What is Worth Reading?

[TODO: translate to Chinese, related to What is Worth Writing]

[related writings: What is Worth Reading?, Notes on Translations of Ancient Literature, Lessons in Research of a Past Time, The Kinds of Literature and the Extraction of Ideas]

I’ve read less books than most elementary school children in my lifetime. I was never able to extract as much value per time with enjoyment factored in in books compared to other mediums, and empericism. Wikipedia was enough. Much recently, I listened to an audiobook of Great Ideas in Philosophy provided by the Great Courses; That was successful. After that, I figured out I had huge gaps in my knowledge, and proceeded to create a list of things I felt could be worth reading (or listening) to.

Non-fiction:

Philosophy:

• For philosophy
• For the organization of knowledge
• For learning how to communicate using human language
• ethics- ethical treatises by Aristotle, various essays by Bertrand Russell
• politics - The Republic, Politics, The Prince (and other works), and something more modern
• thought-provoking philosophical writings - Philosophical Investigations
• Use audiobooks to consume slowly while simultaneously doing something

Natural Sciences:

• For knowledge of science
• For understanding how research works

• prefer large historical or trans-discipline pieces that are up to date - Gödel, Escher, Bach; Thinking, Fast and Slow; A Brief[er] History in Time, Big History from The Great Courses, etc. These books compete with online lectures.

• Biographies of great people:
  – For knowledge
  – For fun, for experience (possibly my favorite reading material, possibly because it’s most humane; The same reason applies to coming-of-age films)
  – Use Wikipedia
  – Many of the online lectures cover biographies, to allow more insight on their decisions
  – A single book with multiple biographies is best, to ease the comparison of lives

• Essays by great essayists, and possibly the short writings of other great writers
  – Experience good writing to help develop one’s own writing style
  – For knowledge, and fun (same reasons as biographies of great people)

• Language books

[the following was added two years later]

• History
  – To understand how the world came to be, especially useful to see how cultures have developed
  – Similar to biographies, a single book with multiple histories of societies is best, to ease the comparison of societies
  – Can use Wikipedia

certain kinds of non-fiction literature:

• anthology
  – Similar to a single book with multiple biographies or multiple histories, a single book with multiple writings is a much better experience than any single book
  – Similar to History, to see how cultures have developed
  – history of philosophical writings
  – history of essays
  – history of literature
  — all of these should be encompass the world, not just the West

• reader
  – For ideas
  – Penguin Great Ideas series
  – Readers for knowledge categories: The Media Studies Reader, etc.

Fiction:

• For art
• Contemporary masterpieces, including comics, especially those of Nobel Prize winners in
  Literature. Although, I would likely choose other mediums over this, and empiricism over all all art

[the following was added two years later]

• Magical Realism
  – for thought-provocation
  – Calvino, Borges, etc.

• Philosophical Fiction
  – for thought-provocation

• Travel Literature
  – For fun, for experience (similar to reading biographies)
  – Travel Journals
  — for experience and fun
  – Travel Guides
  — for history
  – Travel Fiction
  — for experience and fun

sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-fiction