Which specific books really made you smarter?

[Monk]

Hmm, I don't think that title was very eloquently put, but I guess it gets the message across.

Anyway, there are quite a lot of you who appear to have some serious knowledge about history, politics, philosophy - well, I guess all kinds of different things. It's cool to be smart (right?), so I'm visiting the well-equipped libraries of Copenhagen on a regular basis and sometimes bringing a couple books home. However, I'm often disappointed upon realising just how much time I'm using reading and understanding everything without really getting that substantial boost of newly-acquired knowledge in return. I know this isn't unusual in any learning process, but really, it does suck, doesn't it?

This is where you (hopefully) come in to restore my faith. I'm fairly confident the Apolytoners (including those without encyclopediac memory) must have read considerably more than most ordinary folks and so I urge you to recommend some books which helped you to become the smart fellow you are today. If you could provide a short description along with your suggestions, that would be especially cool. Naturally, you can suggest everything you want to, even if I don't care greatly for, say, physics and chemistry, perhaps somebody else does.

I made this same thread two years ago and I got some really neat suggestions.

[Jon Miller]

when I was young I read this series often

Time-Life History of the World

I will see what else I can find (it is sort of hard to remember, I just read evreythign I could get my hands on)

Jon Miller

[BeBMan]

Quite interesting question. I don´t know if I can name single books here....However, it may surprise you, but reading Greek mythology as a child opened the way for me to get into real history later. Reading history books got me into politics, which got me into philosophy (a bit ) and so on, and so on....

[SpencerH]

Re: Which specific books really made you smarter?

Originally posted by Monk

However, I'm often disappointed upon realising just how much time I'm using reading and understanding everything without really getting that substantial boost of newly-acquired knowledge in return.

It sounds like you're searching for books that you can read that will give the (false) impression of intelligence. Perhaps a book of famous quotes would do the job you want? For something specific, Shakespeare is always a good source, especially quotes those from the more obscure works (that nobody else bothers to see).

Just teasing

[Urban Ranger]

I don't know.

I think the trick is to read a whole lot of books and let the knowledge diffuse together and have strange "chemical" reactions.

I like books that stimulate thoughts instead of merely imparting knowledge (which were the sort of books I used to read 5 years ago). So recommend books on math and philosophy (particularly ones about skepticism and critical thinking).

Some books I can remember off the top of my head are:

Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World, Shermer's Why People Believe Weird Things, Paine's The Age of Reason, and Randi's The Mask of Nostradamus.

[Ecthy]

Roberts' History of the World

[Monk]

Thanks guys.

Originally posted by SpencerH
It sounds like you're searching for books that you can read that will give the (false) impression of intelligence. Perhaps a book of famous quotes would do the job you want? For something specific, Shakespeare is always a good source, especially quotes those from the more obscure works (that nobody else bothers to see).

"SpencerH, men for their sons shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. And you really suck, too." William Shakespeare

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Doug Adams "Hitchiker Guide to the Galaxy" series

[SpencerH]

Originally posted by Monk
"SpencerH, men for their sons shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. And you really suck, too." William Shakespeare

There ya go. The best part is that only the truely intelligent people will know you're just makin it up.

Wasnt it Bacon who said "Never doubt the stupidity of the average man"!

[Agathon]

A well rounded education should include:


The Platonic dialogues.

Homer

Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics.

Thucydides' Peleponnesian War

The Communist Manifesto

Locke's Second Treatise on Government

Rousseau - Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

Hobbes' Leviathan

Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (or his Treatise on Human Nature)

Herman Melville - Moby ****

Mill - On Liberty

Rawls - A Theory of Justice

Some Freud (there's lots)

Kant - Critique of Pure Reason

Ayer - Language, Truth and Logic

Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil

Conrad - Heart of Darkness

Any of Bertrand Russell's popular works.

An encyclopaedic history of the world (there are lots).

[General Ludd]

Books can't make you more intelligent. The most they can hope for is giving you knowledge, or ask questions that you hadn't considered.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Hence 42.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Osweld
Books can't make you more intelligent. The most they can hope for is giving you knowledge, or ask questions that you hadn't considered.

And they really can't on their own unless you are an autodidact. In many of the books I listed you will be lucky to get the most important themes from them if you merely pick them off the shelf. The trick is to be able to fit them into a historical pattern and a broad base of ideas.

That's why people like me have jobs.

[Japher]

I like books that stimulate thoughts instead of merely imparting knowledge

I second that. Someone can be well-read and stupid however. Even understanding what the books say doesn't mean a thing.

Philosophy and math books are a good start. Still, reading math books are boring. Science theory is good too.

I like to think I am smart and I read history, finance, and auto/biographies.

Books will make you appear smart, but it is what you do with the knowledge that makes you smart.

"Chance favors those minds which are prepared" - Louis Pasteur

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

I like books that stimulate thoughts instead of merely imparting knowledge.

This is one reason why Plato wrote dialogues instead of treatises.