Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll · first published 1934
30% recommend65% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Playful, coherent nonsense that holds up for adults and children alike; recommended as a read-aloud for kids and for its math and logic jokes, best paired with Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice for the hidden wordplay.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Contains: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass Phantasmagoria A Sea Dirge Poeta fit, non nascitur The Hunting of the Snark A Tangled Tale
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Question trigger- twitter thread #MyAudible2018 Edit: In case of multiple versions, please mention the narrator's name. For example, I like Peter Yearsley's reading of Alice In Wonderland (https://librivox.org/alices-adventures-in-wonderland-by-lewis-carroll-3/) more than others. Or Karen Savage's reading of Pride And Prejudice. Or Stephen Fry's Harry Potter (although I did not really…
on “Ask HN: Which audiobooks did/do you like?” ↗The essentials, looking at my non-CS shelves: * "Alice in Wonderland", Carroll * "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid", Hofstadter * Either "His Dark Materials", Pullman; or "Illuminatus!", Shea and Wilson * "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Adams (all…
on “Ask HN: Which non-programming books are a beneficial read for programmers?” ↗…inherently rivalrous "good". But encouraging content creators with financial incentives for creating things that consumers desire is not an inherently rivalrous good? It's the difference between re-printing "Alice in Wonderland" and reprinting "Alice in Wonderland, Written by <Not Lewis Carroll>". So you're okay with taking all financial rewards from the creators of content, but leave them the scraps of naming credit…
on “"Your criticisms are completely wrong": Stallman on software patents” ↗According to Alan J. Perlis, the best book on office design for the layman is Alice in Wonderland.
on “The inexplicable rise of open floor plans in tech companies” ↗…would be well served reading Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice. Gardner, who was the puzzle editor for Scientific American for decades, is also a Lewis Carroll scholar, and his annotated versions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are tremendous. http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Alice-Definitive-Lewis-Carro...
on “Algebra in Wonderland” ↗Liar's Poker (Michael Lewis) Rereading. Initially in preparation fro his latest, but in reality, it's just a great, fun read. Laugh out loud funny in places. It's like Alice in Wonderland in that it gets better with age and experience. Accelerando (Charles Stross -- our HN buddy) Mainly to remind myself how fucking awesome British sci-fi can be. It is. The Consolations of Philosophy…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading right now?” ↗…getting the annotated version, another classic in the same spirit is The Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner. It exposes a lot of double entendres, mathematical games, and other historical stuff about Alice in Wonderland that shows how much of a playful mathematician Lewis Carroll was.
on “Flatland: A Forgivably Flat Classic” ↗…(Pride and Prejudice and Moby-Dick. Came back to them years later and still think I scheduled them correctly.) I guess the difference from some others which I actually enjoyed reading for school (Othello, Alice in Wonderland) was the ratio of effort to pulpish I-want-to-read-the-next-page quality.
on “Why Read the Classics? (1986)” ↗In no particular order: Moby Dick Les Miserables Crime and punishment Alice in wonderland The Prince
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?” ↗Alice in Wonderland - I read it once a year, just to remind me of how interesting imagination and paying attention in little things can be. I'm also thinking of going back to The Plague by Albert Camus. It felt really surreal…
on “Ask HN: What books do you want to read over again?” ↗…did, some of which I really like. I wish the website had more of the illustrations but I guess there might be copyright issues. I'd be particularly interested in seeing more of her illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark (the latter is a great poem if you haven't read it: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29888/29888-h/29888-h.htm)
on “Tove Jansson's criticized illustrations of The Hobbit” ↗Alice in Wonderland
on “Ask HN: What books had the greatest effect on how you structure your code?” ↗Alice in Wonderland
on “Ask HN: What books should I read to improve as a software engineer?” ↗A few you might check out: The Humphrey the hamster series The Zoey and Sassafras series The Secret Explorers series Alice in Wonderland Some Beverly Cleary books Many of the DK nonfiction books
on “Show HN: Bookvine.io – Help find age appropriate books for kids aged 6 to 14” ↗…reading light. The iPad will never compare to the kindle in sunlight. However, the iPad excels with color or animated books. For example, the kids books for the iPad are wonderful (look at the free Alice in Wonderland or Toy Story books). For textbooks, I can imagine it can only get better, maybe redefining what a book is. I can imagine physics textbooks with built-in calculations, graphing and demonstrations. The…
on “Estimate for number of books sold per Kindle: 27” ↗