What is the most difficult #nonfiction or #academic #book you have ever #read? What made the #book so difficult for you? Would you #recommend others #read that #book?
#Question #Questions #Reading #AmReading #ReadingCommunity #Books #Ebook #Ebooks #Bookstodon @reading @bookstodon
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon
The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor, by John Barth. I was not prepared for the time jumps within the story. They left me slightly lost, until I caught on to the device. It's 33 years old now, but I would still recommend it today.
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon For me, it was THE FUTURE IS HISTORY, by Masha Gessen. All of her other work is pretty accessible, but this one was a bit more scholarly. I think it's brilliant work, and helps us understand the structures of power and decision making, beyond just Russia.
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff
I have to pause after paragraphs so frequently, the language is so precise and unfamiliar. I've had to read it in very small chunks to really absorb the meaning. I still recommend it, but it's NOT easy!
@reading @bibliolater @bookstodon @serenebabe
I thought Zuboff is an important book. I agree with her POV in most of her arguments. But the word that comes to mind when describing her style is turgid, rather than precise.
What bothered me most about the book was her lack of understanding of technology underlying the Internet. That weakens some of her reasoning, although not fatally.
@Hippasus500 @reading @bibliolater @bookstodon *googles turgid* oh my gosh, yes! that’s a better word for it!
@serenebabe @bibliolater @reading @bookstodon
I can do feel you. Maybe for sightly different reason
https://bookwyrm.social/user/realn2s/comment/3495367#anchor-3495367
@realn2s yes, this too!
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon
I literally can't get through anything without a narrative.
@HipsterDM @bibliolater @reading @bookstodon I am often grateful for narrative nonfiction. Erik Larson is a master at doing this.
@kimlockhartga @HipsterDM @reading @bookstodon I have not read any of his works. Am I correct in assuming he writes mostly #historical #nonfiction #books?
@bibliolater @kimlockhartga @HipsterDM @reading @bookstodon I love his books, I think I've read all of them! The way he writes makes history read like a novel. Mostly historical nonfiction but he does have a couple general nonfictions.
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon Either Marx's Capital or David Bentley Hart's "The Experience of God," both because you need a fucking machete to chop through the overgrowth of the vocabulary lol
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon I had to read Niklas Luhmann's Theory of Society for graduate school and it stands out as the most difficult book I've ever read. And it was a class where the rest of my class dropped out for one reason or another by midterms. I finished that class by myself. 😭😅
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon Some 20th century philosophers, even of the rigorously analytical kind of persuasion and even when brilliant minds and making good sense in the end, were less than brilliant pedagogically. I read Whitehead’s short “Concept of Nature” recentishly, and it was tough going. (I am a philosopher at Gothenburg university.) I found it rewarding, but you need an interest in the stuff for it to be worth the trouble.
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon If you’re into speech act theory, you should definitely search out the very obscure 1979 book “Intention and Communication” by Thomas Wetterström. It’s almost unknown and almost unreadable. But it is also full of concepts and distinctions perfectly essential to speech act theory that you won’t find anywhere else (except for in Wetterström’s other, even more obscure works in Swedish!).
@strutsulf @reading @bookstodon Thank you for the recommendation. If I ever finish my current #TBR #list I will try to have a look.
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon All in all, though, I guess the most difficult-to-understand things I read are student assignnments.
@strutsulf @reading @bookstodon I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing?
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. It was a surprising bestseller for the time (1988) but I doubt many people finished it. I fell off the horse at about page 30, and at the same point over a decade later. There will be no third attempt.
@bibliolater @reading @bookstodon
T.M. Scanlon’s “What We Owe To Each Other”.
It is closely reasoned and deliberative. It takes me a long time to internalize his arguments before I can go on to the next section.
Plus the font is small, and my eyes are not what they once were. <wink>
If ever you need a fast way to fall asleep, read a Borland manual from back in the day.