Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

First page of the website or the first page of the book?

Either way, you should spend more time reading it. Consider it science fiction if it bothers you.

"The origin of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind" is also mind blowing. Neither is foolproof, and both are potentially crackpot -- but if should read a crackpot book to broaden your horizons. Just consider it scifi instead of science.

Many non-arabic Muslims have not read the Koran, at least not most of it. There are a couple of reasons for this:

Most importantly, translations of Koran are not equated to the real thing, i.e. a Koran in English is not the Koran, it's only a translation. This has historically been a handicap for the "common people" to have access to the book. This situation was also backed by the religious elite (although Islam lacks a religious caste like Christianity, there are still hodjas, etc. who are the ones who interpret the writings). Remember that the Enlightenment in Europe was due in some part to the wide access to the Bible in the vernacular languages, e.g. the King James' version.

Another reason is that, for devout Muslims, there are a set of rules that must be obeyed to touch the Koran, one has to be clean. So (theoretically) you can't just grab it, lean back on the couch and read it. In houses it is not placed with other books on the shelf but usually in a separate cloth cover, above all books. This reverence for it has the paradoxical effect of curtailing access to its content.

Someone once said that 100s of thousands of books have been written to try to express the inexpressible, but only 1 has succeeded... The Book of Mirdad.

> Logic is immaturity weaving its nets of gossamer wherewith it aims to catch the behemoth of knowledge. Logic is a crutch for the cripple; but a burden for the swift of foot; and a greater burden for the winged.

Most people will read two pages of this book and hand it back. But that's their failure, not the books'.

If you read the above quote, and don't get its true meaning, don't get this book, it will read as pure nonsense.

The true meaning is that we (the cripple, all of us) use logic (a tool, the crutch) to help us (which is good), but at some point in time (after you've mastered logic) you reach an understand that there is no right or wrong, no point in progress or success, that the universe does not care about any of this, and that logic now holds you back (from enlightenment).

Using logic, you can be a scholar, even a philosopher, but you'll never reach enlightenment.

Now watch the truly crippled downvote this away.

Um, that's a) not a response to the article I provided, b) focuses on a single inconclusive paper while completely ignoring the other 42 papers cited by Guyanet.

I agree that by itself, the one paper Taubes focuses on does not prove all that much. So what?

Taubes is using rhetorical tricks - in this case, throwing words at the reader, confusing the issue, and declaring victory, in an effort to prevent fanboys from catching onto him. It'll probably work, he'll probably make millions more selling books. Doesn't make him any less the charlatan.

All correct. I would also add that I (along with many other non-Arab muslims) had read the Koran at a very young age in Arabic phonetically without understanding what it means. As far as my parents (and our sunday school teachers) were concerned, it was just as good. It wasn't until later that I tracked down a translation.