Hacker Read

Jill_the_Pill · 2017-03-06 16:21:44

Here's ngram -- a measure of use in books: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=%22welfare+que...

Tyr42 | karma 1647 | avg karma 1.77 · | 2022-02-17 18:00:22

Try reading Mother of Learning.

prawn | karma 22119 | avg karma 2.96 · | 2018-06-04 00:01:28

I think the alliteration in her name and the fact that it's an annual report ("Oh yeah, I read this last year") contribute too.

sunstone | karma 1691 | avg karma 1.16 · | 2018-12-07 22:01:23

In which case she probably has read the book.

KRAKRISMOTT | karma 1657 | avg karma 2.17 · | 2023-01-10 22:00:45

Any of her descendants here on HN? She had 11 and it's been more than half a century now, so there should be at least one or two HN readers.

GFK_of_xmaspast | karma 3102 | avg karma 0.89 · | 2016-10-05 16:30:20

> Women flat out effing dominate literature historically > women in literature are ... highly respected

Let's suppose for a moment that this is true. What would be a useful way of testing this? One thing that comes to mind is the Nobel Literature prize. I found a list of female winners: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/lists/women.html and it appears that prior to Gordimer's winning in 1991 which opened some floodgates, women won in 1966, 1945, 1938, 1928, 1926, and 1909. That's six in 90 years.

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journalctl | karma 1027 | avg karma 3.09 · | 2019-11-22 10:38:21

Considering that The Handmaid’s Tale was published in 1985, I’d say her work has lasting value.

oaiey | karma 3691 | avg karma 2.16 · | 2020-05-26 06:43:02

Thanks. I corrected her name. What culture influenced reading can produce :)

firebones | karma 1326 | avg karma 2.33 · | 2015-01-20 04:40:42

The Lindy Effect [1] would say that the best guess is that they'll still be reading her 95 years from now...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindy_Effect

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gruseom | karma 30328 | avg karma 5.54 · | 2012-04-28 06:03:44+00:00

Google Books picks up the source for the quote, at least.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=7irAXGiBBoQC&lpg=RA1-PA8...

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narag | karma 5494 | avg karma 1.87 · | 2020-01-19 23:13:15+00:00

So she had a life worth of one of her books. I remember how popular she was when I was a child.

damontal | karma 743 | avg karma 2.33 · | 2021-06-09 01:16:52

Which book? She has quite a few published.

sbmassey | karma 846 | avg karma 2.27 · | 2016-07-01 22:13:35

You should update the Wikipedia article with your findings https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_As_She_Is_Spoke

ktizo | karma 3987 | avg karma 2.82 · | 2012-10-13 16:27:14

I think it might be based off a fair amount more than that, she's been publishing since 1993.

steelstraw | karma 4514 | avg karma 12.13 · | 2022-01-21 10:37:34

I'm curious how you came to that conclusion. How are you measuring the level of harm as a result of her books?

0des | karma 4899 | avg karma 2.46 · | 2022-06-22 22:14:34

Thanks for the reminder :) I was just thinking of Mariel not too long ago. I should see if the library has it.

zozbot234 | karma 19616 | avg karma 2.16 · | 2021-05-11 10:12:28+00:00

> So she was popular and so - that probably was true for many, many people throughout history.

The weird thing is that she seems to have been popular, yet she isn't mentioned (so far as I can tell) in the main sources of pre-20th c. biography (e.g. the DNB). Uncovering such minor but influential figures that hadn't yet been comprehensively described has always been a main interest of historians and antiquarians, so I think this author's work can be described as a very real accomplishment.

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giardini | karma 2643 | avg karma 1.06 · | 2021-02-19 23:21:37

"The woman who went to the library and read every book on the shelf"

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/16/phyllis-rose-t...

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swayvil | karma 732 | avg karma 0.24 · | 2019-03-19 13:54:07

They say she was a voracious reader as a child.

readittwice | karma 531 | avg karma 3.2 · | 2019-02-25 12:10:45+00:00

Because she is famous (over 100K followers on twitter) ;)

On a more serious note: Because there are some books in this list that at least I've never heard about but sound interesting.

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