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Ask HN: Are books worth it?

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Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#321

Post by jhedwards »

You're definitely missing out. Some of the most challenging intellectual experiences of my life have been obtained from books. Rarely, if ever, does a digital media experience come close.

Take one for example: _The Logic of Life_ by Francois Jacob. This book gives a detailed account of the history of biology as a discipline and shows how change occurs as a result of feedback between human concepts (our understanding of what life is) on the one hand and concrete techniques (the technology used to investigate living systems) on the other. Jacob has an incredibly detailed knowledge of this field and, if you read his book, you are invited on an fantastic journey that relatively few people get to experience.

And that's just one book...

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#323

Post by lol666 »

omgs... just read about what books do to your brain... and you will know, its not about getting short notes, its about letting your mind experience a deep and beautiful journey - world and stories is not just about facts and summarizations :) if ur not sure where to start pick some fantasy or sci fi or adventure and let your neurons build up

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#324

Post by zzo38computer »

I like to read many books; I think it is good. When I am not working on computer, I can read a book. This can be sometimes in my own home, or sometimes in library, etc. Sometimes I will have something on the computer but would prefer a book.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#325

Post by WalterBright »

nickpp wrote: post #271
WalterBright wrote: post #193

About 95% of books are essentially trash. But the the other 5% is very worth reading. What books offer is a deep dive into a subject your interested in without distractions, while online content is optimized for short attention span and serving ads. For example, you can spend an hour watching a documentary on the battle of Stalingrad. Or, you can spend an hour reading Beevor's "Stalingrad" and learn 50 times as much,…

Hey Walter, I'd love some more book recommendations from you. Maybe some sort of favorite lists even? Thanks!

I really should do a list, but here's a few more:

"Nothing Like It In The World" Stephen Ambrose The men who built the transcontinental railroad 1863-1869

"The Pity of War" Niall Ferguson Explaining World War 1

"Steve Jobs" Walter Isaacson

"The Wright Brothers as Engineers" Quentin Wald

"With the Old Breed" Eugene Sledge

"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" Richard Feynman

"Small Wonder" Walter Nelson The amazing story of the Volkswagen Beetle.

"Masters of Doom" David Kushner

"Reach for the Sky" Paul Brickhill

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#326

Post by Volrath89 »

habosa wrote: post #87

Yes. I have always loved books. I read about 30-40 a year, mostly fiction with a few non-fiction thrown in. Novels are the closest thing I know to a form of magic. A good author can completely encode an entire world full of people on 300 pages of black and white text. And when they do it well, it literally never expires. I read mostly books from the last 50 years but I think the best example of a book as magic is Don…

I've always wondered how non-spanish or even non latin american people can enjoy García Márquez. His books display great usage of the language and are full of historic references. I personally enjoyed his work after having read a lot of other books (expanding my vocabulary) and only after learning colombian history and not before

PD: Before becoming a nobel laureate writer, he worked as a journalist for a newspaper. In my university we studied one of his articles in depth, as they were beautifully written.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#328

Post by ping_pong »

I'm almost 50. The last fiction book I read was Frankenstein in 1995. I haven't read a fiction book since then because it feels like a waste of time for me, personally. I do read comic books and watch movies.

I have however read a few non-fictional books from Michael Lewis, like Moneyball, Blind Side, Big Short, etc. Less than 5, though. I've read parts of hundreds of computer books for work and for education.

Do what feels natural to you. I like reading computer books rather than blog posts but it depends on how thorough the article is. I find a lot of blog posts to not be thorough enough to answer my questions, and many books are better for what I'm looking for. Others may feel differently, and it's all personal preference.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#329

Post by abnry »

crazypython wrote: post #151
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…

I would like to add something: Some books are written to get sold too. Some books in self-help and business fall into this category, most of them lose money, but a few make it out. Sometimes publishers publish trash when they know it, just because it's a book doesn't mean it's a good one.

A few years ago I realized something: I am extremely skeptical of watching and buying into a random documentary but almost unquestioningly am willing to pick up a book.

There are millions of published books out there and a lot of them are junk.

Re: Ask HN: Are books worth it?

#330

Post by Barrin92 »

dmos62 wrote: post #245
Barrin92 wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Honestly, you're lucky if the only personal problems you have can be solved by philosophy, literature, history and science. most problems in your life can't be solved by reading a book, period. Self-help or otherwise. The first lie of self-help books is that they're actually 'helping' you in any meaningful sense of the word. Digging yourself out of bad situations takes time and there is very little magic involved, a…

Your last sentence is distasteful on so many levels. If you think a person is lying or can't be trusted to use the term "crippling depression" accurately, just say so. To paraphrase a sibling comment, you sound like a self-help guru yourself, albeit a spiteful one. You deride others' solutions and offer up your own: hard magic-less work. Hard work is as much of a racket as easy magic.

If you read my post carefully again you'll notice that I stress that sometimes there is no solution at all. I'm not a guru of any kind, because my entire point was that some sort of messianic figure helping you with your problems does not exist and that people should not put their trust into some sort of spiritual self-help authority figure, including me.

And I'm not saying that hard work is a silver bullet because it's not a guarantee for anything, but dedicating yourself to something is good in and of itself, and doesn't rely on seminars, books, arcane knowledge or anything else. It's the opposite of a racket because there is no racketeer.

And my last sentence was not distasteful at all. Depression is generally not solved by one-off sessions with life-coaches. It might for some peculiar reason be the experience of one individual, but that is not how depression works, you're free to consult the literature or talk to a bunch of people who suffer from it.

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