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Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#191

Post by Razengan »

Below The Root [0], by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

A highly imaginative, original, and underrated, world setting.

Also had the distinction of having a sequel in the form of a video game, with the game's story written by the book author herself. [1]

The game (for the PC, Apple II and Commodore 64) was way ahead of its time in 1984: [2] and I only just heard of it and the books last month! It definitely needs more recognition.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Sky_Trilogy

[1] http://blog.stahlmandesign.com/below-the-root-a-story-a-comp...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdUBefQ1cT4

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#192

Post by fmavituna »

jwdunne wrote: post #147
_pfxa wrote: post #140

The bible, cover to cover: if reading western literature or philosophy produced in whatever year A.D., the bible is required reading for comprehending many the references and various rhetorical modes. I'm irreligious from a muslim background myself but I'm reading it now. Same goes for the qoran, my family is not a practicing muslim family and thus I never read it, but it's a part of the canon, must be read. I'm not…

Can you recommend a good English translation of the Qoran if it exists? I've asked Muslim friends but they seem adamant that it must be read in Arabic or, at least, only know of the Arabic text.

You can read this one from Muhammad Asad, it's very good. http://muhammad-asad.com/Message-of-Quran.pdf

> I've asked Muslim friends but they seem adamant that it must be read in Arabic

Not sure if these are practicing Muslims but that's simply wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#194

Post by SirLJ »

rtx wrote: post #170
travmatt wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd also add "Reminescences of a Stock Operator", which is older but very good.

Similar to this, http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21884038-phantom-of-the-p...

Thank you Sir, I constantly read, so will add it to the queue

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#195

Post by xaedes »

"The Hero with a Thousand Faces" from Joseph Campbell.

It opened my mind to understand metaphors and analogies in literature. It allowed me to peek under the surface of text. Seriously, every written piece I read after that was different for me than before.

It also gave me more insight in the human mind and psyche.

Being able to read and understand more literature also gave me more perspectives and deeper understanding of the world and place of mankind in it.

Some other nice reads:

"The Way of Zen" - Alan Watts

"The Book" (On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are) - Alan Watts

"Demian" - Hermann Hesse; but I wouldn't want to read it earlier. I think I read at the exact best time for me (in my late 20s).

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#196

Post by xaedes »

wowsig wrote: post #190
real-hacker wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is: https://github.com/hackerkid/Mind-Expanding-Books

I've started to maintain a list of awesome books from HN on my profile here. http://shelfjoy.com/sia_steel/non-technology-books-that-have... Currently noting down the ones on this thread.

Oh yes. Siddhartha was really a good read!

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#197

Post by xaedes »

_pfxa wrote: post #140

The bible, cover to cover: if reading western literature or philosophy produced in whatever year A.D., the bible is required reading for comprehending many the references and various rhetorical modes. I'm irreligious from a muslim background myself but I'm reading it now. Same goes for the qoran, my family is not a practicing muslim family and thus I never read it, but it's a part of the canon, must be read. I'm not…

I read a passage (Revelation 8) that could very well describe a nature catastrophe instead of godly will. Also other stuff like Job 26:10 ("He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.") which describes day/night boundary on earth quite well.

That made me think. What if there is other stuff that could actually be related to secular events and knowledge.

And so I started to read from the beginning. Genesis is very interesting actually. I noticed it is mostly inspired by earlier literature, like Arthasis, Gilgamesh and the like. Now I am totally into reading mesopotamia literature and origin stories all over the world. Maybe someday I am done with that and I can backtrack to advance further than Genesis in the bible. Time will tell.

So far it has certainly enlightened my view on early mankind.

edit: typo

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#199

Post by gkya »

xaedes wrote: post #197
_pfxa wrote: post #140

The bible, cover to cover: if reading western literature or philosophy produced in whatever year A.D., the bible is required reading for comprehending many the references and various rhetorical modes. I'm irreligious from a muslim background myself but I'm reading it now. Same goes for the qoran, my family is not a practicing muslim family and thus I never read it, but it's a part of the canon, must be read. I'm not…

I read a passage (Revelation 8) that could very well describe a nature catastrophe instead of godly will. Also other stuff like Job 26:10 ("He has inscribed a circle on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.") which describes day/night boundary on earth quite well. That made me think. What if there is other stuff that could actually be related to secular events and knowledge. And so I star…

Myth is science. It's how people transferred knowledge from generation to generation, and it's always based on observations of the world. Thing is though, in the ancient times they didn't have the access we started to have in the last centuries into the structure of things, so all they could do was to interpret that which they saw and that which they learned through earlier myths. Dismissing religion and myths as fairy tales because they are not relevant anymore is wrong, for one even fairy tales are, or were, tools for sharing knowledge along generations. Yes, we have better means of knowledge today, but we wouldn't have came here without religion and myths, they have been an important step in cognitive evolution of humankind. And still today important as part of our history and also a still-comtemporary sociological phaenomenon that directly affects us in every way.

Re: Ask HN: Books you wish you had read earlier?

#200

Post by andai »

udkl wrote: post #117
Houshalter wrote: post #84

Rationality: from AI to Zombies really changed my way of thinking in many ways. It's very hard to describe it or sell it in a few sentences. Partly because it covers so many different things. And partly because I read it so long ago and have already absorbed many of the good ideas in it. They no longer seem exciting and new, and just feel obvious. But they certainly weren't when I first read it. I constantly see plac…

I'm audiobook-ing "Harry Potter And The Methods of Rationality" by the same author. It presents some of the ideas from "Rationality" but from the point of view of Harry who is portrayed as a rationalist. In-fact the first chapter is titled "A Day of Very Low Probability" where Harry tries to think probabilistically about the new magical world he is being introduced to when he is still living with Aunt Petunia. I reco…

One hundred and twenty two chapters :o
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