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The Best Books I Read in 2013

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Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#121

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

evacuationdrill wrote: post #118
Tyrannosaurs wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But fiction comes with a warning, specifically that it is fiction. You can fact check non-fiction but fiction is completely open about the fact that you should consider what it's saying to be suspect - the default position on it is "this is made up". The danger is - and Argo is one example but there are far, far worse (cough Dan Brown cough) - where you get fiction "based on true events". There are some lovely fictio…

How far was Argo from the facts?

There's a page or two on Wikipedia about it:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argo_(2012_film)

The basic idea (making a sci-fi film as a cover for getting people out of Iran) is true, after that it's fairly heavily dramatised and pro-Americanised.

Worth saying that Affleck has always been relatively upfront about the dramatisation when asked about it in interviews, though I've not seen him asked about his depiction of the actions of the Canadian, British and New Zealand governments.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#122

Post by amerika_blog »

These are coffee table books about interesting/ironic details of our world, not any actual reshaping. I used to read such books in the pursuit of being an "intellectual," then picked up Marcus Aurelius and realized how puerile all the coffee-table folderol really is.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#123

Post by onebaddude »

contextual wrote: post #120
tokenadult wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gladwell comes up so often here on Hacker News that I have a FAQ about him: Malcolm Gladwell, who has said in an interview[1] that he writes to try out ideas, is good, while trying out ideas, at crediting his sources. Any reader of a Malcolm Gladwell book (as I know, from being a reader of the book Outliers ) can check the sources, and decide from there what other sources to check and what other ideas to play with. G…

The BS on HN is much worse than anything I've read from Gladwell. Where's your FAQ for that?

No idea. I've asked the same question; I've read all of Gladwell's books (and essays on his site). I've enjoyed almost everything he writes. He's great at telling pop-sci stories. Most can be read in a sitting or two. Sometimes it's nice for your non-fiction to not read like a textbook.

But, apparently the HN crowd only reads Shakespeare, Dostoevsky and Hemingway.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#124

Post by onebaddude »

d_theorist wrote: post #89

>I read a lot, but I don’t always choose what’s on the bestseller list. Wait. Is he saying that sometimes he does choose what's on the bestseller list?

>"Is he saying that sometimes he does choose what's on the bestseller list?"

Is that a problem for you? Does it make your hipster friends angry?

Let's see what I read from the bestseller's list this year, off the top of my head: Quiet, Thinking Fast and Slow, Devil in the White City, Steve Jobs, and yes, 1 or 2 of the Game of Thrones books. I also read The Corrections, which wasn't on the best-seller list this year, but was definitely hyped in its day (Oprah Book Club! How mainstream!)

In fact, I make an effort to read the bestsellers lists for ideas. It makes me more well-read, not less.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#125

Post by dharmach »

Being a fan of some Russian authors like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorky and others, reading their books I got a glimpse of the Russian culture and society of that era. Would somebody suggest me similar type of authors from past English era?

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#126

Post by mmorris »

StavrosK wrote: post #98
Renaud wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, we can satisfy both our needs for geekiness and culture by watching Sir Patrick Stewart play Shakespeare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84

Where was this from? I can't find the source material.

This is from Rupert Goold's production of Macbeth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_(2010_TV_drama)

You can stream it from PBS's website (there might be some geographic restrictions though, at least according to the comments): http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/macbeth/watch-the-ful...

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#127

Post by StavrosK »

mmorris wrote: post #126
StavrosK wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where was this from? I can't find the source material.

This is from Rupert Goold's production of Macbeth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_(2010_TV_drama) You can stream it from PBS's website (there might be some geographic restrictions though, at least according to the comments): http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/macbeth/watch-the-ful...

Very nice, thank you!

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#128

Post by gnaritas »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #90
gnaritas wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not disputing your general point, by Clark's original description of geostationary comsats was in a letter to Wireless World magazine, followed by a paper in the same publication [1]. It wasn't popularised via fiction, although later he did write some fiction that used the idea. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke#The_Geostation...

Ah, correction noted, thanks.

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#129

Post by incision »

Shame this thread is dominated by that single sentence on nonfiction.

Some books I enjoyed this year:

* The Player of Games - http://amzn.com/0316005401

* A Guide to Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - http://amzn.com/B0040JHNQG

* The Emperors Handbook - http://amzn.com/0743233832

* The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future - http://amzn.com/0393088693

* Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work - http://amzn.com/B009JU6UPG

* Chaos: Making a New Science - http://amzn.com/0143113453

* Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing - http://amzn.com/0262019388

Re: The Best Books I Read in 2013

#130

Post by Shamanmuni »

onebaddude wrote: post #119
Shamanmuni wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you arguing against? He didn't say that fiction is always better than non-fiction for learning about the world. However, many people (Bill Gates included apparently) operate under the opposite assumption that non-fiction gives you more information about the world by default. And that's simply not true. Fiction can change your views, give you new ideas and insights, challenge your beliefs, etc. Fiction writer…

> What are you arguing against? He didn't say that fiction is always better than non-fiction for learning about the world. And what is the OP arguing about? Mr. Gates didn't say that non-fiction is always better for learning about the world. > Non-fiction gives you more information about the world by default Sorry, but it does. Easily testable hypothesis; go to the NY Times Bestsellers lists and compare, book-for-boo…

>Mr. Gates didn't say that non-fiction is always better for learning about the world.

Of course he didn't, he said something worse. The literal quote from Bill Gates is: "But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works".

The immediate conclusion that you can take from that is "if you want to learn more about how the world works, then don't read fiction". It's the assumption that fiction has value only as entertainment.

I'll give you just one example of the opposite. If you want to learn how people in the past thought and viewed the world, then an excellent way is reading the popular fiction of that time. Bonus points if you get to know how they read it.

>Sorry, but it does. Easily testable hypothesis; go to the NY Times Bestsellers lists and compare, book-for-book, what can be "learned" from each (as most of us understand "learning").

Sorry, but if you get to redefine things in order to suit your argument (the word learn), then you are right by default and there can't be any discussion. I won't follow you there.

I know there are excellent non-fiction books that teach you lots of things. But the reverse is true, there are garbage non-fiction books that teach you nothing.

For example: read "Confessions of a Heiress" by Paris Hilton. It's non-fiction, so by your logic, you will surely learn more about the world reading that than something like "1984" by George Orwell, right? Give me a break.

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