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A comment on Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most?.

Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by EarthIsHome on Monday January 15, 2018 @08:35AM (#16150365)
Reading. I used to tell myself that I loved to read, but I never read any books. It was a feel-good saying I told myself because everyone likes to think they love to read.

The past few years, I started to actually read. I've fallen in love with reading. The world is more open, my critical analysis is stronger, and my school and engineering work has improved. Overall, I have a much happier disposition than before I read.

I don't know whether to attribute this change to reading or maturing; it's probably a mix of both. However, I think I really enjoy reading now because I select works that I consider well-written. This single characteristic, reading something that is well-written, has changed my outlook on reading. There is some incredible writing out there, and I wish I started reading these pieces when I was younger.

> A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies... The man who never reads lives only one. > > - George R.R. Martin

Edit for parallelism.

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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by snausages on Monday January 15, 2018 @09:12AM (#16150591)
What types of books have you read that you've found helped the most with your critical faculties and such?

This year I've finally got around to Infinite Jest. I don't know that I'm enjoying the book itself so much as I enjoy the mental exercise that I get from its reading, if any of that makes sense.

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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by EarthIsHome on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:13PM (#16151800)
> What types of books have you read that you've found helped the most with your critical faculties and such?

In this area, I feel I've learned the most from reading commentary in the New Yorker.

For enjoyment, I've read:

* Stories of Your Life and Others by Chiang

* The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson

* What The F by Bergen

* Blindsight by Watts

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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by davidmr on Monday January 15, 2018 @02:17PM (#16152677)
Have you read any of the other Odyssey translations? I'm very curious Wilson's translation. I read the Fagles, Latimore, and Fitzgerald translations in college and did a few weeks of translation myself in our Greek class (I went to one of those hippy-dippy "Great Books" schools).

I think I was in the minority, but I found the Fagles translation to be far and away the best. I definitely subscribe more to the school of poetic translation than literal translation, so I was intrigued by the Wilson translation. What were your thoughts?

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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by EarthIsHome on Monday January 15, 2018 @05:10PM (#16153888)
I haven't read Fagles' translation or any others. I wouldn't have picked up the Odyssey if it weren't for reviews from others [0] and reading articles [1][2]. I really enjoy her translation, and I wish I could compare hers with others. As someone who knows very little about Greek mythology, I found her 70-page introduction in the Odyssey to be a great primer on what to expect in the epic. After her introduction, she has a shorter translator's note discussing some decisions she made in her translation. If I remember correctly, she does throw a little shade at other translators in the introduction or translator's note.

[0]: Comments from other HN readers, some who have read Fagles' translation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15624881

[1]: A note from Wilson in the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-translators-re...

[2]: NYT article: https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/magazine/the-first-wom...

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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by davidscolgan on Monday January 15, 2018 @09:09AM (#16150564)
Strongly agree. Something that really helped me was to start listening to audiobooks. It made reading something that required just a little less effort, and so it was easier to do it more often. And I can listen at times when I can't read, like driving or walking.
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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by Amorymeltzer on Monday January 15, 2018 @08:46AM (#16150426)
Also from Martin:

>[A] mind needs books as a sword needs a whetstone, if it is to keep its edge.

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Re:Ask HN: What influenced your personal growth the most? by Kinrany on Monday January 15, 2018 @12:57PM (#16152127)
What does well-written mean?
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