It's quite annoying to see entire books submitted. It should be a requirement that you must be able to thoroughly discuss a submission. You can't discuss the entire contents of a lengthy text in a HN thread. It's like submitting a Google search or an index to pg's essays.[1] The discussion is always superficial.
If you were really interested in SICP, then you probably would have already found this link. It's the 2nd result on Google for "SICP". A blog post on the merits of SICP would be more useful.
I totally disagree. I consider links here recommendations for good reading. If the discussion is not as in-depth as you might like, think of it as a set of informal reviews and opinions, probably more reliable than the ones on Amazon.
"Ask HN" threads are much more appropriate for book recommendations. Imagine if every book in the threads below were submitted- we'd have a bunch of noise and no real discussion.
Submissions like this are only useful for people too unmotivated to Google for "SICP".
If you were really interested in SICP, then you probably would have already found this link. It's the 2nd result on Google for "SICP". A blog post on the merits of SICP would be more useful.
1: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=410821