3 ms·
A rather superficial status symbol, I'd say: owning a book does not equate to knowing or understanding its contents. I purchased my copies individually (back w
by gyepi 16y ago
A rather superficial status symbol, I'd say: owning a book does not equate to knowing or understanding its contents.
I purchased my copies individually (back when I was a student and I could ill afford them) and, ignoring Knuth's suggesting algorithm for reading the series, read the "interesting" sections quite carefully. I still use them for reference and occasionally find time to re-read parts of it.
- gjm11 16y agoPretty ineffective status symbol, too. How many people whom you might want to impress are going to see exactly what's on your bookshelves, and know enough to recognize Knuth as impressive? I'll hazard a guess that most people for whom those are true also know enough to be more influenced by other more meaningful things than what books you happen to have on your shelves. (I bet some people do buy Knuth as a sort of status signal to themselves, though.)
- kjhgfgbhnj 16y agoI wonder if heavily thumbed annotated editions cost more?