Stats for nerds
2recommend
4mentions
4people
2011–2024years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- That's basically my strategy: try to start with more factual accounts. Sometimes, I start with the shorter accounts. Then move to the more opinionated or specific histories. It all depends on how closely you want to study a particular topic.
I'm just saying I don't feel like I know even the basic facts until I've seen them at least three times.
I don't have any other specific "authoritative" books to recommend. Maybe one of the Lenin or Stalin biographies? And Dr. Zhivago, of course...
- Anathem - Neal Stephenson. Recommended here last year, it blew my mind in a similar way to Name of the Rose but with a sci-fi theme.
Dr Zhivago - Boris Pasternak. If you have not read any of the Russians, give this a go. Initially it is not easy, like all Russian literature, but the wonderfully poetic images and lyricism keep drawing you back. Easily my favourite for the year.
- "I haven't read Dr. Zhivago, but I feel obligated to condemn"
- > graphomania (I don't know if it is customary to call bad books by this name in English, but we usually use this word)
Great word! And as someone who knows a bit about English literature, I've never heard it before.
It's a common trope about widely respected, intellectual works, 'nobody really likes them'. (The following is not about you; I don't know you at all, of course:) Frankly, I think people can find them difficult, naturally, and an anti-intellectual response is an easy cover story that they know will be socially accepted. Lots of people like these works, including Dr Zhivago and Maria Stepanova. As I've grown older I've learned that if I don't like it then usually there's something I'm missing, which an opportunity for me to learn. As I've grown more sophisticated, I've learned why they are so admired - I just lacked the background to grasp it before. Certainly, reading these works in school was often impractical. Now, I'm sorry I don't have the time to read them all.
