Abelson and Sussman's _Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs_. http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp
What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
141–150 of 215 posts
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#142"Zen Flesh Zen Bones" -Anonymous
Buddhist precursors and a pile of Koans.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#143Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
hpmor.com
Reading the original helps and adds to the experience, but is not necessarily required.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#144Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, particularly: "Mort" and "Reaper Man"; "Guards! Guards!", "Men at Arms", and "The Night Watch"; "Wyrd Sisters", "Witches Abroad" and "Lords and Ladies"; and "Small Gods" and "Pyramids". The first two are about Death, the second three about Samuel Vimes, the third group about Granny Weatherwax, and the last two are stand-alones. All the books are worth reading, but those are some of…
Which one would you suggest starting with?
Wyrd Sisters.
Granny Weatherwax along with DEATH, are my two favorites.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#145* bronowski's "the ascent of man"
* hofstadter's "metamagical themas"
* the entire discworld series
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#146Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World Also perhaps Bill Bryon's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" for an entertaining broad view of a variety of scientific areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Every...
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" is my favorite book. If you're not much of a reader, listen to this in audiobook format (great narrator). This book makes science entirely accessible and inspiring, and human nature humble.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#147I wish when I was 14 I was exposed to more contemporary literature, instead of great classics. And I have no regrets about missing out on math books—most of my friends went to math camp for that kind of knowledge. I'd recommend David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest; Junot Diaz's This is How You Lose Her; The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis; Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I wis…
Agreed with more literature! More than that: as a guiding principle, read stuff by people who aren't like you. The OP's list has exactly zero female authors in it. It's hard to grow personally when you aren't confronting and coming to terms with radically different experiences, and yet that's what books do best: they confront you.
> read stuff by people who aren't like you
this.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#148Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_World Also perhaps Bill Bryon's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" for an entertaining broad view of a variety of scientific areas: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_of_Nearly_Every...
I second "A Brief History" -- it's kind of like Cosmos (the book by Sagan) but more up-to-date and slightly broader.
It seems to me that a lot of the suggestions are are people trying to impress each other with what they've read rather than books they think a bright 14 y.o. might really enjoy or get something out of.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#149"The Looking Glass Book of Stories" and "The Comic Looking Glass" edited by Hart Day Leavitt.
Basically, anything that's good quality and fun to read.
Learning to enjoy reading is more important than any specific skill you can teach.
Modern school reading lists suck donkey balls.
Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?
#150Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card The story of a genius child training to battle an alien species. Not only very entertaining but also critically acclaimed. It won the Hugo and Nebula and has been on several military leadership reading lists. [0] I loved it as a teenager and recently reread it and still loved it. [0]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Game#Critical_respons...
He wrote himself into a corner within two sequels, so try not to read any of his other books afterward.
He didn't write himself into a corner; he was trying to shoehorn in his religion.