Earlier quoted context omitted.
NGL, GEB was a slog. There is a free MIT course that covers it, and I'm glad I made use of that. "I Am a Strange Loop" by the same guy covers the same concepts, albeit without the whimsey or color.
What is the MIT course that covers this book? Many thanks!
Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
701–710 of 980 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#702The best book I've ever read has been The Art of Computer Programming, Volumes 1 thru 7.
https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html
History, Philosophy, Mathematics, and more!
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#703Catcher in the Rye was the right book for me at the right age. It really set a North Star for me as to what I wanted to be when I looked at myself in the mirror. Funny how as I grew older, I found myself understanding more and more about what the older characters were saying, without me sacrificing what made what Holden Caulfield ring so true to me. Fun fact: in university at the bookstore they had a written poll as…
Out of curiosity, when did you read it? It's one of those books that everyone's heard about, but I find not many people have read. I myself hadn't read it until about six years ago (in my late 30s). I was underwhelmed by it. Maybe the book hit a lot harder when it came out than it does in modern times?
I read it at 12, got nothing out of it. Read at 16, thought it was the best book in the world. Read it at 22, got nothing out of it.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#704Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think you're dismissing the people such as myself that would note you as an idiot without comment and move on wanting nothing to do with you. Sounds to me like you failed the test.
Yeah you gotta go around assuming that anyone might lie to you about their favorite book in order to use your reaction to determine something about your personality. This behavior is normal and good.
You missed the point, I’m afraid. What’s neither normal nor good is writing someone off as an idiot because their taste in books differs from yours.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#705Dare to Succeed by Van Crouch.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#706Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why is that?
It's difficult to describe without spoiling the book. The only way I can describe it without spoiling the three arcs is to say it has a very bleak outlook on human nature
I was instructed as an 11- or 12-year old to read aCfL. I thought it was clever the way the Middle Ages intersected with post nuclear war Earth as the setting. Questions about what is important, venerated, and why. What 'knowing' means.
As to the bleak outlook, I don't remember enough (it was a long time ago), but a few years ago looked it up on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz?usesk... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_M._Miller_Jr.?useskin=v... I learned that Arthur Miller Jr suffered from depression and chose to end his life with a firearm in 1996, age 72. I am always somewhat 'on guard' when I read works from people who were suffering with an illness like that, wondering how much of the story is infused with unnecessarily dour material when another, perhaps more upbeat approach, would have served the story as well. I guess I do not want to be dragged into depression by being overly bummed out by Fiction.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#707There are 2 books that have fundamentally shifted my thinking: - The Dictator's Handbook: Why Bad Behavior is Almost Always Good Politics . This has been covered by CGP Grey and now has a Netflix adaptation, so I figure it lies well within the HN Zeitgeist already. There's a lot to debate in this book, but I fundamentally didn't understand political power before reading it. - Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of…
Dictator's Handbook completely changed how I think about politics. Strongly second that one.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#708Ken Kesey - "Sometimes a Great Notion"
A very rich, very human story generally about what drives people, with a river as an unrelenting foe. I think.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#709Walter Issacson's Steve Jobs bio. I legit disliked Steve Jobs. I could not put this book down for the week it took to read. Then I became an Issacson junky. He just digs into the minutia and makes it digestible. Currently reading Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Will appeal to philosophy nerds mostly. Fascinating how a kid of 26 changed the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and economics, but no one really knows of him…
For an interesting deep dive on everything wrong with Isaacson’s Jobs’ bio.
Re: Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?
#710As long as we're using "best" in air quotes, I'll throw in a suggestion for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It's victorian-era alternate reality fantasy. Which is something I never would have imagined liking. Yes, it borrows a LOT from existing stories. To the point that it's nearly a pastiche. But it is incredibly well done and you appreciate it more when you learn that it was the author's first…
I was going to recommend it for the footnotes.
Anyone who makes up a fake history for a book then adds footnotes arguing for a different interpretation of that fake history really tickles me.
Really enjoyed Piranesi by the same author too. Reminded me of some of the odder parts of Iain Banks catalogue.