The Pearl

What Hacker News says

1. devrundownMar 2026
   Just finished up the first two Game of Thrones book. Before continuing wanted to check out a couple of other books.

   Read Shadow Divers which was really good. Saw it suggested a lot and it did not disappoint.

   Now reading The Pearl by Steinbeck and Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers by Grant Naylor.

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2. kstenerudOct 2024
   Have Space Suit Will Travel (Heinlein)

   Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein)

   Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (one story in the book "Different Seasons" by Stephen King)

   Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck)

   The Martian Chronicles (Bradbury)

   Roadside Picnic (Strugatsky)

   Frankenstein (Shelley)

   Brave New World (Huxley)

   Farenheit 451 (Heinlein)

   Never Cry Wolf (Mowatt)

   A Whale for the Killing (Mowatt)

   The Machine Stops (Forster)

   Heart of Darkness (Conrad)

   Starship Troopers (Heinlein)

   The Jungle Book (Kipling)

   Lost in the Barrens (Mowatt)

   The Republic (Plato)

   Rendezvous with Rama (Clarke)

   Ringworld (Niven)

   The Stainless Steel Rat (Harrison)

   The Hobbit (Tolkien)

   Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (Stevenson)

   The Odyssey (Homer)

   The Man who Would be King (Kipling)

   The Pearl (Steinbeck)

   Thus Spake Zarathustra (Nietzsche)

   Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (Dick)

   A Scanner Darkly (Dick)

   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Adams)

   Dracula (Stoker)

   To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

   The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)

   Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)

   The Wind in the Willows (Grahame)

   A Christmas Carol (Dickens)

   Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Carroll)

   Watership Down (Adams)

   Gulliver's Travels (Swift)

   Animal Farm (Orwell)

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3. matt_holmesJan 2023
   As you have a good sense of humour, try

   Kafka "The Trial", and his other short works

   Hesse "Steppenwolf", and if you like it "The Glass Bead Game"

   Stendahl "The Red and the Black"

   and Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"

   Once you've read them come back for more! And if I may note, literature is a world thing that opens up new domains. No way to limit it to one place. However in your stated context, how about

   Steinbeck "The Pearl"

   and Miller "Death of a Salesman"

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4. martythemaniakDec 2015
   Leave it to Psmith - 10/10

   Anna Karenina - 8/10

   The Code of the Woosters 8/10

   Fooled by Randomness 7/10

   Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life 8/10

   How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia 9/10

   Reluctant Fundamentalist 9/10

   The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10

   The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10

   The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10

   The catcher in the Rye 8/10

   Models 7/10

   High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10

   The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10

   The Surrender Experiment - 10/10

   Untethered Soul - 9/10

   The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10

   Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10

   Something Fresh, something new - 7/10

   Karma Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 8/10

   Thinking, Fast and Slow - 9/10

   Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates 10/10

   The Pearl by John Steinbeck 7/10

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5. CaptainMorganApr 2010
   This is ironic timing for me. For more than five years I haven't read a single fiction book. Recently, I saw more than a few articles on being well-read and they all offered convincing arguments. I also enjoy how this linked article points to the positive social factors related to fiction. This was an area I found myself lacking and after being further convinced that reading fiction: the art of being deeply immersed in a book's story, often relating to or putting one's self in the situation, can reduce stress - I decided to make a change.

   Recently, driving by the local library, my wife asks "what are you getting?", to which I replied, "I think it's time I start getting back in touch with the classics." I quickly picked up and read Of Mice and Men and The Pearl. I never knew how good these books were, books that I once read in high school and at the time never understood and ultimately despised having to read. My next read from the late Steinbeck will be Grapes of Wrath.

   Lately though, I've been addicted to Vince Flynn's political thriller novels, and having never read Clancy, some critics say he's a Clancy protege. Flynn's books are incredibly difficult to put down, in my opinion.

   Today, I'm about 60/40 for non-fiction/fiction reading and I find myself happier in general. Sometimes at least for me, always reading non-fiction can get kind of bland. Reading fiction a waste of time? Unless it's someone's only form of reading, I wholeheartedly disagree and I'm glad I got back into them.

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6. Gibbon1May 2026
   When I was at that tender age when many nerdy boys read and fall to Atlas Shrugged I read The Pearl by Steinbeck. Which has a passage I never forgot.

   “It was supposed that the pearl buyers were individuals acting alone, bidding against one another for the pearls the fishermen brought in. And once it had been so. But this was a wasteful method, for often, in the excitement of bidding for a fine pearl, too great a price had been paid to the fisherman. This was extravagant and not to be countenanced. Now there was only one pearl buyer with many hands"

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