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Comment by jvanderbot | Hacker News Reader

Beautiful wording.

So, I had to see where it was from, if anywhere else (Amazon.com):

     A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who, in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer and inherits his eight-year-old brother. This exhilarating debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that holds a family together.

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You are a liberal arts major at an American university in the first half of the first decade of this century. At every house party you attend, you see a copy of this book on every coffee table. You are aware that it is critically acclaimed and you participate in numerous conversations regarding its merits (or lack thereof). You have never read the book. You regret nothing.

My suspicion is, the same would work with Gödel, Escher, Bach in Silicon Valley circles.

"It's such a profound book with incredibly deep, life-changing insights about the hidden connections and symmetries of the universe. I really should read it some time."

A wonderful, wonderful read. An audacious title, but the book absolutely makes good on it.

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