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What's your favorite book? Why?
- Thread starter fedrorpet
- Start date
No, that's my favourite book. Give it back.
Xue Xinran: The Good Women of China. It changed my view on women completely. It's written by a Chinese journalist, and is about chinese women, and what they had, and in some cases has to go through in China. And all the stories in this book are true. In fact, the author had to leave China so she could publish the book; if she had done it in China, she would have been forced to go to jail for publishing it.
INTERNET Renaissance is not about the internet...
anyway, my favorite book is Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. It's a very hard read, but I have yet to encounter a more rewarding book.
As I am under a timecrunch, I will copy Wikipedia instead of explaining it here. Maybe I will do a formal bookreview some day.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter,[1] described as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".[2]
On its surface, GEB examines logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, discussing common themes in their work and lives. At a deeper level, the book is a detailed and subtle exposition of concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence.
Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.
In response to confusion over the book's theme, Hofstadter has emphasized that GEB is not about mathematics, art, and music but rather about how cognition and thinking emerge from well-hidden neurological mechanisms. In the book, he presents an analogy about how the individual neurons of the brain coordinate to create a unified sense of a coherent mind by comparing it to the social organization displayed in a colony of ants.[3][4]
anyway, my favorite book is Godel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. It's a very hard read, but I have yet to encounter a more rewarding book.
As I am under a timecrunch, I will copy Wikipedia instead of explaining it here. Maybe I will do a formal bookreview some day.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid (commonly GEB) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Hofstadter,[1] described as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of Lewis Carroll".[2]
On its surface, GEB examines logician Kurt Gödel, artist M. C. Escher and composer Johann Sebastian Bach, discussing common themes in their work and lives. At a deeper level, the book is a detailed and subtle exposition of concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence.
Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.
In response to confusion over the book's theme, Hofstadter has emphasized that GEB is not about mathematics, art, and music but rather about how cognition and thinking emerge from well-hidden neurological mechanisms. In the book, he presents an analogy about how the individual neurons of the brain coordinate to create a unified sense of a coherent mind by comparing it to the social organization displayed in a colony of ants.[3][4]
I'm a huge fan of Michael Crichton. His books are fun to read, and in several cases have made me re-evaluate the way I look at scientific issues. It's really tough to pick a favorite, but Jurassic Park is the one that I still haven't tired of re-reading.
The Giver; it may be a somewhat short story that's directed at a younger audience, but it still has a very interesting concept and provides a lot of thinking material.
Hmm, I think I might go with Catch-22 (Heller) or Second Foundation (Asimov). I know there are some others I really like, but I read these two fairly recently and they were awesome.
As for something more recent, I'd have to go with one of the Dresden Files books (Butcher). I'm not really sure which, but they're all really awesome.
As for something more recent, I'd have to go with one of the Dresden Files books (Butcher). I'm not really sure which, but they're all really awesome.
The Hobbit. Tolkien's best work regarding Middle-Earth. Why? Two words: Bilbo Baggins. The only character that possesses bigger balls than Gandalf.
oooh oooohh ohhhh my favorite book too ^_^
HOLY SHIT .25K IM SOME KIND OF POSTING MACHINE
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
If nothing else, the demented cow is why I like it.
If nothing else, the demented cow is why I like it.
VKCA
(Virtual Circus Kareoky Act)
I read brave new world in english class, and I didn't really like it. However, since I finished the book in a day and half and my english teacher gave us most of october and november to read it, I got a chance to read The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler(turns out he made jacob two two) and the The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger. Liked those much more than BNW. My english class also has an awesome copy to kill a mocking bird.
My favorite book is A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.
It kinda beats the shit out of BNW and 1984.
It kinda beats the shit out of BNW and 1984.
Same here. Last summer I spent most of my days reading all of his books. It was fun.
Crime and Punishment is now at the top of my favorite books list. Why, you ask? Let me explain:
I started out reading the book one fine day in English Class, as it was our final reading assignment for the semester. We were supposed to keep a journal of our impressions, and I wrote out ~9 1/2 pages on the First Part. This book is entirely composed of greatness. It reflects the view of Dostoyevsky after being released from his initial death, which is showing the impressions he got from an author with a name I forget and his now (more) radical autocratic ideas.
In the main character, Raskolnikov, he reflects the view that there are a superior group of people. These people can basically commit any sins and it won't be on their conscious, as they are an elite group who know what they are doing and whatever they do will always be for the good of society. A kind of superman effect, in which the presence of any form of God is dead and a man has to take it upon himself to eliminate obstacles to people.
Raskolnikov tests this, seeing if he is like these so-called Supermen (ex. Napoleon, Julius Caesar) by killing an old woman pawnbroker and her sister. This throws the book into a huge turn, with Raskolnikov going mad and really showing a lot of moral issues and challenging a view on society. A truly great read, and I'd recommend anyone read it. I'm personally going to read through it a couple of times more just to get the gist of it.
I started out reading the book one fine day in English Class, as it was our final reading assignment for the semester. We were supposed to keep a journal of our impressions, and I wrote out ~9 1/2 pages on the First Part. This book is entirely composed of greatness. It reflects the view of Dostoyevsky after being released from his initial death, which is showing the impressions he got from an author with a name I forget and his now (more) radical autocratic ideas.
In the main character, Raskolnikov, he reflects the view that there are a superior group of people. These people can basically commit any sins and it won't be on their conscious, as they are an elite group who know what they are doing and whatever they do will always be for the good of society. A kind of superman effect, in which the presence of any form of God is dead and a man has to take it upon himself to eliminate obstacles to people.
Raskolnikov tests this, seeing if he is like these so-called Supermen (ex. Napoleon, Julius Caesar) by killing an old woman pawnbroker and her sister. This throws the book into a huge turn, with Raskolnikov going mad and really showing a lot of moral issues and challenging a view on society. A truly great read, and I'd recommend anyone read it. I'm personally going to read through it a couple of times more just to get the gist of it.