Substack cometh, and lo it is good. (Pricing)

15 thoughts on “Books worth reading

  1. Razib, concerning your question “I had very little interest in fiction when I was younger. … I wonder how many other children are the same as me?” in https://www.gnxp.com/WordPress/2014/08/28/the-land-of-no-fiction/ where the comments are now closed.

    Yes, I was about same, started reading when I was about 7 or 8, but only non-fiction. For example, I remember avidly reading von Däniken’s popular books, which made me very interested about the outer space, although even at that age I understood that his theories about ancient aliens were for entertainment only. However, my mother was then a bit worried that I didn’t read any fiction at all and she had to goad me into it by buying me Tarzan-books, Enid Blyton and similar popular series (e.g., “Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators”), books that I yes, read, but was never an avowed fan of.

    Nowadays, yes, I still read fiction, even though it seems that more obnoxious characters the story has, the better it is. And I do not mean the modern shock literature, but writers like Cesare Pavese and many turn of the century Russian writers.

    However, for many years I have realized that often the autobiographical accounts of explorers, archaeologists, spies and so on, have much more interesting tales to tell than any contrived fiction that tries to be “imaginative”. Daniel Everett’s “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle” is on my to-read list.

  2. Also, I must thank Däniken for waking up in me an attitude of open-minded critical thinking, that often there is more than just two ways to view a disputed fact. Like that the bible is not necessarily all true (the fundamentalist believer position), or all wrong (the fundamentalist atheist position), but that one could consider it also as a garbled account of alien visitations.

    Julian Jaynes’ “The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind” of course goes even wilder direction.

  3. I started reading Dune. All the made-up language and the Bene Gesserit stuff so far turns me down.

    Weird, cuz I’ve read some of the cheap Dungeons & Dragons novels when I was younger.

    Should I just pick Foundation?

  4. Fiction: Fantasy:
    You used to recommend R Scott Bakker, although maybe that was focused on the release of the last couple of books. You praised the alien elves. I read the first two and was disappointed that there weren’t many elves. Just one early in the first and another in the last chapter of the second. Should I have skipped to the second series?

  5. Over the years I’ve read several of the books recommended at this website (and its predecessors), including three of the six books currently highlighted at the top of this post. Excellent stuff. I’m glad Razib passes along these book recommendations. I find them very useful in focusing my reading habits.

    In the interest of sharing as much as I’ve taken, here are several interesting and fun books I’ve read over the last few months.

    Where India Goes: Abandoned Toilets, Stunted Development, and the Cost of Caste – Social science at its best. I never would’ve guessed that open defecation in the world’s most populous country would make for such a fascinating topic, one that could draw out so many valuable social and economic insights into India’s development. Ignore the animadversions cast against those who search for a genetic basis for India’s stunted rural development; they make up no more than a page or two of this nearly 300-page book and in this case they might be justified. (Hat tip to Pseudoerasmus)

    The French Revolution & What Went Wrong – A highly readable historical account that mocks those French who continue to glorify the French Revolution as a major hallmark of progress. Written by an Englishman who has lived in France for many years and penned several acid books about the French and their skewed view of their history, this book is a lot of fun. Some of the author’s judgments are questionable and even silly. (Are modern French really that envious that the English have a monarchy and they do not?) But I believe his main insight is correct: France was reforming under Louis XVI and that reform was hatcheted down by political extremists, to the detriment of most French over the next several generations.

    The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution – I’m not impressed by what most philosophers and historians of science have to say about the Scientific Revolution, including whether it even existed, and so I rather enjoy a history which seeks to fight back against the sillier modern interpretations. This is a very scholarly account that never gets lost in the weeds of its own bibliography.

    Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life – The book above led me to this book, which was first published in 1986. Framed as a critique of the Baconian interpretation of science, it had the opposite effect on me: Reading it made me wonder if philosophers of science have ever had anything worthwhile to say about science. I believe science advanced only by ultimately ignoring philosophy, just as much as it advanced by ultimately ignoring theology. Not an easy read, but certainly worth the effort.

    The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science – Fun read that centers on three scientists of the early Romantic period: Joseph Banks, William Herschel, and Humphry Davy. It’s highly enjoyable being reminded how poets and other writers followed science so closely in those days, and wrote so avidly about scientific developments as they were occurring. The author’s description of the hot-air balloon craze of the late 18th-century had me in spasms of laughter as the author detailed how on some occasions English peasants would chase down and beat up the navigators of hot air balloons in the belief that they were French invading the country.

  6. Any thoughts on LOCKR going public?

    After all, one could have a turn on for younger cell somata.

    Like, hey, now cells kill yourself if your telomerase is too short.

    Or, one could turn on the fetal gene set, and grow a new organ or two.

    Of course, take a cell sample, get it growing in a bio media, and then get the stem cells to fully express into a spare part.

    Better control of organ regrowth?

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