Book cover of On the Shoulders of Giants

Book description

A posthumous collection of essays by one of our greatest contemporary thinkers that provides a towering vision of Western culture.

In Umberto Eco's first novel, The Name of the Rose, Nicholas of Morimondo laments, "We no longer have the learning of the ancients, the age of giants is past!" To…

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Why read it?

1 author picked On the Shoulders of Giants as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Umberto Eco’s novels and non-fiction have shaped my life as a writer, and brought me a lot of joy.

His essays unfailingly make me see the world differently; his style is so simple, so intimate, and friendly, that the revelations feel like gentle little gifts along the way.

This collection of essays is based on lectures Eco delivered in Milan in the last 15 years of his life, and they cover several topics touching on art, literature, and philosophy. I listened to this in the car, and after every drive I found myself wanting to talk the latest essay over…

If you love On the Shoulders of Giants...

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Cyborg Fever by Laurie Sheck,

From Pulitzer Finalist Laurie Sheck (A Monster's Notes), a new speculative literary fiction in the spirit of Italo Calvino, Umberto Ecco and Donna Haraway's Cyborg Manifesto that enacts an incisive and moving exploration into what it means to be human in the age of AI and increasing inhumanism.…

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