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Five Books: The best books on everything

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Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#51

Post by Blackstrat »

anguswithgusto wrote: post #19
activitypea wrote: post #2

I've been looking for something like this, hopefully other users can weigh in if the curation is any good.

Curation is solid. Depends on who they pick as the subject matter expert, but for example, their Shakespeare biography recommendations are themselves from one of the best living Shakespeare biographers. [1] I find "Five Books" picks better than Amazon recommendations, and faster than Google/Reddit searches. Example: search "wine book" on Amazon and it's all wine textbooks and pretty-but-vapid coffee table books. Mean…

Personally, I think Amazon’s recommendation quality has declined precipitously over the last year or so. I find the way they do the recommendations page now to be totally worthless. Often, more than half the books recommended are different formats of books I’ve already purchased from them. The old format, by genre etc., was much more usable. Goodreads does a better job, but it’s far from perfect, e.g., mystery recommendations under science, etc. In reality, I frequently get better recommendations by searching books on Hacker News.

Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#52

Post by ofalkaed »

budafish wrote: post #44
ofalkaed wrote: post #26

When ever I am getting into a new topic I try to start with OUP's Very Short Introduction series [0]. They generally do not give good understanding but they orient you in the field and provide extensive bibliographies along with the knowledge required to navigate that bibliography and select the sources which will give you the information you desire instead of what someone else thinks you want. Failing that I just go…

Thank you for this. I had no idea this series existed! It's exactly the level of info I want when picking up a new topic! And bonus is my local library stocks many of them!

They are an invaluable resource just don't get too caught up in trying to understand everything they present, they are introductions and about giving you the tools needed to pursue the study of the field, not about giving you a full education. They only take a night or two to read and the bibliographies are within the scope of the introduction they provide, they don't load you down with books that are beyond the knowledge of the sort who would be reading such a book.

Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#53

Post by praxulus »

leto_ii wrote: post #6

I find this to be simplistic pop intelectual nonsense. This is not how to learn anything. It's way more meaningful to understand and pursue your own actual interests than to humble brag by ticking the "correct" readings. Not to mention that talking about the best anything is basically meaningless, except for very tightly constrained achievements (e.g. we can talk about the best sprinter, but who's the best philosophe…

The first category in the "education" section is a list of the five best novels set in boarding schools. I don't think they're suggesting that reading those books will make you an expert on how to operate/regulate/attend a boarding school.

It's just a bunch of lists of good books for people looking for something to read, arranged by subject. There's nothing wrong with that.

Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#54

Post by teh_klev »

TedDoesntTalk wrote: post #14

For sci-fi, they recommend the Arthur Clark award books. The first 2022 title I clicked is summarized like this on Amazon: “Part sci-fi, fantasy, and Afro-futurism but not squarely one or the other, A River Called Time…” What is “Afro-futurism”?

Afro-futurism isn't a new thing. It's represented by musical oeuvres such as Sun Ra (Space is the place) to writings, oddly as a white author, by Alastair Reynolds in the "Poseidon's Children Universe" (where elephants make it into space).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrofuturism

Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#57

Post by zeroonetwothree »

pkd wrote: post #50
deevus wrote: post #33

I was recently recommended the sci-fi space opera "A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge. That was an absolute blast to read. If you're into computer science, you'll really dig it. There is a summary with no spoilers at the start of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5jTNUSIR18

The thing I found amazing when I found Verner Vinge was that there were still sci-fi authors of his calibre that I had never heard of, given I have been reading sci-fi since I was 8. There are more things in this world etc etc. A Fire Upon The Deep belongs on any sci-fi cannon and is probably top 10.

I’m still looking for the next such author. Sadly I think I have expired the list since I haven’t found any new great ones in the past six years. I’ve read pretty much all the classics though.

Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#59

Post by fastball »

epgui wrote: post #41
leto_ii wrote: post #6

I find this to be simplistic pop intelectual nonsense. This is not how to learn anything. It's way more meaningful to understand and pursue your own actual interests than to humble brag by ticking the "correct" readings. Not to mention that talking about the best anything is basically meaningless, except for very tightly constrained achievements (e.g. we can talk about the best sprinter, but who's the best philosophe…

Agreed, the first thing I did was look at the categories in which I can argue I have expertise... And the five recommended books in each of these is grade 10 level pop-science at best.

Which categories are those?

Re: Five Books: The best books on everything

#60

Post by the__alchemist »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #57
pkd wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing I found amazing when I found Verner Vinge was that there were still sci-fi authors of his calibre that I had never heard of, given I have been reading sci-fi since I was 8. There are more things in this world etc etc. A Fire Upon The Deep belongs on any sci-fi cannon and is probably top 10.

I’m still looking for the next such author. Sadly I think I have expired the list since I haven’t found any new great ones in the past six years. I’ve read pretty much all the classics though.

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time trilogy is in that window, and it's fantastic. They might have been a one-off; his Shards of Earth book is not on its level.
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