7 ms·
Ask HN: You've got $300 to fill an empty library. What do you choose?
I'm looking to put together a modest home library and am particularly interested in the classics. I've budgeted $300 for the task. What would you deem a 'must-have'?
- uberman 6y agoSome additional context would be helpful
- samcgraw 6y agoEdited- apologies for the vagueness :) Thank you!
- turtlegrids 6y agoIf this is to simply fill the shelving space, do what some attorneys do - Books by the Foot! https://www.booksbythefoot.com/ https://www.booksbythefoot.com/ You should be able to fill over 40 feet of bookshelf with your $300 budget.
- tosh 6y agocheck out Reclam, Harvard Classics and Stripe Press https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reclam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvard_Classics https://press.stripe.com https://press.stripe.com (edit: obviously non-comprehensive but a starting point for further exploration, I'd love to learn of similar curated collections if any come to mind!)
- paulrpotts 6y agoDon't try to buy all your books at once. Purchase them over time as your tastes evolve and you discover what you like. That said, if you want to start out with a very nice set of "classics" to dive into, consider getting a set of the Harvard Classics. I've got a very nice set that I picked up for a couple hundred. There are several editions. For example, on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Harvard-Classics-1980-Collectors-Edition-31-Volumes-Great-Condition/184460747894?hash=item2af2b7a476:g:VF8AAOSwO1pfbBjR https://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Harvard-Classics-1980-Collector... You might also consider Brittanica's Great Books of the Western World. I don't have a set of these yet, but would like to get one, at some point. Again, there are several editions, but you can pick up an older one within your price range: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Britannica-Great-Books-of-the-Western-World-Large-Lot-36-Books-1952/333731534560?hash=item4db3f316e0:g:JXcAAOSwv2Ffa9dj https://www.ebay.com/itm/Britannica-Great-Books-of-the-Weste... If you mean _classic_ classics, as in the classical Greek and Latin canon, search eBay for "Loeb Classical Library lot." Those will definitely give you some challenging works to sink your teeth into. Get a subscription to the Library of America and get great writing by American authors for $30.90 per volume delivered according to whatever schedule you want. The books are very nice small boxed hardcovers. I've got almost 100 now. If you like things a little flashier and don't mind trade paperbacks, I recommend the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition trade paperbacks. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/254/penguin-classics-deluxe-edition https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/254/penguin-classi... I read and collect books from the New York Review Books Classics series. It's an amazing series of reprints of mostly 20th Century literature, some that has fallen unjustly into obscurity, and a lot of it in translation. I also pick up used sets from the Folio Society, for example Orwell's "Reportage" boxed set: https://www.ebay.com/itm/GEORGE-ORWELL-REPORTAGE-5-VOLUMES-IN-SLIPCASE-Folio-Society/133510719758?hash=item1f15dbe90e:g:9R4AAOSwUwRfUV3Q https://www.ebay.com/itm/GEORGE-ORWELL-REPORTAGE-5-VOLUMES-I... which is a very nice edition that I love to hold in my hands and read. Watch prices for a while and get a sense for them, save some searches, then jump on one when an exceptional deal pops up. Your library should reflect your mind and personality as it grows and develops over time!
- wryoak 6y agoDude go to half priced books or your local secondhand bookstore and just clean house. Classics in particular are a dime a dozen. Here's a list of "classics" to give you some ideas: * A Hundred Years of Solitude * Crime and Punishment * East of Eden * Moby Dick * Shakespeare's collected works * Bible, Koran, etc - keep as many sacred tomes as you can * Plato's Republic, maybe some other philosophy classics like Thus Spoke Zarathustra * Midnight's Children (how old does it have to be to be a classic?) * Paradise Lost, Iliad, Odyssey * The God of Small Things
- bear8642 6y agoSecond hand bookshops are amazing things - sometimes goldmines can be found!
- scott31 6y ago> Bible, Koran, etc - keep as many sacred tomes as you can what makes them sacred?
- wryoak 6y agoPeople make them sacred
- muzani 6y agoEven if you're not a religious person, a lot of effort have been put into writing and preserving them. They were all done from a time when the written word was expensive and rare, and words of gods could not be amended or revised in a future version. There's something sacred in preserving exact words of something over thousands of years, through many languages.
- curi0usttt 6y agoBoth books are a treasure trove of information and history. They are both well written and even for non religious folk can serve as guidance on how to best organize their daily life or at the very least you would want to read them to be more knowledgeable about what the majority of people around you believes in.
- swiley 6y agoMath books are very cheap and very information dense. I'm going through Mendelson's "Introduction to Topology" right now. It's very good and cost only $10. Harmony by Walter Piston (and also "Twenty First Century Harmony," the book it inspired) is IMO one of the better books I've read on western music theory. I got my copy used for $20. SICP is nice to loan out (and also nice to read, it covers some pretty weird and advanced topics near the ends of the chapters), my girlfriend is going through my copy. ~$20. A couple Oreily books for whatever you're doing at work ~$120 (although double check, believe it or not there are a couple duds.) UML distilled by Martin Fowler is very good. ~$20? The art of electronics is a great book, I personally learned a lot from this kind of weird book titled "Basic Pulse Circuits" I found at a used book store for ~$10. Then leave the extra $100 for whatever interesting thing you find at good book stores (I've had the best luck in college towns in Appalachian Virginia.)
- easytiger 6y agoA tablet with access to project Gutenberg
- Jtsummers 6y agoThey only publish US authors, and their books aren't cheap ($30-50), but Library of America [0] has a great collection. Each book is actually a collection of writings, so the value proposition is the high quality binding, paper, and substantial collection in one book with each purchase. They have fiction starting from the colonial days to the recent past, along with a lot of non-fiction content (essays, journalism, political speeches, etc.). [0] https://loa.org https://loa.org
- thegjp210 6y agoIn this vein, ‘The Everyman’s Library’ collection excellently assembles classics on thick acid-free paper, cloth bindings, and essays introducing/contextualizing the work
- Jtsummers 6y agoThanks. I’d not heard of them before, and looking at some of their collection I think I’ll be adding them to my list of books I want to buy.
- thegjp210 6y agoHappy to share! I have quite a few of both the LoA & Everyman's, and prefer Everyman's. They're IMO the best quality books in print.
- jelliclesfarm 6y agoasimov
- helph67 6y agoConsider creating a Street Library that way you will have a constantly evolving book collection and probably make lots of connections with your neighbours. https://streetlibrary.org.au/ https://streetlibrary.org.au/
- NKosmatos 6y agoWell depends on what you consider classics :-) Go to a second hand shop, bookstore where they sell used books and get whatever you like. Here is a small list that IMHO would appeal to many HN readers: - Isaac Asimov (foundation trilogy, robot series, short stories compilations) - William Gibson (nauromancer, bridge trilogy) - Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) - Alfred Bester (The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination) - Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon) - Orson Scott Card (Ender’s game, Speaker for the Dead) - Fyodor Dostoevsky (Crime and punishment, the idiot, notes from the underground and many more) - Plato (apology, the republic) - Bible, Torah, Quran and any other sacred text - Mythology (Greek, Indian, Norse and o5hers) And a last one, completely unrelated... - Clive Barker (Hellraiser series, books of blood)
- scott31 6y agoGet pg's essays printed in hardcover, its one of my favourites in my bookshelf (though its missing some of the more recent ones)
- fileoffset 6y ago30 copies of Dune
- dragonwriter 6y agoWhat is the purpose of the library? Display? Reading material for you? Reference material for cultural standards? Something else?
- trykondev 6y agoI'd recommend something by Ray Bradbury -- one of my favorite short story collections of all time is his "The Illustrated Man". Also a big fan of Asimov's "Robot Dreams".
- darepublic 6y agoInclude a copy of The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende
- fiftyacorn 6y agoI'd add John Steinbeck grapes of wrath, and mice and men
- cafard 6y agoI upvoted somebody else's recommendation of NYRB, which has many excellent books. On the other hand, buying them new will get you twenty or twenty-five for $300. And as somebody else says, what do you consider the classics--Plato in Greek with a good critical apparatus, or SICP? Oxford University Press's World Classics paperback series has very many good books at prices comparable to NYRB's. One caution though: when much younger, I thought that I had accomplished something when I bought a book, and I wrote the date of purchase on the flyleaf. Eventually, I learned that the purchase, even if it took half or more of an hour's wage, was the least of the investment. That might argue for your stocking up more gradually.
- 2rsf 6y agoLibraries (at least here in Stockholm) give away their used books once in a while, I have a few shelves filled with great books already in a "rustic" condition. Can I get the 300$ now ?
- tmaly 6y agoI was going to suggest the set Great Books of the Western World. I have a set from more than 20 years ago, but I just checked and it is quite expensive now. However, that being said, it has all of the classics.
- curi0usttt 6y agoThis a very personal opinion based on some popular classic book lists like those found on 4chan /lit/ etc. (Note: All books are new and I calculated the price from Book 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 - The Prince by Machiavelli - The Art of War by Sun Tzu - Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky - The Confessions by Saint Augustine - Les Miserables by Victor Hugo - We by Yevgeny Zamyatin - The Book Of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi - The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric - Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andric - Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun - Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger - All Quiet on the Western Front by Remarque - The Divine Comedy by Dante --- This list totals out at 311.14EUR and has 23 books. [0] - https://www.bookdepository.com/ https://www.bookdepository.com/ [1] - https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ https://www.betterworldbooks.com/
- dave_sid 6y agoLots of plastic balls.
- gotadollar 6y agoI would include the "Gulag Archipelago" Trilogy by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in any library. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/solzhenitsyns-the-gulag-archipelago-published https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/solzhenitsyns-th...