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In descending order (categories overlap, but I don't think there's _very_ much overlap between the ones listed here), roughly 430 mathematics, 260 philosophy, 2

by gjm11 5y ago

In descending order (categories overlap, but I don't think there's _very_ much overlap between the ones listed here), roughly 430 mathematics, 260 philosophy, 260 science, 230 computing, 210 history, 110 "reference" (meaning things like dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc.), 100 music, 100 puzzles, 100 language and languages.

IceMan0110 5y ago
Just out of curiosity, what would your "top 10" books be?
- gjm11 5y ago
  My brain is absolutely hopeless at top-10-like things. But here are a few gems from some of those categories. Mathematics: John Conway's "On Numbers and Games". (If you've run across the term "surreal numbers", this is the original source. Absolutely gorgeous, but heavy going if you aren't actually a mathematician.) David McKay's "Information theory, inference, and learning algorithms". (What it says on the tin. Don't expect this to be a practical guide to training neural networks or anything like that; it is a mathematics book.) Philosophy: Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons". (Contains some exceptionally clear thinking on thorny questions about personal identity and the like.) Gary Drescher's "Good and Real". (Drescher is primarily a computer-science-and-AI guy rather than a philosopher. He addresses a bunch of hairy philosophical questions from that perspective and I personally like it a lot. I confidently predict that some people will hate it.) Science: Gnaedig, Honyek & Riley's "200 puzzling physics problems". (Just what it says. Roughly undergraduate-physics level, some easier, some harder.) Steven Vogel's "Life in moving fluids". (Explores, e.g., the very considerable differences in what living in water means for a bacterium and for a whale on account of their different size. Fairly technical; he has other lighter books.) Computing: Donald Knuth's "TeX: the program". (A single volume of literate code, constituting the whole of his TeX typesetting system. The style is pretty old-fashioned but he's a genius.) Steven Skiena's "The algorithm design manual". (This would not be my recommendation if you want just one algorithms book; that should be Cormen, Rivest, Leiserson & Stein. But it's an excellent complement to a more standard sort of algorithms book.)
  - IceMan0110 5y ago
    Oh wow, thank you for this! I have been fascinated by Information Theory for quite some while now, so I hope David McKay's book is a good introduction to it. One of my personal favourite in Philosophy is "Finite and Infinite Games" by James P Carse. It had a profound impact on how I look at situations. I hope one of your suggestions does the same :)
    - gjm11 5y ago
      Fair warning: I don't think either of the philosophy books I mentioned is likely to scratch the same sort of itch as Carse's book.

by gjm11 5y ago

IceMan0110 5y ago

Just out of curiosity, what would your "top 10" books be?

gjm11 5y ago
My brain is absolutely hopeless at top-10-like things. But here are a few gems from some of those categories. Mathematics: John Conway's "On Numbers and Games". (If you've run across the term "surreal numbers", this is the original source. Absolutely gorgeous, but heavy going if you aren't actually a mathematician.) David McKay's "Information theory, inference, and learning algorithms". (What it says on the tin. Don't expect this to be a practical guide to training neural networks or anything like that; it is a mathematics book.) Philosophy: Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons". (Contains some exceptionally clear thinking on thorny questions about personal identity and the like.) Gary Drescher's "Good and Real". (Drescher is primarily a computer-science-and-AI guy rather than a philosopher. He addresses a bunch of hairy philosophical questions from that perspective and I personally like it a lot. I confidently predict that some people will hate it.) Science: Gnaedig, Honyek & Riley's "200 puzzling physics problems". (Just what it says. Roughly undergraduate-physics level, some easier, some harder.) Steven Vogel's "Life in moving fluids". (Explores, e.g., the very considerable differences in what living in water means for a bacterium and for a whale on account of their different size. Fairly technical; he has other lighter books.) Computing: Donald Knuth's "TeX: the program". (A single volume of literate code, constituting the whole of his TeX typesetting system. The style is pretty old-fashioned but he's a genius.) Steven Skiena's "The algorithm design manual". (This would not be my recommendation if you want just one algorithms book; that should be Cormen, Rivest, Leiserson & Stein. But it's an excellent complement to a more standard sort of algorithms book.)
- IceMan0110 5y ago
  Oh wow, thank you for this! I have been fascinated by Information Theory for quite some while now, so I hope David McKay's book is a good introduction to it. One of my personal favourite in Philosophy is "Finite and Infinite Games" by James P Carse. It had a profound impact on how I look at situations. I hope one of your suggestions does the same :)
  - gjm11 5y ago
    Fair warning: I don't think either of the philosophy books I mentioned is likely to scratch the same sort of itch as Carse's book.