The information

I've just finished one of the books I've enjoyed the most. In my life. "The Information", by James Gleick. I'm totally fascinated by it. maybe because of many references I already knew, and it added contents here and there to a field I'm already into it.  I don't know, it's a different beast from purely original content books, as this one is mostly a recap of stories and history, but it's put in a VERY enjoyful way. It burnt my pan twice.

It was a recommendation from Santiago Ortiz, and it was a blast. Filled with insights and anecdotes about how mankind have been treating the information (or the lack of), storing, understanding, using, creating, inventing, discovering.....

I'd say it's a more practical (and up to date) companion for Thomas Khun's "the structure of scientific revolutions". It's nowhere near as revolutionary, but I found it a great source of epistemology.

If you've read CODE by Charles Petzold, I'd say it drives you so a similar steep ramp, but in the abstract side of the same concepts. From simple to complex, from individuality to community, from concrete to abstract, from singularity to commonality. Layers of abstraction get placed one after the other, using bricks filled with dates, names and anecdotes.

It quotes the masters, and it's filled with folklore, which helps you understand what happened when.  I truly enjoyed it, and I have tenths of bookmarks inside it, which means I had tenths of AHA! moments. Which unfortunately doesn't happen very often.