The Glass Bead Game

I actually started with The Glass Bead Game, but I found it too dense. Perhaps I'll give it another try!

Give his Glass Bead Game a try; it is dense, delightful, & its content would appeal much to the denizens of this site.

Aargh, Formatting! Try 2 : For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want to approach via a gentle introduction if you did not study Philosophy to degree level) The Rediscovery of the Mind, John R Searle Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh Diaries, Samuel Pepys Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope Bevis, Richard Jeffries The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse Hitch-22, essays, Christopher Hitchens Collected Essays, William Hazlitt Venice, Martin Gayford The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch Too obvious a list, perhaps, but some gems for all that! Happy reading.

For the value of ‘best’ that includes (a) had a deep and long lasting impact on how I think about the world and (b) I consider beautiful pieces of writing in their own right, here are some in no particular order: The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman Naming and Necessity, Saul Kripke Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Ludwig Wittgenstein (These you might want to approach via a gentle introduction if you did not study Philosophy to degree level) The Rediscovery of the Mind, John R Searle Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse A Handful of Dust, Evelyn Waugh Diaries, Samuel Pepys Falling Off the Map, Pico Iyer A Time of Gifts, Patrick Leigh Fermor The Lonely Sea and the Sky, Francis Chichester The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope Bevis, Richard Jeffries The Diary of a Nobody, George and Weedon GrossSmith The Inimitable Jeeves, PG Wodehouse Hitch-22, essaysChristopher Hitchens Collected Essays, William Hazlitt Venice, Martin Gayford The Ascent of Man, Jacob Bronowski The Fabric of Reality, David Deutsch Too obvious a list, perhaps, but some gems for all that! Happy reading.

The Glass Bead Game, Hermann Hesse The Road, Cormac McCarthy Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Joan Didion

I read Magister Ludi or The Glass Bead Game several times in my younger days. I was a Hermann Hesse fan. I echo the recommendation but would add what I found most appealing about it is the idea that all knowledge is related. Once players study for years, they realize mathematics and music theory are related. Architecture and geometry are related. By analogy all knowledge is related and one can glide from one concept to another (in a Glass Bead Game) and tell interesting stories. Very influential to me on universality of learning and knowledge.

Narcissus and Goldmund is probably my favorite of Hesse's novels, but also great is The Glass Bead Game.

Seneca - Letters from a stoic; Herman Hesse - Steppenwolf , Siddhartha and The glass bead game (Magister Ludi)

Seconded. I didn't enjoy reading it, but it made a tremendous impression on me nonetheless.

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse.

Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. The first time it was slow read, but I went back the book several times later in life and it has much to tell. The Glass Beads Game by Herman Hess. Several books by Steinbeck - Travels with Charley, Log from the Sea of Cortez. The Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo. A recent penguin translation is superb. Among the saddest and most memorable love stories.

Love that Bulgakov book (apparently the translation you pick matters a lot, but I wouldn't know, since my sister gave it to me as a gift). I like the Hesse book a lot, although the metaphor is more powerful to me than the book, which is probably not the first Hesse book I'd suggest.

The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse Read when I was about 14. I just remember the way it excited my mind.

_dt47, if you like it read everything else from Hesse (continue with Steppenwolf, Narcissus and Goldmund, The Glass Bead Game). Right now, as late night reading, i'm in the midst of the sprawl trilogy of Gibson, i read Neuromancer more than a few years ago and now i'm checking out the rest. Other than this, i started "Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies", but i'm quickly getting bored.

Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" is well worth reading if a little enigmatic.

Herman Hesse "The Glass Bead Game" is incredible. For great mind fucks, check out the crime fiction of Jim Thompson: 1st person, you're a petty crook, dumb & scared, people trying to kill you are right behind you, and most the books end with you being caught and killed in the last sentence. It takes a day or two to shake off his books' reality.

Adding more: Siddhartha - Hermen Hesse Narcissus and Goldmund - Herman Hesse The Glass Bead Game - Herman Hesse The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton A Brief History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson Politics and The English Lanaguage (essay) - George Orwell A Modest Proposal (essay) - Jonathan Swift

Most books by Hermann Hesse, really... Narziss&Goldmund changed my perspective on life. If you have anything artistic in you, it's a must-read. Steppenwolf, Siddharta and the Glass Bead Game are other must-reads. Gabriel Garcia Marques, One hundred years of solitude. Practically all of Jorge Luis Borges' short stories. Mind-bending. Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. Michael Ende's Never Ending Story. Enjoy!

Hermann Hesse's novel "The Glass Bead Game". Ostensibly it's about this sophisticated game played in a monastery that abstracts over the sum of human knowledge. To me it presented a very potent argument for the value of academia in a commercially-driven world. If nothing else, it nicely counterbalances the monomaniacal ambition and stress of tech startup land in a way that us geeks can appreciate.

"East of Eden" or anything Steinbeck. The art of storytelling is vastly underestimated in the startup world. If you know how to tell a good story, writing blog posts, doing marketing copywriting etc ... suddenly becomes much easier. Reading world-class fiction teaches you this skill. For a slightly geekier read: "The Glass Bead Game" by Hermann Hesse.

I would Second ANYTHING by Hesse, not got round to a thorough read of Siddhartha yet, but Damien is most excellent and The Glass Bead Games is a revelation for anyone who feels there is something just a little bit ill with the mind and motion of our modern age. Oh, and something along the lines of The Neverending Story (The Silmarillion/LotR), because it's something to lose yourself in with kids and doesn't even have to be read.

I can also recommend Magister Ludi, or The Glass Bead Game. Wonderful book.

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse