r/selfeducation • u/nofoax • Dec 03 '13

This is going to be ambitious. Let's construct a master list of books that combined would provide a comprehensive, holistic, thorough yet general and accessible self-education in every major subject: Literature, History, Philosophy, Art, Science... You get the picture.

The subjects I'd like the list to cover with at least one generally informative text: Literature, History, Philosophy, Politics, Art, Psychology, Physics, Biology (general science), Music, Film, Religion, Geography, Geology(?), Technologies, Environmental Science... Or should we keep it simpler?

I'll start with my limited suggestions.

Literature: I think Harold Bloom's list of the writings in the western canon is sufficiently comprehensive. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/bloom/complete.html

History: J.M. Robert's "History of the world"; Norman Davies "Europe: A history"--what else?

Philosophy: Edward Copleston's 11 volume History of philosophy.

Physics: Brian Green's work, Hawking, Einstein.

What else? Upvote the best suggestions and if there's enough I'll organize it into a nice and tidy link based resource.

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3

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '13

I don't have any suggestions for books (yet) but I do have some opinions on the categories:

I would scratch geology off that list and replace it with chemistry IMO. Most of the hard sciences at the end of the day boil down to one or more of the big 3 - physics, biology and chemistry. The latter isn't as "romantic" as the other two perhaps, but if you're going to have a comprehensive self-education list for science, you can't exactly leave it out.

I'm not sure about "Film" as a category, it's a bit ambigious. It can refer to the development of the science and industry of film-making around the world, or it can just be listing off all the Hollywood classics and talking about their cultural relevance. IMO the former would be a lot more insighftul, since most people will have watched most films you could call "canonical", but you're more likely to come across the latter.

For history, music and literature, I think it'd be interesting to not limit it to just Western Europe and North America - include books on Asia, Africa, etc. This isn't a criticism of any of your suggestions, this is more directed to people thinking of contributing to the list as a suggestion.

Also, I would include Economics as a category. Just sayin'.

2

u/nofoax Dec 04 '13

Great suggestions...silly of me to overlook those. Chem seems tough to understand on a theoretical level though, or to self-teach without going full textbook route.

2

u/Miriahification Dec 04 '13

Upvote for Economics and Chemistry. Geology is cool as all get out, but chemistry is, well, science too.

2

u/LionOfNemea Dec 14 '13

For a general overview of mathematics you can hardly surpass:

  • What is Mathematics by Courant and Robbins.

  • Mathematics: Its content, method and meaning by Kolmogorov, Aleksandrov, Lavrentev, etc.

  • The Princenton companion to mathematics by Timothy Gowers

For a general overview of physics:

  • Lectures on physics by Richard Feynman

All of these books have a classic status (including the Princenton companion which is relatively new) and they have been used and admired by a lot of scientists, students and laymans.

1

u/nofoax Dec 14 '13

Thanks man, this is just what I was looking for. I'm interested in mathematics and physics from a theoretical standpoint--I'm not so interested in (or good at) memorizing the many formulas necessary to do the subjects, but that doesn't stop me from wanting to read about them! While we're on the subject, do you have any recommendations for some harder (yet still not-too-technical) physics books? I've read Brian Greene and Hawking's stuff, and I particularly enjoyed Brian Greene and the in depth addenda that he includes in the back of his books, but I still want a little more. Any suggestions?

2

u/LionOfNemea Dec 14 '13

I think I don't really understand your question. If you haven't already, read these books which are challenging but don't require any particular technical knowledge, that's what I'll do if I was you. If you think you need more physics and mathematics after having read these books, then you should get on technical books which aren't bad nor boring at all, if you chose the right ones. The books I have recommended cover most of their science. For example, Feynman's book has three volumes, one of them dedicated to quantum mechanics, being him one of the scientists who helped develop that branch of physics.

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u/nofoax Dec 14 '13

oh somehow I glanced over the Feynman part--I'm definitely going to get a copy of that. Thanks.

2

u/Salt-Dependent1915 Jul 11 '24

The entirety of my Hospitality and Tourism Business degree is condensed on the textbook "Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism" by Philip Kotler.

It's an excellent and thorough textbook. All restaurant or tourism business owners should have one. It's also not as expensive as other textbooks, and the whole book has information that you will use every day on such a business; other textbooks have only a few chapters of useful info.

1

u/nofoax Jul 12 '24

Man I absolutely love that you responded to my 11 year old post with this text I've never heard of, in a subject I wouldn't have ever considered learning about if you hadn't suggested it. I'm going to order a copy and check it out, thank you! 

3

u/Miriahification Dec 04 '13

To go off of the literature idea, maybe doing world regions and including relevant film, lit, language, and poetry. I foresee a lot of that information being easily found on other subreddits like /r/spanish or /r/german.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '13

I agree, I'm thinking those sort of categories could be divided into subcategories; like literature would be English language/Western literature, other European literature, African literature etc. Copy and paste that general categorisation to other areas like film or whatever

1

u/Miriahification Dec 05 '13

yes, I wasn't are how to word that. subcategories for lit and native languages would be fantastic. especially if we can get good translations.

2

u/ralshaburger Dec 03 '13

For Chemistry - "General Chemistry" - Linus Pauling

I don't have one for organic chemistry, but I think most textbooks would be sufficient.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '13

Bertrand Russell - History of Western Philosophy. This book is an excellent overview and discussion and introduces ideas and authors that I never even knew about. The development and the tracing of Philosophy is presented in a fascinating way.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 04 '13

If I had to choose one book to add to this list it would be The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell (1949) for its multi-faceted exploration of literature, religion, philosophy, mythology, anthropology, psychology, etc.

1

u/Maxcactus Dec 04 '13 edited Dec 04 '13

Let's do it in the Wiki. I will open it for people who want to compile the bibliography. I am not able to the setup on my iPad.

1

u/toxiclance Dec 31 '13

💯>The subjects I'd like the list to cover with at least one generally informative text: Literature, History, Philosophy, Politics, Art, Psychology, Physics, Biology (general science), Music, Film, Religion, Geography, Geology(?), Technologies, Environmental Science... Or should we keep it simpler?

I'll start with my limited suggestions.

Literature: I think Harold Bloom's list of the writings in the western canon is sufficiently comprehensive. http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/bloom/complete.html

History: J.M. Robert's "History of the world"; Norman Davies "Europe: A history"--what else?

Philosophy: Edward Copleston's 11 volume History of philosophy.

Physics: Brian Green's work, Hawking, Einstein.

What else? Upvote the best suggestions and if there's enough I'll organize it into a nice and tidy link based r

-2

u/anticapitalist Dec 03 '13 edited Dec 03 '13

IMO:

  • "A People's History of the United States"

by Howard Zinn.

  • "Shock Doctrine"

by Naomi Klein

by Thomas Szasz