Don Quixote
by Miguel De Cervantes · first published 1930
31% recommend69% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Comic, insightful novel about human nature, buffoonery and why stories matter. Suits readers wanting a challenging classic; one reader says it took life experience to appreciate.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
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…(Douglas Hofstadter) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (James Lovelock) Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation (Umberto Eco) Neuromancer (William Gibson) The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham) Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes)
on “Ask HN: Best books you've read in 2015” ↗Don Quixote by Cervantes and the Tao Te ching. Former for its buffoonery and commentary on human nature and the later for its wisdom.
on “Ask HN: Which book have you re-read the most times? how many times?” ↗…Depository [0], you might be able to purchase more from Better World Books [1]): - The Holy Bible - Moby Dick by Melville - The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky - The Master And Margarita by Bulgakov - Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - The Iliad by Homer - The Odyssey by Homer - Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandra Dumas - The Decline of the West by Oswald Spengler - The Qur'an -…
on “Ask HN: You've got $300 to fill an empty library. What do you choose?” ↗Don Quixote by Cervantes, or Shogun by Clavell.
on “Ask HN: What is the greatest book you've ever read?” ↗Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite classic books?” ↗a few off the top of my head in the fiction genre: Joyce's Dubliner, Ulysses & Finnegans Wake. Cervantes' Don Quixote. Borges. Dashiell Hammet. William Burroughs. Bukowski. Faulkner. Jim Thompson. Stewart O'Nan. Nabakov. Philip K Dick's more schizophrenic works ( Scanner Darkly, Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep, We…
on “Do Hackers read *other* books?” ↗…(Gogol - Dead Souls [translation by MacAndrew is the most fun one I've read]), (Twain - Huck Finn). From that list, I would recommend the following only if I knew the person's tastes better: (Cervantes - Don Quixote), (Dostoevsky - The Idiot), (Kafka - The Trial), (Orwell - 1984), (Rushdie - Midnight's Children) There are many other books I love that aren't on that list, but whether they would float your boat is…
on “Ask HN: classic literature recommendations?” ↗…the top of my head: The First Man by Albert Camus (novel) The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (short story) Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (play) If you want something challenging, try Cervantes' Don Quixote.
on ““A book is a sneeze”” ↗…enlightenment and an impeccable defence of [classical!] liberalism. It's packed with simple but enormously powerful ideas that are also timeless, thus applicable today and to so many aspects of life. • “Don Quixote” (Cervantes): unanimously considered the best work of fiction in the Spanish-speaking world… and on many lists, even #1 of world literature, ever (!). Often overlooked (at least in Spain) by young folks…
on “Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?” ↗A few: "The Once and Future King", T.H. White -- best novelization of the problem of power "Don Quixote", Miguel de Cervantes -- why stories matter "Essence of Decision", Graham Allison -- how views of a historic episode vary with the theory you apply "Abraham Lincoln: His Speeches and Writings", Basler/Sandburg…
on “Ask HN: Life Changing Books?” ↗…missed opportunity: The Demons (one of the finest political fiction work), Brothers Karamazov (Will drain you from emotions), Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Notes from Underground - Oh, Cervantes - Don Quixote was the book took me 2 years and some more life experience when it started to tick in my mind the depth, importance of the book, perhaps it was 24 or 25. - And so on, it will be useless to list them…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗Instead I can recommend Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, or to understand presently overwhelmed United States: Cervantes' Don Quixote. Both much less stale and dry in their prose, but incredibly more insightful.
on “George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon” ↗…material is likely from Project Gutenberg, so a long out of copyright translation is perhaps expected. On the other hand, Cervantes and Shakespeare were contemporaries, so I think it enhances reading Don Quixote for the translation to use early modern English - e.g. "Idle reader: thou mayest believe me without any oath".
on “Paralleltext: Learn languages by reading” ↗…an opportunity arises. And are less likely to be demoralised because they are used to dealing with the general difficulty of it all. It isn't like Cervantes had a fundamentally optimistic viewpoint. Don Quixote, as a great book, appeals to the views of cynics just as much as anyone else.
on “Opt Out of Cynicism” ↗…filled with cautionary tales of people who find existential truth separate from the opinions of the world, but at a cost. Becoming a solipsist, iconoclast, nihilist.... Try Camus (Stranger), Cervantes (Don Quixote). Dostoyevsky (Notes from the Underground), Salinger (Catcher in the Rye), and there's plenty in Bronte (all of them), Blake and Hardy. But I suspect these aren't the droids you're looking for.
on “Ask HN: What are some good books on how to stop comparing yourself to others?” ↗