The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Want eat book

So, anyone want to recommend an offbeat book for the month? It can be esoteric or require a "background." But it has to be good.

Tayssir John Gabbour
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Cookie good!

Anonymizer
Sunday, January 25, 2004

A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail
by Bill Bryson (Author)

Mike
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Heck, read ANYTHING by Bill Bryson. Definitely one of the great "travel" writers of all time.

I must admit, though, to feeling very sorry for the guy who accompanied him on parts of the Appalachian walk, only to be pilloried in later publication.

HeWhoMustBeConfused
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
Touching the Void by some other guy

Sunday, January 25, 2004

If you want to write by Brenda Ueland.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1555972608/qid=1075010383/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-4973514-6575317?v=glance&s=books

Enjoy

Prakash S
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Here's a taste of Into Thin Air

http://outside.away.com/outside/destinations/199609/199609_into_thin_air_1.html

Sunday, January 25, 2004

"The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect"
Very worth reading, IMHO.

http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/

Philo

Philo
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Walden by Henry David Thoreau, written 150 years ago it says a lot about modern ways of living.

Tony Edgecombe
Sunday, January 25, 2004

<quote>
So, anyone want to recommend an offbeat book for the month? It can be esoteric or require a "background." But it has to be good.
</quote>

The Bible. It meets all the conditions. Make sure you read from the begining to end, just as you would any other book.

Indian Developer in India
Sunday, January 25, 2004

"The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind" - Julian Jaynes

A stunning work, which, whether fully correct or not, will make your brains start to leak out of your ears - at the least you may start hearing voices (an inside joke if you've read the work).

As an added inducement for Neal Stephenson fans (whose work could also arguably be presented as a response here), virtually all of Stephenson's work is predicated upon this book's central thesis.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0618057072/qid=1075050603/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-5478932-7157423?v=glance&s=books

Mongo
Sunday, January 25, 2004

On second thought, I probably shouldn't have said all Stephensons's works are _predicated_ on TOOCITBOTBM. "The Big U" and "Snow Crash" are, and probably "The Diamond Age", but perhaps I should say instead that Stephenson himself is clearly influenced by Jaynes and this influence permeates his own work.

Mongo
Sunday, January 25, 2004

just finished reading Jane Austin's Mansfield Park again, and really recommend it.

i like i
Sunday, January 25, 2004

It's Easier Than You Think : The Buddhist Way to Happiness
by Sylvia Boorstein

Sunday, January 25, 2004

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?
by James W. Sire

Smitty
Sunday, January 25, 2004

Mister God, This Is Anna - by Fynn (1974)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345441559

This is not a book about "religion" in any traditional sense; it's a journey of discovery, scientific inquiry, reasoning, philosophy, perception, ... - a journey led by a remarkable four-to-six-year-old.

From a book review: "Anna had an astonishing ability to ask--and answer--life's largest questions. Her total openness and honesty amazed all who knew her. She seemed to understand with uncanny certainty the purpose of being, the essence of feeling, the beauty of love."

Among others, I like this quote from the book (although you need to read several pages before this to fully appreciate this quote, shown here out of context):
'Bless the child, I couldn't tell her that she had just framed the question that had for so long bothered me: "Why can't I know everything?" Because it's obvious that no man can know everything, so why try?'

Philip Dickerson
Monday, January 26, 2004

This time I know I'm not misspelling it, I copied it from the title on Amazon.

"Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Daps%26field-keywords%3DWhy%252520Should%252520Anyone%252520Believe%252520Anything%252520at%252520All%25253F%26store-name%3Dall-product-search/002-4449092-0331249

It's the 9th book down. I wonder if they weight the occurances in the book heavier than title matches.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, January 26, 2004

<quibble>"Touching the Void" is by Joe Simpson. And if you're going to read the Bible, I don't recommend doing it start-to-finish: you'll likely get bogged down in Numbers, if not earlier.</quibble>

A few random recommendations: "A place of my own", by Michael Pollan. (Subtitle: "The education of an amateur builder".) "Obedience to authority", by Stanley Milgram. (Perfectly ordinary people will do terrible things if someone who seems authoritative tells them to.) "One jump ahead", by Jonathan Schaeffer. (The story of his checkers-playing program "Chinook" and its impressive but tragic ascent to the top of the checkers-playing world.) "The art of looking sideways", by Alan Fletcher. (Inside the strange but interesting mind of a graphic designer.) "Reasons and persons", by Derek Parfit. (A philosophical look at personal identity and rationality, with some possibly surprising conclusions.)

Gareth McCaughan
Monday, January 26, 2004

> "Obedience to authority", by Stanley Milgram.

Interesting study, I never read this particular book, but half a dozen books I have read reference it.

> "One jump ahead", by Jonathan Schaeffer. (The story of
> his checkers-playing program "Chinook" and its
> impressive but tragic ascent to the top of the checkers-
> playing world.)

Also of interest may be Blondie24 by David Fogel, about a program that "taught itself" how to play checkers and went on to compete (anonymously) on Yahoo and get a pretty good ranking.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, January 26, 2004

Again, a search for A Place of My Own on Amazon turns up the book about halfway down the page.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, January 26, 2004

"The Periodic Table" by Primo Levi.

Stephen Jones
Monday, January 26, 2004

"This time I know I'm not misspelling it, I copied it from the title on Amazon."

"Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?
by James W. Sire"

"It's the 9th book down. I wonder if they weight the occurances in the book heavier than title matches."

MarkTaw,

If you change your search category to 'Books', then it is the first book in the search.

Smitty
Monday, January 26, 2004

I've stared at the thread title for ages, and I still can't parse it. Anyone?

Monday, January 26, 2004

HUNGRY! WANT EAT BOOK!

BOOKY MONSTER
Monday, January 26, 2004

/me slaps BOOKY MONSTER

:^)

Monday, January 26, 2004

Anything by Krakauer. Try "Into the Wild".

pdq
Monday, January 26, 2004

> If you change your search category to 'Books', then it is the first book in the search. <

Why should I have to? Besides, all the items above it are books anyway. At first glance I thought they didn't carry the book because, well, if you have an exact title you'd expect it to pop up first.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, January 26, 2004

Essential Spider-Man, Essential Fantastic Four. Classic sequential-art imaginative fiction by the masters, reprinted in an affordable format.

Excelsior!

Jim Rankin
Monday, January 26, 2004

"Why should I have to? Besides, all the items above it are books anyway."

Why are you asking me, it's their search engine. Besides if you're looking for a book, wouldn't you want to narrow your filter by "BOOKS"? Makes common sense to me.

Smitty
Monday, January 26, 2004

Why would I expect a Jacket or a Toy to have the exact same name as a book?

Google does it:

http://www.google.com/search?q=Why+Should+Anyone+Believe+Anything+at+All

Why shouldn't Amazon?

Don't try to pawn off Amazon's sloppy UI on it's users.

www.MarkTAW.com
Monday, January 26, 2004

It is probably patented.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004