Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
by pvg on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:32PM
(#19118356)
It seems like a rule of thumb that’s served you poorly, given it’s left you unfamiliar with some of the most widely acclaimed recent (and less recent) non-fiction work.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
by Emma_Goldman on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:45PM
(#19118493)
I presume you're referring to the authors the OP listed. It's certainly true that I don't tend to read a huge amount of popular nonfiction, and that I'm young enough to have a generationally limited knowledge of what's out there. But, at the same time, what the best nonfiction books of recent decades have been is an open, and very subjective question. I have my own peculiar interests and proclivities. I think, from a quick Google, that all the books the OP listed fall outside of that space.
It is fine to not be interested in things; there's lots I'm not interested in either. It's less great to have strong, sweeping opinions about things you're basically incurious about.
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
by Emma_Goldman on Friday February 08, 2019 @03:56PM
(#19118584)
See where I wrote 'in my own experience'. The reasoning I gave, in any case, holds entirely independently of how encompassing my reading is. And to be quite honest, with the caveats above, I would hazard that I read far more nonfiction than most, i.e. I am not speaking from a position of unusual ignorance, as you seem to be implying.
I have no idea who you are or what expertise you have; I'm responding to your own statement that you're unaware of these journalist-authors because you don't read much nonfiction.
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
by Emma_Goldman on Friday February 08, 2019 @04:04PM
(#19118660)
You said, if you are incurious about something, you ought not to make sweeping statements about it. I was challenging the premise, i.e. that I'm incurious about non-fiction books. I don't, by that way, think the claim holds up. It's perfectly possible to be incurious about something and to make a sensible general statements about it (e.g. 'all ducks have wings'). Hence why I told you to engage with my reasoning.
I never said I don't read much non-fiction. I spend nearly all my time reading non-fiction. I said I don't spend 'huge' amounts of time reading popular non-fiction.
You can't really logic-puzzle your way out of 'if you are unfamiliar with books written by journalists, you're not in a good position to make worthwhile pronouncements on books written by journalists'. It's not even an interesting thing to try and dispute.
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
by Emma_Goldman on Friday February 08, 2019 @04:29PM
(#19118864)
Easy:
1. The reasoning holds independent of how much I have read. 2. I'm not unfamiliar with books written by journalists.
Re:Rules for Choosing Nonfiction Books
by davidivadavid on Friday February 08, 2019 @04:04PM
(#19118655)
Whether recently acclaimed works will remain relevant or are just trendy remains to be clarified.
_When Genius Failed_ was written 18 years ago, by a journalist, and predicted many technical details of the 2008 crisis. It's also an excellent book, so if this is news to you, let me also recommend it unreservedly as a good read.