'The Book' by Alan Watts
I wasn't particularly impressed with this one. He came off as very preachy. Watts is an entertaining guy, however. Definitely the pill I needed at one point of my life.
Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
231–240 of 365 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#232I've gifted copies of Six Easy Pieces [0] to numerous people now, it's the only book I can say that for. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5553.Six_Easy_Pieces
Would you recommend his lectures on computation too?
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#233The Bible - as an original source of all types of stories and narratives you’ll find in 99% of all fiction books and movies. New Testament — as an original source of most of moral principles and ideas modern european civilization is based upon (also fundamental stories and narratives).
The Bible isn't really the source of any narrative archetype, it's recycling stuff that's been around the Middle East for thousands of years before the Iron Age.
The Old Testament is really to be credited with theological innovation. By the time Rome came around, Jews stood out extremely in the religious landscape.
I won't even get into the New Testament. Jesus brings a lot of radical ideas, but he's starting from ideas of the Pharisees and the Zealots. And that's not accounting for the fact that the interpretative framework that makes our entire understanding and perception of the New Testament is entirely Greek, all the other currents of Early Christianity have disappeared.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#234Everyone should read a platonic dialogue. Plato's Republic in particular due to its influence on western thought. Although some of the ideas may seem absurd from our modern point of view, it's still thought provoking and a good example of old school philosophy. Also, Plato casually outlines why our current system of government is doomed to fail...which is probably pretty important to understand.
The Republic is arguably more of a metaphor for the well-ordered mind, an analogy for his notion of a tripartite soul, much more than an earnest attempt at constructing a schematic for a utopian society. I do agree more people should read a few early Platonic dialogues because he teaches you to question things. I think, beyond anything else, that is what he wanted to teach. A lot of people call themselves skeptics to…
Interesting theory. It does appear to be incredibly naive at times when taken literally. Although there are some rather matter of fact conversations about the progression of political regimes to the point of tyranny, i.e., the post-democratic degenerate phase... which reads as a prophesy to me personally in these times.
Totally agree with your other statement.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
It does when those books were purposely excluded because the author was female. It also matters a lot when one of the books excluded was written by the person who was actually closest to Jesus too. Thus her accounts should surely matter at least as much as the mens (probably more so in reality). The New Testament was collated in an era when organised religion was used as a tool for man to retain control. To that end,…
> It does when those books were purposely excluded because the author was female. It also matters a lot when one of the books excluded was written by the person who was actually closest to Jesus too. Which book was this? How do we know about it, and have you read it?
Background as to why Mary Magdalenes account is so important when discussing Jesus and the New Testament. Also shows the tension and resentment some apparently had towards her.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Magdalene
Gospel of Mary Magdalene is a book that is believed to be an account of her albeit not directly written by her. Though it should be noted that there are some disagreements about whether other books from the New Testament were actually written by their respective disciples either.
https://www.compellingtruth.org/gospel-of-Mary-Magdalene.htm...
This last link helps illustrate how the Bible is collated by man to fit a narrative defined by man. What isn’t explained in that article though is how religion was used to control a populous, often even used as a legal system. Which should cast scepticism about the motives behind the various rewrites and decisions behind what gets included and what doesn’t.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#236I really liked Epictetus' Discourses. He has a very sort of no-nonsense Dr House vibe going with his bum leg and constant criticism of his pupils. A lot less full of shit than some other Roman Stoics. Maybe not everyone's jam, but I found the tools it provides for dealing with shitty situations highly useful.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a non-religious myself, I can't understand how you found the willpower to read the Bible and even want to read it again. I tried reading some chapters and was either bored to death or couldn't understand the text because of how badly it is translated/written.
Religious myself. Agree that having a modern translation can make a great difference in readability. I've read parts of the King James translation, and the language makes it a though read. Personally I enjoy this translation: https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/study-bible/books/ I read it in Dutch, but it's available in multiple languages.
You are right KJV isn't easy understandable ... the NWT is easy to read
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#238Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
> you will never understand the later works fully without having read some of the Bible Generations of kids have grown up understanding stories just fine without having read the Bible.
A huge amount of language in the western world is based around biblical stories, and you need to know dozens of them to understand common idioms and metaphors. From the snake in the garden of Eden to being the David to someone's Goliath, to being a good Samaritan, to camels going through the eye of a needle (and here's dozens more https://city.org.nz/blog/eo-bible-20181101 ). Beyond that, especially in English, the K…
I’m not disputing the historical significance of the Bible. I’m disputing the need to learn it to understand modern literature. And again I reference that generations of kids have managed just fine without reading the Bible.
It is entirely possible to explain as phrase without reading its original source material.
To give another example of this: Star Trek does exactly this with Picard and others referencing Moby Dick. I understand exactly what that dialogue is about and yet I’ve never read that specific book.
Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Republic is arguably more of a metaphor for the well-ordered mind, an analogy for his notion of a tripartite soul, much more than an earnest attempt at constructing a schematic for a utopian society. I do agree more people should read a few early Platonic dialogues because he teaches you to question things. I think, beyond anything else, that is what he wanted to teach. A lot of people call themselves skeptics to…
Interesting theory. It does appear to be incredibly naive at times when taken literally. Although there are some rather matter of fact conversations about the progression of political regimes to the point of tyranny, i.e., the post-democratic degenerate phase... which reads as a prophesy to me personally in these times. Totally agree with your other statement.
Additionally, the society he's attempting to explore is a society in which justice is the single overriding principle. I think if there is anything to take away from that, it's that such a society maybe isn't so great.
His critique of democracy does absolutely have a few good points. A lot of people get really mad when they see it, but I don't think that is at all constructive. If democracy is a good idea, it must stand on its own legs. We can't counter its criticism with what it promises to deliver, but only the reality of what it delivers. Denying or attempting to conceal its problems makes addressing them that much harder, and which problems are easier to fix after having festered for a long time?
At the same time, I think the very Athenian democracy he criticized solved many of our problems today. Athenian officials had real skin in the game in a way ours do not. They risked ostracism (10 years of exile) if they misbehaved.