

I dare you all, test your strength: Open a book - bootload
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2011/03/i-dare-you-all-test-your-strength-open.html

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kgroll
One thing I really appreciate about good authors is their ability to clearly
articulate ideas or impressions that I share, but am unable to express on my
own. Or in other words, I love seeing these semi-conscious ideas floating
through my mind assembled eloquently in language. I think this takes an
enormous amount of skill.

I agree with French author Marcel Proust, who claimed "there is no better way
of coming to be aware of _what one sees oneself_ than by trying to recreate in
oneself what a master has felt." We can learn what _we_ feel by reading
material written by others. We can develop _our_ thoughts through the thoughts
of others.

Of course, one shortcoming with this idea, and in my opinion, of literature in
general, is that ultimately the author is _not_ ourselves. Despite an authors
ability to help us understand our feelings and enhance our sense of
perception, there inevitably is a divergence in the particulars of our
personal situations and those found in writing. Trying to mold our experiences
into those of a book, in hopes of finding answers or guidance, is misguided.

Proust explains better than I can myself:

 _'It is one of the great and wonderful characteristics of good books (which
allows us to see the role, at once essential yet limited, that reading may
play in our spiritual lives) that for the author they may be called
'Conclusions' but for the reader 'Incitements'. We feel very strongly that our
wisdom begins where that of the author leaves off, and we would like him to
provide us with answers when all he is able to provide us with is desires...
That is the value of reading, and also its inadequacy. To make into a
discipline is to give too large a role to what is only an incitement. Reading
is on the threshold of the spiritual life; it can introduce us to it: it does
not constitute it.'_

------
noibl
This is Twain's chapter on wily coyotes:
<http://www.mtwain.com/Roughing_It/6.html>

Interesting...

'then that town-dog is mad in earnest, and he begins to strain and weep and
swear, and paw the sand higher than ever, and reach for the cayote with
concentrated and desperate energy. This "spurt" finds him six feet behind the
gliding enemy, and two miles from his friends. And then, in the instant that a
wild new hope is lighting up his face, the cayote turns and smiles blandly
upon him once more, and with a something about it which seems to say: "Well, I
shall have to tear myself away from you, bub--business is business, and it
will not do for me to be fooling along this way all day"--and forthwith there
is a rushing sound, and the sudden splitting of a long crack through the
atmosphere, and behold that dog is solitary and alone in the midst of a vast
solitude!'

Beep, beep.

------
numlocked
Or, as Twain said: "The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over
the man who can't."

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JonLim
I have a tremendously long commute to work. An hour and forty five minutes,
one way.

Reading is my only salvation on this commute.

I am saving up for a down payment on a place that I can call my own, and I can
single-handedly credit reading for making it easier to grin and bare it. That,
and having an awesome job helps a bunch.

Hell, check out the number of books I've read in the past year alone:
<http://www.jonlim.ca/books-ive-read/>

WARNING: They're affiliate links! Don't click through unless you feel like
giving me some money for a cup of coffee. :)

~~~
r00fus
Similar for me, except I do the audio version - more expensive and harder to
find, but I'm driving so no options.

~~~
JonLim
How do you find yours?

I'm not even sure where to start for audio books. Let alone these big fantasy
books that I read!

~~~
r00fus
I pirated a few as a discovery mechanism, which led me to Audible, and other
voice publishers. There's also a store nearby where I live that does this...
it's not cheap, but what's out on the sharing networks is only a sampler of
what you can find in the paid market.

------
janus
And today, with the wide availability of books in electronic formats, not
having an interesting book to read is no longer a valid excuse.

~~~
derleth
Except for the people who believe paper is magical, that reading off a screen
isn't actually reading.

No, I don't understand them either.

~~~
lawn
Paper isn't magical but books are, in my experience, a vastly superior medium.
A tablet or a pc screen works a while, but it's tiring. Also a book is more
portable, more flexible and it feels better to use. I read the most when I'm
in bed but I can't stand reading on a tablet in bed. Or in the bathroom.

I spend most of my time at home surfing the internet, browsing forums and
writing code. I read all the time online and yet I prefer physical paper for
reading.

~~~
awj
I used to feel that way, then I got a Kindle. The e-ink screen makes all the
difference. I hate reading from physical books now, with the minor exceptions
of: quickly-consulted-indexes, no battery to go dead, and immunity to bizarre
airplane/electronics regulations.

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wccrawford
While I love reading and heartily recommend it to everyone, there's a huge
difference between 'owning skis and not skiing' and 'being able to read and
not reading books'.

First, owning and knowing things are completely different.

Second, reading is useful for more than just books. We use it constantly in
our daily lives, and you can go your whole life without reading a book and
still find it plenty useful.

Reading books might enrich your life and boost your career, but it's hardly
necessary.

------
RyanMcGreal
I guess today he'd be sued for copyright infringement. Sigh.

~~~
a_a_r_o_n
No, he wouldn't. Because "his" characters are owned by a studio, and those
characters would never have seen the light of day if they were obviously
derived.

And _that's_ the tragedy of copyright gone bad. Ideas build on ideas. Great
ideas are born from people who "stand on the shoulders of giants," but the IP
industry is cutting off our giants at the knees.

------
theorique
Does an ebook on a dedicated reader count? ;)

------
nick_urban
Since our respect for cartoons is so great, some of it ought to wear off on
"books", which apparently inspired them?

------
ThaddeusQuay2
For an architect ought not to be and cannot be such a philologian as was
Aristarchus, although not illiterate; nor a musician like Aristoxenus, though
not absolutely ignorant of music; nor a painter like Apelles, though not
unskilful in drawing; nor a sculptor such as was Myron or Polyclitus, though
not unacquainted with the plastic art; nor again a physician like Hippocrates,
though not ignorant of medicine; nor in the other sciences need he excel in
each, though he should not be unskilful in them. For, in the midst of all this
great variety of subjects, an individual cannot attain to perfection in each,
because it is scarcely in his power to take in and comprehend the general
theories of them.

Still, it is not architects alone that cannot in all matters reach perfection,
but even men who individually practise specialties in the arts do not all
attain to the highest point of merit. Therefore, if among artists working each
in a single field not all, but only a few in an entire generation acquire
fame, and that with difficulty, how can an architect, who has to be skilful in
many arts, accomplish not merely the feat -- in itself a great marvel -- of
being deficient in none of them, but also that of surpassing all those artists
who have devoted themselves with unremitting industry to single fields?

<http://gutenberg.org/etext/20239> (The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius
Pollio)

Vitruvius is famous for asserting that a structure must exhibit the three
qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas -- that is, it must be strong or
durable, useful, and beautiful. According to Vitruvius, architecture is an
imitation of nature. As birds and bees built their nests, so humans
constructed housing from natural materials, that gave them shelter against the
elements. When perfecting this art of building, the Ancient Greek invented the
architectural orders: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. It gave them a sense of
proportion, culminating in understanding the proportions of the greatest work
of art: the human body. This led Vitruvius in defining his Vitruvian Man, as
drawn later by Leonardo da Vinci: the human body inscribed in the circle and
the square (the fundamental geometric patterns of the cosmic order).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvius> (Vitruvius)

EDIT: I would like to point out, with relevance to HNers, that Mark Twain and
Nikola Tesla were close friends.

<http://genevolution.net/documents/twain%20and%20tesla.pdf> (Mark Twain and
Nikola Tesla: Thunder and Lightning by Katherine Krumme)(2000-DEC-04)(PDF, 5
pages, 22KB)

