The Giver
by Lois Lowry · first published 1993
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A short dystopian novel that serves as an introduction to the genre, exploring conformity and memory through thought-provoking ideas, and widely taught in schools and suggested to dystopia fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
At the age of twelve, Jonas, a young boy from a seemingly utopian, futuristic world, is singled out to receive special training from The Giver, who alone holds the memories of the true joys and pain of life.
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The Giver by Lois Lowry. Seriously, it has everything you need to know about entrepreneurship, namely: 1.) People lie to you, and most of the time, you will never know that they're lying to you. 2.) There are…
on “Why Paul? Why Did You Change It? (About Hacker News)” ↗The Giver is a good choice. I would also say that it is better written than Atlas Shrugged as well. All the characters are one-dimensional characters and Rand keeps beating us over the head with her ideas and doesn't…
on “Why Paul? Why Did You Change It? (About Hacker News)” ↗…years now. And read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! no matter how you think. It's fantastic. EDIT: More Books! I read these when I was in elementary school, but they still hold their value: The Giver by Lois Lowry if you want more dystopias. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery if you're feeling especially playful.
on “Ask HN: Books that change your way of thinking?” ↗This reminded me of the incredible feeling of epiphany from reading The Giver in elementary school. http://www.amazon.com/Giver-Lois-Lowry/dp/0385732554/
on “Sky-blue-pink. A colour never before seen?” ↗…Sherman Alexie The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Giver by Lois Lowry Ulysses by James Joyce
on “Banned and Challenged Books Everyone Should Read” ↗…Miguel Ruiz The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Kingdom Man by Tony Evans The 50th Law by Robert Greene The Mask of Masculinity by Lewis Howes 100 Deadly Skills by Clint Emerson The Giver by Lois Lowry Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse Quiet by Susan Cain Mate by Tucker Max Icons of Men's Style by Josh Sims Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Make Your Bed by Admiral William H. McRaven…
on “Show HN: I've compiled a list of the top books for men according to 56 blogs” ↗…but it was Anthem, a much shorter novella, with a more general theme of future-utopia-is-actuallly-dystopia, ending with a paean to individualism. It bears some similarities to a more recent book, The Giver, which is also popular as young-adult literature. I haven't read her other books, but from a literary perspective, Anthem has the same problem that I gather her other works have, just in miniature: there…
on “Ask HN: What literature do you read?” ↗…dystopian heroes precisely because of their own daily environment. [3] Also surprising that the article doesn't mention Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, which I would place on the level with The Giver in terms of establishing the recent youth focus of dystopian fiction. [1]: http://www.laweekly.com/news/ray-bradbury-fahrenheit-451-mis... [2]: http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html [3]: https://the-artifice.com/popularity-of-dystopian-literature/
on “The Rise of Dystopian Fiction” ↗…do, but https://developers.google.com/style/word-list seems to have all of them and more, except that it's missing "hooray." They call this "precise language", which might ring a bell if you've read The Giver. One funny red-exclamation-mark example from that list is "smartphone."
on “Run Llama 2 Uncensored Locally” ↗…this outside of AI, so seems like a natural progression. Once everything is the same lifeless gray box people are gonna crave local/human experiences again. it all kinda reminds me of that book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry where its not only black and white burger kings, its also generic lifeless AI people promoting dropshipped junk on IG/Youtube
on “We gave an AI a 3 year retail lease and asked it to make a profit” ↗…intelligent to this very day. Books were awesome. I loved books. Note the past tense. Loved. I have not been able to will myself to read a book on my own since the third grade. It was Lois Lowry's The Giver, that is the last book I can confirm to you that I read, in whole, because I wanted to. It was in the second grade that I had to do my first book report, and the entire concept of reading a book not…
on “Who or What Broke My Kids?” ↗…though he did not strictly believe in Law, unlike Abraham Lincoln. Not to devalue the contributions of myself & other college graduates. I think higher education is necessary, like we play the role of The Giver in Lois Lowry's book, maybe. Its high price is commensurate with the social price of holding on to things like history, philosophy, and chemistry. No one should go hungry or without work for not attending…
on “I've Paid $18,000 to a $24,000 Student Loan, and I Still Owe $24,000” ↗