I'm not going to self-nominate myself as 'bright', but I liked these 3 books when I was 14ish: What do you care what other people think? by Richard Feynman. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Flatland, by Edwin Abbott.
I've added those - thanks. Rather a shame that this item has sunk without trace - I'd've been interested to see more comments from people making recommendations.
<fx: shrug /> Unclear as to whether people don't care, or didn't see it. Never mind, thanks for your contribution.
EDIT: Bizarre - briefly hit 20 on the front page, now get more votes, and the item has disappeared. I suspect it's been flagged, or triggered a voting ring. Very odd.
It may help him open his eyes more and appreciate ways of living that don't fall in line with the common American view. You can be a great genius and still a weirdo!
Feynman is one of the best role models for a 14 year old. Maybe you object to some of his life choices but as far as I'm concerned the world would be a much better place with 'more Feynman' in it. It's all relative, look at the various alternative role models available.
Definitely add this modern classic: Measurement by Paul Lockhart.
On a related note, I've been compiling a list myself for an even younger audience (basically all ages before 14)[1]. I bet there are a lot of influential materials for younger ages, but people don't realize how influential it was once they're grow up.
Second this. Hell, I'll third it and fourth it as well - it is one of the most simply captivating books I've ever read. Reading it feels exactly like having a conversation with Lockhart about how he views mathematics (I assume at least, I've never met him).
Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game is a physiological science fiction story about a future world where an economic simulation determines who will run the planet, and the book features the live of one individual that won the competition every year for decades via integrating math, music, eastern and western philosophies to create a harmonic economic view. The book is two parts: first "the book", and then the collected writings of the main character throughout his entire life. Book got a Nobel too.
Reading the synopsis on Wikipedia reminded me a lot thematically of Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. Also a great book, but I think it requires a broader knowledge of history, philosophy, math, etc. than a 14 year old might have had the opportunity to encounter. Then again, there's a glossary in the back that maps in-universe concepts to real-world concepts, so the novel might be a good springboard into exploring those topics independently.
You can, if you either click on the "X minutes ago" or simply wait. I'm deleting my comments because this item is in danger of tripping the flame-war detector.
I had this book recommended to me by someone when I was in college; the person that recommended it to me thought I might very well go on to invent the Glass Bead Game...
This summary kind of mischaracterizes the book, though. Far from "running the planet," Castalia, the society within which the Game thrives, rather pointedly does not concern itself with "worldly" matters, being singularly focused on the life of the mind. The Game itself is a reflection of this attitude, consisting of symbols put together to represent cross-linking through various intellectual fields, such as music, mathematics, philosophy, and the sciences.[1] It is the main character, Joseph Knecht, who has risen to become Magister Ludi (master of the Game), who sees Castalia's detachment from the outside world as a danger and a potential threat to its existence, and who ultimately leaves his high post to become the tutor for the son of a friend of his from school who is a "man of the world." Knecht's perspective comes from his rather unique background, not just his friendship with the outsider, but his studies of history (a very non-Castalian field of study) with a prominent historian during a "tour of duty" at a monastery. It's a very deep book, and one which you'll probably find new insights in every time you read it.
On the subject of recommendations that bridge science fiction and philosophy, might I also suggest C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy ( Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength )? It's another work that works on several levels. That Hideous Strength, in particular, is almost entirely a fictional expression of the arguments Lewis presented in The Abolition of Man. There's also a fair amount of attention devoted to linguistics; the books' central character, Prof. Elwin Ransom, was based on J.R.R. Tolkien. And yes, there's a certain amount of Christian philosophy in there, but on a higher intellectual level than The Chronicles of Narnia. A bright 14-year-old would probably enjoy it.
[1] Joseph Knecht's first annual ceremonial Game as Magister Ludi was based on the dimensions and structure of a traditional Chinese house, i.e., the principles of feng shui in Chinese philosophy. It was routinely cited thereafter as "The Chinese House Game."
1. It is set in a far future that is technologically identical to 1940. People who write about the future should not miss the mark so completely. The characters are still writing letters by hand and spending days travelling around a single continent.
2. It is hilariously sexist. The intellectual elite are simply assumed to be male and as they may not marry, women are privileged if they are able to take them as lovers for a short time. This is the only time women are mentioned in the book.
3. The main character takes the I-Ching seriously. He's supposed to be a genius, and yet he believes in horoscopes.
4. I found the story itself to be rather boring. I honestly don't know how the author could have won any awards. Perhaps it is much better in German and it is merely the translation that is bad.
The Demon-Haunted World was incredibly formative for me, and I was around 14 when I first read it. Prior to reading it, I believed wholeheartedly that UFOs were alien spaceships, and despite already being fairly certain I was an atheist, I was still on the fence about ghosts. The most important thing about that book was that it didn't teach me that things I believed weren't true because a distinguished scientist said so; rather it taught me how to decide whether the things I believed were likely to be true, and how to examine why I believed them.
Of course I didn't immediately transform into a perfect 14-year-old skeptic by reading this book (I'm twice that age now and I'm sure I still believe all manner of things that aren't true), but this was the first time I truly realized that I even needed to be skeptical about what I believed.
I could have written your comment! My father bought me that book when I was about 16 or 17 years old, as a birthday gift. At the time, I too was an atheist, but not a very skeptical one, and TDHW had a huge impact on me.
That book is one of the only gifts I can remember recieiving when I was a teenager, and I still have it on my shelf. It is fair to say that it can be a life changer.
"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.
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.
I have a very worn copy of the book in Cosmos that I got in '83 - it's an excellent book and I love it, but I wonder if that's because I also loved the TV series.
I read Cosmos having not seen the series (living in Australia at the time) and it is a great book. I think A Brief History is a similarly pitched book that's somewhat more up-to-date, and Bill Bryson is still around to revise it.
Professor E McSquared's Calculus Primer: http://www.math.sjsu.edu/~swann/mcsqrd.html -- I actually was poking around my mom's copy when I was about seven or so, but didn't start understanding it until later. The comics made me interested in the content, and I think was a key factor in my growing up enjoying math rather than despising it.
The Hacker's Dictionary: http://catb.org/jargon/ -- was similarly influential in my finding the joy and excitement in software development. I had come to enjoy it on my own already, but reading this (in printed form, at the time) helped me get a broader perspective. It's admittedly quite outdated now, but I'm not sure what a newer replacement might be.
> Professor E McSquared's Calculus Primer: http://www.math.sjsu.edu/~swann/mcsqrd.html -- I actually was poking around my mom's copy when I was about seven or so, but didn't start understanding it until later. The comics made me interested in the content, and I think was a key factor in my growing up enjoying math rather than despising it.
I had a similar experience with "Calculus the Easy Way", and its predecessors "Algebra the Easy Way" and "Trigonometry the Easy Way", all of which I'd highly recommend. They teach the topics as though being invented for the first time by a kingdom finding themselves in need of them.
I've never read "The Adapted Mind" but the first two are exactly my recommendations. GEB in particular was life-altering for me. I read it twice in high school and several times since. Growing up in a small town, it really opened my eyes to a larger world somehow and initiated a real craving for knowledge. Oddly enough, learning 6502 assembly had the same effect at the same age.
It's a profound and singular book that made a huge impression on my young mind as I'd never encountered anything like it - in fact, I had no idea something like it existed. It might not make such an impact on the modern reader, I don't really know.
Most explanations you hear about phenomena experienced in your life are packed in a kind of "made for popular consumption" language. People say things and pretend that the explanations are sufficient as understanding.
GEB is a book that _tries_ to explain things that we don't have words for. There is no facade of popular packaging. You won't understand it unless you're willing to think about things with an open mind -- things that you would be unable to explain to someone else concisely.
(By 'open mind' I mean _actual_ open mindedness, not the meaning it is normally employed to assert -- that is: "willingness to be manipulated.")
Hoftstadter struggles with deep metaphysical questions, which will never have satisfying answers. But there is a unique art to his exploration. The problem is that if you read it when you are young, you think there are answers in the book,when really there are only musings.
How to Solve It - George Polya. While the content is focused on solving math problems, and those math problems might be on the higher end of what a 14yo would learn in school, the lessons behind it are applicable to any form of problem solving. I discovered the book in my late 20's and wish I had read it in high school.
I agree, the more math I learn the less useful I think it is for most people, but if you enjoy it it can be rewarding to study on its own.
I think some more practical stuff would be great, unfortunately I can't remember ever coming across a good introduction to programming. The way I learned was just by
finding example programs and then modifying them to do something different. That's a hard skill to teach though.
I wonder what a clever 14-year-old would make of an advanced introduction to programming, such as SICP. It's written for students only four years older, although those are very important four years.
Has anyone tried pointing a highschool student at that book?
I read a little bit (only section 1.1, if I recall correctly) in high school (in grade 11, I think). I didn't get very far (mostly due to being busy with school work/forgetting about it), but I didn't find the parts I read too difficult. It doesn't assume much prerequiste knowledge.
I'd suggest Turtle Geometry by Abelson and diSessa -- yes, same Abelson as SICP's. I only wish I'd had it as a teenager; it was still interesting when I got it in my 20s.
Less advanced but also plausibly worthwhile: Brian Harvey's Computer Science Logo Style.
> Come on, it's a nice skill but not very practical by itself.
Why focus on practical skills instead of more abstracted concepts? Teaching someone to think for themselves rather than dictating a set of "must have" skills for them to learn?
> Maths maths maths. Come on, it's a nice skill but not very practical by itself.
I don't know if it's equally true in all parts of the world, but where I live being good at maths opens the door to pretty much any job, including the most prestigious ones.
I'm glad to see Cryptonomicon on the list. Looking back, that book has probably had the single greatest influence on my life so far. I've always liked computers, but don't think I'd be nearly involved with them as I am now had I not read it.
I've also heard great things about Measurement but haven't read it myself. Another great math book that I have read is Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Forms, though trying to get through that at 14 would probably be a bit disheartening.
Edited to add: Also, looking back I remember how stressed I was as a teenager because it seemed like there was so much to learn and I had on idea where to begin. I wish someone had told me it was okay to not know certain things. As I've gotten older I've become much more comfortable with learning things as I need them rather than assuming I need to learn everything ahead of time. This has made my life much less stressful and much more enjoyable.
Newer: Ancillary Justice. Really interesting ideas about the self. Over the years: Octavia Butler. Some very challenging ideas.
Honestly, though, I think 14-year-olds should read a lot of random crap from the library. Legal thrillers and historical romance and linguistics texts and home repair manuals and history of Thailand and books about sneakers, and the Tao Te Ching and that famous book about Buddha. Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. That blew me away in 9th grade.
Some fun books I remember were "A wrinkle in Time" and "stranger from the Depths" both aimed at teens but quite good.
Around 16 "zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
Dorris Lessing wrote some great books- I would start with:
I would definitely recommend How to Win Friends and Influence People as an addition to the list. I'd say that learning how to deal with people and communicate ideas effectively is at least as important as learning how to think.
This is also a book I recommend reading, re-reading, and then re-reading again for people of all ages.
Edit: I'd also probably recommend Innumeracy[0] which is a fun book about dealing with numbers. It has some pretty great strategies for coming up with good back-of-napkin estimations which is a pretty useful skill.
As a counterpoint to what nickysielicki wrote, I read this book when I was 13-14 and it helped me develop a sense of empathy. Thoroughly second this recommendation.
For anybody who reads this and think the advice sounds phony, the key with all of it is to be genuinely interested in the other person. This is hard to fake and even otherwise unassuming people might be more interesting than you'd think at first glance.
The Earthsea trilogy had such a big influence on me as a child. They were my first true introduction to scifi and sparked a real love of reading fiction.
I can't wait to introduce my son to these books when he is old enough.
Same here. It's partially why I became a programmer – closest thing to being a wizard I could find.
I still have the original paperback versions that I read as a child sitting on my shelf waiting for my son. He's 2 1/2 right now, so I've got some waiting ahead of me.
This was a very influential book for me in just thinking about what it would be like to do math for a career. And I'm not a mathematician, so I think it worked. :-)
Nothing, put them in the library, give them the resources they need and let them discover for themselves. why should we drive kids towards our own desires? what about what they want? show them the path but only after they tell you where they want to go.
I would recommend The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. Whether or not you agree with the rule in the book, I found all of the historical examples and anecdotes interesting to read on their own.
I would also suggest, "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson, and would echo "Cyptonomicon".
Approaching Zero: The Extraordinary Underworld of Hackers, Phreakers, Virus Writers, and Keyboard Criminals by Paul Mungo and Bryan Clough is excellent.
The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It, Centennial Edition
Daniel Carter Beard
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed
Rich, Ben R.
and finally, which is hard to stomach sometimes.
Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code
by Bruce Schneier
I've never read Ready Player One, and there's a reason for that: people compare it to Snow Crash and I found Snow Crash to be entirely insufferable. I cannot stand that book. The worst part is that the main character is named Hiro Protagonist. The book just tries to be too cool.
Maybe the problem is that it was written in 1992 and so much has been inspired by it that now the book seems tired and cliche. But if you're recommending it to a 14 year old, they're already going to be familiar with some of the works that have been inspired by Snow Crash, and they will likely find it as insufferable as well.
And isn't Ready Player One heavy into the 80's pop culture? A 14 year old was born in 2001... they don't know what the 80's means.
214 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 224 ms ] thread<fx: shrug /> Unclear as to whether people don't care, or didn't see it. Never mind, thanks for your contribution.
EDIT: Bizarre - briefly hit 20 on the front page, now get more votes, and the item has disappeared. I suspect it's been flagged, or triggered a voting ring. Very odd.
[1] “vote” in the context of the list of books, not in the context of this comment on HN
On a related note, I've been compiling a list myself for an even younger audience (basically all ages before 14)[1]. I bet there are a lot of influential materials for younger ages, but people don't realize how influential it was once they're grow up.
[1]: http://mcsforkids.herokuapp.com/
Edit: now added.
This summary kind of mischaracterizes the book, though. Far from "running the planet," Castalia, the society within which the Game thrives, rather pointedly does not concern itself with "worldly" matters, being singularly focused on the life of the mind. The Game itself is a reflection of this attitude, consisting of symbols put together to represent cross-linking through various intellectual fields, such as music, mathematics, philosophy, and the sciences.[1] It is the main character, Joseph Knecht, who has risen to become Magister Ludi (master of the Game), who sees Castalia's detachment from the outside world as a danger and a potential threat to its existence, and who ultimately leaves his high post to become the tutor for the son of a friend of his from school who is a "man of the world." Knecht's perspective comes from his rather unique background, not just his friendship with the outsider, but his studies of history (a very non-Castalian field of study) with a prominent historian during a "tour of duty" at a monastery. It's a very deep book, and one which you'll probably find new insights in every time you read it.
On the subject of recommendations that bridge science fiction and philosophy, might I also suggest C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy ( Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength )? It's another work that works on several levels. That Hideous Strength, in particular, is almost entirely a fictional expression of the arguments Lewis presented in The Abolition of Man. There's also a fair amount of attention devoted to linguistics; the books' central character, Prof. Elwin Ransom, was based on J.R.R. Tolkien. And yes, there's a certain amount of Christian philosophy in there, but on a higher intellectual level than The Chronicles of Narnia. A bright 14-year-old would probably enjoy it.
[1] Joseph Knecht's first annual ceremonial Game as Magister Ludi was based on the dimensions and structure of a traditional Chinese house, i.e., the principles of feng shui in Chinese philosophy. It was routinely cited thereafter as "The Chinese House Game."
1. It is set in a far future that is technologically identical to 1940. People who write about the future should not miss the mark so completely. The characters are still writing letters by hand and spending days travelling around a single continent.
2. It is hilariously sexist. The intellectual elite are simply assumed to be male and as they may not marry, women are privileged if they are able to take them as lovers for a short time. This is the only time women are mentioned in the book.
3. The main character takes the I-Ching seriously. He's supposed to be a genius, and yet he believes in horoscopes.
4. I found the story itself to be rather boring. I honestly don't know how the author could have won any awards. Perhaps it is much better in German and it is merely the translation that is bad.
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4273012
Actually I am recommending this book to every human being regardless of your age.
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...
Of course I didn't immediately transform into a perfect 14-year-old skeptic by reading this book (I'm twice that age now and I'm sure I still believe all manner of things that aren't true), but this was the first time I truly realized that I even needed to be skeptical about what I believed.
That book is one of the only gifts I can remember recieiving when I was a teenager, and I still have it on my shelf. It is fair to say that it can be a life changer.
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.
The Hacker's Dictionary: http://catb.org/jargon/ -- was similarly influential in my finding the joy and excitement in software development. I had come to enjoy it on my own already, but reading this (in printed form, at the time) helped me get a broader perspective. It's admittedly quite outdated now, but I'm not sure what a newer replacement might be.
I had a similar experience with "Calculus the Easy Way", and its predecessors "Algebra the Easy Way" and "Trigonometry the Easy Way", all of which I'd highly recommend. They teach the topics as though being invented for the first time by a kingdom finding themselves in need of them.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Progress-Poverty-Industrial-Depressi...
GEB is a book that _tries_ to explain things that we don't have words for. There is no facade of popular packaging. You won't understand it unless you're willing to think about things with an open mind -- things that you would be unable to explain to someone else concisely.
(By 'open mind' I mean _actual_ open mindedness, not the meaning it is normally employed to assert -- that is: "willingness to be manipulated.")
Fantastic and thought provoking while at the same time fundamentally human sci-fi.
http://www.amazon.com/Misteaks-find-before-teacher-does/dp/1...
How about an intro to IOS/android programming?
I think some more practical stuff would be great, unfortunately I can't remember ever coming across a good introduction to programming. The way I learned was just by finding example programs and then modifying them to do something different. That's a hard skill to teach though.
Has anyone tried pointing a highschool student at that book?
Less advanced but also plausibly worthwhile: Brian Harvey's Computer Science Logo Style.
Why focus on practical skills instead of more abstracted concepts? Teaching someone to think for themselves rather than dictating a set of "must have" skills for them to learn?
I don't know if it's equally true in all parts of the world, but where I live being good at maths opens the door to pretty much any job, including the most prestigious ones.
I've also heard great things about Measurement but haven't read it myself. Another great math book that I have read is Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Forms, though trying to get through that at 14 would probably be a bit disheartening.
Edited to add: Also, looking back I remember how stressed I was as a teenager because it seemed like there was so much to learn and I had on idea where to begin. I wish someone had told me it was okay to not know certain things. As I've gotten older I've become much more comfortable with learning things as I need them rather than assuming I need to learn everything ahead of time. This has made my life much less stressful and much more enjoyable.
Newer: Ancillary Justice. Really interesting ideas about the self. Over the years: Octavia Butler. Some very challenging ideas.
Honestly, though, I think 14-year-olds should read a lot of random crap from the library. Legal thrillers and historical romance and linguistics texts and home repair manuals and history of Thailand and books about sneakers, and the Tao Te Ching and that famous book about Buddha. Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. That blew me away in 9th grade.
"Mara and Dann An Adventure "
This is also a book I recommend reading, re-reading, and then re-reading again for people of all ages.
Edit: I'd also probably recommend Innumeracy[0] which is a fun book about dealing with numbers. It has some pretty great strategies for coming up with good back-of-napkin estimations which is a pretty useful skill.
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Innumeracy-Mathematical-Illiteracy-Its...
It's a fantastic book, and I can appreciate that now, but I feel personally I wasn't ready for it. I needed to develop a sense of empathy.
For anybody who reads this and think the advice sounds phony, the key with all of it is to be genuinely interested in the other person. This is hard to fake and even otherwise unassuming people might be more interesting than you'd think at first glance.
The first three books of the Earthsea cycle by Ursula K. LeGuin.
These both skew young but I valued re-reading them as I got older:
The Dot and the Line: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dot_and_the_Line
The Phantom Tollbooth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Phantom_Tollbooth
I can't wait to introduce my son to these books when he is old enough.
I still have the original paperback versions that I read as a child sitting on my shelf waiting for my son. He's 2 1/2 right now, so I've got some waiting ahead of me.
Why does everyone keep recommending books for teenagers that I read in elementary school?
I mean, hell, if we're going for epic high fantasy set in the (recognizably) modern world, try So You Want to be a Wizard by Diane Duane.
And to those of you who tried taking the Oath when you were a child, yes, the rest of us did, too. Pity it didn't take.
Personally, LeGuin bores me to tears because I like more action/idea driven in my reading and LeGuin tends more toward character driven.
This was a very influential book for me in just thinking about what it would be like to do math for a career. And I'm not a mathematician, so I think it worked. :-)
"I love maths and programming - what do you recommend?"
... you'd just reply with ...
"Go look in the library."
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_48_Laws_of_Power
Siddhartha.
"Ready Player One".
I would also suggest, "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson, and would echo "Cyptonomicon".
Approaching Zero: The Extraordinary Underworld of Hackers, Phreakers, Virus Writers, and Keyboard Criminals by Paul Mungo and Bryan Clough is excellent.
The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It, Centennial Edition Daniel Carter Beard
Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed Rich, Ben R.
and finally, which is hard to stomach sometimes.
Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms, and Source Code by Bruce Schneier
Maybe the problem is that it was written in 1992 and so much has been inspired by it that now the book seems tired and cliche. But if you're recommending it to a 14 year old, they're already going to be familiar with some of the works that have been inspired by Snow Crash, and they will likely find it as insufferable as well.
And isn't Ready Player One heavy into the 80's pop culture? A 14 year old was born in 2001... they don't know what the 80's means.