The Mysterious Stranger

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1. Barrin92Dec 2025
   Among non-fiction what stood out to me was David Bentley Hart's All Things are Full of Gods, great book also very fun to read written as a Platonic dialogue. To me one of the most compelling theologians today.

   Bruno Maçães, World Builders. Good book on the impact of technology in geopolitics has been consistently interesting.

   Among fiction re-read a lot of Lovecraft, noticed that I like the Dream Quest stories more than the horror these days which surprised me. But they're more compelling to me now because of how much you can see Lovecraft as a person in them.

   The last three Dune books. Liked the last two about the Bene Gesserit a lot, was surprised how much I disliked God Emperor given the praise it gets, but it honestly reads like Frank Herbert posting twitter hot takes as a worm with no story

   Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger. Among the best novellas I've ever read, very different in tone from most of his books.

   Shūsaku Endō, Silence. Book about a Jesuit mission in early Edo Japan. My favorite Japanese book in a long time.

   Among technical books, re-read The Mythical Man Month, probably more relevant than it ever was in an age of artifical man-hours added to projects. Robert Seacord Effective C, after not having written C in a long time. Really good intermediate level book for modern C. Also making my way through The Little Schemer as a replacement for advent of code in the second half of the month this year.

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2. mmonihanSep 2015
   Believe it or not: Slaughterhouse V by Kurt Vonnegut and No. 44 The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain. The first for the idea of being "unstuck" in time, and the second for introducing the concept of nihilism.
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3. sjcsjcOct 2014
   I don't remember seeing anyone recommend Mark Twain's The Mysterious Stranger[1] in these kinds of list. Not sure if it counts as sci-fi, and it's at least 25 years since I read it, but I recall it being worth reading.

   [1] http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3186/3186-h/3186-h.htm

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4. tombertMar 2026
   We used to burn women to death because they were accused of being witches. I don't think this was because there was a lot of reason and evidence when they were doing this.

   I don't think it's unique to the people of today that people in groups do dumb emotional shit. That's kind of the point of Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger".

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5. gwernNov 2021
   My own opinion of _Haruhi_ is that it is (or at least, should be) a more positive retelling of Mark Twain's "The Mysterious Stranger", and Haruhi is an ordinary girl made special by her wish to be extraordinary: https://www.gwern.net/The-Melancholy-of-Kyon
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6. colomonOct 2014
   Was going to ask "Which Mysterious Stranger?" but then I noticed you'd linked straight to text. :)

   Ooo, checking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Stranger there was apparently one version I didn't know about. (I've read the one you posted ("1916 publication"), "No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger", and "Schoolhouse Hill".)

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