5 ms·

I love your thought, and I tend to agree. There's way too much redundant and unnecessary information in typical books. That's why I think is better to read the

by 300 10y ago

I love your thought, and I tend to agree. There's way too much redundant and unnecessary information in typical books. That's why I think is better to read the best books on the topic more times, than few other average books repeating the same stuff in different words.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
TeMPOraL 10y ago
Fortunately - and this is something I see many smart people around me not realizing - we live in the day and age where it's trivial to identify and get the very best books humanity has produced about any given topic. That is, as long as you can read English.
- Paul_S 10y ago
  How, please tell me. I'll pay you for that list. Do I have to sacrifice my firstborn for this?
  - ashark 10y ago
    For most technical, scientific, and mathematic topics, it's usually very easy to find the next best book to read with a google search or two. Starting on or strengthening long-forgotten Calculus? Probably get Spivak. Et c. This might get tougher as you approach a field's state-of-the-art, but by then "what to read next" will often come from a journal, not a book. Literature and verse? Harold Bloom's western canon list, whatever its faults, is pretty damn good and could keep one busy for a lifetime. If you want to mix in more works by e.g. women or more asian works or whatever, there are very good lists for that, too: http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/whatbooks.html http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/whatbooks.html (above includes Bloom's list) Want to learn science and math from classics? The list from How to Read a Book should help, and St. John's College's reading list is public: https://www.sjc.edu https://www.sjc.edu For a given topic, there's often a subreddit with a decent reading list in the FAQ. Which topic(s) are you having trouble with?
    - Paul_S 10y ago
      Not any topic in particular. Things in my own field I can judge myself and I don't really get to chose anyway but I'm talking about general reading. Most lists just tell you which books are popular. I'd be reading nothing but Harry Potters if I followed those lists. I'm talking about choosing a book I will like. Not you, not the critic, not the public. Following these kinds of static lists doesn't really fair better than looking at the cover. There needs to be some algorithm that can be applied to my books which is what I was hoping goodreads would do for me but their recommendations are a joke - they just recommend whatever goodreads author they're currently promoting regardless of what you like.
      - TeMPOraL 10y ago
        I didn't realize you're talking fiction. The "algorithm" I applied works best for nonfiction, because those you choose by objective criteria. As for recommendation engines for fiction, I don't know any that don't have this conflict of interests you described with Goodreads. Personally, I tend to pick up books that are recommended by friends, writers I like reading and people on HN. There's way too much fiction to read all of it, but I try to aim for one (or both) of two separate types: insightful and genre-popular. Insightful, because I love to read new ideas, and genre-popular, because culture is pretty much defined by your ability to talk about it with other people.
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Most fields that aren't freshly created cutting-edge research can be handled by simple Google queries: - best books on <subject X> - best books on <subject X> reddit Look for titles most often mentioned/recommended by people in the <field X>.
ezequiel-garzon 10y ago
If you feel like sharing, does the number 300 hundred hold a special meaning to you for any reason? Your handle, the title of the post, I see a patter, Watson :)
- 300 10y ago
  No special meaning at all. I recently realized I almost crossed this number, so I thought to share what I learned. I'm not proud of the number of books I've read. Actually, I would prefer that I've read less books, but that I've read more times the best ones (in my opinion).
  - TeMPOraL 10y ago
    Exploration vs exploitation :). It's hard to judge well. Were you to read 30 books 10 times each, you'd probably wonder if you couldn't read more different books instead ;). I wonder what the perfect number is. For non-fiction, I guess you'll hit diminishing returns with most books in something like 5 iterations. But then again, I want to take a following challenge: pick one good fiction book, and read it 100 times. I've read (in Adler's "How to Read a Book", I think) that the way you understand and feel about a piece of writing will change profoundly after so many read-throughs.

by 300 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

TeMPOraL 10y ago

Fortunately - and this is something I see many smart people around me not realizing - we live in the day and age where it's trivial to identify and get the very best books humanity has produced about any given topic. That is, as long as you can read English.

Paul_S 10y ago
How, please tell me. I'll pay you for that list. Do I have to sacrifice my firstborn for this?
- ashark 10y ago
  For most technical, scientific, and mathematic topics, it's usually very easy to find the next best book to read with a google search or two. Starting on or strengthening long-forgotten Calculus? Probably get Spivak. Et c. This might get tougher as you approach a field's state-of-the-art, but by then "what to read next" will often come from a journal, not a book. Literature and verse? Harold Bloom's western canon list, whatever its faults, is pretty damn good and could keep one busy for a lifetime. If you want to mix in more works by e.g. women or more asian works or whatever, there are very good lists for that, too: http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/whatbooks.html http://www.interleaves.org/~rteeter/whatbooks.html (above includes Bloom's list) Want to learn science and math from classics? The list from How to Read a Book should help, and St. John's College's reading list is public: https://www.sjc.edu https://www.sjc.edu For a given topic, there's often a subreddit with a decent reading list in the FAQ. Which topic(s) are you having trouble with?
  - Paul_S 10y ago
    Not any topic in particular. Things in my own field I can judge myself and I don't really get to chose anyway but I'm talking about general reading. Most lists just tell you which books are popular. I'd be reading nothing but Harry Potters if I followed those lists. I'm talking about choosing a book I will like. Not you, not the critic, not the public. Following these kinds of static lists doesn't really fair better than looking at the cover. There needs to be some algorithm that can be applied to my books which is what I was hoping goodreads would do for me but their recommendations are a joke - they just recommend whatever goodreads author they're currently promoting regardless of what you like.
    - TeMPOraL 10y ago
      I didn't realize you're talking fiction. The "algorithm" I applied works best for nonfiction, because those you choose by objective criteria. As for recommendation engines for fiction, I don't know any that don't have this conflict of interests you described with Goodreads. Personally, I tend to pick up books that are recommended by friends, writers I like reading and people on HN. There's way too much fiction to read all of it, but I try to aim for one (or both) of two separate types: insightful and genre-popular. Insightful, because I love to read new ideas, and genre-popular, because culture is pretty much defined by your ability to talk about it with other people.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Most fields that aren't freshly created cutting-edge research can be handled by simple Google queries: - best books on <subject X> - best books on <subject X> reddit Look for titles most often mentioned/recommended by people in the <field X>.

ezequiel-garzon 10y ago

If you feel like sharing, does the number 300 hundred hold a special meaning to you for any reason? Your handle, the title of the post, I see a patter, Watson :)

300 10y ago
No special meaning at all. I recently realized I almost crossed this number, so I thought to share what I learned. I'm not proud of the number of books I've read. Actually, I would prefer that I've read less books, but that I've read more times the best ones (in my opinion).
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  Exploration vs exploitation :). It's hard to judge well. Were you to read 30 books 10 times each, you'd probably wonder if you couldn't read more different books instead ;). I wonder what the perfect number is. For non-fiction, I guess you'll hit diminishing returns with most books in something like 5 iterations. But then again, I want to take a following challenge: pick one good fiction book, and read it 100 times. I've read (in Adler's "How to Read a Book", I think) that the way you understand and feel about a piece of writing will change profoundly after so many read-throughs.