Sum
by David Eagleman · first published 2008
78% recommend22% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Forty short, imaginative vignettes about possible afterlives, praised as creative and thought-provoking; suits readers who enjoy speculative fiction that is quirky and short enough to read in one sitting.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In the afterlife you may find that God is the size of a microbe and unaware of your existence. Or you may find the afterlife contains only those people whom you remember. In some afterlives you are split into all your different ages, in some you are recreated based on your credit card records, and in others you are forced to live with annoying versions of yourself that represent what you could have been. In these wonderfully imagined tales - at once funny, wistful and unsettling - Eagleman kicks over the chessboard of traditional notions and offers us a dazzling lens through which to see ourse
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…guesses. Modern portfolio theory: use passive indexes of the entire market, no speculation, no stock picking, and avoid the entire fee-sucking financial industry. http://sivers.org/book/InvestorsManifesto Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives - by David Eagleman: Fiction. Awesomely creative think-piece of 40 different short stories of what happens when you die. To be clear: the author is not pretending this…
on “Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?” ↗Here's a few of my favorites I read this year: 1. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman 2. Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman 3. Developing a Universal Religion by David Hockey 4. Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012” ↗You’d probably enjoy David Eagleman’s book Incognito and also maybe his quirky book of short stories Sum.
on “Ask HN: What are some of the best documentaries you've seen?” ↗…Goldacre's essential and extensive criticism of the media's health care reportage and of various health-related issues (vaccinations, placebos, etc.). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Science_(book) - Sum has had a fair bit of press over the last few months. It's a collection of forty stories on the afterlife, by David Eagleman. It's a novel exercise in philosophy, and I thoroughly enjoyed five or six…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of 2010?” ↗+1 for Exhalation by Ted Chiang. And also: "Sum - Forty Tales from the afterlives" by David Eagleman. A small book that makes you think very very deeply.
on “Ask HN: Best books read in 2022” ↗Sivers' list has introduced me to many great books. I can recommend "Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives - by David Eagleman" which is the fourth book on the page you linked.
on “Authors hit by bad reviews on Goodreads before review copies are even circulated” ↗I have quite enjoyed a couple of books by David Eagleman: The Brain, and Sum.
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗I got back into using e-readers so I read a lot more this year than usual. - More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon - Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman - Hogg by Samuel R. Delany - The first dozen Discworld books (in publication order) by Terry Pratchet - The Wall by Mary Roberts Reinhart - Columbine…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗This is one of the possible afterlives described in "Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives" of David Eagleman
on “A Protocol for Dying” ↗