HN Explorer

What is your current “bathroom book?”

5 points by a3n ↗ HN
Mine is currently The Unix Programming Environment, Kernighan & Pike, 1984. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unix_Programming_Environment

(Ahh ... blue on white book covers.)

It's a pretty good substitute for Unix Power Tools, although obviously much less coverage, but a great intro.

It's also dated, so I don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone new as the book they should read (but back in the day I would have). But as an old fart I'm getting some good reminders, and the occasional "Oh, so that's why I've been doing it that way."

The authors were there at the creation, and there's some interesting historical comments. James Gosling gets a sentence.

10 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 39.2 ms ] thread
heavyhadron
I'm reading "Complexity, a Very Short Introduction". ISBN-13: 978-0199662548

The whole "Very Short Introduction" series is pretty good, in my opinion.

countzeroasl
Took a break from Economics with Human Action by Ludwig von Mises, to go in a completely different direction with The Book of Joy by Douglas Abrams. Not sure whether I'm going to go back to Economics when I'm done or take another detour. I've got SO MANY on my list that are sitting on my shelf. Before those, it was Peopleware - Productive Projects and Teams by DeMarco and Lister.
chauhankiran
Ahh! Good asked! Mine is Deep Work. Other HN thread suggest this. Its good to read.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
zerr
Effective Modern C++. Before this, Art of Prolog was quite enjoyable.
jlengrand
I'm using bathroom breaks as a way to read my pocket/instapaper saved articles :). A break is just 2 or 3 articles, way too short to get into a book.

My bedroom book is 'Churchill's empire' from Richard Toye. Pretty interesting

stevekemp
The Princess Bride, a 1973 fantasy romance novel written by William Goldman..
Kristine1975
Spending a lot of time on the toilet is not healthy. Increase your fiber intake instead of deciding on a bathroom book :-)
setr
One does not read on the toilet because he's still shitting; he goes to shit so that he can read.

The bathroom is a place near-guaranteed to offer solitude, quiet, peace of mind and a lack of interruptions. The toilet is comfortable, made better for reading than excretion, the area generally a clean and simple porcelain white. None dare disturb a man on the pooper, and few dare speak in such a revered place. It is the most serious room in any building; never comfy, never uncomfortable (except when rendered in poor condition), never too bright and never too dark.

Do not pity the man who loses a half hour to the bathroom; praise him, for he has learned the True Way.