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If you were to recommend up to three books to read up on your niche (or any subject), what would they be?
as in the title. Be it textbooks, bios or anything else. Somewhere I've heard that a couple of books in a given subject can give you quite a good understanding of it.
It does not have to be a niche either; I am interested in hearing about your favourite general psychology or biotechnology books just as well; I hope we can exchange recommendations about how to dive into a given field.
For me, I'd say that to get a taste of Computer Science from the metal to high level concepts, I'd go with:
- Introduction to Algorithms by Cormen et al. - for many it's bible of algorithms designs, I also enjoyed it very much (and I like to think that it was not only because of widespread aclaim)
- CODE by Petzhold - for people who like to understand every part of the system they build; it goes through the process of building a computer, starting with logic gates and ending with fully working Turing machine.
I majored in film, and have three suggestions in that area.
This book contains one of the most logical and compelling views of the principles of how movies tell its stories, bringing to film what some would call "neo-formalism", meaning a methodical and sometimes even statistical approach to all the aspects of film: style, theme, writing, music, acting, camera-work etc. Instead of intuition, it uses concepts from psychology and analytical philosophy to understand how the experience of perceiving and feeling a movie actually works. It is an influential book by an influential author that takes no guesses. David Bordwell analyzes a vast number of works in order to draw detailed and powerful conclusions.
If you read this book, I guarantee you'll be able to understand movies and TV shows in a way that is better than most people, including film majors that didn't read it.
This book features a long exchange between François Truffaut and Alfred Hitchcock, which took place in 1962. They discuss every Hitchcock film up to that point. There are many accompanying screenshots. One genius interviewing another, what more can I say?
A beautiful, compelling, and almost mystical approach to film. A very particular view from a very particular artist.
I've read some reviews on Narration in the Fiction Film, and while they all agree the book is dense, some suggest that it's too full of jargon for non-film students, while other say it's accessible for anyone willing to try; would you recommend it as a first read for someone interested in film but having no experience analysing them?
Because there are no rules and standards for film jargon, good film theorists have to put some extra effort to make it clear what they mean by the words they use. Therefore, while previous experience with film theory would be certainly beneficial to understand this book, this is not a hard requirement. It is mostly plain English anyway. I'm not saying this is an easy book that you're going read in one seating, but, with a little effort, anyone can understand it. The one thing you need, I think, is good visual imagination and a passion for film. Watching the examples helps a lot too, but some of them are boring as shit :P
I must add that, for the little jargon the author does not explain, Wikipedia is a reliable source
This is a topic I don't see brought up on Tildes that often, but for lucid dreaming the book Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge is a very good, comprehensive analysis of multiple techniques, personal experiences, and experiments done in the realm of lucid dreaming. It is most likely the first book I would recommend anyone who is interested in pursuing lucid dreaming. I especially like it as it takes a more secular view, approaching the topic more scientifically, citing studies and providing actionable goals for a lucid dreamer.
What are their views on nightmares? Could I end up lucid dreaming one? Or could it help me reduce them? Cause I have night terror and had my fair share of dangerous acts during sonambulism, and nothing seems to help.
There is a chapter related to nightmares, and the general focus is on facing the fears. If you've ever seen that scene in Harry Potter where he learns the spell to dispel the boggart, (riddikulus, I believe), the book covers using lucid dreams to a similar effect, essentially turning your fears into silly things. I'm sure trying out lucid dreaming would be worth a shot, although it's important to be committed, as it is a skill that takes time to cultivate.
That's interesting and makes a lot of sense. I'll look into that, thanks.
I had a bit of an existential crisis when I was figuring out what my "niche" was. But here are three books that you could read if you wanted to be more like whatever it is that I am, which may or may not be a good idea.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter - a fun book about the nature of meaning, rules, knowledge, intelligence, mathematics, recursion, and more.
Proofs from THE BOOK by Aigner and Ziegler. I always want to call this an "A to Z" guide of maths proofs, but mostly because of the authors' names. This book is dedicated to one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, Paul Erdős, who spoke of a theoretical BOOK in which God kept the most beautiful proofs.
I struggled for a third that was sufficient to be added to a list, but then again I also struggled with what my niche is, so that kind of makes sense. Here are a few others in no particular order that could be a third and then perhaps define what my niche is:
I've read a lot across the entrepreneur and business start-up spectrum over the last 5 years. There is a LOT of crap out there. Like really a ton... but for those looking for practical advice in starting a business (especially a small business, not a giant startup) I'd recommend these two:
The following three books were instrumental in changing my mindset about work, success, and really life in general. These deal less with specific practical advice for running a business and more about how one should view money and work.
These are all books I find myself revisiting from time-to-time to give me perspective and to pick up tips and tricks I missed.
An Introduction to Language by Fromkin, Rodman & Lyams is a great introduction to linguistics, but one should bear in mind that it includes quite a few simplifications and Americanisms. Also, it may skip or lightly discuss the less prominent (in the US) of competing theories. It's a good intro, but one should never stop with it. I'd go as far to say that if this will be the only linguistics intro you'll read, you'd be better off not reading it at all and reading something else. The initial edition was written by late Victoria Fromkin, but the book has been kept up-to-date by the other authors, and IIRC the latest edition was 2017.
Another great, and more comprehensive intro is The Linguistics Handbook, eds. Aronoff & Rees-Miller. In contrast to the Fromkin text, which is aimed at newcomers both to linguistics and to academia, this manual caters to scholars of other major disciplines and linguists that specialise in diverse branches of linguistics to learn an overview of the history and the currently competing approaches of each one of the many focus areas of the discipline. Albeit rather complex for a newcomer, at times even quite challenging, it makes a very good and comprehensive introduction for those who are not total strangers to linguistics and to research. Also unlike Fromkin's text, the Handbook is not put together as a connected narrative: each chapter is a complete and independent resource, and reading selectively is quite easy.
Both books contain great bibliographies, one per chapter, which list important materials for each specialisation.