Roughing It

What Hacker News says

1. russellbeattieAug 2022
   I just finished Mark Twain’s “Roughing It”. If you want to learn what horrible, evil people the original Mormons were, it’s a good guide. Twain holds no punches. He describes the whole story in detail. They just straight up murdered a huge group of wagoners passing through to California because they wanted their cattle, etc. Almost every man woman and child killed except the youngest who wouldn’t be able to testify. That’s just the worst of a huge list of shitty things they did.
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2. CalChrisDec 2021
   Must read?

   1984 and Animal Farm.

   Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It.

   Emma and Pride and Prejudice.

   Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid.

   A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray.

   The Great Gatsby, Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence.

   War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

   Don Quixote.

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3. kpozinSep 2020
   Just wanted to mention, tangentially, that I'm currently halfway through Twain's Roughing It, which comes up in the article. If you enjoy wry humor, I heartily recommend the book (as well as Grover Gardner's narration, included with Audible subscription).
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4. 5lettersJun 2020
   When I've needed to laugh I've read and reread:

   Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" and "Roughing It" as well as many short stories, esp. "My Watch", "Political Economy", "Journalism in Tennessee"

   Also short stories from others: J.S. Perelman's "Strictly From Hunger", Alex Atkinson's "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You"

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5. gwDec 2018
   I wish I could say I read as much as others here, but I'm slow and lazy. I'll mention one, though...

   Roughing It by Mark Twain. It's a grab bag of stories about his journey west without much of an over-arching plot. Though one of his earlier novels, it already has his distinctive humor and a command of English you could drown in, like this:

   "A growing warmth suffused the horizon, and soon the sun emerged and looked out over the cloud waste, flinging bars of ruddy light across it, staining its folds and billow caps with blushes, purpling the shaded troughs between, and glorifying the massy vapor palaces and cathedrals with a wasteful splendor of all blendings and combinations of rich coloring."

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6. lscNov 2018
   When I am at a loss for something to read and I want something that is usually a low-effort but very good read, i throw darts at the Pulitzer for fiction list.

   I'm reading Greer's "Less" today, the most recent winner, and it is really pretty great.

   If you haven't read Hemingway, "The Old Man and the Sea" is a pretty good starting point.

   If you are into post-apocalyptic fiction at all, you need to read McCarthy's "The Road"

   (Note, if you want Steinbeck - personally, I liked 'Of Mice and Men' a lot more than "The Grapes of Wrath" but both are good. Just saying I don't always side with the committee)

   I mean, we can argue all day about what the best book is, but everything on that list is going to be both very good and usually quite accessible; you will note that Joyce is conspicuously absent, and a few of these are assigned reading in high school.

   If you want to read stuff before that (and get free books from gutenberg!) I recommend you check out Mark Twain and Joseph Conrad. Both are excellent. "The end of his tether" is my favorite Conrad. "Roughing it" is my favorite Twain.

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