The Last Unicorn
The unicorn lived in a lilac wood, and she lived all alone… …so she ventured out from the safety of the enchanted forest on a quest for others of her kind. Joined along the way by the bumbling magician Schmendrick and the indomitable Molly Grue, the unicorn learns all about the joys and sorrows of life and love before meeting her destiny in the castle of a despondent monarch—and confronting the creature that would drive her kind to extinction.... In The Last Unicorn, renowned and beloved novelist Peter S. Beagle spins a poignant tale of love, loss, and wonder that has resonated with millions of readers around the world.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
10mentions
10people
2008–2026years
40% recommend60% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I lately I’ve been reading three books at once:
- Fiction: Pure entertainment, with no shame, although I do enjoy working in a mix of slop and more high-brow works. I generally go through one of these every 5-10 days.
- Non-fiction: Big, meaty, interesting book. These take me forever to finish but I really enjoy them. I get through like 100 pages in a good month.
- Children’s: I have been reading to my son, which is entirely for me as he’s only ~5mo old. But I have a stack of lovely children’s classics that I have greatly enjoyed going through.
Here’s what I’m currently reading and some recommendations on previous stuff I’ve read.
Fiction
Right now I’m finishing up The Kremlin’s Candidate. Not great, the series has been going a bit downhill. Some recent hits:
- The Dog Stars (Heller): Awful movie, incredible book. Highly recommended.
- True Grit (Portis): For everyone recommending Lonesome Dove, definitely get a copy of True Grit. A fantastically fun masterpiece. A real achievement.
- The Force (Winslow): The first 80 pages are deep cringe but it picks up into a really compelling and fast crime novel. Pulp for sure but fun.
- All the Pretty Horses (McCarthy): Incredible book. I could read it 100 times.
Nonfiction
- The Politics of Heroin (McCoy): Dense but very very good. First hand reporting of the CIA’s role in the global drug trade and how it has, to a surprising degree, shaped the modern world.
Children’s
- The Last Unicorn (Beagle): Surprisingly nice. Some rough edges but I’m enjoying it. If my son was able to understand more than just that he’s spending time with me and that I’m making comforting noises I think he’s enjoy it.
- The Wind in the Willows (Grahame): Stop everything you’re doing and go read this. Aloud, your kids if you have them but as a treat to yourself if you don’t. What a joy this is.
————
Some things I haven’t read that are on the shelf thaf I really want to dig in to:
- Challenger: History of the tragic NASA accident.
- First Casualty: Inside the CIA’s paramilitary ops and the early days of the Afghanistan war.
- The Great Game: Historic book on the power struggles of the British and Russian empire in Afghanistan.
- Lonesome Dove: I love westerns, I have this whole series on the shelf, and am kind of just waiting and keeping it in my back pocket for a rainy day.
- Power of the Dog series: I just know I’m going to love this. Cartel/DEA saga spanning decades.
- McCloskey’s CIA series: It’s slop, and the tradecraft is dated to the point that what is happening in the field now is completely unrecognizable from the dead drops and SDRs and such of the cold war, but… it’s fun!
- So many good books to recommend. Here's a selection
- Diaspora by Greg Egan
- Pushing Ice by Alastair Raynolds
- Watership Down by Richard Adams
- The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
- The Price of Nothing by R. Scott Baker
- Blindsight by Peter Watts
- Buy the bundle if you can possibly afford it. Not only are you getting six ebooks for a great price (that you set!!!!), but you're also striking a blow against DRM by proving that people pay for quality digital content.
Also, if you've never read The Last Unicorn, it's actually really funny and self-aware. You may have seen the animated movie some years ago, but IMHO, it's even better as a book!
- I read mostly fantasy and sci-fi - some favorites:
"Lord of the Rings" J.R.R.Tolkien
"The Last Wish", "The Sword of Destiny" A.Sapkowski
"The Last Unicorn" P.Beagle
almost anything by S.Lem.
My favorite mainstream book is
"Wielki Las" Zbigniew Nienacki (unfortunately no English translation available).
- > there’s a distinction between the work (the book The Last Unicorn), the expression (a given edition of the book), a manifestation (a given physical format for an expression, such as paperback or hardcover), and an item (an individual object in a collection)
The author misunderstands 'work', as far as I know: A work is "intellectual or artistic content of a distinct creation. It refers to a very abstract idea of a creation e.g. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and not a specific expression."[0]
In contrast, an "expression" is an "intellectual or artistic realization of a work. The realization may take the form of text, sound, image, object, movement, etc., or any combination of such forms."[0]
The Last Unicorn story is the work, "the book The Last Unicorn" is an expression as would be the film version or the computer game, etc.
[0] https://www.ifla.org/references/best-practice-for-national-b... (as of a few years ago)
- "Lullaby, lullaby, swindles and schemes. Flying's not near as much fun as it seems."
-- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
