Episode · Lex Fridman Podcast · 2021-08-23
Books mentioned on #213 – Barry Barish: Gravitational Waves and the Most Precise Device Ever Built
Barry Barish is a theoretical physicist at Caltech and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: – MUD\WTR: https://mudwtr.
Barry Barish recommended The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, and discussed THE PLAGUE by Albert Camus, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot by Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search For Ultimate Meaning by Victor Frankl, MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE by Herman Melville, and Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Lex Fridman recommended The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, and discussed The Dead by James Joyce, Ulysses by James Joyce, and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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THE PLAGUE
The Plague by Albert Camus is a classic existentialist novel that uses the allegorical setting of a city struck by a deadly epidemic to explore profound themes of human suffering, absurdism, collective responsibility, and resilience.
Discussed“it was i decided to reread camous the plague oh yeah that's a great book it's a great book and it's right now to read it it's fine i think that book is about love”
Where to get it
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The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a complex philosophical novel that delves deeply into faith, doubt, free will, and morality through the turbulent relationships of the Karamazov family.
Discussed“i mean their uh religiousity would permeated his idea i mean one of my favorite books of his is the idiot”
Where to get it
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The Idiot
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a profound 19th-century Russian novel that follows the compassionate, innocent, and deeply misunderstood Prince Myshkin as he navigates the cynical and corrupt high society of St.
Discussed“i mean one of my favorite books of his is the idiot and his which is a christ-like figure in there well there's prince miskin”
Where to get it
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Man's Search for Meaning
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E.
Discussed“um it's like uh victor franco has a man search for meaning i have a similar kind of sense of um of the cruelty of human nature”
Where to get it
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Man's Search For Ultimate Meaning
Man's Search for Ultimate Meaning by Viktor Frankl is a profound psychological and philosophical work by a Holocaust survivor that explores how human beings can confront extreme suffering and find profound purpose in life.
Discussed“but i think what i get from him is basic um it's like uh victor franco has a man search for meaning”
Where to get it
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MOBY-DICK; or, THE WHALE
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick; or, The Whale explores the obsessive, destructive quest of Captain Ahab to hunt down the white whale that maimed him, weaving a sprawling narrative that blends high-seas adventure, philosophical inquiry, and encyclopedic maritime lore.
Discussed“what was the book moby dick”
Where to get it
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Moby Dick
Moby Dick by Herman Melville is a classic 19th-century novel exploring the obsessions of Captain Ahab and the dramatic whaling voyage of the Pequod.
Discussed“What was the book? Moby dick”
Where to get it
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The Sun Also Rises
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is a classic Lost Generation novel chronicling the disillusionment, travels, and romantic entanglements of a group of American and British expatriates in Europe.
Recommended“Well in terms of fish i recommend people read old man in the sea much shorter much better”
Where to get it
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The Old Man and the Sea
The Old Man and the Sea is a classic novella by Ernest Hemingway about an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.
Recommended“well in terms of fish i recommend people read old man in the sea much shorter much better”
Where to get it
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The Dead
The Dead by James Joyce is the famous closing novella of his 1914 collection Dubliners, widely celebrated as a masterpiece of modernist fiction and short story craftsmanship.
Discussed“and i kept reading like i think so his short stories the dead I think it's called was very good”
Where to get it
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Ulysses
James Joyce's landmark modernist novel Ulysses chronicles an ordinary day in the life of Leopold Bloom in Dublin, mapping human consciousness and daily existence through a revolutionary stream-of-consciousness technique.
Discussed“but then ulysses was I I I got through ulysses with the help of some cliff notes and so on”
Where to get it
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Finnegans Wake
Finnegans Wake by James Joyce is a famously experimental and notoriously dense modernist novel that challenges traditional narrative structures with its idiosyncratic language and dreamlike logic.
Discussed“and then finnegan's wake the moment i started finning his wake i said this this is stupid”
Where to get it
