Books that “work”, (not necessarily good):
- Math books with > 70% exercises
- Genre fiction that respects > 80% of conventions
- stream of consciousness
- random-access ref books
- “Idea museum” books like GEB
- Atmospheric fiction (mood prose)
- Straight-up history
- Poetry
Conversation
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“Work” as in there is a learnable construction method that produces a predictable access/use behavior on the part of the reader, which has a somewhat predictable before/after effect on their cognitive condition that is close to what writer intended
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More...
- red-pill books (radicalizing/false-conscious creation-destruction)
- traditional plays (but not necessarily TV/movie scripts)
- minimalist comic books (complex ones may be good but they don’t “work” reliably)
In general a book “works” if it induces a “literacy”
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Literacy should be considered a collection of highly specific medium-unlocking adaptations, not a generic symbol processing cognitive ability.
You’re not literate in “English” but in something like “mystery novels” or “Japanese style comic books”.
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What are examples of atmospheric fiction (mood prose)? I can’t place the term.
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Could you recommend more Idea Museum books? My favorite genre that I haven't found enough of
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Considered in various lights Ulysses is all of those except the first one.
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What about books that present a single, simple, powerful idea that can be explained in one page, and explore its consequences at book length.
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What about biographies? Do they fit with "Straight-up history"?






