Lex Fridman and Barry Barish discuss favorite books

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GUEST BIO:
Barry Barish is a theoretical physicist at Caltech and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics.

PODCAST INFO:

SOCIAL:

[Vandalle.]

7:11 "The best way to do evil is to frame it in a way like you're doing good" If you haven't read "Ordinary Men by Christopher R. Browning", you should. One moment in that book that made me have to stop and think was when one particular Nazi Policeman from a firing squad — and this is a real life recount from a real person by the way — explained during interrogation after the war that he made sure he killed only the children, and his reason for doing this was that he told himself in his head that the children would have to witness their entire family being killed brutally, and even if they were to let the children go (which were not the orders), they wouldn't have been able to survive on their own, he said that it was soothing to his conscience to know that he was saving children unable to live without their mothers. He actually saw himself as a kind of saviour, freeing the children.

How can you ever begin to justify murdering innocent children? And yet in that situation, under such evil circumstances, and surrounded by the absolute horror that he was, he saw _that_ as the most humane thing to do. The human mind is fascinating and disturbing.

[davidgalstyan]

i am 24, just graduated and got a project engineer position and i reread Dostoyevsky’s 6-7 books and i have a problem with choosing different author to read. that being said i know im gonna find a lot in common in this podcast. thanks Lex, this is awesome!

[ReligionOfSacrifice]

My mother read Russian literature and I would pick up a book she was reading when she wasn't looking and would read the chapter she was in, the chapter she just read or the chapter she was about to read. I was reading science fiction, but then I was ten to twelve then. As a teen, I finally asked my mom what Russian book I should read first. She said, "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

TOP 30 BOOKS
"The Holy Bible: King James Version" copyright 1967
1) "The Insulted and Humiliated" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
2) "Verbal Behavior" by Dr. B. F. Skinner
3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy
4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev
6) Myth Adventures - series by Robert Asprin
7) The Chronicles of Narnia - series by C. S. Lewis
8) "Vilette" by Charlotte Brontë
9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev
12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener
13) "Poland" by James A. Michener
14) "Roots" by Alex Haley
15) The Silmarillion - The Hobbit, or there and back again - The Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien
16) "Childhood, Boyhood" by Leo Tolstoy
17) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
18) "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin
19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
20) "Paris 1919: six months that changed the world" by Margaret MacMillian
21) "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" by Anne Brontë
22) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev
23) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
24) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain
25) Old Mother West Wind series - wildlife series by Thornton Burgess
26) "Microbe Hunters" by Paul de Kruif
27) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
28) "Teacher Man" by Frank McCourt
29) "Kon Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl
30) "The Complete Poems of Anne Bronte" by Anne Brontë

FAVORITE AUTHORS

1st) Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Insulted and Humiliated)

1) “The Insulted and Humiliated” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
4) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
19) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
110) "Poor Folk" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
128) "The Gentle Spirit" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
139) "The Gambler" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
147) "White Nights" by Fyodor Dostoevsky

2nd) Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection)

3) "Resurrection" by Leo Tolstoy
9) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
16) “Childhood, Boyhood” by Leo Tolstoy
60) "Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy
87) "A Confession" by Leo Tolstoy

3rd) Ivan Turgenev (Fathers and Sons) seven more books in the top 200 not shown here

5) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev
11) "Smoke" by Ivan Turgenev
22) "Virgin Soil" by Ivan Turgenev
39) "Torrents of Spring" by Ivan Turgenev
62) "First Love" by Ivan Turgenev

4th) James A. Michener (Chesapeake)

12) "Chesapeake" by James A. Michener
13) "Poland" by James A. Michener
34) "Caribbean" by James A. Michener
35) "Hawaii" by James A. Michener
191) “Mexico” by James A. Michener

5th) Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich)

10) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
27) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
42) "In the First Circle" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
75) "The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: an Experiment in Literary Investigation" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

[du]

Phenomenal content Lex, as someone who has been gifted in reading since i was young, i find a lot of value in your videos, particularly this one.

[TastyZoidberg]

Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Solzhenitsy, shirt matches background, Camus.

[fractale]

Anyone think Barish looks alot like Bukowski?

[omerinflow]

I think Barry is talking about Svetlana Alexievich's book

[AviKC-vf]

The discovery of Dostoevsky in a young man's life, is like the discovery of fire

[buxtehude]

Best 4 Russian novels in MHO: Brothers Karamazov; War and Peace; Master and Margarita; And Quiet Flows the Don.

[mysticmouse]

BTW I dislike Dickens for similar reasons fatuous and overblown, characters that are caricatures, an improbable maze of plot and subplots. It cures me of caring for any of it . i'd rather go to the dentist.

[fonsvandenhove]

I have not read The Gulag Archipelago. Why should I?

[MrMolzzon]

Easier way (than learning Russian) > Stephen King > The Running Man

[vesy]

Solzhenitsyn was a talented man, but weak in spirit, from which he committed moral offenses. He wrote denunciations to the colony administration by decree of the NKVD. He returned to his homeland only because Russian people really cannot live fully without Russia. Longing eats them up. And he became popular simply because he got to the right time. Solzhenitsyn is essentially a product of a HYPE produced by the Anglo-Saxon elite, another intellectual instrument for the collapse of Russia. At the end of his life, Solzhenitsyn realized this, realized that the White House used him as a tool in the fight against his homeland and stopped writing dirt about the Soviet Union. And he has never spoken critically about Putin's government. And Madame Alekseevich, this is generally a third-rate product. Solzhenitsyn's copy, only a Chinese low-quality copy. And awarding her the Nobel Prize is worth no more than awarding such a peace prize to Obama. Please do not insult Dostoevsky by comparing him to these scribblers.

[mkballer]

It seems like fridman hasn’t even read any of the books

[hilariousname]

Guy sounds like Clint Eastwood: "I'm not surprised you picked up on the Russian literature, punk."

[Askra]

Dostoevskiy. Solzhenitsyn. Alekseevich... tell me about degradation!

[soekekkeke]

Idgaf who you are, you can’t fully process Dostoevsky as a 12 year old

[Not-Impressed..]

It's a bit rude to have a guest and do most of the talking

[darvinist]

Guys, you cannot grasp a bit of Stalin's persona. Suffice to say that in modern Russia Stalin is revered and Gorbachev is hated. Don't think Russians are stupid. It's just we know something you don't.

[mysticmouse]

I can't get through Dostoevsky unwieldy and pretentious.