passive.

Unalone's enjoyment of Finnegans Wake notwithstanding, deciphering the footnotes and expository ultimately doesn't have the upside that learning the English of Shakespeare and Chaucer do. I'd suggest readers try Joyce's wonderful short stories, then making an assault on Ulysses. Nabokov, a Joyce admirer, called Wake, "that petrified superpun."

Ulysses by James Joyce Code Complete by Steve McConnell Walden by Henry David Thoreau Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan Murphy by Samuel Beckett Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon