Re: A lifetime of must reads
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Gödel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
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is it possible to have a straight man crush?
or, in less "flammatory" words...its too bad none of my friends have read this...
oh, just saw this:
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I just found it really enjoyable to read. I read it ~10 years ago I was like 14 or 15, so at the time everything seemed super deep and like "woah." Someone else can chime in as to whether it has that same effect once you get past the teenager stage, but I have a feeling it does, although probably to a lesser extent.
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This is true. I reread it recently, and its not quite as "woah" as the first time, but its still impressive for reasons you basically list here:
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If your interests are diverse and you can find beauty in a lot of different subjects you'll enjoy the book. For me he took a bunch of subjects that I didn't know much about (musical composition theory, mathematical set theory, human vision, buddhism, etc), presented them in ways that were really interesting, and tied everything together as it went along. The way things were tied together was super fun.
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Exactly. You sit there reading it and think "you know what, if he was smart, he would have written that last passage with the syllabic pattern of a haiku because--wait...oh [censored], he did!? Damn........i wonder what else is going on here.....
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I dunno, I'm having trouble describing it adequately. I'm sure part of my love for the book was due to my age at the time, but I really think anyone who considers themselves to be an academic/intellectual/renaissance man type person will enjoy it.
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Sure, like lots of things, age matters, and depending on the subject, it might tilt you somewhat for or against something. But, if you haven't picked it up in 10 years I'd really recommend going back and doing it again. Without getting too snobby with the analogies, like wine and many other things, some things in life do get better, and change, with time. I would be surprised if you didn't enjoy it, perhaps for different reasons, all over again.
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