I have been following Hubski for quite a while now. And made this account specifically so I could ask you guys for some recommendation on non fiction books.
I have read the usual books like Stiff by Mary Roach, Complications by Atul Gawande, The Hot Zone etc. I am looking for more. And I am turning to you guys because I trust your intellect.
Not sure how to edit the links but here's one thread which really intrigued me : http://hubski.com/pub?id=139171
Are there any more recommendations you guys are willing to share with me?
Always give kb's Geopolitical Reading List a look over, and I personally recommend A People's History of the United States from that list. Although it's guaranteed to darken your worldview, unless you're already massively cynical as is. I would also recommend Other Peoples Money And How The Bankers Use It by Louis Brandeis. And I'm personally making a point of reading the scriptures of all major world religions at some point, currently trying to decide which to get into first.
If you want something bizarre and entertaining and historical, I suggest Fordlandia.
I just read the description of this book and it sounds fascinating. Could be fiction from the description, it's so bizarre. How is it?
You're going to need to narrow this down. I also question whether anyone who makes a post saying "give me things to read" actually goes and reads them. If you really need to appeal to hubski to find things to read, I question your commitment. (Anyway, there's not much reason to move past the thread you linked; I'm still working my way through it, personally.) But The Hot Zone was fucking interesting, so who knows. Lately I've been reading criticisms of our financial system. Managed by the Markets, Flash Boys and The Big Short and Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, the new Piketty I'm saving for September, A Demon of Our Own Design, a few others. But again, just use the thread you linked.
I don't know what all your "usual books" are but here are a few I liked. These tend to lean towards popular science, not sure if that interests you, but here goes... If you like science try Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. If you want loads of different facts, culture, and so on, An Incomplete Education is for you. Others...Science: Carl Sagan's Cosmos. For grammar nuts: The Elements of Style, Strunk and White. Lessig's "Free Culture". Guns, Germs, and Steel. A Brief History of Time. The Selfish Gene. Of course, there are plenty of classics too. Anything that starts with the word "Principia" has a good chance of giving you a run for your money.
The Discoverers is another science book. I found the section on time, and all of the different types of clocks people made particularly interesting.
I read The Emperor of All Maladies several years ago and I found it absolutely fascinating. I'd also recommend Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight which is a memoir. I might also recommend First They Killed My Father which is also a memoir, but from a woman who experienced the rise of the Khmer Rouge.
The Making of Global Capitalism by Sam Gindin Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson The Russian Revolution by Sheila Fitzpatrick How to Do Things with Video Games by Ian Bogost
Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine. It's a really illuminating book exploring the construction of gender differences.
Definitely this because it's an excellent, but horribly bittersweet look at Op Redwing. Bittersweet because while the rest of the Operators (soldiers... what have you...) except Marcus Lutrell (sp?) all died, this is his story.
I've just started reading Return of a King by William Dalrymple, which details the British invasion of Afghanistan by the East India Company in 1839-42, which ended up being the worst lost the British ever endured in a war. It's a thick book, but damn if it isn't good so far. He really, really knows his shit.
I'm nowhere near the most seasoned reader here, but this is definitely my department. Are there certain subjects/topics/areas/fields of interest you're leaning towards? Biographies?
Gotcha. Here are short but very important reads in my opinion, by Malcolm Gladwell: Blink The Tipping Point Outliers Great place to start. Not necessarily in that order, pick whatever stands out to you. They're quite well-known and I've read them all; each one leaves you with a sort of wholesome contentment that I can't totally explain, and the resources to improve how effectively to understand/analyze things in different perspectives. Most of my reading is in finance/business and principally philosophy, so I can offer some recs in both of those fields as well if you like.
Be careful. Malcolm Gladwell is full of shit. At best he writes pseudoscience. If you're looking for some sort of general introduction to nonfiction, there are probably a hundred thousand books you should read before you start in on Gladwell.
i just finished a Psychology degree and before I started it I really liked Malcolm Gladwell and thought he was spot on, but to be honest a lot of the pop Psych I personally find unconvincing. It's kind of like they've been made to dine out on. They're interesting but I don't think very scientific. Do still quite like them though I guess. Just while I'm commenting, OP my favourite nonfiction book I've read recently was Guns, Germs & Steel - but I think it might suffer from the same sort of thing I was just talking about.
I guess it was inevitable Jared Diamond show up in this thread. Similar to what I said about the Selfish Gene (though the authors aren't remotely on the same level) -- if all you read is Guns, Germs and Steel, you'll have an incomplete picture of cultural anthropology and so on. Back when I read it I also read scientific reactions to it; not pretty. w/e
Sweet, let's get started: - The Consolations of Philosophy. Again an easier read, great way to get situated and have a lasting knowledge of the basics from Plato to the present day. - The Rebel by Albert Camus. Much meatier than Consolations, but a profound standard of philosophy and a significant necessity to every philosopher's collection. - Plato: Jumping to the other extreme of the difficulty spectrum, for our purposes I'll consider this non-fiction because it's intended to be. Read the Dialogues, Sophists, and get associated with the Republic. At my current internship, the founder of the bank (whom I did not recognize) started talking to me about my interest in books. I mentioned philosophy and made the grave mistake of citing The Republic... I last read it in 8th grade. As luck would have it he knew everything Plato ever put on paper by heart and wiped the floor with my stuttering uncertainties and backpedaling. Dear god, if you read Plato make it count and read it well. -Slowly but thoroughly go through essays by Nietzsche, Camus & Sartre, and other philosophers that interest you instead of trying to tackle a 1,000-page manifesto that you know you won't have the patience for. As a sidenote that isn't directly philosophy, the last leap to confidently calling myself an atheist (at least, confidently not associating with any faith or religion) was The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, if you're into that. And if you are, The Selfish Gene is a much smaller, great read as well. roll the drums please, the endgame: I should probably include this on it's own, but there is a book called GEB- Godel, Escher, Bach- that is the only book I have ever tackled that I had to drop because I just wasn't ready for it yet. However, I've been told by a select handful of the most intelligent and successful people I've met that that is one of the most significant intellectual texts in recent times. I honestly can't say much more because I just don't know enough to say-- but according to the bigshots, this is the motherload. By the way, I'm curious kleinbl00 if you have read or heard of this book.. I feel like it would tickle your fancy; tickle it with an electric cattle prod, that is.
It's on the list. reasonably near the top.
The Selfish Gene isn't about atheism and it's only a tad shorter than The God Delusion while being much more complicated. It's an excellent book, but it's also worth nothing that a lot has changed since it came out and many prominent biologists have significant issues with various sections. If it's the only evolution book you read you'll be left with a wanting understanding of the (ever-changing) discipline. I'm in the midst of Godel, Escher, Bach. Boy. Don't start with that. Read it, but not first.
On that account I would recommend The Selfish Meme: A critical reassessment if you are at all interested in contemporary extensions of meme theory.
Her later work on Cultural Evolution has a bit of a twist. In it she rejects the term 'meme' in favor of the title, partly due to the mass adaption of the term between her writing. She's an independent scholar, and clearly well respected enough to be published with Cambridge.
Poor phrasing on my part, I didn't mean to imply Selfish Gene was about atheism. I was also unaware of its obsolete-ness, I was offering a path to take if the god delusion was of interest to him. You've read GEB? thoughts?
It's not obsolete, more foundational and representative of one viewpoint out of several. I'm not qualified particularly to say more. I am enjoying Godel, Escher, Bach in the extreme but I haven't reached the parts that are supposedly more troublesome. I haven't taken any math in some time so I'll probably attempt to draw big picture conclusions more than follow individual arguments. We'll see. I challenged myself on hubski a month or so ago to read 30 books this summer and I'm at 26. I imagine I'll get closer to 50. Will make a big post at the end with suggestions and so on.
jesus. Do you enjoy/retain those books? I read fairly slowly, I guess you could call it leisurely, but when I'm assigned a book at school or have a deadline to read it, I'm paralyzed and can't do it at all- certainly not while enjoying it at the same time.
Well, sure. Compartmentalized recall. It goes without saying that I enjoy them, it's free knowledge. I don't understand why the source of a book has to do with your enjoyment of it, but that seems to be a pretty common phenomenon with school books.
I'm not aware that it's a term per se. I meant it literally. I've read around 45 books so far this summer and I couldn't sit here and name them all but if you named the title of one I could give you the plot, the characters or events, what I thought about it, etc. To me that counts as retention, because your memory is rarely going to be tested in the former fashion.
If you want a good introduction to Foucault, here you go: The Funambulist Pamphlets: Vol. 2.