The best essay collections, according to hackers
10 essay collections were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one. None of them earns the Hacker Approved badge yet.
All 10 essay collections, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slouching Towards Bethlehemby Joan Didion | 8 | 1 | 89% | 3 | — | — |
| 2 | Why I Writeby George Orwell | 6 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 3 | Letters to a Young Poetby Rainer Maria Rilke | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
| Tied 3 | Paul Graham essays | 5 | 7 | 42% | 3 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | Metamagical Themasby Douglas Hofstadter | 4 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | On Photographyby Susan Sontag | 4 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Tied 5 | Hackers and Paintersby Paul Graham | 4 | 3 | 57% | 3 | — | — |
| 8 | The Manuscripts of Edsger W. Dijkstraby Edsger W. Dijkstra | 3 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Againby David Foster Wallace | 2 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| Tied 9 | Post-Scarcity Anarchismby Murray Bookchin | 2 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same essay collection in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to essay collections that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.