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Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

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Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#11

Post by artacus »

goodjam wrote: post #5

"How to talk about books you haven't read" by Pierre Bayard is another interesting book on this subject. I presume Derrida is not much liked around here but this excerpt is pure gold from the Derrida documentary https://youtu.be/tdumO88JMxw : (Derrida shows his library to the interviewer) "I haven't read all the books that are here" "But you've read most of them? "No, no ... three of four... but I've read those four…

I glad to see someone else appreciated that because being a recovering book hoarder I've used that line myself quite a few times.

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#12

Post by zumatic »

simonh wrote: post #8
tjr wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you call your collection of unread books your "anti-library", what do you call your collection of books still enclosed within postal delivery boxes that you haven't even opened yet?

When I was a CS student we used to joke that a friend of ours organized his room in the form of a novel data structure, a bit like a heap but unstructured, called a tip[0]. It would be perfect for storing unopened mail. [0] https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/rubbish...

A tip is essentially an LRU cache:

https://www.ft.com/content/e6f82da0-8b4d-11e6-8cb7-e7ada1d12...

(I first heard about this concept ages ago, but that's the first article on Google; sorry if paywalled).

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#13

Post by paulpauper »

anything involving Taleb should be taken with a lump of salt

OK let's assume Wikipedia is the equivalent of a giant library of unread books. I don't feel any smarter, nor am I am becoming smarter by not reading it. Buying a bunch of books one is never going to read seems like a waste of money. You cant actually learn anything until you read at least some of it..maybe missing the point

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#14

Post by npsimons »

> “It is our knowledge — the things we are sure of — that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning,”

That's not knowledge - that's belief.

> Read books are far less valuable than unread ones.

Eh, I agree having books you can refer to is useful, but I would argue you can't really refer to them unless you've read them. If they're really worthwhile, you'll read them, learn something, and keep them for future reference, perhaps even future re-reading.

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#15

Post by sp332 »

npsimons wrote: post #14

> “It is our knowledge — the things we are sure of — that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning,” That's not knowledge - that's belief. > Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. Eh, I agree having books you can refer to is useful, but I would argue you can't really refer to them unless you've read them. If they're really worthwhile, you'll read them, learn something, and keep them…

But how would an individual know the difference between "knowledge" and "belief"?

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#16

Post by prestonbriggs »

paulpauper wrote: post #13

anything involving Taleb should be taken with a lump of salt OK let's assume Wikipedia is the equivalent of a giant library of unread books. I don't feel any smarter, nor am I am becoming smarter by not reading it. Buying a bunch of books one is never going to read seems like a waste of money. You cant actually learn anything until you read at least some of it..maybe missing the point

When I buy books, I intend to read them; I expect Eco does too. I think the point is the library of as-yet-unread books is more interesting than the library of already-read books. And it differs from Wikipedia or the Amazon catalog; it's a collection of books that interested me enough to lay out money and shelf space to have nearby.

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#17

Post by 09bjb »

prestonbriggs wrote: post #16
paulpauper wrote: post #13

anything involving Taleb should be taken with a lump of salt OK let's assume Wikipedia is the equivalent of a giant library of unread books. I don't feel any smarter, nor am I am becoming smarter by not reading it. Buying a bunch of books one is never going to read seems like a waste of money. You cant actually learn anything until you read at least some of it..maybe missing the point

When I buy books, I intend to read them; I expect Eco does too. I think the point is the library of as-yet-unread books is more interesting than the library of already-read books. And it differs from Wikipedia or the Amazon catalog; it's a collection of books that interested me enough to lay out money and shelf space to have nearby.

Yeah...I'm all for this approach, except for the part that assumes you're going to buy a book that you're not going to read immediately. Totally viable and possibly useful...if you have 10x more money than you need.

I also appreciated all the oblique suggestions that our appreciation of what we don't know, and how we should temper our certitude, should INCREASE with greater knowledge. Way too many PhD types out there stomping on people with their expansive knowledge when they should know better than most the degree to which they're in the dark.

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#18

Post by handcreme »

sp332 wrote: post #15
npsimons wrote: post #14

> “It is our knowledge — the things we are sure of — that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning,” That's not knowledge - that's belief. > Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. Eh, I agree having books you can refer to is useful, but I would argue you can't really refer to them unless you've read them. If they're really worthwhile, you'll read them, learn something, and keep them…

But how would an individual know the difference between "knowledge" and "belief"?

Some say that knowledge is justified true belief[1], others disagree[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justified_true_belief#Justifie... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettier_problem

Re: Umberto Eco's Anti-Library (2015)

#20

Post by paganel »

09bjb wrote: post #17
prestonbriggs wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I buy books, I intend to read them; I expect Eco does too. I think the point is the library of as-yet-unread books is more interesting than the library of already-read books. And it differs from Wikipedia or the Amazon catalog; it's a collection of books that interested me enough to lay out money and shelf space to have nearby.

Yeah...I'm all for this approach, except for the part that assumes you're going to buy a book that you're not going to read immediately. Totally viable and possibly useful...if you have 10x more money than you need. I also appreciated all the oblique suggestions that our appreciation of what we don't know, and how we should temper our certitude, should INCREASE with greater knowledge. Way too many PhD types out there…

> Yeah...I'm all for this approach, except for the part that assumes you're going to buy a book that you're not going to read immediately. Totally viable and possibly useful...if you have 10x more money than you need.

I definitely buy books that I don't intend to read "immediately", in fact I have books which I've bought 3-4 years ago, of which I think about every 2-3 months, but which I've not yet had the time to read. I definitely do not have 10X the money that I need, even though I agree that books are one of my few guilty pleasures (I oftentimes think that I was born in order to read books).

I also like to sit on my couch and look at my bookshelves, it gives me a really pleasant feeling. I do that every 2-3 days. I like books.

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