Seven books I keep close because I love them

(blog.plover.com)

59 points | by surprisetalk 1 hour ago

13 comments

  • xerox13ster 1 minute ago
    Get the data off those drives now, rather than later. The longer you hope to get the data, the more hopeless it will be.
  • Joker_vD 35 minutes ago
    > After several repetitions of this, Samson decides that being shaved, blinded and crushed will be less exasperating than listening to any more of Delilah's nagging.

    A very off-tangent note, but I recently learned that Samson's last words, "ἀποθανέτω ἡ ψυχή μου μετὰ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων"/"moriatur anima mea cum Philisthiim", pretty much have never been translated into English literally; it's always "Let me die with the Philistines" for some reason.

  • PeterStuer 12 minutes ago
    Slightly off topic: The title hits home. When I was young, books were a luxury item. Less rich people just used the library. But the library had a strict 7 books rental policy. Not enough for the avid reader that also needed a small programming reference library. So I had 3 steady, occasionally 4th, library card pool from family members to keep my bookshelf operational.
  • hnfvovpje4 3 minutes ago
    Ah the classic
  • jabl 29 minutes ago
    We read some passages from Decameron back in high school. Lovely book really, I should take the time to really read it cover to cover.
  • euthymiclabs 52 minutes ago
    Pleased to see Roget's thesaurus here. It's a fantastic resource without a great digital equivalent. I've found LLMs helpful in a pinch (and it's certainly better than a standard thesaurus), but Roget's is still the book I turn to for tricky word-picking problems.
    • leobg 30 minutes ago
      I was looking for it after reading the post, but there seem to be so many different versions and edtions. Harper, Penguin. College. The New. The Concise. The International. Some say they’re organized alphabetically. How do I know which one is the kind that the article talks about, if I buy used online and cant look into it?
      • darreninthenet 21 minutes ago
        Are you in the USA? It's because Roget as a title isn't trademarked there so it's accepted as a name for any thesaurus.

        If you want the latest edition of the "real" Roget's, it's the one published by Longman.

      • mjd 25 minutes ago
        The one in TFA is Harper and Row, and the later 8th Edition, published by Harper Collins, is also organized the correct way. I think you'll be safe if you can get a Harper version.
        • euthymiclabs 7 minutes ago
          That's the one I have. I've had an older version in the past but misplaced it years ago. This one does the trick, but like the article author says: it is a weighty book. (I like that.)
    • criddell 39 minutes ago
      I never knew Roget's was organized like that and I have had several different editions over the years. I'm one of those people who always used it as a compendium of synonyms.
  • reedf1 43 minutes ago
    was expecting umberto eco after the first few - I'm sure you've either read him or desperately should!
  • whitten 51 minutes ago
    I’ve been told the Legacy Standard Bible is one where the translators tried to not use the same English word when the original Greek or Hebrew words are different.

    FYI: https://m.youtube.com/c/legacystandardbible

  • throw7 40 minutes ago
    NIV is what I grew up with and I kind of tired of it because of that... I have a soft spot for the KJV/NKJV.
    • i_am_a_peasant 31 minutes ago
      Same, not a believer, I appreciate KJV for its artistic value and it being referenced in so much literature and cinema.
  • mjd 53 minutes ago
    And I bet you won't guess what any of them are.
    • rzzzt 48 minutes ago
      Number #8 will surprise you!

      I keep a computer graphics book that I'm reading over and over again, just one chapter that is concerned with physically-based rendering. By now the theory is getting so ingrained I could write a path tracer in my sleep! But then again, I don't want to.

      • mjd 39 minutes ago
        The current front-runner is “The Crazy Ape” by Albert Szent-Györgyi, who won the Nobel Prize for discovering ascorbic acid.

        It's about how war is perpetrated by the old against the young. I've carried it next to my heart since I was fourteen.

        Also, it's quite short and will definitely fit in the space.

        A bit more about it: https://mathstodon.xyz/@mjd/116411220100252049

  • Razengan 51 minutes ago
    I just need The Wind in the Willows :)
    • stiiv 40 minutes ago
      When is the best time of year to read it?
      • Razengan 31 minutes ago
        When you're trying to fall asleep but there is too much noise in your head, I suppose :)

        Actually, Redwall and other slightly-mature anthropomorphic stories are also surprisingly good for that.

        But if I had to pick a time of year, then I'd say winter, under the blankets or by a fire.

  • waffletower 42 minutes ago
    A sequel that diverges from and dwarfs its predecessor -- Deleuze & Guattari's A Thousand Plateaus (translated into English) https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816614028/a-thousand-plateaus...
  • hnnbxu2nwi 42 minutes ago
    [dead]