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Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

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Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#141

Post by 0x7E3 »

cercatrova wrote: post #116

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata It teaches Latin in a very cool way, where the entire book is written in Latin but it starts off with simple sentences anyone with a Romance language background can understand, before diving into deeper sentences, all while being illustrated so one can still follow the plot if they're stuck. It contrasts with very dense Latin books that focus on grammar and spelling, which often bore s…

It seems that people who recommend LLSI rarely mention the accompanying workbooks. Do you feel like they are a good value add, or is Famillia Romana strong enough on its own?

Consider the perspective someone who does not know anything about this book previous to reading your comment. Searching Amazon for Hans H. Ørberg is not likely to make it clear which book (or books) you are actually recommending.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#142

Post by rajansaini »

I am surprised that Algorithms to Live By has not been mentioned. (Disclaimer: I am still reading it.) That book is both accessible and practical for any layman. However, just enough hints at variations of the discussed algorithms are given that even a non-technical reader might be motivated to dive further into theoretical CS and read a paper or two.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#143

Post by niyikiza »

cl42 wrote: post #36

"Seeing Like a State" by James C. Scott I started my career in international development, and the book above provides a dozen case studies on states using scientific management, stats, etc. to try and control their growth/populations/economies and failing miserably. It is a beautiful book in that it illustrates how difficult it is to actually manage a country and economy well, especially if you are trying to complete…

I love the book. I was introduced to it by a brilliant review[0] by Scott Alexander.

[0] https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/03/16/book-review-seeing-lik...

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#144

Post by porknubbins »

bennysomething wrote: post #54
porknubbins wrote: post #6

Code by Charles Petzold then doing Nand to Tetris has given me an abiding (though amateur) fascination with computer architecture, which lead to building a 6502 machine and reading about lots of other architectures.

I went through the nand book too,it's amazing. What do you mean exactly by building a 6502 machine? In real hardware? You bought a 6502 and created a whole computer from other bits?

Yes in real hardware, though its a breadboard computer where the io is push buttons and an led array. So more a computer in the 70s hobbyist sense. I learned from Ben Eater’s youtube videos which are a good followup to nand to tetris.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#147

Post by handojin »

Discipline and Punish (Michel Foucault)

Not my field of study or existence, but what happened in a bare hundred years to make public execution private, and prisons into factories into schools?

It's a great book, you should read it.

The Republic (Plato)

How do you get someone to listen to you? (first answer: threaten them with violence). "Footnotes to" etc.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#148

Post by cercatrova »

0x7E3 wrote: post #141
cercatrova wrote: post #116

Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata It teaches Latin in a very cool way, where the entire book is written in Latin but it starts off with simple sentences anyone with a Romance language background can understand, before diving into deeper sentences, all while being illustrated so one can still follow the plot if they're stuck. It contrasts with very dense Latin books that focus on grammar and spelling, which often bore s…

It seems that people who recommend LLSI rarely mention the accompanying workbooks. Do you feel like they are a good value add, or is Famillia Romana strong enough on its own? Consider the perspective someone who does not know anything about this book previous to reading your comment. Searching Amazon for Hans H. Ørberg is not likely to make it clear which book (or books) you are actually recommending.

LLPSI Pars I, Familia Romana

LLPSI Pars II, Roma Aeterna

These are the two main books. Each has companion books such as exercise books and teachers' guides. After these two, you should be able to read Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, but Ørberg also has other books.

As for whether the workbooks are worth it, I never used them, but then again I only read the main book for leisure, not in an academic setting or for serious study. If you're in the latter, then I'm sure the workbooks would help.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#149

Post by Agamus »

nanomonkey wrote: post #131

On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee, is perhaps one of the more interesting books on food science that is not a cook book. It's not something that you would read straight through, but great none the less. Modernist Cuisine by Nathan Myhrvold is perhaps the most beautiful group of cook books, although quite pricey. Professional Goldsmithing by Alan Revere is hands down one of the best books on jewelry fabrication in p…

As a former chef with 33 restaurants of experience and a lifelong passion for science, I can say that if you have an interest in "the science and lore of the kitchen" (subtitle), you must own McGee's On Food and Cooking.

Re: Ask HN: Which book can attract anyone towards your field of study?

#150

Post by tinco »

jaqalopes wrote: post #129

"The Name of the Wind" by Pat Rothfuss. (I'm a fantasy fiction writer)

I've read (or listened to) this book maybe five times. Maybe for a bit of context for someone who's not that into fantasy fiction. The crazy thing about it is that is the basic story is the most standard wizard book ever. It borrows more than a little bit from the classic Wizard of Earthsea for example.

But Rothfuss just takes every one of those tropes and wires them together into absolute riveting story telling. He basically perfects the genre.

If it takes another 5 years for the last book to be released, I might just take up fantasy writing myself and come up with an ending for it, I guess it invites the reader into the field that way..

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