Roughing It
by Mark Twain · first published 1872
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Funny, loosely connected travel stories about Twain's move west as a young man, praised for his distinctive humor and command of English; good for light reading, road trips, and anyone who enjoys wry 19th-century prose.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known as "Mark Twain," left Missouri in 1861 to work with his brother, the newly appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Once settled in Nevada, Clemens fell victim to gold fever and went to the Humboldt mines. When prospecting lost its attractions, Clemens found work as a reporter in Virginia City. In 1864, Clemens moved to California and worked as a reporter in San Francisco. It was there that he began to establish a nationwide reputation as a humorist. Roughing it (1891), first published in 1872, is his account of his adventures in the Far W
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I wish I could say I read as much as others here, but I'm slow and lazy. I'll mention one, though... Roughing It by Mark Twain. It's a grab bag of stories about his journey west without much of an over-arching plot. Though one of his earlier novels, it already has his distinctive humor and a command of English you…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗Must read? 1984 and Animal Farm. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It. Emma and Pride and Prejudice. Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid. A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Great Gatsby, Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence. War and Peace…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗Just wanted to mention, tangentially, that I'm currently halfway through Twain's Roughing It, which comes up in the article. If you enjoy wry humor, I heartily recommend the book (as well as Grover Gardner's narration, included with Audible subscription).
on “Mark Twain’s Mind Waves” ↗…curriculum" to a reticulum (or network) that emphasizes the connectedness of topics and concepts and teach students to learn how to learn through exploration as much as rote and replay. 2. Read Mark Twain's "Roughing It" for insights into Silicon Valley entrepreneurship. EDIT: more info including a summary of "pre-history chapters" available at http://geeks-bearing-gifts.com/
on “In Venting, a Computer Visionary Educates” ↗…want to read stuff before that (and get free books from gutenberg!) I recommend you check out Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad. Both are excellent. "The end of his tether" is my favorite Conrad. "Roughing it" is my favorite Twain.
on “Learning to Read in Your 30s Profoundly Transforms the Brain” ↗When I've needed to laugh I've read and reread: Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" and "Roughing It" as well as many short stories, esp. "My Watch", "Political Economy", "Journalism in Tennessee" Also short stories from others: J.S. Perelman's "Strictly From Hunger", Alex Atkinson's "The Eyes of Texas…
on “Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?” ↗I just finished Mark Twain’s “Roughing It”. If you want to learn what horrible, evil people the original Mormons were, it’s a good guide. Twain holds no punches. He describes the whole story in detail. They just straight up murdered a huge group…
on “The 1857 Utah War” ↗Mark Twain's "Roughing It" is available here: http://www.mtwain.com/Roughing_It/index.html
on “In Venting, a Computer Visionary Educates” ↗"The Screwtape Letters", by C.S. Lewis In the middle of "Roughing It" by Mark Twain now.
on “Ask HN: What was the latest book you read? ” ↗Maybe, if there is evidence of coaches regularly traveling at twelve miles an hour or better. But Mark Twain, in Roughing It, gives eight or ten miles an hour as a good pace for a stage coach. I was never more than a decent recreational runner, but I could sustain six minute miles for an hour, and seven minute miles for three…
on “The 18th Century four-minute mile” ↗Have a look at Mark Twain's remarks in Roughing It. Some from the East and Midwest take to California weather, others (Twain, my wife) don't.
on “Santa Monica Measured Residents’ Well-Being for Four Years” ↗Another failed miner who is rather well known: Mark Twain. His comic memoir about trying to get rich as a young man in the Nevada and California mines is called "Roughing It."
on “Cache of 19th-Century Blue Jeans Discovered in Abandoned Arizona Mineshaft” ↗…there, and soon became an adept at the game. It was in the little blind hells in Virginia City, that the game became riveted upon me, and from that time on I seldom played any other game." - Mark Twain, Roughing It.
on “The Machine That Bankrupted Mark Twain” ↗Mark Twain wrote a book called "Roughing It", and I can't put my finger on it and tell you exactly what it is about this book, but there's some essence of Mark Twain dictating this story to you, the reader, that has persisted all of these many…
on “Comedy Theory (2022)” ↗…settled/occupied towns in the American West and tried to influence politics toward their own political ends. The consequences of this history are evident today among States in the Mountain West. Mark Twain’s “Roughing It” was written in part about his time in the Nevada Territory when he lived in a town that was named both “Dixie” and “Unionville” at various times. One of my ambitions, given time and money, is to systematically…
on “Crossing the Blood Meridian: Cormac McCarthy and American History” ↗