Comments on: The Books of Our Time

By: The Thousand Best Popular-Science Books | Cosmic Variance

The Thousand Best Popular-Science Books | Cosmic Variance — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:17:05 +0000

[...] at Cocktail Party Physics, Jennifer has cast a baleful eye on the various lists of the world’s greatest books, and decided that we really need is a list of the world’s greatest popular-science books. I [...]

By: Kevin Schnitzius

Kevin Schnitzius — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:38:58 +0000

Entertainment Weekly? EW is to art as Discovery Institute is to science.

By: Jonathan Vos Post

Jonathan Vos Post — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 18:10:34 +0000

Jeremy Colton emailed me a clever comment on the stupid list:

“Blindness, and Watchman, but not Blind Watchmaker. Phooey.”

By: Clara

Clara — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 17:22:51 +0000

If there is a God, can he possibly worship anyone greater than himself? No, so that would make him an atheist, wouldn’t it? And he can’t worship himself either, since that would be committing one of the seven deadly sins (pride and vanity). So… if Catholics are badmouthin’ atheists, they’re badmouthin’ God!

This makes me think of the barber paradox: There is a barber in town who shaves all those men and only those men who do not shave themselves. So who shaves the barber?

By: The AstroDyke

The AstroDyke — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:45:22 +0000

Oops, here is the correct link.

By: The AstroDyke

The AstroDyke — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:44:03 +0000

The Entertainment Weekly issue containing the booklist has a great comic story by Alison Bechdel titled “Compulsory Reading”, about (self-referentially) canons and “greatest books” lists. It’s reprinted here:

And if you liked that, check out the graphic memoir “Fun Home”, #68 on the list.

By: anon-humus

anon-humus — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:17:17 +0000

A list -yet another list- driven by bestsellers and movie-made american -I mean, US- works of fiction, which unapologetically stands as “the greatest books of our time”. Is the industry so much lacking in translation?

By: davem

davem — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:01:43 +0000

If there is a God, can he possibly worship anyone greater than himself? No, so that would make him an atheist, wouldn’t it? And he can’t worship himself either, since that would be committing one of the seven deadly sins (pride and vanity). So… if Catholics are badmouthin’ atheists, they’re badmouthin’ God!

By: JCF

JCF — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:29:11 +0000

Come on, Sean, how can anyone lend credence to a list of top books that does not include the Oprah Winfrey Cookbook?

By: w.wolfs

w.wolfs — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:19:20 +0000

Other arguments aside, it is true that the list completely forgot science books, science fiction books and poetry, though there have been some huge publications in those fields.

I propose any of the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, written 1989 and onward, though my favorite is Endymion. I would also submit In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman and The Paladin by C.J. Cherryh. Both timely, tightly written, and profound.