In college and afterwards, I tried to educate myself by reading well-written stuff. At first, I went through back issues of The New Yorker in the Caltech library. Later I stuck with books. For example, I learned about molecular biology by reading The Eighth Day of Creation. The Torchlight List by Jim Flynn (discoverer of the Flynn Effect, the slow increase in IQ scores) has the same underlying philosophy: a good way to learn is to read books you enjoy.
The Torchlight List describes 200 books in pleasant narrative prose that Flynn both enjoyed and found educational. Here are the first three:
- The Story of Language by C. L. Barber
- The Greek World edited by H. Lloyd-Jones
- The Decipherment of Linear B by John Chadwick
Indeed, I read the Chadwick book and enjoyed it. I have yet to find a well-written book about language evolution (although I liked John McWorter’s lectures on the subject) so I look forward to the Barber book.
More people should write books like this; the underlying idea is very good. I found one important gap in Flynn’s categories of books (Science and Early History, American History, America Broods, The Human Condition 1, …): Books That Caused Discomfort (and are fun to read). There are not many such books. Robert Moses was intensely discomforted by Robert Caro’s The Power Broker. (A recent enjoyable TV series that caused discomfort was The Kennedys.) Lolita was discomforting, far more than Nabokov’s other books. First prize in this category goes to The Man Who Would be Queen by Michael Bailey.
Adam’s Tongue by Derek Bickerton is a very entertaining book on language evolution, or on Bickerton’s theory of language evolution.
robert wright’s ‘the moral animal’ was almost traumatic to read–it’s one of my favorite books.
i’d love to read a list of your favorite educational/enjoyable books seth.
Professor: A ‘Books that Caused Discomfort’ would be a phenomenal! Do you think you could write a post (or maybe a guest post on Tim Ferriss’ blog, which I imagine may receive more traffic) asking for recommendations?
If discomfort is what you want, read James Hogg’s The Confessions of a Justified Sinner.
“I believe that we should read only those books that bite and sting us. If a book we are reading does not rouse us with a blow to the head, then why read it? Because it will make us happy, you tell me? My God, we would also be happy if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy we could, if necessary, write ourselves. What we need are books that affect us like some really grievous misfortune, like the death of one whom we loved more than ourselves, as if we were banished to distant forests, away from everybody, like a suicide; a book must be the ax for the frozen sea within us. That is what I believe.” — Franz Kafka, letter to Oskar Pollak, January 27, 1904
The Story of Language by C. L. Barber is great.
It’s one of the most important piece of my library.
Hi Seth,
“I have yet to find a well-written book about language evolution”
Everyone points me to Pinker’s books on this topic. I was wondering what you thought of his popular writings?
Until the list is put online, here’s an edited extract of books 93 through 114.