https://archive.ph/2026.03.23-164808/https://newrepublic.com...

I do agree that the bigger picture of learning non-fiction is richer. We now have other ways to learn non-fiction: Wikipedia, Veritasium, Gemini, etc.

But only books can provide you something we may call a "coherent worldview". They are the ones that stitch together different pictures into a coherent whole.

I can think of a lot of books that gave me that: E.Gombrich's "Story of Art", Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death", ... honestly, even Julia Childs' "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" or Yuval Harari's "Sapiens" (his other books are crap, b.t.w.).

True, we still have universities' textbooks. But they're very narrow in scope.

The thing about non-fiction books is that nothing else can provide the same combination of depth and scope.

Do they believe someone cannot lie because it’s written down in a paperback? Authors lie in books and books do nothing to help someone who “embraces” ignorance

which totally fits, did HN's title algorithm cut that off? If so it seems silly. "Than ever" is an important modifier, otherwise someone is apt to think that the subject is more important than some other opposing subject, in this case that Nonfiction publishing is more important than fiction publishing. Anyway I think the "than ever" should be added back in