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Ask HN: Are books worth it?

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Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#281

Post by seltzered_ »

Generally hate leaving comments that just link to other things, but since I haven't seen them linked nor have time to form a full opinion, a few pieces in this space:

- Sarah Perry - "Why Books are Fake" - https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/06/01/why-books-are-fake/ - being a bit ironic here since her first point is "Every citation is either a homework assignment or a promise." and here I am hyperlinking :P

- Andy Matuschak - "Why books don’t work" https://andymatuschak.org/books/ - and related econtalk interview: https://www.econtalk.org/andy-matuschak-on-books-and-learnin...

- Naval Ravikant's Tim Ferris interview on what books to read: https://tim.blog/naval-ravikant-on-the-tim-ferriss-show-tran... - "A number of people asked me what books I’m reading now. This is a difficult question, because, at any given time, I’m at probably about 50 books on my Kindle, and probably about six or seven hard-cover or soft-cover books that I’m cycling through. I opened up my kindle. I look through. Based on my mood, I’ll flip through to whatever book matches my mood. I’ll flip to whatever part of it looks the most interesting, and I’ll just read that part. I don’t read in the sequential order. The most important thing that does for me is it lets me read on a regular basis. I can actually just pull up my kindle here, and I can read off the names of some of these books that I’m reading. I can give you mini-reviews, but I haven’t actually finished any of them. They’re all in progress."

I tend to disagree with Naval on a number of things, yet that's how I'm currently reading - though it's limited to 3-4 books all in a similar domain. I'm taking notes and trying to find relationships between their viewpoints.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#283

Post by AgentMatt »

slx26 wrote: post #255

I find this thread interesting, but I believe many commenters are rationalizing why books are good by focusing too much on arguments around information quality, or trying to draw some differences between the motivations for paper vs digital writing, ... but I don't see it that clearly. I'm personally much more curious about others like: - how much influence does it have the fact that you have to actually sit down, fo…

> - how much influence does it have the fact that you have to actually sit down, focus on something, sit somewhere comfortable, or not so comfortable but ready to work on a material...

Personal anecdote...

I started reading books again about 2 years ago, after many years of not reading much. At that time it was a revelation for me, and I grew to despise (some forms of) blog style writing and videos (which was also related to the first two books I read being about modern media and advertising; The Attention Merchants and Amusing Ourselves To Death).

After a couple of months of very slow reading, and learning how to read (actively engaging with the material, etc.), my ability to focus and to process information in this mode notably increased.

Nowadays I quite like watching videos (mostly of lectures) and reading well-written online content, and engage with it in just the way you describe. But I think before this period where reading books again taught me the necessary skills for this type of engagement it was not possible for me to process online content in this way. Too many ubiquitous distractions.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#284

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu »

oneplane wrote: post #85

Online content is often low-quality, highly commercial in nature and very ephemeral. Books, the real kind, when they are good can stay with you for a very long time. A well-written story, be it fiction or non-fiction can have a long lastig impact and even an emotional connection that I have personally never experienced with anything 'online'. If you don't read books, you are missing out. Even only 1 or 2 books a year…

+1 Books are good.

Too much time spent attempting to min/max everything in life around here. Read a book every once in awhile.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#285

Post by SkyMarshal »

High quality long-form writing that requires focus, patience, work and though to both write and to read/understand is worth it. Books are more likely to fall in that category than what you listed, but not exclusively.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#286

Post by PandaRider »

Most of the comments offer broad strokes of advice. I'll offer some here with examples but a huge caveat is that I don't usually read full books so take my advice with a pinch of salt. :/

Type I books: Recipes refer to books that teach you "how". They are often must-reads in the topic. Example: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34689843-disciplined-ent... and https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18652777-disciplined-ent...

Type II books: These are controversial, non-mainstream books that challenge your thinking. Example: failory.com articles

Type III books: Wisdom refer to books that teach you "why". They are generalisations that offer a thousand feet view but often suffer from survivorship bias if one doesn't read it critically. Example: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050143-zero-to-one

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#288

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu »

viscanti wrote: post #139
oneplane wrote: post #85

Online content is often low-quality, highly commercial in nature and very ephemeral. Books, the real kind, when they are good can stay with you for a very long time. A well-written story, be it fiction or non-fiction can have a long lastig impact and even an emotional connection that I have personally never experienced with anything 'online'. If you don't read books, you are missing out. Even only 1 or 2 books a year…

> Online content is often low-quality, highly commercial in nature and very ephemeral. One question I ask myself when consuming online content is "would I pay any money for this". Generally the answer is no, the quality isn't there where I'd pay even a small amount of money. If I ask that same question with some high quality books the answer is that I would pay for it. I'm not taking a stand on if people should pay f…

I like this. This is a great way of looking at low-effort online (or offline) drivel. Thanks for that.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#289

Post by deyouz »

smacktoward wrote: post #5

> I have thousands of non-fiction (mostly self-improvement) books in my reading list “An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its ‘self-help’ section: ‘For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.’” — Roger Ebert ( https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/larger-than-life-1996 )

Can you (or someone else) recommend me some great books about philosophy, history and science? I feel like I haven't read many books from these sections and I'd like to start doing that.

Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#290

Post by smacktoward »

deyouz wrote: post #289
smacktoward wrote: post #5

> I have thousands of non-fiction (mostly self-improvement) books in my reading list “An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its ‘self-help’ section: ‘For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.’” — Roger Ebert ( https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/larger-than-life-1996 )

Can you (or someone else) recommend me some great books about philosophy, history and science? I feel like I haven't read many books from these sections and I'd like to start doing that. Thank you!

To get you started, I’ll recommend you one book that checks all three boxes at once: Louis Menand’s magisterial The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28202).

Enjoy :-D

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