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The Best Books I Read in 2013

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Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#41

Post by gnaritas »

baby wrote: post #7
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

Still, fiction is fiction. It's like all those questions : would you rather do this, or live all your life with this. They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination. Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life. e.g. Are you gonna learn…

You need to read better fiction. Look around you, speculative science fiction is what inspired the world you live in; it created this reality. You have global communications via satellite because Author C Clark wrote a piece of fiction that sprung the idea upon the world. Fiction generates ideas, to think that somehow doesn't matter because it hasn't happened yet is massively missing the point.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#42

Post by auctiontheory »

Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

I was shocked by that quote from someone in such a position of power and influence. As kids we are taught that "non-fiction" is "true" and that "fiction" is "made-up stories" but I would hope that most of us, as we get through life, eventually figure out that nether of those statements is accurate.

Camus said it best: 'Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.'

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#43

Post by auctiontheory »

baby wrote: post #7
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

Still, fiction is fiction. It's like all those questions : would you rather do this, or live all your life with this. They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination. Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life. e.g. Are you gonna learn…

Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

Well, if you are straight guy, you could learn a lot (everything) about what women want by carefully reading the romance novels they read.

There's also this embedded assumption in your statement and in BG's that non-fiction tells some sort of factual truth about "real life." Negatory.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#44

Post by maxerickson »

dylanz wrote: post #37

I just took a road trip and looked at one of Bill Gates previous favorite books list, and picked "Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012". I've always wanted to know more about Mr. Buffet, so I thought this would be a great choice. I almost drove off the road listening to him talking about bonds vs stocks and percentages. It was interesting, but definitely not a road trip book. That…

With "The Baroque Cycle", you can combine the experiences.

(I'm mostly kidding, I enjoyed it, but some parts do go on)

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#45

Post by Jun8 »

baby wrote: post #7
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

Still, fiction is fiction. It's like all those questions : would you rather do this, or live all your life with this. They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination. Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life. e.g. Are you gonna learn…

In one sense this is true, non-fiction works are much richer in factoids; conversely, however, fiction is richer in certain other facts:

   It is difficult
    to get the news from poems
		yet men die miserably every day
				for lack
    of what is found there.
This doesn't mean that non-fiction works cannot pertain to the reader/viewer that kind of knowledge, e.g. the iconic image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc burn by napalm in Vietnam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc) "speaks volumes" as they say.

As for dating, here's some good advice (assuming you're a man): grab a copy or Pride and Prejudice and read it to get a grasp of the female psyche. And if you don't read it at least carry it around where she will see.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#46

Post by gbog »

jmduke wrote: post #9
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

My mantra: Non-fiction teaches you about the world. Fiction teaches you about yourself.

Mine:

Good books teach you about the world and about yourself.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#48

Post by ashearer »

sho_hn wrote: post #17
Jun8 wrote: post #6

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works." Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course de…

Reading fiction tends to be the best way to train the habit of seeing the world through someone else's eyes, and a little empathy goes a long way in many life situations indeed.

There's an associated danger with fiction: though it reflects how the author sees the world, it may not match how the world really is. Fiction can intentionally or unintentionally invite readers to draw universal lessons which are misleading.

I'd even suggest that some authors, particularly those with strong political views, may be motivated to write fiction in order to give support to their own ideas. It's a blank canvas onto which to project an idealized world, and to fulfill wishes. (If that's the case, it can serve as a mildly negative Bayesian signal about whether the ideas are really true. If there were so many real-world examples illustrating the beliefs, why would the author be moved to write fiction to promote them?)

Apart from politics, plots are more interesting when they're surprising, but almost by definition, surprising plots are less likely to be generalizable to the world.

(Of course, non-fiction can really be fiction in disguise, but at least non-fiction can be fact-checked. To cite a recent Hollywood example, wherever the movie Argo is suspenseful, it's simply made up. Minor spoiler: If you drew a lesson about how going directly against the instructions of both the President and your CIA boss can be a useful tool to cause your boss to suddenly rally around you and later commend your success, you would be gravely misled. Interesting plots thrive on such unrealistic conflict.)

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#49

Post by gbog »

Mine:

- Jules Michelet, History of France (pg suggested somewhere to read books about history. I now fully agree, it is a way to get the best possible understanding of today's world. As much as we have to understand how a cell has grown from nothing to its current state to really understand what it is, we also have to understand how a country has been built in the long history to understand it's current issues)

- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (read it again).

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#50

Post by MichaelGG »

I see he mentioned Catcher in the Rye. I read it after hearing so many people say how it was such an influential book for them. John Lennon was even killed by a guy supposedly inspired by this book, and it's been often banned (some of the scenes might be unsuitable for a conservative school, I suppose).

Can any technical-types here explain if they found it particularly impressive? It's well written but I didn't think it very notable. Do I need to read it with a specific mindset?

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