Books that have stayed with us

With all that data and most users being logged into Facebook on their browser at all times, I cannot for the life of me figure out why they haven't released an Adsense competitor -

I'm assuming there are some deep philosophical reasons about not wanting to encourage any business decision that focuses entirely outside of the Facebook ecosystem, but hot damn, I would drop Adsense on my sites in a heartbeat for a FB version as I'm 100% convinced their service would easily defeat the competition in an ad relevancy test.

I can't imagine it's privacy related, because that's proven to mostly be only a minor hurdle to overcome every time everyone freaks out at every FB change.

It's really more middlebrow than lowbrow. Lowbrow would be fantasy romance, potboiler political thrillers, and other such pulp. This is more like a greatest hits of the 20th century collection, plus a few accessible classics.

Fire in the Lake, which boils down to Ho Chi Minh was the "best" world leader of the 20th century? Best as in most capable and effective and intelligent not necessarily best as in matches my ideal of leadership?

But to respond more directly to your question instead of just sniping... I would say that The Iliad, The Martian Chronicles, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lovecraft, The 15 Decisive Battles in the History of the World, The Stranger, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, and... well, this list is getting mighty long. But they and a truckload of others put me on the path to literature and the pursuit of knowledge, I think.

I've never read GEB. Can you elaborate on how it helped you become a programmer?

Yes, they're called demographic studies, studies of the choices of populations. Such studies can be used to find out what populations are likely to do when confronted by various choices. Then there's polling, meant to test one's population theories using actual data.

I'd counter that people who've only read 10 books are probably much less likely to participate in this meme.

I don't find the absence of GEB in the top 100 amazing at all. Firstly not all readers have a science inclination. Even most of the programmers I know of, haven't heard of GEB. And plus GEB is a long slog even for people like us. Because to really understand it fully, you have to work through it and re read a few chapters over and over again.

As much as a gem of a book it is, its not for every one.

Well, there's The Art of War and the Autobiography of Malcolm X.

I have a similar thought: how many books are on here because they are a part of high school curriculums? Of course, it's also possible that they are read in high school because they are good works.

There's probably a lot of sample bias. FB users that participated in the meme probably don't represent the universe of readers. I'd guess that the meme participants skewed towards young adults.

I think there are a couple of factors here. This is a popularity contest, which means it's mass-market by default. If you listed the "favorite artists" or "favorite songs" from Facebook, it would be similarly easily accessible pop music that can be played on the radio when children are in the room. The average person is going to like a lot of easily accessible books and a few outliers in specific genres. So while you might get 95% of people liking Harry Potter, you gets 15% liking the Mistborn series and maybe 12% liking Snow Crash and 4% liking The Martian. There is likely a long tail that Facebook won't show you.

So people like pop literature, which means pop literature is going to be written so the mass market can read and enjoy it. I've read quite a few books where I've said "I liked it up until..." or "I like it but this part annoys me". I can't say the same about Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. They're inoffensive and appeal to everyone (or at least the 95%).

Social factors also play into it, such as the appearance of The Holy Bible so high in the list. Is the Bible actually so many people's favorite book? No, of course not. That would be like saying my favorite book is Learn Python the Hard Way. It's a textbook, really, something to study and learn from. But it's a way to easily identify with a group. If you want people to know you're serious about your religion, you say the Bible is your favorite book. Another social aspect, The Great Gatsby is known at The Great American Novel and also a popular movie recently. Did this many people read it? No. They watched the movie or they heard it's a great book so they "like" it in order to appear smart and well-read. Nobody likes Hamlet as a book. No one. Because it's not a book. But you were probably forced to read it like one in high school, and it's one of the few books you've ever read, so let put it on the list too. In fact, I would say most of these books are on there because they're the some of the only books the 95% have ever read.

I don't think it's helpful to think in terms of the 'right' or 'wrong' kind of books. Notwithstanding the fact that it's quite hard to define what makes certain books better/more valuable than others, we should be commending/encouraging any reading of literature, as opposed to, say, just messing around on Reddit all day (I speak from great experience of this!)

We should be careful, also, not to be too disparaging of 'Young Adult' fiction. Yes, you may have some shockers in there at the moment, but Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, David Copperfield (along with many, many other 'classic' works) would all probably have been considered Young Adult titles if the genre had existed back then.

For more: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/featur...

Sadly, the average American can only read at a 7th or 8th grade level. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States

Depressing comment. Is accessibility to the majority of humans somehow a negative factor in evaluating an artistic work? You can win at the cultural one-upmanship game by writing crap that only a few critical theorists will ever read, but by far the most valuable works of culture are those that everyone can share in enjoying.

It's a list of books that have stayed with us. Books that I read as a kid had a lot more impact on me than books I read now so it could explain why some of those books are books that one is more likely to read as a kid...

I see a few reasons for this:

First, the books that introduce us to the world of literature tend to stay with us, especially those we choose on our own. This is opposed to the books we are forced to read because they are "great." For example, I still hate "The Great Gatsby" even if it is objectively great because I was forced to read it in a class with a teacher whom I did not respect.

So, I'm going to say Piers Anthony was more memorable to me than Hemingway. I'm sure that Harry Potter would have stayed with me if I'd read it at 12.

I watched through these lists and noticed that some of my best read friends still had YA books on their lists, so it doesn't seem to be "just" a matter of people who don't read much.

Leaving aside the typical silly assumption that a "young adult" book is somehow less likely to grapple with important questions...

You shouldn't be at all surprised that a list of books characterized by "what has stayed with you" would skew towards books typically read during youth. I can still provide basic plot lines of the reruns I watched during my childhood, not to mention commercial jingles. Also, youth is a prime time for adopting such guidepost stars. A young adult book is probably going to prove a better roadmap than, say, a cult leader.

Accessibility is an important feature. Most of the country cannot read at a literary arts postgrad level, and that is OK.

Is Hamlet considered a book? It's stretching the definition the same way calling The Star Spangled Banner a song. A poem set to music doesn't automatically become a song.

Really? I didn't get that sort of idea at all. For example, the top book, the Harry Potter series, is something that tons of people have read. I don't think I've ever encountered someone who only pretended to have read the Harry Potter series but hadn't actually. Also, among my personal friends, I haven't seen anyone post a list where I had any suspicions they hadn't actually read everything, although most of the lists I've seen posted are by my more well-read friends.

Edit: I forgot the word "everything" in "actually read everything".

Maybe not, but the six I have read (out of the top ten) were all really good in my opinion. So it seems (to me at least) that they are still good recommendations. The only one in the top 20 that I have read and not like is The Alchemist - I thought it was terrible.

None of those are particularly high status books. It's a mix of popular fiction, popular books children read and books assigned in high school English classes.

Claims the Silmarillion, probably lying. Claims the Hobbit or LOTR, probably telling truth

I am willing to put it out there that people are embarrassed to admit certain books, so I'll be the first to admit that I think most people prefer "Blood Meridian" to "The Road" but don't want to put their full authenticated legal name to the claim. I don't claim blood meridian is some kind of great literature, but as an action book with memorable characters and local flavor...

Another book with gallons of local flavor and just "weirdness" and interesting is Lucifers Hammer and that's another "I'm not going to admit in public, but ..."

How about "Post Office" another, uh, questionable tome.

There is also an age aspect. Some young kid claims to have slogged thru all of Gibbon, he's probably a history student or more likely lying, but I'm an older guy and I really did invest the time reading the whole decline and fall. I think it was worth it, at least the first half or so.