4 ms·

Book Dedications

37 points by walz 4mo ago

tt_dev 4mo ago
Holding on to a shadow where love and life once lived. These were touching to read
cr125rider 4mo ago
Man these tore me up. What wonderfully written sentiments.
dash2 4mo ago
If you read this and thought “these are twee, and I long not to read their books” - you got a friend in me. None of these comes close to hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frère.
seanhunter 4mo ago
One of my favourite dedications is in the preface to “Real Analysis: A long-form mathematics textbook” by Jay Cummings (which is as it sounds a maths textbook). The dedication reads “To my loving wife, who read this entire book, apart from the maths parts.”
- sanswork 4mo ago
  Along similar lines, Tad Williams dedicates each of his Otherland books to his dad but notes his dad doesn't read his books so probably won't know about it. By the 4th book his dad still doesn't know and he mentions something like "I'm thinking of creative ways to let him know like getting all my family in a room and saying 'Everyone that hasn't had a book dedicated to them take three steps forward...oops actually dad...'
jake-mullins 4mo ago
[dead]
ogundipeore 4mo ago
These are really beautiful. I stumbled on it this morning when I woke up & took a nap afterwards…ended up dreaming about my mum and giving her a warm goodbye hug. Thank you for sharing
patrickmay 4mo ago
Many of these are beautiful, but it's missing one of the best ever written, by Olin Shivers in the Scsh Reference Manual: Who should I thank? My so-called ``colleagues,'' who laugh at me behind my back, all the while becoming famous on my work? My worthless graduate students, whose computer skills appear to be limited to downloading bitmaps off of netnews? My parents, who are still waiting for me to quit ``fooling around with computers,'' go to med school, and become a radiologist? My department chairman, a manager who gives one new insight into and sympathy for disgruntled postal workers? My God, no one could blame me -- no one! -- if I went off the edge and just lost it completely one day. I couldn't get through the day as it is without the Prozac and Jack Daniels I keep on the shelf, behind my Tops-20 JSYS manuals. I start getting the shakes real bad around 10am, right before my advisor meetings. A 10 oz. Jack 'n Zac helps me get through the meetings without one of my students winding up with his severed head in a bowling-ball bag. They look at me funny; they think I twitch a lot. I'm not twitching. I'm controlling my impulse to snag my 9mm Sig-Sauer out from my day-pack and make a few strong points about the quality of undergraduate education in Amerika. If I thought anyone cared, if I thought anyone would even be reading this, I'd probably make an effort to keep up appearances until the last possible moment. But no one does, and no one will. So I can pretty much say exactly what I think. Oh, yes, the acknowledgements. I think not. I did it. I did it all, by myself.
AdhemarVandamme 4mo ago
Not on the list, yet likely of interest to the Hacker News audience, is the dedication in the first volume of Donald E. Knuth’s “The Art of Computer Programming”: “This series of books is affectionately dedicated to the Type 650 computer once installed at Case Institute of Technology, in remembrance of many pleasant evenings.”
brotherlattice 4mo ago
These are so beautiful!
dieselgate 4mo ago
My grandfather was a large-animal veterinarian and wrote a textbook about bovine health and nutrition. The book is dedicated to the dairy cow and how they're so important for human/civilization development. At some point I heard my grandmother was kind of upset it wasn't dedicated to her!
1000101 4mo ago
My most favorite dedication (sorry for ruining the special moment for you!) is from a book by Terry Eagleton, called "On Evil". There's an almost blank page which simply reads: "To Henry Kissinger"
mrroryflint 4mo ago
Why did you re-submit this? Was it deleted before?
stonecharioteer 4mo ago
I think my favourite are from the Otherworld books by Tadd Williams. He dedicated it to his dad who doesn't read and never told him about it. The gag goes on to all the books into the series.
ItalianPoetry 4mo ago
Shameless plug to my own version, https://dedications.fyi/ https://dedications.fyi/ , and my favorite dedication: https://dedications.fyi/dedication/linear-graphs-and-electrical-networks/ https://dedications.fyi/dedication/linear-graphs-and-electri...

Book Dedications

37 points by walz 4mo ago

tt_dev 4mo ago

Holding on to a shadow where love and life once lived. These were touching to read

cr125rider 4mo ago

Man these tore me up. What wonderfully written sentiments.

dash2 4mo ago

If you read this and thought “these are twee, and I long not to read their books” - you got a friend in me. None of these comes close to hypocrite lecteur, mon semblable, mon frère.

seanhunter 4mo ago

One of my favourite dedications is in the preface to “Real Analysis: A long-form mathematics textbook” by Jay Cummings (which is as it sounds a maths textbook). The dedication reads “To my loving wife, who read this entire book, apart from the maths parts.”

sanswork 4mo ago
Along similar lines, Tad Williams dedicates each of his Otherland books to his dad but notes his dad doesn't read his books so probably won't know about it. By the 4th book his dad still doesn't know and he mentions something like "I'm thinking of creative ways to let him know like getting all my family in a room and saying 'Everyone that hasn't had a book dedicated to them take three steps forward...oops actually dad...'

jake-mullins 4mo ago

[dead]

ogundipeore 4mo ago

These are really beautiful. I stumbled on it this morning when I woke up & took a nap afterwards…ended up dreaming about my mum and giving her a warm goodbye hug. Thank you for sharing

patrickmay 4mo ago

Many of these are beautiful, but it's missing one of the best ever written, by Olin Shivers in the Scsh Reference Manual: Who should I thank? My so-called ``colleagues,'' who laugh at me behind my back, all the while becoming famous on my work? My worthless graduate students, whose computer skills appear to be limited to downloading bitmaps off of netnews? My parents, who are still waiting for me to quit ``fooling around with computers,'' go to med school, and become a radiologist? My department chairman, a manager who gives one new insight into and sympathy for disgruntled postal workers? My God, no one could blame me -- no one! -- if I went off the edge and just lost it completely one day. I couldn't get through the day as it is without the Prozac and Jack Daniels I keep on the shelf, behind my Tops-20 JSYS manuals. I start getting the shakes real bad around 10am, right before my advisor meetings. A 10 oz. Jack 'n Zac helps me get through the meetings without one of my students winding up with his severed head in a bowling-ball bag. They look at me funny; they think I twitch a lot. I'm not twitching. I'm controlling my impulse to snag my 9mm Sig-Sauer out from my day-pack and make a few strong points about the quality of undergraduate education in Amerika. If I thought anyone cared, if I thought anyone would even be reading this, I'd probably make an effort to keep up appearances until the last possible moment. But no one does, and no one will. So I can pretty much say exactly what I think. Oh, yes, the acknowledgements. I think not. I did it. I did it all, by myself.

AdhemarVandamme 4mo ago

Not on the list, yet likely of interest to the Hacker News audience, is the dedication in the first volume of Donald E. Knuth’s “The Art of Computer Programming”: “This series of books is affectionately dedicated to the Type 650 computer once installed at Case Institute of Technology, in remembrance of many pleasant evenings.”

brotherlattice 4mo ago

These are so beautiful!

dieselgate 4mo ago

My grandfather was a large-animal veterinarian and wrote a textbook about bovine health and nutrition. The book is dedicated to the dairy cow and how they're so important for human/civilization development. At some point I heard my grandmother was kind of upset it wasn't dedicated to her!

1000101 4mo ago

My most favorite dedication (sorry for ruining the special moment for you!) is from a book by Terry Eagleton, called "On Evil". There's an almost blank page which simply reads: "To Henry Kissinger"

mrroryflint 4mo ago

Why did you re-submit this? Was it deleted before?

stonecharioteer 4mo ago

I think my favourite are from the Otherworld books by Tadd Williams. He dedicated it to his dad who doesn't read and never told him about it. The gag goes on to all the books into the series.

ItalianPoetry 4mo ago

Shameless plug to my own version, https://dedications.fyi/ https://dedications.fyi/ , and my favorite dedication: https://dedications.fyi/dedication/linear-graphs-and-electrical-networks/ https://dedications.fyi/dedication/linear-graphs-and-electri...