The Road
Cormac McCarthy's tenth novel, The Road, is his most harrowing yet deeply personal work. Some unnamed catastrophe has scourged the world to a burnt-out cinder, inhabited by the last remnants of mankind and a very few surviving dogs and fungi. The sky is perpetually shrouded by dust and toxic particulates; the seasons are merely varied intensities of cold and dampness. Bands of cannibals roam the roads and inhabit what few dwellings remain intact in the woods. Through this nightmarish residue of America a haggard father and his young son attempt to flee the oncoming Appalachian winter and head towards the southern coast along carefully chosen back roads. Mummified corpses are their only benign companions, sitting in doorways and automobiles, variously impaled or displayed on pikes and tables and in cake bells, or they rise in frozen poses of horror and agony out of congealed asphalt. The boy and his father hope to avoid the marauders, reach a milder climate, and perhaps locate some remnants of civilization still worthy of that name. They possess only what they can scavenge to eat, and the rags they wear and the heat of their own bodies are all the shelter they have. A pistol with only a few bullets is their only defense besides flight.
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37recommend
82mentions
71people
2008–2026years
49% recommend44% neutral7% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
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Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
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The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
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A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
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https://www.rxjourney.net/list-of-books-i-finished-reading-i...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulitzer_Prize_for_General_Non...
- I finally read my first Stephen King book: "11/22/63". I could not put it down. The mix of historical details and the time travel concept kept me reading until the end. Another first this year for me was "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. Took me some time to get used to his writing style but after that I could not stop reading.
This year I also read "The Brothers Karamazov" after having read "Crime and Punishment", "The Idiot" and "Demons" in previous years. It was not an easy read but it stays with you for a long time (or maybe even forever).
Also did some re-reading this year:
"A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius
- Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem. Both were pretty satisfying reads. I will start reading "Piranesi" by Susanna Clarke, will also probably have some time for one more book this month. If you got any scifi + horror suggestions tell me.
- I try to read fiction and non fiction in parallel, so my current pairing is How Asia Works by Joe Studwell and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. Enjoying both so far!
Other books I’ve enjoyed recently:
The Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft - I read Endurance by Alfred Lansing last year so it was fun having a real Antarctic adventure in my mind while reading it.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy - I actually started this a couple of years ago and quit part way through deciding I couldn’t put myself through it anymore. I kept thinking about it though, until I finally picked it back up and finished it this summer. Horrifying, but quite a masterpiece.
If Anyone Builds It Everyone Dies by Eliezer Yudkowsky - I was about a year late to the party on this, but it still holds up. I would recommend it.
The Infinity Machine by Sebastian Malaby - Excellent! Fascinating seeing a glimpse inside of the companies currently eating the world.
- I've read five books so far this year.
1. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris
2. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris (a re-read)
3. Lying by Sam Harris
4. Misery by Stephen King (a re-read)
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
I'd probably pick The Road by Cormac McCarthy as my favorite so far.
- The Road by Cormac McCarthy is like that. It's best read in the pit of a cold winter.
