

Don Knuth's Non-Tech Reading List - kirubakaran
http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/retd.html

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briancooley
"If you're good at sightreading four-hands piano music, I have hundreds of
pieces I'd like to try playing with you; please drop me a note and we can
hopefully get together for a jam session."

Playing four-hands piano with Knuth would be an unbelievably cool experience,
and definitely a great conversation starter when among other hackers. It's
almost enough incentive to start learning.

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dualogy
"Being a retired professor is a lot like being an ordinary professor, except
that you don't have to write research proposals, administer grants, or sit in
committee meetings. Also, you don't get paid."

New one for my list of favourite quotes. Great! ;)

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anateus
Interesting choices. They are mostly relatively obscure. That is, not the top
or even secondary tier of popularity.

I'd be curious to know his book picking methodology. Personal recommendations?
Book review publications? Or something else?

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kirubakaran
Aren't popular books usually crap?

<http://www2.oprah.com/obc/pastbooks/obc_pastdate.jhtml#2008>

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edw519
Usually, except for Elie Wiesel's "Night".

Even broken clocks are right twice a day.

~~~
Prrometheus
Most "popular" books that are recognized as literary classics are good. A few
may be crap, but I don't feel competent to judge them. A good rule is that any
book that people are still reading several decades after it was published is
worth your time. Please note that the inverse is not necessarily true.

~~~
cglee
I don't feel competent to judge them

\- I guess it's a testament to your self awareness, but why let others choose
what's good to you? Your experience is just as valid as anyone else's.

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petercooper
I read Life A Users Manual by Georges Perec thanks to his recommendation (I
read this page about two years ago, I guess). It was a real eye opener. I
never actually finished it, but instead read a 600 page biography of Georges
Perec.. a crazy but amazing man.

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lg
I'm surprised he liked The Haj; the book is basically a Rand-style propaganda
piece about Arab society where all the characters are either stereotypes or
their 'lives' are an obvious attempt to demonstrate some point.

~~~
Prrometheus
Subtlety is an artistic choice, not a necessity. People that complain about
the lack of realism in certain authors' works are probably the same people
that hated the movie "300" because the characters weren't wearing proper
period clothing.

~~~
andreyf
_are probably the same people that hated the movie "300" because the
characters weren't wearing proper period clothing._

Granted, if you know anything about the Persians, the historical inaccuracies
were a hell of a lot less subtle.

