Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#1

Post by dumb2223 » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:13 AM UTC

I find it really difficult to choose a book to read since I feel compeled to read one stars reviews and next to look for other suggestions. Hence I get into a loop: search, read one stars reviews, and reject. For instance, today I navigated from 1) "Rationality from AI to Zombies" (someone in HN recommended it in other thread) 2) "The Tyranny of Metrics" 3) "The Elefant in the Brain" 4) "Enlightment Now" of S. Picker. This one should be One star review of that was demolishing. What you recommend?

Edited to emphasize need to read one stars reviews. Perhaps navigating through reviews and books is like reading a non writen book?

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#2

Post by ryanmercer » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:15 AM UTC

Read a book because you want to, not because people have reviewed it. Everyone has different tastes and let us not forget trolls and competition trying to tank people's books.

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#3

Post by antt » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:22 AM UTC

A voice to speech system such that you don't actually have to sit down and read a book if you aren't sure you like it.

I suggest espeak-ng since it is the only t2s program that can manage 1,000 wpm without artifacts, can output wav files - which you can re-encode for mobile use.

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#4

Post by dumb2223 » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:48 AM UTC

ryanmercer wrote: post #2

Read a book because you want to, not because people have reviewed it. Everyone has different tastes and let us not forget trolls and competition trying to tank people's books.

Thanks, I will read https://www.ryanmercer.com/ryansthoughts/2016/8/2/humanitys-...

I hope it help me to don't waste a lot of time!

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#5

Post by dumb2223 » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:51 AM UTC

antt wrote: post #3

A voice to speech system such that you don't actually have to sit down and read a book if you aren't sure you like it. I suggest espeak-ng since it is the only t2s program that can manage 1,000 wpm without artifacts, can output wav files - which you can re-encode for mobile use.

It sounds nice, but reading reviews allow me to jump and select interesting stuff. Perhaps a speech system enhanced with a way to select what kind of content to jump to, something more that a jumpable toc.

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#6

Post by antt » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 10:58 AM UTC

dumb2223 wrote: post #5

antt wrote: post #3

A voice to speech system such that you don't actually have to sit down and read a book if you aren't sure you like it. I suggest espeak-ng since it is the only t2s program that can manage 1,000 wpm without artifacts, can output wav files - which you can re-encode for mobile use.

It sounds nice, but reading reviews allow me to jump and select interesting stuff. Perhaps a speech system enhanced with a way to select what kind of content to jump to, something more that a jumpable toc.

Select the passage of interest:

$ xsel | espeak-ng --stdin

Don't over engineer things.

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#7

Post by edburdo » Fri, Jul 13, 2018, 11:22 AM UTC

Weight the reviews... 1 star gets .5 points, 5 star gets 1. Then balance it out. Or take those 1 star reviews with a grain of salt. I don't think you are risk adverse to reading books... I think you keep talking yourself out of it. So, next time you have a book suggestion... go get it and read it. Ignore the reviews. +1 for the Library if you have one that has the book. Easier to ignore reviews that way. :)

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#8

Post by gt2 » Sat, Jul 14, 2018, 4:32 PM UTC

Try reading summaries on something like Blinkist.

Re: Ask HN: I'm risk averse to reading books, what you recommend?

#9

Post by amorphous » Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 4:39 PM UTC

Not sure this question is serious, but just in case, obviously choosing a book solely on online reviews is not a good strategy. If in doubt, choose a book that is old yet still popular, because it means it has kept its popularity through all the fashions and trends, so it most likely provides some deeper value.