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The truth is, if you ask me this 100 times, you'll probably get 100 different answers, because it's impossible to really pick just one (well two, separating by
by mindcrime 2y ago
The truth is, if you ask me this 100 times, you'll probably get 100 different answers, because it's impossible to really pick just one (well two, separating by fiction/non-fiction). But for today I'll go with:
Fiction: Neuromancer
Non-fiction: The Selfish Gene
- justchad 2y agoCame to say The Selfish Gene for nonfiction. Changed the way I thought about things.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y agoHaven't read The Selfish Gene, but reading the summary it looks like it touches on some very similar themes as Stephen Pinker's How The Mind Works, which I thought was also a great book. Gave me a good intuitive understanding of how the human neural system evolved, and I found so much of the book to be prescient and timely in our current "AI era".
- loveparade 2y agoWhat people forget to mention is when they have read a book. I read the Selfish Gene when I was a teen and it left a lasting impression. It was published in 1989. How the Mind works was published in 2011. Reading the Selfish Gene today as an adult, when you've probably read a dozen similar books already, is not going to have the same effect. It's going to be pretty boring. That's why asking for book recommendations is flawed to begin with.
- llamaimperative 2y agoWhat similar books are there to The Selfish Gene? I read it not too long ago and found it astonishing. People are generally enthralled by Sapiens which is just a very mediocre extension + shallow interpretation of Dawkins’ thesis.
- etiam 2y agoProbably too similar, but do follow up with "The Extended Phenotype" if you haven't already.
- llamaimperative 2y agoI have been meaning to come back to this since reading Selfish Gene, but haven't gotten to it! I suppose I should :)
- mikhailfranco 2y agoDawkins is not an original researcher. He is wonderful at synthesizing research and writing eloquent popular books. The importance of The Selfish Gene is to write a correct summary of the neo-Darwinian project. In the future (perhaps even now), it will be more famous for the coining of meme (in an appendix IIRC). However, The Extended Phenotype is a remarkably original exposition of important (then) contemporary frontiers of Darwinism. It is a powerful idea, powerfully described. It is certainly his most important original contribution to the literature. And a beautiful book. True and convincing. It will change your view of the world. There is no higher praise.
- NortySpock 2y ago"The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture" by Darrel Ray follows in the footsteps of The Selfish Gene to certain logical conclusions about clusters of related memes/concepts (specifically: how religion(s) formed and evolved as clusters of overlapping concepts)
- canadianfella 2y agoThe Selfish Gene was published in 1976, not 1989. I read it as a teen in the 90s and it is probably my favourite book of all time. Also, Bill Bryson’s “Short History of Nearly Everything”. Brian Greene’s “The Fabric of the Cosmos” (and all of his other books) Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” and “The Blind Watchmaker” are also amazing. Fiction: Adrian Czajkowski‘s “Children of Time” and Orson Scott Card‘s “Ender’s Game” are both anong my favourites.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- layer8 2y agoHow the Mind works was published in 1997, and The Selfish Gene in 1976.
- Brian_K_White 2y agoThat's why it's an interesting question worth asking andbthinking about. It's fine that it's hard to answer, or the answer changes. The goal is not to actually determine the correct answer but to explore the possible answers and the reasoning that produces them, and the differences that different people produce.
- brcmthrowaway 2y agoHow do people read Neuromancer its just technobabble
- lanfeust6 2y agoAs a stylish thriller mostly
- mindcrime 2y agoA lot of the appeal is aesthetic / stylistic. Yes it's "hard to read" compared to more "traditional" works, but it has its own unique appeal... an appeal that resonates with some people and not-so-much with others.
- imglorp 2y agoAnother part is that Gibson was the first to put together cyberpunk as a genre and an aesthetic and a little dystopian futurism. It was truly the first that spawned a number of now familiar ideas like AIs battling firewall and attack and VR as a UX method.
- diggan 2y ago> Fiction: Neuromancer I've tried twice to read this, but it looses me about 10% in for some reason. Is it worth continuing past that? Does it get "better"? Or does that just signal that the whole book isn't for me?
- adamhp 2y agoI was in your boat. I revisited later and powered through and it does indeed get better. The narrative forms into something more cohesive and you start being less exhausted by all the lingo because you've learned it. You settle in. You have to sort of try to immerse yourself. I'd recommend trying to read in larger chunks of time and really absorb the aesthetic of the world.
- ataylor284_ 2y agoThis is exactly how I feel about Dune. The invented words and world-building are overwhelming at first, but once you absorb them it makes the narrative richer.
- layer8 2y agoAt least Dune has a glossary in the back.
- reddit_clone 2y agoHerbert was very clever in the sense that his made up words were close to real words. They were easily guessable.
- bityard 2y ago> exhausted by all the lingo I think that was my problem with Burning Chrome. Every sentence contained a new word or three that the reader is supposed to guess by context or conversation. Combined with something that read like stream-of-consciousness narration. I literally had no idea what was even happening after 30 or 45 minutes of reading. But then I had the same problem with Shakespeare, so maybe I'm just dimmer than most folk.
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- xutopia 2y agoThe Selfish Gene gave me lots to think about during my escape from the influence of religion in my life. That book gave me a solid idea that a lot of mystery could be explained by very simple concepts over a long period of time.
- aquir 2y agoThe Neuromancer has the greatest opening sentence of all times imho: "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."
- solarmist 2y agoSadly (for me) this now needs an annotated version for younger reader to fully understand. I'm starting to feel old on a more and more frequent cadence.
- analogwzrd 2y agoThis is a great line, though it might not have aged well. Younger generations might just think "Oh, the sky was black"
- j0hnyl 2y agoNeuromancer is by far my favorite novel. On first reading, it felt to me like someone was finally describing the world in a way that I saw it, but couldn't articulate myself. I come back to it every couple of years and it never fails to entertain me.