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Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is impossible to give a good answer to the question. Books are not oranges.
by aristofun 2y ago
Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is impossible to give a good answer to the question.
Books are not oranges.
- brudgers 2y agoI got to thinking -- a handful of books is approximately one book. And who ranks their oranges?
- tocs3 2y ago"Books are not oranges." As an aside, what do you mean by this? I would have an even harder time giving and answer to the best orange I've eaten. The Hobbit. My brother read it to me when I was just starting to read. When he was done I asked him to read it again. he said no and I learned to read in earnest. I was often shooed out of the adult section of the library. I have read lots of books by now.
- aristofun 2y ago> what do you mean by this That books are not a commodity.
- ruraljuror 2y agoI feel like it would be hard to choose the best of a commodity, so this is even more perplexing to me.
- Terretta 2y agoEasier because directly comparable, harder because one can't tell the difference?
- sam29681749 2y agoThe point _may_ be that oranges can be evaluated based on a few simple variables (eg., richness of flavor, juiciness, etc.), where there's no common set of variables that can be used to evaluate all the different types of books (ie, what makes a good history book differs to what makes a good philosophy book, etc.) and if they can't be compared, a 'best' can't be established. That said, as the author alluded to, 'best' in this context is vague and can mean what we want it to, eg., person a may consider best to mean the book that has had the widest influence, where person b may consider it to mean the book that they personally found the most insightful, etc.
- canadianfella 2y agoRight. That’s why it’s helpful to get recommendations.
- wruza 2y agoThe best orange has a structure of a peak ripe grapefruit. Peel doesn’t stick, micro-columns separate easily and burst with juice. If grapefruits were orange-flavored, I’d eat them all day.
- talldrinkofwhat 2y agoStill waiting for January and my morning ritual of juicing a small grapefruit into an 8oz ice-filled mason jar. It's a damn shame we haven't figured out how to coerce citrus like we do tomatoes.
- tsukikage 2y agoEver tried pomelo?
- bo1024 2y agoIt's also impossible to give a bad answer, what are you worried about? Go for it.
- oidar 2y ago>Unless youve just read a handful of books in your life it is impossible to give a good answer to the question. And yet, there are many answers to that question in this thread.
- aristofun 2y agoand none of them directly and reliably answers the asked question :)
- ComputerGuru 2y agoAu contraire ! I was a ridiculously voracious reader (if I saw it, I wouldn’t put it down until I’d read it) and my answer was always “hard to say, no favorite.” But then one day you read that book that stands out from everything else (to you, for various personal reasons that might not translate the same for the next person) and suddenly, just like that, you have a favorite book. I wish you will discover this feeling one day!
- BizarroLand 2y agoSome books are oranges. Some are apples. Some are kumquats and carrots and key-lime pie. Some are soups made by your grandmother while you sat in a high-chair and your parents laughed and talked with your uncles in the living room. Some are the smell of coffee and bacon and eggs and a little more smoke than usual in the air in the morning when your dad cooked breakfast. It's okay to have a special and favorite book, just like it is okay to have a special and favorite food.