I am reading that right now, as recommended by I don't know how many people and I have to say that while it started out interesting, I find it increasingly more boring with every page. Which annoys me because it seems that everybody else gets something out of this book that I am simply not.
I think that the book is obviously not true in the sense of being a true/false sort of book. For example, it does not offer a good argument for its views.
However, I think the Chautauqua theme is enlightening. For me, the book was a "mind-shaper", if you'll allow me such a term. It didn't convince me, but what it taught me was tangential to what the book was actually saying.
I guess another way of saying it is that, for me, the journey taught me something very valuable, whereas the destination was a bit silly.
Yes. I think I must have heard this recommended over 10 times but I've never made any effort to get a copy because I'm not interested in motorcycle maintenance. Is that a legitimate reason not to read it?
i'm trying to come up with the right analogy to explain why it isn't and coming up short. if you can imagine a book, work of art, whatever, that explains something other than its obvious subject matter obliquely yet simply & elegantly, this is that sort of book. perhaps analogous to reading some lisp or haskell code that solves a problem you don't care about at all...but realizing that the algorithms were beautiful, appropriate, concise, and powerful despite that? motorcycle maintenance is just a path, metaphor, example used in exploring different outlooks on life (i'd say, the hacker ethic versus the walmart ethic; DIY versus throwaway one-size fits all.)
i am also uninterested in motorized transport in general, but have read that book three times and it is the only book i've ever read twice in a row.
The scientific process can be formalized, even taught to a machine, however the hypothesis-generation step is a human, artistic, creative process.
This book is about reconciling this, and thus reconciling rationality, art, and religion with one another, though the religious part isn't touched on all that much. The author goes on to suggest an idea that "quality" is the fundamental force in the universe. As an example of this idea-application in practice, the author says to open the Tao Te Ching and replace "the way"(etc..) with "quality", and then see how much it makes sense.
While insightful, it really is a bit silly. But don't let that get you down on the book -- the book is well worth your time to read. The material is really very interesting. I am certain you will love it.
I just cannot understand why people here like that book so much. Maybe it's because of my eastern background and because I drank too much spiritual koolaid when I was younger, but that book is full of the same old eastern mysticism wrapped up in language that probably appeals to philosophical "hackers". I mean, how can you like stuff where the protagonist is being so self-righteous and condescending to a 10-year old?
Oh, lots! I wish you'd narrow down to some categories you're interested in.
A few example i enjoyed:
The State of Africa, Martin Meredith
The Code Book, Simon Singh
Pity the Nation, Robert Fisk
The Great War for Civilization, Robert Fisk
Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges
Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela
The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
Fermat's Engima, Simon Singh
The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein
The four pillars consisting of investment theory, history, psychology and business. I ascribe to the indexing model of investing and this book helped crystallize my view point as well as provide an interesting overview of investment history.
Plus I'll throw in one of my favorite, bloody gems of a book:
The Border Series (All The Pretty Horses, The Crossing, etc) is riddled with inaccessible scene description (non-stop landscape lexicon) and bouts of Spanish, only barely detracting from each story's general awe-inspiring quality.
No Country For Old Men is more accessible and I'd definitely recommend it. The Road is also a must.
It's a bit of a ridiculous question isn't it? Relevant in what way? Even if you narrow it down to business and technology the scope is just far too broad.
I'm a big fan of Sci-Fi because I feel it makes people think about what they want the future to be, as well as avoiding the re-hashing of historical and current events that many fiction books set in the present do. With that in mind a list of great books to read:
The Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Gridlinked - Neal Asher
Neuromancer - William Gibson
The Reality Dysfunction - Peter F. Hamilton
The Dreaming Void - Peter F. Hamilton
Fallen Dragon - Peter F. Hamilton
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
Market Forces - Richard Morgan
Blindsight - Peter Watts
The Electric Church - Jeff Somers
Tunnel in the Sky - Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
1984 - George Orwell
I also liked most of those. I'm just reading Blindsight, wonderful.
The only one I hated was "Market forces" by Morgan. It felt like reading "The Pilgrim's Progress", but with Chomsky as Jesus -- a little bit too heavy handed in political propaganda. For that kind of stuff done in a fascinating way, check Ken MacLeod's "The Stone Canal" and following.
(Asher got a little too much of Space Opera for me, in the end.)
For sf, I'd add Greg Egan (Stross has been mentioned multiple times).
I'd also like to recommend the worst author I used to buy books in hardcover from -- Robert L Forward. The guy couldn't have written a believable character to save his life, but he had some cool physics ideas. RIP.
For fantasy, which I didn't see mentioned, I'd add Scott Lynch, most stuff by Jack Vance, the black company series (Glen Cook), Joe Abercrombie and Vlad Taltos (Brust).
Dawkins' Selfish Gene has been mentioned. Steven Pinker was interesting.
Edit: Re Schoeder, I've heard good things but not read anything yet. Thanks for advice and kick to start.
Strongly agree on Greg Egan. "Schild's Ladder" is one of the best 'hard' SF novels I've ever read!
I can see how you'd feel that way about Market Forces. Personally what I liked most in that book was the way the main character developed/changed over the course of the story. That being said I would consider it on the 'lighter' end of the SF spectrum, but I still think it's an interesting exploration of a society taken to the extreme.
Science Fiction (I like these authors so I'd recommend most of their books -- listing which ones I think are a good 'starter novel' for them):
Charles Stross: Halting State
Vernor Vinge: A Fire Upon The Deep
Iain M. Banks: Culture novels, start with Player of Games
David Louis Edelman: Jump 225 Trilogy
Daniel Suarez: Daemon and Freedom(tm)
John Scalzi: Old Man's War series
Dan Simmons: Hyperion
Self-improvement:
The Talent Code
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Non-fiction:
Amusing Ourselves To Death (highly recommended)
The Science of Fear
The Black Swan
Tokyo Vice
Racing The Beam (Atari history, very cool)
books by Daniel Pink
Guns, Germs, and Steel
The Prize by Daniel Yergin
Fantasy:
Anything by Gaiman or China Mieville, pretty much.
EDIT: links to previews (legally) available online
One of his other books, In Defense of Food, might almost be a better recommendation to read first. If they like that, go for the novel version - The Omnivore's Dilemma.
The Conquest of Mexico, by Bernal Diaz -- a conquistador who traveled with the Cortes expedition to Mexico City to overthrow King Montezuma. Incredible, true story written by someone who has actually there. An unknown land; the clash of two cultures; the clash of two religions; temples to angry gods; hoardes of gold in hidden rooms; human sacrifices; alliances; mutinies; enslavement; first description of Tenochtitlan, the city on the lake; the destruction of Tenochtitlan; and more.
You probably won’t find it under that name though. The title in Spanish is La Verdadera Historia de la Conquista de la Nueva España, or in English, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain.
It’s especially fun to compare it to the accounts written by historians in Spain who had never been to New Spain, and didn’t know anything about anything.
It's amazing how many good historical works are out of copyright and free. I got an Amazon Kindle as a gift, and it's been really wonderful for me.
If you like Roman history, you've got to check out Gibbons' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It's just a masterpiece. I flip through my copy of Meditations from time to time (actually, now I look at it on my Kindle, but I used to flip through my paper copy) and just pick out random quotes. A great work. "It is not the thing itself that disturbs a man, but the man's perception of and reaction to the thing. The thing may not be able to be changed, but a man's perception and reaction may be changed." I'm butchering that quote, but it's incredibly meaningful to me, and I try to reflect on it when things seem to be going wrong or I get inconvenienced.
While talking about classics, there's a lot of good philosophy out of copyright. Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra aren't perfect works and I disagree with a fair bit of it, but there's some absolute jewels in them too.
Lately I've been looking for a decent electronic copy of Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and Kierkegaard's Either/Or, but I've been having a hard time finding copies that are decently formatted and readable.
Also, got any other recommendations Staunch? I'm going to get Gallic Wars, and it seems like you and I have similar taste if you have other recommendations.
* Daniel Quinn - Beyond Civilization (an easy read about what's wrong with today's society, why, and how to fix it. Not political, rather what you can do yourself. It was a real eye-opener to me)
* Jared Diamond - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Jared Diamond is a geographer who writes about societies and civilizations, and how they tackle changing conditions)
* Herfried Münkler - Empires: The Logic of World Domination from Ancient Rome to the United States (Münkler writes about different historical and contemporary empires and hegemonies, why they did what they did, and why they failed early or managed to stay for centuries. Very non-political and matter-of-factly)
* Ursula K. LeGuin - The Word for World is Forest, The Earthsea Saga (Science Fiction/Fantasy, LeGuin is pretty different from most sci-fi-writers. Earthsea is pretty standard magicians/dragons-fantasy, though)
* Ryszard Kapuściński - Travels with Herodotus (Kapuściński was a Polish journalist who traveled a lot. Here, he tries to walk in Herodotus' foot-steps. Basically, a modern day Herodotus)
* Jules Verne - All of his books are worth reading. Visionary and engaging.
Upvoted...and here's my summary, since it's not on the OP:
The adventures of a two-dimensional creature into the lands of the single-dimension and the three-dimension (and more). Also, on his efforts to evangelize his visions.
When I first read this over ten years ago, I was surprised to learn that the book itself had been published in the 19th century. It was my first true realization that people just as "smart" as us modern folk have existed for quite a while.
There are a number of problems with the God Delusion. The attitude its abhorrent, some of the arguments are bad, and its too long. Not worth it, IMO. There must be better pro-atheism books out there.
Agree completely. The God Delusion suffers from sloppy reasoning, and intellectually dishonest arguments. I'm an Atheist, and I found myself disagreeing over and over with arguments Dawkins made despite the fact that his conclusions align with my view of the world.
I don't agree that the arguments in the God Delusion are too bad. He does take some real liberties with Aquinas, but all the scholarly dressing you apply to Aquinas doesn't really improve the arguments. Dawkins deals with them too hastily, but even if Dawkins was an Aquinas scholar and applied the principle of charity to the arguments, they'd still be unconvincing arguments. The God Delusion is a popular book, not a scholarly refutation of all arguments for the existence of God.
If you want to read scholarly refutations of arguments for the existence of God, as well as read some arguments put forward explicitly for the non-existence of God, then you have to turn elsewhere: Michael Martin's "Atheism: A Philosophical Justification", Robin Le Podevin's "Arguing for Atheism" and Nick Everett's "The Non-Existence Of God". Another good book from an agnostic rather than atheist perspective is Anthony Kenny's "The God of the Philosophers". A slightly easier read is Julian Baggini's "Atheism: A Very Short Introduction" which is okay. I have some reservations with it, but it covers most of the important arguments and has some stuff about ethics and living the good life and all that happy-clappy stuff too.
As for stuff that isn't concerned with the philosophical arguments? I found Onfray's "In Defence of Atheism" a pretty good read - it is polemical, but is well-written. Nietzsche is always good to read so long as you don't - you know - become a damn goth or whatever after reading it or try and commit genocide or something. Russell's "Why I Am Not A Christian" and the much less read compilation "Russell on Religion" (not widely available outside academia as far as I'm aware) - Russell is a good writer and says some very refreshing things like:
<blockquote>Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.</blockquote>
183 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 255 ms ] threadhttp://www.amazon.com/Tao-Pooh-Benjamin-Hoff/dp/0140067477
Taoism in general is something I'm going to dive more into.
http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/massey/massey2004.html
However, I think the Chautauqua theme is enlightening. For me, the book was a "mind-shaper", if you'll allow me such a term. It didn't convince me, but what it taught me was tangential to what the book was actually saying.
I guess another way of saying it is that, for me, the journey taught me something very valuable, whereas the destination was a bit silly.
i am also uninterested in motorized transport in general, but have read that book three times and it is the only book i've ever read twice in a row.
This book is about reconciling this, and thus reconciling rationality, art, and religion with one another, though the religious part isn't touched on all that much. The author goes on to suggest an idea that "quality" is the fundamental force in the universe. As an example of this idea-application in practice, the author says to open the Tao Te Ching and replace "the way"(etc..) with "quality", and then see how much it makes sense.
While insightful, it really is a bit silly. But don't let that get you down on the book -- the book is well worth your time to read. The material is really very interesting. I am certain you will love it.
Describes a very interesting conceptual framework, with a division between intellect, biology and society.
Highly recommended.
A few example i enjoyed: The State of Africa, Martin Meredith The Code Book, Simon Singh Pity the Nation, Robert Fisk The Great War for Civilization, Robert Fisk Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela The Last Lecture, Randy Pausch Fermat's Engima, Simon Singh
Lots more....
The Four Pillars of Investing by William Bernstein
The four pillars consisting of investment theory, history, psychology and business. I ascribe to the indexing model of investing and this book helped crystallize my view point as well as provide an interesting overview of investment history.
Plus I'll throw in one of my favorite, bloody gems of a book:
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
No Country For Old Men is more accessible and I'd definitely recommend it. The Road is also a must.
George Orwell - 1984
I figure there are lots of books people can recommend here that are relevant to my interests, so why not ask?
The only one I hated was "Market forces" by Morgan. It felt like reading "The Pilgrim's Progress", but with Chomsky as Jesus -- a little bit too heavy handed in political propaganda. For that kind of stuff done in a fascinating way, check Ken MacLeod's "The Stone Canal" and following.
(Asher got a little too much of Space Opera for me, in the end.)
For sf, I'd add Greg Egan (Stross has been mentioned multiple times).
I'd also like to recommend the worst author I used to buy books in hardcover from -- Robert L Forward. The guy couldn't have written a believable character to save his life, but he had some cool physics ideas. RIP.
For fantasy, which I didn't see mentioned, I'd add Scott Lynch, most stuff by Jack Vance, the black company series (Glen Cook), Joe Abercrombie and Vlad Taltos (Brust).
Dawkins' Selfish Gene has been mentioned. Steven Pinker was interesting.
Edit: Re Schoeder, I've heard good things but not read anything yet. Thanks for advice and kick to start.
Another really good book is Ventus by Karl Schroeder. It's phenomenally entertaining and has some really interesting ideas in it.
I can see how you'd feel that way about Market Forces. Personally what I liked most in that book was the way the main character developed/changed over the course of the story. That being said I would consider it on the 'lighter' end of the SF spectrum, but I still think it's an interesting exploration of a society taken to the extreme.
As for mine,
Science Fiction (I like these authors so I'd recommend most of their books -- listing which ones I think are a good 'starter novel' for them):
Self-improvement: Non-fiction: Fantasy:Anything by Gaiman or China Mieville, pretty much.
EDIT: links to previews (legally) available online
Charles Stross's Accelerando (entire book): http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelera...
David Louis Edelman's Infoquake (1st 7 chapters): http://www.davidlouisedelman.com/jump225/infoquake/
One of the few books that I think really everybody should read.
The Count of Monte Cristo Time Machine or Invisible Man Frankenstein
One of my personal favorites which you won't be able to put down: Dracula
It’s especially fun to compare it to the accounts written by historians in Spain who had never been to New Spain, and didn’t know anything about anything.
* Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational
* Christopher McDougall, Born to Run
* Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers
* Jeb Brugman, Welcome to the Urban Revolution
* Richard Florida, Who's Your City?
One of my favorites is Caesar's The Gallic Wars, because it's so amazing that we have his very own account: http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.html
Josephus' account of The Jewish Wars is amazing.
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is a must-read: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html
It's a bit like an ancient Roman Twitter account.
If you like Roman history, you've got to check out Gibbons' History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It's just a masterpiece. I flip through my copy of Meditations from time to time (actually, now I look at it on my Kindle, but I used to flip through my paper copy) and just pick out random quotes. A great work. "It is not the thing itself that disturbs a man, but the man's perception of and reaction to the thing. The thing may not be able to be changed, but a man's perception and reaction may be changed." I'm butchering that quote, but it's incredibly meaningful to me, and I try to reflect on it when things seem to be going wrong or I get inconvenienced.
While talking about classics, there's a lot of good philosophy out of copyright. Beyond Good and Evil and Thus Spoke Zarathustra aren't perfect works and I disagree with a fair bit of it, but there's some absolute jewels in them too.
Lately I've been looking for a decent electronic copy of Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and Kierkegaard's Either/Or, but I've been having a hard time finding copies that are decently formatted and readable.
Also, got any other recommendations Staunch? I'm going to get Gallic Wars, and it seems like you and I have similar taste if you have other recommendations.
* Jared Diamond - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Jared Diamond is a geographer who writes about societies and civilizations, and how they tackle changing conditions)
* Herfried Münkler - Empires: The Logic of World Domination from Ancient Rome to the United States (Münkler writes about different historical and contemporary empires and hegemonies, why they did what they did, and why they failed early or managed to stay for centuries. Very non-political and matter-of-factly)
* Ursula K. LeGuin - The Word for World is Forest, The Earthsea Saga (Science Fiction/Fantasy, LeGuin is pretty different from most sci-fi-writers. Earthsea is pretty standard magicians/dragons-fantasy, though)
* Ryszard Kapuściński - Travels with Herodotus (Kapuściński was a Polish journalist who traveled a lot. Here, he tries to walk in Herodotus' foot-steps. Basically, a modern day Herodotus)
* Jules Verne - All of his books are worth reading. Visionary and engaging.
The adventures of a two-dimensional creature into the lands of the single-dimension and the three-dimension (and more). Also, on his efforts to evangelize his visions.
When I first read this over ten years ago, I was surprised to learn that the book itself had been published in the 19th century. It was my first true realization that people just as "smart" as us modern folk have existed for quite a while.
Taiko - Eiji Yoshikawa
Alexander of Macedon - Peter Green
and +1 for Staunch's choice:
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
Perhaps the newer
The New Atheism: Taking a Stand for Science and Reason
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591027519/
If you want to read scholarly refutations of arguments for the existence of God, as well as read some arguments put forward explicitly for the non-existence of God, then you have to turn elsewhere: Michael Martin's "Atheism: A Philosophical Justification", Robin Le Podevin's "Arguing for Atheism" and Nick Everett's "The Non-Existence Of God". Another good book from an agnostic rather than atheist perspective is Anthony Kenny's "The God of the Philosophers". A slightly easier read is Julian Baggini's "Atheism: A Very Short Introduction" which is okay. I have some reservations with it, but it covers most of the important arguments and has some stuff about ethics and living the good life and all that happy-clappy stuff too.
As for stuff that isn't concerned with the philosophical arguments? I found Onfray's "In Defence of Atheism" a pretty good read - it is polemical, but is well-written. Nietzsche is always good to read so long as you don't - you know - become a damn goth or whatever after reading it or try and commit genocide or something. Russell's "Why I Am Not A Christian" and the much less read compilation "Russell on Religion" (not widely available outside academia as far as I'm aware) - Russell is a good writer and says some very refreshing things like:
<blockquote>Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own.</blockquote>