I'd like to know which books HN read in 2017. Which of these would you recommend? Which of these surprised you, because they are not the usual suspects.
Fiction? I started contributing to https://standardebooks.org/ and discovered Gogol’s Dead Souls and Strindberg’s The Red Room in the process as new favourite classics.
Update: added a few lines about the books than just a name listing
From the ones I read in 2017, I would highly recommend (non-IT):
1. The hidden life of trees- Peter Wohlleben Why forest trees are different than the ones you plant, how the communicate, how they care for their friends when they are not well, how mother trees protect their young ones by not letting them grow too fast, the fungi network, etc. The book is very easy to read- there is no scientific terminology overload. Things are told very simply. Not restricted to students of the subject. Learned something interesting every couple of pages.
Another aspect is that the love shows. It is very clear that the author is in love with the subject. The author manages a wild forest in Germany and talks mainly about trees in terms of beeches, firs, oaks, etc. The author is politely insistent that we should protect the natural wild forests and let them be.
2. Why the allies won- Richard Overy Probably the best book I read on WW2. So many more factors went into winning the war than actual fight. Probably appealed to my analytical mind.
3. India After Gandhi- Ramachandra Guha As the author says history ends for many Indians with freedom. Very good chronicles. Started appreciating Nehru more.
4. Re-read Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Godfather and a few P.G Wodehouse- all of which I like.
Currently, halfway through Stephen Fry's Mythos which seems good enough to recommend. I am pretty new to the Greek Mythology and he is a good story teller. Don't have much to compare it with, though.
Also, by choice, I read quite a few books in rural Marathi(an Indian regional language) and was surprised how good the story telling was. Also noticed that I had gone quite far from my mother tongue but was happy to see how easy it was to go back.
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails
It's an amazing book on philosophy, history, and much more. It felt very relevant to current times. The philosophers in question lived around and through WWII and it examines how their ideas came about before and after as well.
1. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
It's a fun read, and got me inspired to run my first ultra marathon.
2. Alone on the Wall
Inspiring stories about this amazing rock climber Alex Honnold, as told by himself and one other experienced climber. You get a little insight into what makes him tick.
My daughter just had her first novels (a young adult trilogy) published a few weeks ago. Even though it is not really my genre I read it and enjoyed it. Of course I am biased....
Dysfunctional Series: Books 1-3 (Origins, Dark Imagination, A Mighty Long Fall)
Thank you. If you don't mind I will brag on her a bit.
Kenzi started writing fiction pretty seriously at about 14 years of age. So while 24 seems young to be a published author she has put in a decade of sustained effort honing her craft. She has completed something like 8 full length novels plus several others in various stages.
She seems to have found her daily writing pace and can write 2 or maybe 3 novels a year while working a full-time job.
She got her degree in Technical and Scientific Communication and works as a software and hardware tester along with doing some documentation for a health sensor company.
In the spring of 2018 her day job moves away, and she doesn't intend to move with it... so she will be looking for a new day job unless commercial success is surprisingly fast on the novelist front.
This seems soon. If appropriate you may want to share a general region in case anyone here will be able to help out, unless she is specifically targeting remote work opportunities (which would also be worth sharing).
Yes it is a bit soon, on the other hand it feels like it is good to get the word out there when you know that a change is coming.
She is located in Minneapolis MN. She would be happy with remote work.
She is smart, productive and reliable but not particularly ambitious with regard to the day job. Seems happy to take on the entry level grunt work including auditing telcom vendor bills, remotely updating router firmware and running test cycles, testing custom software portals, document/write test plans, update and clean up system documentation and whatever else the engineers don't want to do that isn't too technical.
:) I was rather hoping that reading a single page (instead of a couple of pages) and then stopping would qualify.
Anyway, what I meant was that the plan was tentative. (I have read Guns, Germs and Steel and a few reviews seemed to liken Sapiens to that book. So was looking for some other perspectives.)
Sapiens opened my eyes to social constructs and human behavior and forced me to think about the vast timeline of humanity and how small our time is within it. Personally it provoked a re-visit to the philosophical questioning of life.
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. A really profound and interesting look into what technology is. Technology evolves through the same sort of Darwinian process that life evolves. Technology is in some sense alive, and Kelly's perspective on it is wonderfully refreshing. I also read his book Out of Control, which is fantastic.
Sapiens by Yuval Harari. Enough people are talking about this one that I don't have to say much, suffice it to say it's a fascinating look into human history a la Guns, Germs, and Steel.
The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. If you're a fan of Harari you'll love this one. It's an alternative scientific look at evil, and how evil appears to be encoded into our species.
Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Kaku is an amazing popular science writer bar none and this is his exploration of modern physics and string theory. The most concise and understandable explanation of modern physics I've read, which is part for the course with Kaku.
Red Queen by Matt Ridley. A fascinating look at sex, and why the human sex drive, and therefore human nature, is the way it is.
I finally got around to reading Dune. I burned though it pretty quickly and loved it. For some reason I can't get into the other books in the series. For now they mock me from their spot on my bookshelf...
I've read the books by Frank and I agree that the quality declines after the first books, mostly because the scale change, but the writing does not cope with this change.
Push on for books 2-4. They're great but take a longer investment. 5 & 6 fast-forward thousands of years, so I'd only recommend them if you enjoy things like the Foundation series where the setting and cultural movements are more important than individuals.
Oh man, I feel like Dune Messiah (dune 2) is such a fantastic compliment to the original. It is about half the length and has such a different tone that makes the original even better.
Messiah is just good enough to make you think that the thrid book will be ok... it's is indeed ok. The third book is ok enough to make you think the fourth book will be ok. It's not. It's rotten.
My advice: Even though Dune 2 is a good book - it's best to stay off the slide downwards or you'll wind up like me reading all of them and wondering if I could get the time back.
I finished Dune about 2 months ago, and I'm currently a quarter through Dune Messiah. It so far is a great compliment and progression, and I constantly fight the desire to look up what happens because I want to know now.
I use Hugo [1]. Like you, I too track my books on Goodreads. So I wrote a simple Python script to add an org file to Hugo, for each book. It is an easy set up. Please send me an email (in my profile) if you're interested and I'll share the script with you.
I strongly recommend the audiobook version of Columbus Day, if you can do that.
1. How to Win Friends and Influence People - I recommend because I apply every day at work and reap the results as well, somebody should have recommended this book to me ten years ago;
2. Children of Time - a science fiction book that I enjoyed, I notice that fiction, in general, helps me deal with stressful work, as I disconnect easier and put myself in an imaginary world while reading;
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - this isn't a book you read cover to cover, I catch myself thinking long even after reading a single sentence;
1) and 3) I've come across on HN, but 2) was the unexpected random hit.
I'm sure I have an unpopular opinion on this, I have read How To Win Friends And Influence People a few times and I can't get over the fact that the skills taught feel very disingenuous and superficial. "act interested, use the person's name, etc". It's extremely cringe inducing when you see somebody blatantly using the tactics.
If there's a reason that everyone should read this book, it's more so that they are aware of these tactics.
It's not disingenuous or superficial if you exercise the advice earnestly. For example, don't just "act interested", but "be interested" in what the other person has to say.
I assure you that doing so is both extremely difficult (because we're selfishly interested in ourselves most of the time) and kind (because the other person rarely receives such selfless attention.)
It's only cringe inducing if someone is using these tactics without actually being interested in others. Carnegie definitely does not advocate for being such a person.
I think it's a mix of "do some bullshit smalltalk", "be nice" and common sense.
I really need to re-read it, but my basic takeaway was "Don't be a dick" - and maybe my suspicion is right that it (although it is very old) still play on subtle differences of American and European (to be more specific: German) work culture. I'd absolutely say we're not as nice and polite, but more direct - also more honest. But that could also be my limited experience in a non-significant amount of companies and fields. :P
For me India: A Wounded Civilization by Naipaul was even better.
It is also from his India trilogy. I have read it a couple of times and even today I read a few pages. Highly recommended if you are open minded. A few people to whom I recommended it were quite offended. I guess that is because Naipaul has sharp eyes and blunt way of putting his observations.
1. The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien - If you are into trolls living under a bridge, and more.
2. Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions by Neil Gaiman - If you are into a young knight with a cool horse looking for a holy grail but to only find out an elderly woman bought it from a thrift store, and more.
My general rule is: if the book is in Barnes & Nobles its not worth reading. If you want true enlightening from reading branch out from what everyone else reads. The best books I have ever read in my life didn't even get published. Check out Thomas Hardy: The Poor Man and the Lady. Which was rejected my 5 publishers
Plenty of those books are good places to start learning about a topic. Get a basic understanding of something and then, if you find it interesting, go deeper.
I haven't walked into a Barnes & Noble in a while, for the one that used to be in walking distance is closed. But I would be very surprised if I couldn't walk into the nearest B&N and find forty pounds of books that a) are worth reading and b) that I haven't read.
1) Einsteins Dreams - This book is a quick read, but shows a bunch of different perceptions of time. Fantastic.
2) Rock warriors way - Even if you aren't a climber, I feel like this book has a lot of great lessons about committing without fear. Much more accessible as a climber though.
3) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art - Quick read, I learned a lot about storytelling in general.
4) Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance - This is a series of essays and the first few were great views into companies creating ignorance in the 50's around smoking and link to cancer. Gets a little dense after a while.
They are mainly focused on communication and getting better at selling yourself and your code. There's also a couple mixed in that will help improve other non-technical skills which in turn amplify your existing coding skills.
Sorry, this got a little longer than I meant it to be
- Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed - It's over 20 years old now but still really good, especially if you're into planes like the U-2, F-117, and SR-71
If you're wanting a deeper understanding of the other side of the war on terror, I'd recommend the following:
- I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad
- Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea
- The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State
- After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam
- The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda
If you're wanting a dive into Russia:
- The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries
- Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
If you're wanting true Spy stuff:
- The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
- The Spy's Son: The True Story of the Highest-Ranking CIA Officer Ever Convicted of Espionage and the Son He Trained to Spy for Russia
- Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda (the author is a little full of himself, but still, it's interesting)
To continue the Ishiguro and Hemingway theme, two of the books I enjoyed most this year were The Buried Giant (Ishiguro) and The Old Man and the Sea (Hemingway).
Best book I read this year hands down was The Righteous Mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion, by Jonathan Haidt.
It's a really lucid and eye opening introduction to moral psychology, and as a left-leaning person politically has made me understand my right-leaning friends more than anything else. Truly enlightening.
Here's quite a few, but they might be of interest to others.
1. You Have the Right to Remain Innocent: great advice that I had never seen anywhere else (except his video that started the whole thing).
2. The Vital Question: good overview of origin of life research.
3. Fragment: hard science fiction (is that the term?) that delved into evolution and dovetailed with some of the reading I had been doing around that subject.
4. The Science of Navigation: delved into the wonder of current navigational technology and how we got to here.
5. The Lost City of the Monkey God: bought on a lark, made me realize that archaeology can still find new things nowadays.
6. Island of the Lost: historical account of two shipwrecks on the same island at the same time that knew nothing of each other.
7. Protecting the Gift: another eye-opener about being more aware of the ways people _can_ prey on children.
8. Wondrous Contrivances: how people reacted to new techologies in the past.
9. Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet: submariner's account of life during a Cold War operation.
97 comments
[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 166 ms ] threadFrom the ones I read in 2017, I would highly recommend (non-IT):
1. The hidden life of trees- Peter Wohlleben Why forest trees are different than the ones you plant, how the communicate, how they care for their friends when they are not well, how mother trees protect their young ones by not letting them grow too fast, the fungi network, etc. The book is very easy to read- there is no scientific terminology overload. Things are told very simply. Not restricted to students of the subject. Learned something interesting every couple of pages. Another aspect is that the love shows. It is very clear that the author is in love with the subject. The author manages a wild forest in Germany and talks mainly about trees in terms of beeches, firs, oaks, etc. The author is politely insistent that we should protect the natural wild forests and let them be.
2. Why the allies won- Richard Overy Probably the best book I read on WW2. So many more factors went into winning the war than actual fight. Probably appealed to my analytical mind.
3. India After Gandhi- Ramachandra Guha As the author says history ends for many Indians with freedom. Very good chronicles. Started appreciating Nehru more.
4. Re-read Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Godfather and a few P.G Wodehouse- all of which I like.
Currently, halfway through Stephen Fry's Mythos which seems good enough to recommend. I am pretty new to the Greek Mythology and he is a good story teller. Don't have much to compare it with, though.
Also, by choice, I read quite a few books in rural Marathi(an Indian regional language) and was surprised how good the story telling was. Also noticed that I had gone quite far from my mother tongue but was happy to see how easy it was to go back.
Please answer my similar question https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15960188
It's an amazing book on philosophy, history, and much more. It felt very relevant to current times. The philosophers in question lived around and through WWII and it examines how their ideas came about before and after as well.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25658482-at-the-existent...
It's a fun read, and got me inspired to run my first ultra marathon.
2. Alone on the Wall
Inspiring stories about this amazing rock climber Alex Honnold, as told by himself and one other experienced climber. You get a little insight into what makes him tick.
Dysfunctional Series: Books 1-3 (Origins, Dark Imagination, A Mighty Long Fall)
By McKenzie Rae
https://www.amazon.com/Dysfunctional-Books-Origins-Imaginati...
Kenzi started writing fiction pretty seriously at about 14 years of age. So while 24 seems young to be a published author she has put in a decade of sustained effort honing her craft. She has completed something like 8 full length novels plus several others in various stages.
She seems to have found her daily writing pace and can write 2 or maybe 3 novels a year while working a full-time job.
She got her degree in Technical and Scientific Communication and works as a software and hardware tester along with doing some documentation for a health sensor company.
In the spring of 2018 her day job moves away, and she doesn't intend to move with it... so she will be looking for a new day job unless commercial success is surprisingly fast on the novelist front.
She is located in Minneapolis MN. She would be happy with remote work.
She is smart, productive and reliable but not particularly ambitious with regard to the day job. Seems happy to take on the entry level grunt work including auditing telcom vendor bills, remotely updating router firmware and running test cycles, testing custom software portals, document/write test plans, update and clean up system documentation and whatever else the engineers don't want to do that isn't too technical.
2. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)
3. The Loyal: The Story of Atwood and the Second Civil War (disclosure - my father wrote this book)
4. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
5. Grit
I thoroughly enjoyed all of these. It was interesting to see how Grit and The Power of Habit played off each other.
Anyway, what I meant was that the plan was tentative. (I have read Guns, Germs and Steel and a few reviews seemed to liken Sapiens to that book. So was looking for some other perspectives.)
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. A really profound and interesting look into what technology is. Technology evolves through the same sort of Darwinian process that life evolves. Technology is in some sense alive, and Kelly's perspective on it is wonderfully refreshing. I also read his book Out of Control, which is fantastic.
Sapiens by Yuval Harari. Enough people are talking about this one that I don't have to say much, suffice it to say it's a fascinating look into human history a la Guns, Germs, and Steel.
The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. If you're a fan of Harari you'll love this one. It's an alternative scientific look at evil, and how evil appears to be encoded into our species.
Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Kaku is an amazing popular science writer bar none and this is his exploration of modern physics and string theory. The most concise and understandable explanation of modern physics I've read, which is part for the course with Kaku.
Red Queen by Matt Ridley. A fascinating look at sex, and why the human sex drive, and therefore human nature, is the way it is.
Dune, followed by a 1-5 year pause, followed by Dune. Repeat until death.
You may, if you wish, throw in the first hundred pages of a different Dune novel every ten years or so, just to remind you of the correct sequence.
My advice: Even though Dune 2 is a good book - it's best to stay off the slide downwards or you'll wind up like me reading all of them and wondering if I could get the time back.
My 2017 favorites:
scifi: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/columbus-day/
nonfic: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/data-science-from-scratch/
fiction: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/everyone-burns/
I'm going to give Columbus Day a try.
What software do you use for your bookshelf? It does a good job.
I've been tracking my reading habits via Goodreads for a few years too, although I just post a summary at the end of the year.
https://www.michevan.id.au/tag/books/
I use Hugo [1]. Like you, I too track my books on Goodreads. So I wrote a simple Python script to add an org file to Hugo, for each book. It is an easy set up. Please send me an email (in my profile) if you're interested and I'll share the script with you.
I strongly recommend the audiobook version of Columbus Day, if you can do that.
[1] https://gohugo.io/
2. Children of Time - a science fiction book that I enjoyed, I notice that fiction, in general, helps me deal with stressful work, as I disconnect easier and put myself in an imaginary world while reading;
3. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - this isn't a book you read cover to cover, I catch myself thinking long even after reading a single sentence;
1) and 3) I've come across on HN, but 2) was the unexpected random hit.
If there's a reason that everyone should read this book, it's more so that they are aware of these tactics.
I assure you that doing so is both extremely difficult (because we're selfishly interested in ourselves most of the time) and kind (because the other person rarely receives such selfless attention.)
It's only cringe inducing if someone is using these tactics without actually being interested in others. Carnegie definitely does not advocate for being such a person.
I really need to re-read it, but my basic takeaway was "Don't be a dick" - and maybe my suspicion is right that it (although it is very old) still play on subtle differences of American and European (to be more specific: German) work culture. I'd absolutely say we're not as nice and polite, but more direct - also more honest. But that could also be my limited experience in a non-significant amount of companies and fields. :P
You have to work to cultivate those actions to be genuine. I've been following the Buddhism path, and it's helped me become more genuine.
Source: Read that book this year. Thought about the same thing.
2. First, Break all the Rules
3. Between the World and Me
Recommended by a friend who works on mobility policy in India.
For me India: A Wounded Civilization by Naipaul was even better.
It is also from his India trilogy. I have read it a couple of times and even today I read a few pages. Highly recommended if you are open minded. A few people to whom I recommended it were quite offended. I guess that is because Naipaul has sharp eyes and blunt way of putting his observations.
2. Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions by Neil Gaiman - If you are into a young knight with a cool horse looking for a holy grail but to only find out an elderly woman bought it from a thrift store, and more.
1) Einsteins Dreams - This book is a quick read, but shows a bunch of different perceptions of time. Fantastic.
2) Rock warriors way - Even if you aren't a climber, I feel like this book has a lot of great lessons about committing without fear. Much more accessible as a climber though.
3) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art - Quick read, I learned a lot about storytelling in general.
4) Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance - This is a series of essays and the first few were great views into companies creating ignorance in the 50's around smoking and link to cancer. Gets a little dense after a while.
Full list: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/18975415-samuel-mosley...
They are mainly focused on communication and getting better at selling yourself and your code. There's also a couple mixed in that will help improve other non-technical skills which in turn amplify your existing coding skills.
- Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed - It's over 20 years old now but still really good, especially if you're into planes like the U-2, F-117, and SR-71
If you're wanting a deeper understanding of the other side of the war on terror, I'd recommend the following:
- I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad
- Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea
- The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State
- After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam
- The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda
If you're wanting a dive into Russia:
- The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War
- The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries
- Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia
If you're wanting true Spy stuff:
- The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal
- The Spy's Son: The True Story of the Highest-Ranking CIA Officer Ever Convicted of Espionage and the Son He Trained to Spy for Russia
- Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda (the author is a little full of himself, but still, it's interesting)
* Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)
* Influx (Daniel Suarex)
* Sputnik Sweetheart (Haruki Murakami)
* Apex (Ramez Naam)
* One Second After (William R. Forstchen)
* Anna Karanina (Leo Tolstoy)
* Neuromancer (William Gibson)
* A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)
* Crux (Ramez Naam)
* A Moveable Feast (Ernest Hemingway)
* Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World (Haruki Murakami)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107943/
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Pierce-Brown/dp/034553980X
- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
- A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking
- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross
- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
- Start with No by Jim Camp
- How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg
- The Everything Store by Brad Stone
- The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly
It's a really lucid and eye opening introduction to moral psychology, and as a left-leaning person politically has made me understand my right-leaning friends more than anything else. Truly enlightening.
1. You Have the Right to Remain Innocent: great advice that I had never seen anywhere else (except his video that started the whole thing).
2. The Vital Question: good overview of origin of life research.
3. Fragment: hard science fiction (is that the term?) that delved into evolution and dovetailed with some of the reading I had been doing around that subject.
4. The Science of Navigation: delved into the wonder of current navigational technology and how we got to here.
5. The Lost City of the Monkey God: bought on a lark, made me realize that archaeology can still find new things nowadays.
6. Island of the Lost: historical account of two shipwrecks on the same island at the same time that knew nothing of each other.
7. Protecting the Gift: another eye-opener about being more aware of the ways people _can_ prey on children.
8. Wondrous Contrivances: how people reacted to new techologies in the past.
9. Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet: submariner's account of life during a Cold War operation.
* Flowers for Algernon
* Going Rogue: Spells, Swords, & Stealth
* Split the Party: Spells, Swords, & Stealth
* NPCs
* Children of Time
* Death's End
* The Shining
* IT
* All 7+1 books of The Dark Tower