New ask Hacker News story: Ask HN: What book bit, stung and shook you deeply?

Ask HN: What book bit, stung and shook you deeply?
2 by leobg | 0 comments on Hacker News.
Someone here quoted Kafka [1] on what types of books to read: Books that “bite and sting”. That “wake us up with a blow to the head”. And which “affect us like a disaster, that hurts us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves”. Ever read a book like that? Which was it? How did it affect you? What did reading it do to you? [1] Brief an Oskar Pollak, 27. Januar 1904. , https://ift.tt/Dg8H6fj. English (ChatGPT): "I believe one should only read those books which bite and sting. If the book we are reading does not wake us up with a blow to the head, then why read the book? To make us happy, as you write? My God, we would be just as happy if we had no books, and those books that make us happy, we could write ourselves if necessary. But we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that hurts us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like if we were being driven into forests, away from all people, like a suicide, a book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." Original: "Ich glaube, man sollte überhaupt nur solche Bücher lesen, die einen beißen und stechen. Wenn das Buch, das wir lesen, uns nicht mit einem Faustschlag auf den Schädel weckt, wozu lesen wir dann das Buch? Damit es uns glücklich macht, wie Du schreibst? Mein Gott, glücklich wären wir eben auch, wenn wir keine Bücher hätten, und solche Bücher, die uns glücklich machen, könnten wir zur Not selber schreiben. Wir brauchen aber die Bücher, die auf uns wirken wie ein Unglück, das uns sehr schmerzt, wie der Tod eines, den wir lieber hatten als uns, wie wenn wir in Wälder vorstoßen würden, von allen Menschen weg, wie ein Selbstmord, ein Buch muß die Axt sein für das gefrorene Meer in uns."

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