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Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

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Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#261

Post by kypro »

The Chimp Paradox is probably my #1 general book recommendation because I think we would all be better off if we could better identify and manage our irrational impulses. It's one of those books that can genuinely improve almost every aspect of your life if you take it onboard. It's helped me with countless things in life, from sticking to diets and just being a more reasonable person generally.

There is also a book by the same author called, "My Hidden Chimp" which I believe is a child-friendly version of the The Chimp Paradox. I've not read it myself, but my girlfriend teaches at a primary school where the kids are reading it at the moment. She seems to think highly of it so that might be a good alternative for younger audiences.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#262

Post by orange8 »

laumars wrote: post #256
orange8 wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You post as if the only argument I made was about the gender of the authors but that’s not the case. In an online forum, people will usually only respond to things they strongly agree or disagree with. I just strongly disagreed with the idea that a book should not be read because of the gender of its author.

I got that but you’re being disingenuous to my point by distilling it down to the gender of the author. I’d never suggest one should read or not read a book because of the gender of the author. My point was that the sincerity and authenticity of the Nee Testament is comprised because they withheld accounts. Thus if you were to choose not to read it, it wouldn’t be because the authors were male, it would be because it…

> Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out.

> My point was that the sincerity and authenticity of the Nee Testament is comprised because they withheld accounts.

You spoke only of one withheld account, that of Mary, and you said it was because of her gender.

And when you say it lacks authenticity, is it because it's a mans account? Meaning a mans account cannot be authentic in its own right.. it has to be balanced by someone else's account? Is this a court of law where two people (genders in your case) are fighting for I don't know what and both sides have to present their case to the jury/readers? Is this the test for authenticity.. that a female point of view must be included for it to be real?

> So while you’re free to disagree with me, please at least disagree with the actual argument I’ve made rather than creating these straw man arguments that even I wouldn’t agree with.

You are still saying the same thing: the bible is fake/"not authentic" because it was written by men.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#263

Post by laumars »

orange8 wrote: post #159
guerrilla wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's a valid political complaint considering the role of the book in the world but I don't think it's a valid literary complaint because men (and groups of men) write some books and women (and groups of women) write other books and neither are bad for the reason that they are written by only one gender. If the latter were true, then all books written by groups of women are also bad, which is absurd.

My point exactly. I don't think politics has any place in this discussion. The request was for good book recommendations for everyone , not good book recommendations for republicans, christians, feminists etc

The issue here is you’ve focused on the political context and not on the actual reason I disagreed with the recommendation, which was:

1. It’s not authentic for a plethora of reasons (you disagree on that point, which is fine)

2. Even treating it’s stories as just stories, they can differ a lot from one translation to another. Even when you look at different versions of modern stories, at least the basic premise remains roughly the same. Some of the translations of the Bible change key events in hugely significant ways. Which then begs the question, which version of the Bible should one read?

3. It’s also just not well written by modern standards.

It’s fine to disagree with some of the political context but you’re being disingenuous to my original post by distilling it down to an argument about gender and politics.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#264

Post by Brajeshwar »

throwaway7464 wrote: post #207
Brajeshwar wrote: post #133

I decided to learn/understand why Religion is the center-stage for almost every event that happens to humanity. This year, I’m planning to read the books, at least, of the top 5 religions of the world. Read Bhagavad Gita[1], had read the Bible[2] in hotel stays but will read it again, and the Quran[3] is waiting in the book-shelf. No, not religious at all; in fact, very far from it. Some time back, someone did a nice…

Bhagavad Gita. Sure why not. India does not have enough problems. Its still not recovered from the caste system. Why not bring the strict version and fuck it up like the pre British era. And please do not spread the lies on British for the caste system. The varna system(caste system) is the basis of the vedas(hindu religous book). For those who wants to know what the caste system is, read this essay by an scientist a…

My dear friend, throwaway-account-created-just-to-comment, I have also read Mein Kampf[1] a few times. Will you now, assume, I trying to be a Nazi or practice anything in that quadrant.

I'm reading up on religion, so I can understand or at-least try to understand, why some people are so tangentially religious that they will flip and take sides and have to be part of something to defend their thoughts.

Religion or beliefs are weird and many a people tend to get sucked in so bad, they neither see logic nor reasoning to try to be see the various sides/perspectives and what-ifs.

Now, I know why my wife always warned me before going to parties and social gatherings, "Do not explain topics to people even if they are wrong and you are right." No wonder, she is the go-to person whom everyone wants to tell their fun/sob/love stories but she never pass on any of the messages or talks about anyone to another. ;-)

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mein_Kampf

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#265

Post by yesenadam »

xunn0026 wrote: post #201

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

I think you have to read the sequel Lila too, as it explains so much that the first book merely hints at, particularly all about Quality, which it explains the structure of in detail...and it makes perfect sense. There's less crazy, more anthropology. I don't know which book I like more.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#266

Post by tcmb »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #231
tcmb wrote: post #11

'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.

He used to be an anglican priest, so no wonder he's coming off as preachy. :) By abandoning the anglican church and incorporating eastern religion and philosophy, he was able to teach much broader and also more suitable for his audience in the 1960s (and onward).

Much of what he says is very inspiring but he also tends to over-generalize in order to make his point salient. It should be reflected upon and taken with a healthy grain of salt.

My experience was similar to yours, I think. The book opened my perspective on how to think about myself and the world around me, and it was a stepping stone towards the original sources of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#267

Post by laumars »

orange8 wrote: post #262
laumars wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got that but you’re being disingenuous to my point by distilling it down to the gender of the author. I’d never suggest one should read or not read a book because of the gender of the author. My point was that the sincerity and authenticity of the Nee Testament is comprised because they withheld accounts. Thus if you were to choose not to read it, it wouldn’t be because the authors were male, it would be because it…

> Then there are issues about how it was written by man, in the literal sense. Female testaments were left out. > My point was that the sincerity and authenticity of the Nee Testament is comprised because they withheld accounts. You spoke only of one withheld account, that of Mary, and you said it was because of her gender. And when you say it lacks authenticity, is it because it's a mans account? Meaning a mans acco…

> You spoke only of one withheld account, that of Mary, and you said it was because of her gender.

Yes, and I explained why I did in the post above

> And when you say it lacks authenticity, is it because it's a mans account? Meaning a mans account cannot be authentic in its own right..

Fuck me this is getting repetitive.

Let’s just forget all mention of gender because my points stand up without that context. The points being the Bible lacks the accounts from those closest to Jesus and his teachings. And let’s just say, for the context of our discussion, the reasons for that omission is a historical curiosity but mostly irrelevant to this conversation.

Now you can argue whether missing texts affects the authenticity or not. And whether that even matters for a recommendation. At least if we disagree on that, we’re arguing the same topic. :)

> You are still saying the same thing: the bible is fake/"not authentic" because it was written by men.

I don’t really know why you’ve got fixated about gender nor why you find it so offensive that was even mentioned in the first place. I wasn’t trying to undermine the feelings of any alpha males on here, I was just adding some background for anyone who might have been interested.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#268

Post by quietbritishjim »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #191
freeksanders wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

As a bit of an experiment (/procrastination) I randomly clicked through until I arrived at some text. I ended up Judges 19, which is a bizarre story of a concubine (*) that cheats, returns to her parents, then her husband (after a four month delay) goes and finds her there. There's an odd narrative detour where the father in law continues to pressure the husband to stay, but eventually he leaves. While stopped at a s…

By the way: (would be an edit but it's too late)

This is not meant to imply any particular judgement on the bible in general or even this particular story. I just found myself on a journey that seemed to me to be very odd, and thought I would share in case others found it interesting.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#269

Post by orange8 »

laumars wrote: post #259
orange8 wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also shows the tension and resentment some apparently had towards her. This is life. There will always be tensions, envy, politics and resentment whenever people come together, regardless of gender. Jesus was betrayed by one of his very own disciples after-all. So you say you've read the whole bible, but have you read the gospel of Mary Magdalene which you consider would "redeem" the bible by? Why, haven't you read…

> This is life. There will always be tensions, envy, politics and resentment whenever people come together, regardless of gender. Jesus was betrayed by one of his very own disciples after-all. Clearly. But that’s an irrelevant truism when the point is that the accounts of the individual who was most familiar with Jesus’s teachings wasn’t included. Honestly, the reason they weren’t included isn’t even relevant when th…

If you have read the gospel of Mary, why don't you tell us more about your take on in? How does it differ from the other male written accounts? What in your opinion makes it more authentic? What does it talk about that the others don't? Please give us something more details that the generic "not authentic" refrain.

> It’s not that impressive of a feat.

Indeed. If you don't remember the books in the bible that give a females account despite saying that's what the bible lacks, then reading the whole book isn't that impressive at all. It's also really interesting how you said that it is "harder to grok than Shakespeare", then turn around and say that reading the whole book isn't that impressive anyways ..

> My point is that those collating it are not the authors.

There is actually a whole profession that revolves around modifying the work of the original author. They are called "book editors". If I want to hear someones pure, pristine, unedited account, I'll have a face to face conversation with them. Not read their books.

Re: Ask HN: What is one book you would recommend everyone to read?

#270

Post by fsloth »

biren34 wrote: post #114

Okay at the risk of being offensive, all the comments before mine are made by overly intellectual fools. I'm not usually so insulting--but as a father of two, if my 3 year old and 1.5 year old could only read one book, it would have to be "Oh, the places you'll go" by Dr. Suess. Sorry to stomp on Das Kapital and its ilk, but if you get only one book, I can't imagine a better first message to convey than the endless p…

I agree kids should be read books that open their minds, that are written for the young mind.

For international audiences I would perhaps suggest books with a large number of translated languages as kids usually prefer to be read in a language they speak. One such "universal" book could be "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. For me it's magical at every age you read it.

At least in my native language (Finnish) Seuss is completely untranslated.

Hence in general, for this topic, "english books for adults" is maybe the safer categorization as I presume the intended audience is happy reading text in english, even though their kids don't speak english.

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