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Ask HN: What is your comfort book?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?

#32

Post by ColinWright »

IanCal wrote: post #17

Pratchett discworld series. Started when I was young and I still enjoy rereading them all, still spot some new things in them now and again too.

I've read them all multiple times, and go back to them again and again. As with you, I still occasionally spot new things, or get taken afresh by a turn-of-phrase. I still laugh out loud at some points.

Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?

#35

Post by l5870uoo9y »

maneesh wrote: post #5

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

> Taleb introduces the book as follows: "Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile. Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better". Hormesis is an example of mild antifragility, where the stressor is a poisonous substance and the antifragile becomes better overall from a small dose of the stressor. This is different from robustness or resilience in that the Antifragile system improves with, not withstands, stressors, where the stressors are neither too large or small. The larger point, according to Taleb, is that depriving systems of vital stressors is not necessarily a good thing and can be downright harmful.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile

It is an interesting observation.

Re: Ask HN: What is your comfort book?

#40

Post by Y_Y »

auslegung wrote: post #29

The Bible, Hobbit, LOTR series, Narnia, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Papa Hemingway, these are all books that I’ve had to buy multiple times because they fall apart over the years. Never realized until just now how many comfort books I have...

I was wondering how comforting reading The Bible (as a cultural catholic) could be, so I dipped in to the first book which came to mind:

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Satan Takes Job's Property and Children

13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants[c] with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”

22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

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I'm not sure how that made me feel, but I bet this is more effective if you pick specific passages you like.

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