This year I revisited "A Cultural History of Physics" quite a tremendous book. It goes to the entire history of physics while parallelly highlighting cultural events with emphasis on how one influenced the other.
Is there not a semi-official (de facto) account that creates these? They always strike me as 'karma farming' since it's just a race to create something formulaic and known to be popular. Maybe it's not a problem.
OP here, my sole intention was to get book recommendations. But I did think about two things: how I structured the description (books from previous years are OK for example) and the time I posted (good US time).
It took a long time to get through (very dense, academic) but was a sprawling look at a powerful indigenous culture that I knew nothing about.
Plus, it was enlightening and a bit foreboding to learn how an empire could be at the very height of its power and then, through circumstance, climate, demographics, and imperial expansion be exhausted and destroyed in essentially a decade.
I actually read "Empire of the Summer Moon" first. It's a nice intro to the same topic, and far more readable (weaves a couple of stories together, rather than being an academic work). If you are interested in the topic at all, it's a worthy read.
For a broader look at the same subject (on the continental scale), I recommend 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann.
Yes, I enjoyed both "1491" and "1493", both great books in the same vein as "Guns, Germs and Steel". I have a soft spot for food so especially loved the caloric analysis (the sweet potato was a game changer, IIRC).
Yasha Levine's "Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet" (2018). I ended up reading it side-by-side with Ed Snowden's "Permanent Record" (2019) which was useful as they have somewhat different takes on domestic and global mass surveillance.
The one take-away I'm still thinking about is how the Tor Onion Router system works, and if the primary purpose behind Tor was to allow spies in various locations around the planet to communicate with known headquarter locations without leaving any traces. That's what Levine implies, anyway, and Snowden sort of confirms that, as I read things.
Overall, some people believe putting advanced technology in the hands of individuals is a solution to authoritarian control, some people believe political reforms are the solution to authoritarian control. Interesting debate certainly.
Lulu Miller, a host of the Invisibilia podcast, turns what at first is a simple story about an obsessive taxonomist, David Starr Jordan, into a deeply personal and poignant exploration of the chaos that rules are lives. This part-historical non-fiction, part memoir brilliantly sets itself up for a grand reveal at the end that will stick with you long after you finish. By far my favorite of the 62 books that I read and one of the best books that I have ever read.
The Odyssey, translation by EV Rieu. Made an effort to read a bunch of the Classics at the start of the year and the Illiad and Odyssey were very enjoyable.
I've been trying to get into the Homer stuff, but procrastinating because translation quality make such a big difference. Thanks for mentioning the translator.
“Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for inner liberty” to remain independent of the enslavement of the material world. “Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem—how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent.”
"This, then, is the answer to the problem of civilization: not to flee from the realm of space; to work with things of space but to be in love with eternity. Things are our tools; eternity, the Sabbath, is our mate. Israel is engaged to eternity. Even if they dedicate six days of the week to worldly pursuits, their soul is claimed by the seventh day."
Really love this book too. Feel like some of the ideas outlined here could make a difference for the climate future. Hard to see them being politically palatable though.
I read a couple of the series about 15 years back and found the writing style and characterizations so dated, that I really had trouble getting anything enjoyable or insightful out of it. I feel the same amount most Golden age SciFi, with Dune being a notable exception.
He's a brilliant author, but his characters are not well developed (esp. The older stuff). If that's what you need in fiction you're probably better off reading something else.
I remember reading an interview where Asimov is asked why the books of the Foundation trilogy are so different.
The short answer is that the first book was inspired by an idea he had while talking to a professor about the rise and fall of civilizations.
The others were inspired by pressure by publishers to repeat success, and so he tried to improve and continue the story. This lead him to try and carry the story with characters, which was ironically not why people liked the first book.
The Mule was alright though, even if a little forced.
I read the first and was incredibly unimpressed. Does it get better? I love the premise, love many other sci-fi authors & series, I thought this was going to be an obviously good one.
I wouldn't have gotten nearly as much enjoyment out of the series (including the 2 sequels after the trilogy) if I hadn't read Asimov's Robot Series. I know that the whole "you don't get it because you haven't read these other books" thing is kind of cliché, but I really do think that the majority of the joy I got from Foundation was because of how it connected with the Robot Series.
But of course, part of the enjoyment should come from the book itself. I'd say that the book does get better as new threats to the Foundation appear, but the premise largely stays the same throughout the trilogy: will the Seldon Plan succeed?
(NOTE) The reading sequence for me went something like:
1. Caves of Steel
2. Naked Sun
3. I, Robot
4. Robots of Dawn
5. Foundation Trilogy
One of those books that if you just told me what it was about, I wouldn't care, but reading it was a very enthralling journey and a positive experience.
I was very excited to read LHoD after hearing so many glowing reviews, but it didn't resonate with me at all. I kind of regret spending the time to read it. Curious what you took away from it?
Same experience here. As far as genre fiction goes, the prose itself is pretty good. But the plot and themes did not resonate with me or strike me as particularly interesting. I do understand its historical context, but I don't really think that elevates it.
God I loved it, read long ago dimly remembered, I loved that Genly seemed to barely be aware of the complexity of the world he was in and the consequences for others of their interactions with.
I love Cordwainer Smith. I vividly remember reading "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" as a teenager in the 60's. It had a huge effect on me, and I still have that copy of Galaxy magazine.
I just read that story based on your recommendation - thank you! I might be just a tiny bit better as a person now than I was before reading it.
For fellow fans of le Guin, Sturgeon and Smith looking for more authors, I would recommend Lois McMaster Bujold. Space opera adventures on the surface, but with subtle depths and insights into human nature.
Or for something more recent, Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series; we have solved world hunger, achieved gender equality and invented flying cars, but what are the implications for world politics and human interactions?
Oh, this been one of my favorite books for decades. I was introduced by Tony Wolk, an old hippie professor of English Lit at Portland State. I took a class from him nearly every term, in part because he was good friends with LeGuin and would have her guest lecture sometimes. She was astonishing, perhaps the best combination of intellect and humanity I’ve encountered.
Tony said that first and last sentences in her books were very important to her. To this day I remember that the book begins “There was a wall.” And at the end: “His hands were empty, as they had always been.”
The ending line was a home run. Fantastic ending to a fantastic book. I read it a month ago, and it would be my favourite fiction of the year if I didn’t also read The Grapes of Wrath this year.
Yeah! Somewhere recently I read someone talking about how in the 20th century male writers were writing grand books, and until johnathon franzen turned up it was only women writers were writing the books that depicted people emotionally honestly. I have no idea if this true, but it certainly true that Le guin and Alice Munro write books that capture human experience in a way that I really love
Everyone has different tastes and not everyone likes the type of book the disposed is, but canyou really say you gave it a fair shot after only 30 pages?
It came very close to me. The society of the book was very similar to the society in which I grew up, Soviet Union in 90s.
Some of the lines from the book:
".. the social consience completely dominates the individual conscience, instead of striking a balance with it. We don't cooperate - we obey. We fear being outcast, being called lazy, dysfunctional, egoizing. We fear our neighbor's opinion more than we respect our own freedom of choice."
"No matter what their society's like, some of them must be decent. People vary here, don't they? Are we all perfect Odonians?
But in a sick organism, even a healthy cell is doomed."
Since the last few years, I have made it a habit to write about the books[1] I read without trying to add my smart-a* comment but more as a way to come back later in life and read the articles. For this year, here are some of the books I liked (quite a few of them are re-reads);
- The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi (English Version)
- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
- Ego is the Enemy, Stillness Is the Key, and The Obstacle Is the Way; all 3 books by Ryan Holiday
- Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher[2]
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator by Edwin Lefèvre (1923). Inspired by the life of stock trader Jesse Livermore in the late 1800s to early 1900s. The narrator starts trading in bucket shops (antique equivalent of Robinhood), makes and loses several fortunes through various (often less than honorable) financial escapades. Was inspired to read this by the GameStop situation and was not disappointed.
438 days. A memoir of a Mexican fisherman that spent over a year drifting across the Pacific Ocean. I’m a sucker for a good survival story and finished it in a day.
There’s also “Miracle In the Andes” by Nando X (forgot the surname). And “Adrift” by Callahan (forgot the first name).
The latter is one of the few books I read thrice over the years. Combines for me beauty, survival, appreciation for life and our humanness, philosophy and knowledge about our world.
Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness in the West) by Cormac McCarthy. Quickly became my favorite book after reading it a second time. I've never read a book with more effective language.
Second McCarthy’s “effective language” attribution.
I read The Road, and it was so sufficiently “effective” in its descriptions and it’s setting that I’m happy never reading another McCarthy book again. Glad I did once.
it's gruesome. I love westerns but in a way this is some kind of anti-western. Captivating however, in the same way 'Heart of Darkness' - Joseph Conrad , is.
Listened to this as an audiobook, and recommend the format for this specific book. The language is amazing but the subject is so brutal. The audiobook relentlessly drives forward, delivering the language and imagery without pause. I think I might not have finished the text.
Walter Isaacson's The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race. Reading about how the Crispr and mRNA vaccine development happened was gripping.
I like Walter Isaacson's books and this one was so timely. It was also fascinating to learn about the competition/cooperation in scientific research and how one discovery builds on top of others.
My dad was a scientist (an ecologist), and growing up I got second-hand exposure to the scientific community through his friends, cow-orkers and the stories he brought home. The weird, somehow collegial "you scratch my back and I'll stab you in yours" made sense to me, and Isaacson's book brought back memories of my parents discussing lab politics.
Not OP, but I read both of them too. The second is not as good as the first, got a little too weird (already a weird setup as you can assume from the first book). It's enjoyable but filled with a lot of tropes, compared to the first one which was quite original IMO.
Yeah I agree with this, it gets more into the sci-fi horror genre which some people might like and others not. I would say though that it’s still a very good book and if you liked the first I would definitely recommend.
More of what makes the first one good. Def read if you liked the first. Not as good in terms of how attached you get to the characters. The ending of the first was brilliant IMO, and the ending of the second was a bit of a let down. I think it almost would have been better if he left the Chekhov's gun introduced towards the end up to the reader's imagination, instead of going into it explicitly.
I read both of these based on several independent recommendations here. The first was ok, and the second was barely readable.
Certainly not anywhere near as bad as the Three Body Problem, as far as HN recommended books go, but I think I’m still going to have to start avoiding books recommended here.
To answer the original question (and remain within sci-fi), then new Andy Weir book Project Hail Mary was pretty good. Not quite on the level of The Martian, but good enough to recommend to others.
Yeah for fantasy and sci fi both there is just a cast of about 20 authors that will be recommended in every thread that mentions a book. There are some gems in there but for the most part the fiction recs around here are fairly narrow and don't align with my preferences so I've learned to avoid them.
Loved this book the first time I read it. Couldn’t finish it a second time. I think some of the darker parts were too much during an already difficult year.
I went in expecting a somewhat fluffy business book, but it is nothing of the sort. Every page is full of interesting anecdotes, analogies, and insights around not just corporate life, but life in general.
It was way more thorough and academic than I expected, very highly recommend it.
Having worked more than 15 years in the industry and having completed several OB courses during my MBA, I cannot point to a better resource than this book that helps understand what actually drives organizations and how they function.
651 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 242 ms ] threadhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29634694
It took a long time to get through (very dense, academic) but was a sprawling look at a powerful indigenous culture that I knew nothing about.
Plus, it was enlightening and a bit foreboding to learn how an empire could be at the very height of its power and then, through circumstance, climate, demographics, and imperial expansion be exhausted and destroyed in essentially a decade.
My library has that one not, your suggestion.
The one take-away I'm still thinking about is how the Tor Onion Router system works, and if the primary purpose behind Tor was to allow spies in various locations around the planet to communicate with known headquarter locations without leaving any traces. That's what Levine implies, anyway, and Snowden sort of confirms that, as I read things.
Overall, some people believe putting advanced technology in the hands of individuals is a solution to authoritarian control, some people believe political reforms are the solution to authoritarian control. Interesting debate certainly.
Lulu Miller, a host of the Invisibilia podcast, turns what at first is a simple story about an obsessive taxonomist, David Starr Jordan, into a deeply personal and poignant exploration of the chaos that rules are lives. This part-historical non-fiction, part memoir brilliantly sets itself up for a grand reveal at the end that will stick with you long after you finish. By far my favorite of the 62 books that I read and one of the best books that I have ever read.
“Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for inner liberty” to remain independent of the enslavement of the material world. “Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem—how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent.”
The short answer is that the first book was inspired by an idea he had while talking to a professor about the rise and fall of civilizations.
The others were inspired by pressure by publishers to repeat success, and so he tried to improve and continue the story. This lead him to try and carry the story with characters, which was ironically not why people liked the first book.
The Mule was alright though, even if a little forced.
But of course, part of the enjoyment should come from the book itself. I'd say that the book does get better as new threats to the Foundation appear, but the premise largely stays the same throughout the trilogy: will the Seldon Plan succeed?
(NOTE) The reading sequence for me went something like: 1. Caves of Steel 2. Naked Sun 3. I, Robot 4. Robots of Dawn 5. Foundation Trilogy
EDIT: remove redundant last paragraph
It identified so many of the "edges" of society and how I think about and interact with the world, on a daily basis.
Without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe even the best.
The only other book that came close this year was Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir.
Very nice to read science fiction that is about people rather than things.
For fellow fans of le Guin, Sturgeon and Smith looking for more authors, I would recommend Lois McMaster Bujold. Space opera adventures on the surface, but with subtle depths and insights into human nature. Or for something more recent, Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota series; we have solved world hunger, achieved gender equality and invented flying cars, but what are the implications for world politics and human interactions?
Tony said that first and last sentences in her books were very important to her. To this day I remember that the book begins “There was a wall.” And at the end: “His hands were empty, as they had always been.”
Her writing style exemplifies St. Exupery's quote about perfection being "...when there is nothing left to take away."
I'd have loved to have met her.
It came very close to me. The society of the book was very similar to the society in which I grew up, Soviet Union in 90s.
Some of the lines from the book:
".. the social consience completely dominates the individual conscience, instead of striking a balance with it. We don't cooperate - we obey. We fear being outcast, being called lazy, dysfunctional, egoizing. We fear our neighbor's opinion more than we respect our own freedom of choice."
"No matter what their society's like, some of them must be decent. People vary here, don't they? Are we all perfect Odonians? But in a sick organism, even a healthy cell is doomed."
- The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi (English Version)
- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford
- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson
- Ego is the Enemy, Stillness Is the Key, and The Obstacle Is the Way; all 3 books by Ryan Holiday
- Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher[2]
1. https://brajeshwar.com/2021/books-of-2021/
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reviving_Ophelia
Thanks for recommending "438 days" - I'm adding it to my list. And yes, I really enjoyed "Unbroken".
The latter is one of the few books I read thrice over the years. Combines for me beauty, survival, appreciation for life and our humanness, philosophy and knowledge about our world.
I read The Road, and it was so sufficiently “effective” in its descriptions and it’s setting that I’m happy never reading another McCarthy book again. Glad I did once.
I will watch the movies though!
I went out and bought The Road but for some reason or another haven't yet started it (have watched the film though).
Certainly not anywhere near as bad as the Three Body Problem, as far as HN recommended books go, but I think I’m still going to have to start avoiding books recommended here.
To answer the original question (and remain within sci-fi), then new Andy Weir book Project Hail Mary was pretty good. Not quite on the level of The Martian, but good enough to recommend to others.
A close runner up might be Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis (1989).
Loved this book the first time I read it. Couldn’t finish it a second time. I think some of the darker parts were too much during an already difficult year.
Giving it as a gift to my nephew though.
Signed: BSD
I went in expecting a somewhat fluffy business book, but it is nothing of the sort. Every page is full of interesting anecdotes, analogies, and insights around not just corporate life, but life in general.
It was way more thorough and academic than I expected, very highly recommend it.