6 ms·

I wish when I was 14 I was exposed to more contemporary literature, instead of great classics. And I have no regrets about missing out on math books—most of my

I wish when I was 14 I was exposed to more contemporary literature, instead of great classics. And I have no regrets about missing out on math books—most of my friends went to math camp for that kind of knowledge. I'd recommend David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest; Junot Diaz's This is How You Lose Her; The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis; Haruki Murakami's Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. I wish when I went into college I understood women better, people with mental health issues, sexuality, drugs, rich people, powerful people, old people. He'll have 2x4 year periods where he'll be able to build long-lasting relationships. Understanding himself and other people will pay off much better than solving puzzles. So I'd stick to really aggressive contemporary fiction. He'll find math on his own.

andkon 12y ago
Agreed with more literature! More than that: as a guiding principle, read stuff by people who aren't like you. The OP's list has exactly zero female authors in it. It's hard to grow personally when you aren't confronting and coming to terms with radically different experiences, and yet that's what books do best: they confront you.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  > read stuff by people who aren't like you this.
bananaoomarang 12y ago
Yup, literature, literature, literature will pay off hugely later in his life, endless math books will lead to frustration!
NhanH 12y ago
I'm 25 and I have no understanding of human, sexuality, rich people, old people etc... How do I catch up?
- afarrell 12y ago
  Read stories. Start with short stories and blog posts. Also audiobooks are great for when you are walking around. Take walks where you talk to yourself or a friend about those stories and thereby think about them more clearly via the same mechanism that makes rubber-duck debugging a good way to solve technical problems. This YouTube series is a good start to how to think about stories: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTfqc0h6Pe8vb https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTf... Actually, John Green's works in general aren't bad for what you are after, but don't restrict yourself to one author. Accept that not only are all these things maddeningly complex, but that you will never be comfortable with their ambiguity. Also, go out into the world. Learn to be a good listener so those who are tired, scared, lonely, or otherwise vulnerable will come to you for comfort.
  - qznc 12y ago
    I think you give too much credit to stories. I fully agree with listening to people. You need to respect them first, though. Every human being tries to live a good life. The filthy beggar on the street, the greedy wall street trader, the corrupt cop, the geeky programmer. I listed stereotypes. If you get to know people, you learn how they are not stereotypes. It does not matter if you travel around the world or around the block. You can meet very different people everywhere. Usually people love to talk about themselves. Just ask questions. More concrete? Find something you dislike (folk music, Pokemon, PHP, Justin Bieber, conservatives, art museums, baseball, soap operas), then find out why other people love it. Learn about biases, fallacies, psychology, persuasion. We meatbags are so broken, confused, and warped.
    - afarrell 12y ago
      My post definitely does. Too often we pattern-match against stories we already know and don't examine where reality deviates. But I don't know how to counteract that besides other countervailing or attached stories.
- watmough 12y ago
  I would highly recommend the books of Radcliffe Hall.
sanderjd 12y ago
On the other hand, don't neglect the classics because you think they're played out. I think someone influential made a snide comment to me when I was young about how overrated and irrelevant Dickens and Shakespeare are, so I didn't read them until after college, at which point I discovered how misguided I had been. But yes, definitely, there is great literature from the 90s, 00s, and 10s that young people are often not exposed to!
- TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
  I think they're overrated - for teens. I know why we inflict them on kids, but they're hard to appreciate until you're an adult. I know a super-smart fourteen year old. He tells me The Hunger Games and Harry Potter are the best books he's read. When I was in my teens I was reading: Herman Hesse Thomas Mann John Barth (which shows how old I am...) John Irving John Updike Doris Lessing A lot of SF, classic/mainstream and otherwise Literal piles of electronic and computer hobby mags OMNI magazine Articles in Encyclopedia Britannica about tensor analysis and simultaneity which I totally failed to understand A buy-weekly-and-keep popular subscription encyclopedia I talked my parents into getting for me. Of those, OMNI made the biggest impression because it hit an art/science/futurism sweet spot that I haven't seen copied since. (Mondo 2000 was on a different moon of the same planet. Wired is a very poor imitation.) The buy-weekly encyclopedia was unexpectedly useful too, because it covered things like art history and politics I'd never have thought about otherwise. I think 14 is as much about curiosity, creativity and emotions as raw intellect. So if you're just creating a reading list about stuff to think about in a clever way, you're going to be missing a lot of potential for more rounded development. I'd think about experiences as well as books. Go to sports. Go to an opera. Go to art galleries. Go see bands. Travel and have adventures. Go to a political debate. Go see some classical Greek tragedy or comedy. Couch surf with strangers and take the kid along. Go hiking a long way from the Internet. Teach some survival skills. If the 14 yo doesn't want to have the fam along, offer free tickets and travel for them and friends. (Not so much for the travel...) And so on. Leave the compiler theory books for later.
  - sanderjd 12y ago
    I agree with your entire comment except the very first sentence. I think all the stuff you mention is fantastic for 14-year-olds – Harry Potter and (the first) Hunger Games are great and absolutely "new classics" – but so are some of the standard classics. It's true that most people will appreciate them more as adults, but that doesn't make them useless. Of course time is limited, and prioritizing is tough, so maybe some of the experiential stuff you mention is worth prioritizing above old crusty books, but I still think a good mix is a good goal.
ultrasandwich 12y ago
Yes, this. And if I had read DFW and Lydia Davis as a 14 year old, I shudder to think how far I'd be ahead at understanding the complexities of being alive and knowing what to pursue and when. Those two authors did more for my emotional growth than just about anything.

andkon 12y ago

Agreed with more literature! More than that: as a guiding principle, read stuff by people who aren't like you. The OP's list has exactly zero female authors in it. It's hard to grow personally when you aren't confronting and coming to terms with radically different experiences, and yet that's what books do best: they confront you.

Tloewald 12y ago
> read stuff by people who aren't like you this.

bananaoomarang 12y ago

Yup, literature, literature, literature will pay off hugely later in his life, endless math books will lead to frustration!

NhanH 12y ago

I'm 25 and I have no understanding of human, sexuality, rich people, old people etc... How do I catch up?

afarrell 12y ago
Read stories. Start with short stories and blog posts. Also audiobooks are great for when you are walking around. Take walks where you talk to yourself or a friend about those stories and thereby think about them more clearly via the same mechanism that makes rubber-duck debugging a good way to solve technical problems. This YouTube series is a good start to how to think about stories: https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTfqc0h6Pe8vb https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8dPuuaLjXtOeEc9ME62zTf... Actually, John Green's works in general aren't bad for what you are after, but don't restrict yourself to one author. Accept that not only are all these things maddeningly complex, but that you will never be comfortable with their ambiguity. Also, go out into the world. Learn to be a good listener so those who are tired, scared, lonely, or otherwise vulnerable will come to you for comfort.
- qznc 12y ago
  I think you give too much credit to stories. I fully agree with listening to people. You need to respect them first, though. Every human being tries to live a good life. The filthy beggar on the street, the greedy wall street trader, the corrupt cop, the geeky programmer. I listed stereotypes. If you get to know people, you learn how they are not stereotypes. It does not matter if you travel around the world or around the block. You can meet very different people everywhere. Usually people love to talk about themselves. Just ask questions. More concrete? Find something you dislike (folk music, Pokemon, PHP, Justin Bieber, conservatives, art museums, baseball, soap operas), then find out why other people love it. Learn about biases, fallacies, psychology, persuasion. We meatbags are so broken, confused, and warped.
  - afarrell 12y ago
    My post definitely does. Too often we pattern-match against stories we already know and don't examine where reality deviates. But I don't know how to counteract that besides other countervailing or attached stories.
watmough 12y ago
I would highly recommend the books of Radcliffe Hall.

sanderjd 12y ago

On the other hand, don't neglect the classics because you think they're played out. I think someone influential made a snide comment to me when I was young about how overrated and irrelevant Dickens and Shakespeare are, so I didn't read them until after college, at which point I discovered how misguided I had been. But yes, definitely, there is great literature from the 90s, 00s, and 10s that young people are often not exposed to!

TheOtherHobbes 12y ago
I think they're overrated - for teens. I know why we inflict them on kids, but they're hard to appreciate until you're an adult. I know a super-smart fourteen year old. He tells me The Hunger Games and Harry Potter are the best books he's read. When I was in my teens I was reading: Herman Hesse Thomas Mann John Barth (which shows how old I am...) John Irving John Updike Doris Lessing A lot of SF, classic/mainstream and otherwise Literal piles of electronic and computer hobby mags OMNI magazine Articles in Encyclopedia Britannica about tensor analysis and simultaneity which I totally failed to understand A buy-weekly-and-keep popular subscription encyclopedia I talked my parents into getting for me. Of those, OMNI made the biggest impression because it hit an art/science/futurism sweet spot that I haven't seen copied since. (Mondo 2000 was on a different moon of the same planet. Wired is a very poor imitation.) The buy-weekly encyclopedia was unexpectedly useful too, because it covered things like art history and politics I'd never have thought about otherwise. I think 14 is as much about curiosity, creativity and emotions as raw intellect. So if you're just creating a reading list about stuff to think about in a clever way, you're going to be missing a lot of potential for more rounded development. I'd think about experiences as well as books. Go to sports. Go to an opera. Go to art galleries. Go see bands. Travel and have adventures. Go to a political debate. Go see some classical Greek tragedy or comedy. Couch surf with strangers and take the kid along. Go hiking a long way from the Internet. Teach some survival skills. If the 14 yo doesn't want to have the fam along, offer free tickets and travel for them and friends. (Not so much for the travel...) And so on. Leave the compiler theory books for later.
- sanderjd 12y ago
  I agree with your entire comment except the very first sentence. I think all the stuff you mention is fantastic for 14-year-olds – Harry Potter and (the first) Hunger Games are great and absolutely "new classics" – but so are some of the standard classics. It's true that most people will appreciate them more as adults, but that doesn't make them useless. Of course time is limited, and prioritizing is tough, so maybe some of the experiential stuff you mention is worth prioritizing above old crusty books, but I still think a good mix is a good goal.

ultrasandwich 12y ago

Yes, this. And if I had read DFW and Lydia Davis as a 14 year old, I shudder to think how far I'd be ahead at understanding the complexities of being alive and knowing what to pursue and when. Those two authors did more for my emotional growth than just about anything.