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Comment by bratwurst3000 | Hacker News Reader

This years best book is the brothers karamazov. An excellent book with a deeply human and philosophical viewpoint. This is the last bool I read from dostojewski and after crime and punishment his best work.

Atm I read „against the day“ from pynchon. Also very excellent and compared to gravitys rainbow sooo easy to read. That could be a good start to the pynchon universe for beginners.

Whish you all a good time at the end of the yeat

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I have a deeply personal story about The Brothers Karamazov. I used to frequent a circulating library as a child (I was 8), and I met an old man on the way to it. He lived near the library and was always on his daily walk. I'd read on the road as I walked so he once spoke to me, and we formed a connection. I'd speak to him almost everyday for a few years, and in one of our conversations he asked me to read this book. He said it was his most favorite. I didn't know it but that comment has stayed with me for years. It's been over 15 years since I've seen the man, he was already 80 back then and I once learnt he had already passed before the library shut down.

I'll never forget him, my copy of The Brothers Karamazov is one of my most prized possessions.

What have you learned from the book?

As a PSA: this book is old enough to be public domain, the audiobook is (legally) available for free on LibriVox: https://librivox.org/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor-dostoy... . The written version is available on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28054 .

I listened to it while swimming laps. The readers have great, rhythmic pacing.

What headphones do you use while swimming? I've been looking into getting a pair for swimming, and am interested in recommendations.

They're called "SYRYN Swimbuds Flip and Waterproof MP3 Player". Just got them a few years ago as a quick, inexpensive Amazon purchase. Looks like they're a bit more expensive nowadays, but not too bad.

They work fine-- only ones I've ever had, so I have nothing to compare them to. I can confirm they've survived over 200 hours of lap swim, though.

It's in podcast form, as well. I just searched for the name of the book in Pocket Casts and the author is listed as Loyal Books. Going to give it a try on my walk today. Thank you!

My favorite of the year was Anna Karenina. If you like Brothers Karamazov it would be right up your alley.

Anna Karenina jumped to the top as favorite novel; Brothers Karamazov as best novel...The difference between the two adjectives tells more about me than anything else. :-)

Yes that one is on my list to. I read war and peace once and it was an excellent novel. Still dostojewski is a bit more special to me :)

Good recs. I should get started on brothers karamazov, feel like it's required reading at this point.

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