[HN Gopher] Five Books: The best books on everything
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Five Books: The best books on everything
Author : pps
Score : 82 points
Date : 2023-05-07 16:33 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fivebooks.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (fivebooks.com)
| activitypea wrote:
| I've been looking for something like this, hopefully other users
| can weigh in if the curation is any good.
| driscoll42 wrote:
| Reviewing some of the books on computer science, there's an
| English writing book recommended for "Computer Science for Data
| Scientists", "Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow" for Artificial
| Intelligence, for Naval History (20th Century) it's two WWI
| books, one inter war period, one WWII and then one on the
| British Submarines since then... not a good overall history,
| and for Ancient Rome "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire"
| which has important significance for understanding the
| evolution of the study of Roman history, but is not a good
| source anymore.
|
| In short, this seems to be taking some famous books related to
| a field without actually selection the five "best" ones.
| anguswithgusto wrote:
| I can only speak to my experience, but for non-fiction, I've
| found the curation pretty great. For example, their Shakespeare
| biography recommendations are themselves from a well-known
| Shakespeare biographer [1], and the recommendations include a
| rationale for why the book is worth reading. For me a
| recommendation on Five Books is a strong positive signal when
| trying to find the "best" introductory book to a given topic.
|
| That's no surprise, as the site is designed as an SEO play for
| searches on "best books on subject x". But the execution is
| well done: the subject matter experts are tastefully chosen (in
| my experience) and I find their recommendations more
| trustworthy than those currently surfaced via Reddit, Google,
| or Amazon. (I fully expect that some of their
| experts/recommendations are wack.)
|
| Example: search "wine book" on Amazon and it's all wine
| textbooks and pretty-but-vapid coffee table books. Meanwhile,
| Five Books will suggests the canonical wine cult classic memoir
| by Kermit Lynch [2].
|
| [1] https://fivebooks.com/best-books/shakespeare-biography-
| james...
|
| [2] https://fivebooks.com/best-books/randall-grahm-wine/
| bombcar wrote:
| Based on my limited perusal of areas I have some familiarity
| with, I'd say they're pretty good.
|
| Could I bicker? Yes. But it would be in "these aren't quite the
| top five but they're in my top ten" type as opposed to "why are
| you recommending Mein Kampf as a cookbook".
| krick wrote:
| Is recommending "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins as a
| "best book on Quantum Theory" good enough for your taste?
|
| Anyway, any list of "The best books on X, recommended by Some
| Noname" almost by definition is not going to be very
| reliable, so that's all I can say. Just another bullshit
| website to earn commission via Amazon referral links by
| recommending random bullshit to innocent victims. I recon it
| might have been more useful if it was entirely generated by
| ChatGPT.
| is_true wrote:
| I think that usually the best books about a topic are
| textbooks, and by the look of it this site doesn't suggest many
| lcuff wrote:
| As a generalization I have to disagree, at least in America
| for high-school subjects. I looked at both the math and
| biology texts from recent years. The math texts were written
| by people who didn't understand math, and the biology text
| was so focussed on the No Child Left Behind Act requirements
| that it was rubbish. (Also look for Richard Feynmann's
| experience reviewing textbooks). Undoubtedly there are good
| textbooks out there, but they are just as much in need of
| review and recommendation as non-textbooks.
| is_true wrote:
| I'm from America but not from the US, so that probably
| makes a big difference
| autarch wrote:
| I looked through the sci-fi and fantasy sections and there were
| some odd choices. For example, Jeff Vandermeer's Annihilation
| was recommended as a "climate change novel" book. It's hard for
| me to see how this makes any sense.
|
| Other weird suggestions:
|
| * Ender's Game under Best Apocalyptic Fiction * Parable of the
| Talents under Best Sci Fi Books on Space Settlement - this is
| real stretch since the book takes place entirely on Earth,
| though it does feature a religion that focuses on spreading
| humanity to other planets.
| my_city wrote:
| [dead]
| rcarr wrote:
| The D&D reading lists look pretty good for fantasy:
|
| https://www.dicegeeks.com/dnd-recommended-reading/
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| For sci-fi, they recommend the Arthur Clark award books. The
| first 2022 title I clicked is summarized like this on Amazon:
|
| "Part sci-fi, fantasy, and Afro-futurism but not squarely one or
| the other, A River Called Time..."
|
| What is "Afro-futurism"?
| krapp wrote:
| Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science,
| and history that explores the intersection of the African
| diaspora culture with science and technology. It addresses
| themes and concerns of the African diaspora through
| technoculture and speculative fiction, encompassing a range of
| media and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black
| futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences. While
| Afrofuturism is most commonly associated with science fiction,
| it can also encompass other speculative genres such as fantasy,
| alternate history, and magic realism. The term was coined by
| Mark Dery, an American Cultural critic in 1993 and explored in
| the late 1990s through conversations led by Alondra Nelson.
|
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrofuturism
|
| - https://www.essence.com/entertainment/a-beginners-guide-
| afro...
|
| - https://www.blerd.com/what-is-afrofuturism-why-is-it-
| importa...
| pavlov wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrofuturism
|
| The 2018 Marvel movie "Black Panther" is probably the most
| mainstream work under this umbrella.
| ofalkaed wrote:
| When ever I am getting into a new topic I try to start with OUP's
| Very Short Introduction series [0]. They generally do not give
| good understanding but they provide extensive bibliographies and
| do provide the knowledge required to navigate that bibliography
| and select the sources which will give you the information you
| desire instead of what someone else thinks you want. Failing that
| I just go down to the library and talk to the librarian.
|
| 0: https://global.oup.com/academic/content/series/v/very-
| short-...
| WoodenChair wrote:
| This is very similar to Shepherd: https://shepherd.com
| UweSchmidt wrote:
| I would love to see a small, maybe opinionated list of science
| books, each, in one volume, giving a full overview of the field
| in an approachable way, like:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Life
|
| but of course state-of-the-art.
|
| It would be a nice collection and a chance to at least get a
| general overview over all of science, and discover just how
| patchy my knowledge really is :)
| nindalf wrote:
| The Economist does something similar with their Economist Reads
| column. Their topics are more esoteric though. The best books to
| understand
|
| - The Scottish Independence Movement -
| https://www.economist.com/the-economist-reads/2023/05/02/wha...
|
| - Poker - https://www.economist.com/the-economist-
| reads/2023/04/16/wha...
|
| - Florida - https://www.economist.com/the-economist-
| reads/2023/04/16/wha...
|
| - Investing - https://www.economist.com/the-economist-
| reads/2023/04/26/fiv...
|
| - Books you're forbidden from reading -
| https://www.economist.com/the-economist-reads/2023/02/24/sev...
| engineer_22 wrote:
| Forbidden books on Economist: https://archive.is/ntK0a
| my_city wrote:
| [dead]
| leto_ii wrote:
| I find this to be simplistic pop intelectual nonsense. This is
| not how to learn anything.
|
| It's way more meaningful to understand and pursue your own actual
| interests than to humble brag by ticking the "correct" readings.
|
| Not to mention that talking about the best anything is basically
| meaningless, except for very tightly constrained achievements
| (e.g. we can talk about the best sprinter, but who's the best
| philosopher? or the best mathematician?)
| [deleted]
| latexr wrote:
| I'm having a hard time parsing your complaint.
|
| > This is not how to learn anything.
|
| You don't learn anything by reading books? So if you have an
| interest in astronomy you don't learn by reading books on
| astronomy? How _do_ you learn, then? Must one go study to
| become an astronomer as the first step? Won't you have to read
| a book on it at some point?
|
| > It's way more meaningful to understand and pursue your own
| actual interests
|
| What does this mean in practice, and how does it invalidate
| reading? Can't you understand and pursue an interest in
| philosophy by reading philosophy books?
|
| > than to humble brag by ticking the "correct" readings.
|
| Who's talking about humble bragging? Wether you brag or not
| it's up to you, I don't see anything on the website encouraging
| you to do so.
|
| > Not to mention that talking about the best anything is
| basically meaningless, except for very tightly constrained
| achievements
|
| The website is very upfront about how it works:
|
| > We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their
| subject and explain their selection in an interview.
|
| Seems like a good way to begin exploring. If you're interested
| in a subject the website points you to someone they consider to
| be knowledgeable of the field, that person has recommendations
| to get your started, and they explain why they picked each one.
|
| Maybe I missed something about the reason you oppose the
| website, but on the face of it I don't see what's so wrong as
| to justify such vehement disapproval.
| awesome_dude wrote:
| I've always viewed these lists as a "starter pack for
| beginners" - allowing people to dip their toes into fields that
| they are curious about (or should be dagnabbit!) and giving
| them an idea of how rich the field is, whilst they should also
| be encouraging people to dig deeper if they have found
| something that has really piqued their interests.
| GalenErso wrote:
| As a semi-professional amateur on war with a large personal
| library on the subject (which I actually read), I find their
| selection on the subject decent:
| https://fivebooks.com/category/politics-and-society/war/
|
| > The best books on War, recommended by Cecile Fabre
|
| "War and Peace" by Tolstoy? It's a fictional work of literature.
| Not the best starting place if you want to learn about war. It
| would fit better in a list about Russian literature.
|
| > The best books on US Foreign Policy, recommended by Gideon Rose
|
| "History of the Peloponnesian War"? Yes, a good choice for
| Western military history, but not a good choice for _US_ _foreign
| policy_. This choice puzzles me. I would recommend Henry
| Kissinger's "Diplomacy" and "On China", as well as "America in
| the World: A History of U.S. Diplomacy and Foreign Policy" by
| Robert Zoellick.
|
| > The best books on Military Strategy, recommended by Antulio
| Echevarria II
|
| Probably the best list on the page. Sun Tzu and Clausewitz are
| the gold standards. "Strategy: A History" by Lawrence Freedman,
| "Modern Strategy" by Colin Gray, and "The Direction of War:
| Contemporary Strategy in Historical Perspective" by Hew Strachan
| are excellent selections. Freedman is Britain's de facto grand
| strategist and official unofficial military historian, and the
| two other titles explore more modern topics.
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(page generated 2023-05-07 23:00 UTC)