Not a scifi guy, but really enjoyed Project Hail Mary. It felt almost like a puzzle, tickling the part of the brain that does problem-solving *amaze amaze*. Not the epitome of writing, but it got the job done, and first time I think I've felt something for a rock. *jazz hands*
The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul. You will not see the world the same way. You can then read Industrial Society by Ted Kaczynski and understand his desperation.
I’ve read ISAIF; it is chock-full of good insights. He also wrote The System’s Neatest Trick, which, once seen, cannot be unseen. Will check out Ellul; thank you for the recommendation.
I've read the Trick and found it very derivate. Most interesting, but he's not discovering a new element either.
I'd wager that anyone with an average knowledge of history and a basic understanding of how social systems work, independently discovers "the trick" rather quickly and thankfully with much less cringy imaginery.
Amazing book. It's an extension of his earlier 'The Fabric of Reality'. There he makes the astonishing unambiguous claim (chapter 2) that 'Single particle interference experiments show us that the multiverse exists and that it contains many counterparts of each particle in the tangible universe'. No ifs or buts! I've been looking for an informed critique/discussion of this without success though it's easy to find plenty of general objections raised to the multiverse concept (Everett's 'many worlds') / interpretation of quantum physics. I guess I haven't looked hard enough.
It's really a nice book and it left me feeling very optimistic about the future. The audio book has superb quality as well if you prefer that. Regarding rereading, maybe the chapter about the multiverse is dense and require rereading, the rest was OK.
I brought back my habit of reading this year. New rule, no internet and youtube right before sleep, read instead. I fall asleep sooner and much better.
And I finally read Dune, probably the best book of this year, surprisingly good, I like the writing style.
I’m trying hard to establish this habit as well. I got an e reader so I can read in the dark (lights bother my SO when she’s falling asleep). I confirm that reading technical books before bed puts me straight to sleep. And most e readers can sync with a smart phone so you can continue reading instead of browsing HN during a lunch break :)
Almost at the end of the 4th in the series. While I'm in complete agreement that none of them (so far) can hold a candle to the first - the 2nd was the worst for me. The series does seem to be getting stranger and stranger too.
I've completely lost any interest in reading fiction, because it's almost always a letdown. Good ideas with poor writing. Good writing with poor endings. The disappointments go on and on, and that's hours wasted. I've tried my friends' suggestions, best-of lists... the stories are consistently lame, except for the handful of masterpieces like Dune.
On the other hand, I'll gladly curl up with a nice comp sci or math book, and that'll be enriching, challenging, and time well spent.
My feeling on that is that unless you're a prolific reader, the annual best-of lists are a waste of time. If you want to read the best when you do, and that isn't much, then most years there isn't a single book published that you should ever read.
There are plenty of classics that people still recommend; I find they're generally a better read than anything current, and they have utility in exposing you to the context/background/meaning for things people reference from them.
Maybe too much technical analysis of the book? When I read fiction, I use the words of the author of as a means to evoke visually the scene in my imagination. Sometimes, I think I patch the story as I go on, as I rely solely on what I visualize to recall past events. Writing doesn't matter as much, and even characterizations do not. I only enjoy the ideas and the sequences of events. Every so often, I read similar novels just to see how much the author can differ from the previous.
I get what you’re saying. But I still read because it’s such a habit and part of my identity or something lol. There were some years I was hitting 50-75 books (and not small ones! GoT and godel Escher Bach etc) but now I’m down to a more sustainable pace of around 20 a year, and I’m pretty liberal about quitting books. If I’m getting a sense that it’s a 3/5 book then I just quit and move on. But even then I feel like I’m having an unquenched thirst for an absolute banger like Dune and Enders game. I’ve been thinking about doing a full year of just rereading books I loved like that from decades ago.
I go through phases where I won't read. Right now I'm in a phase of reading but I no longer feel like I have to read X amount of books. If it takes me 2 weeks or 2 months to finish a book so be it. This has helped me a lot in sticking with reading.
I've also found reading just before bed helps me tremendously. If I read until the words are a blur I usually have a very good night of sleep.
The Unwomanly Face of War: A Oral Histoy of Women in World War II. By Svetlana Alexievich.
Thought it was timely, and wanted to know more about the soviet perspective, from a different angle. Easy to go through as it's a series of short oral accounts written down. Sometimes a person shares a single memory, sometimes a few. Hard to get through at points due to the subject, obviously.
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton [1]. A haunting and disturbing account powerfully told and rendered. Beaton is well known for Hark! A Vagrant, but this is her best work to date.
The Kalevala [2]. I am familiar with the Eddas, the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the Finnish national epos was beautiful and refreshingly different. While I'm sure the English translation pales next to the original, it was nevertheless quite lyrical.
There were a few different PD translations to pick from when I did that edition of Kalevala, including a prose version. I don’t speak Finnish, but I picked the one that retained the Kalevala-meter and seemed to read the most lyrically. Glad to hear that you enjoyed it!
Hmm, I read fantasy a lot more than sci-fi. I did a quick check for books I read recently and all sci-fi ones are by male authors (excluding Becky Chambers). The most recent is "Daros" by Dave Dobson which fits your other criteria.
I once studied the map of Charon and asked myself who is Octavia Butler? Guess what Xenogenesis was about. Next I recalled Cherryh's Foreigner series and then searched my mind palace for the works of Le Guin and found The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World Is Forest.
Xenogenesis, now being published under the title Lilith’s Brood, is about colonization, coercion, identity. Missing all of that because sex—and more importantly the changing nature of the humans’ desires—plays a large role in the work is missing the forest for the trees.
I went on a kick of reading "competency porn" (think Project Hail Mary/The Martian but not necessarily solving engineering problems). On top of PHM, I read Sixteen Ways to Defend A Walled City (great dark satire despite the shit ending) and The Goblin Emperor (more on the social engineering side of things, so better characterization than something like The Martian)
Actually, I read both the first and second editions this year. Was looking forward to the second edition, and preordered.
Sadly, it didn't quite live up to the impact of first book. Whilst it's mainly the same, there are a couple of areas where the pacing is a bit uneven. He has an overlong chapter on creating a clock. And his later chapters on programming in higher languages, with examples in javascript, are not as compelling as the earlier stuff.
That was my observation as well (didn't read the 1st ed.). The middle third of the book is very dense and a lot of concepts will have to be kept in mind as the CPU is built up from plain transistors. It was all new to me, so challenging.
In the last third however, higher level concepts, languages etc. are introduced, and there's nothing new or even very interesting in that part for anyone with a year or more of regular coding experience.
Anthony Trollope - The Warden. Trollope presents us, realistically and convincingly, a decisive figure of modernity: the sincere idealist who, in the pursuit of illusory abstractions, (un)consciously destroys people, undermines communities with tradition and worsens the situation even for those whom he tries to help.
Of the books I've read this year, the fiction ones that stand out to me would be:
1. The entire Sprawl Trilogy by Gibson, and the entire Bridge Trilogy, also by Gibson. The former I'd read before (multiple times) while the latter I had not read all the way through until now. Neuromancer I've read probably 7 or 8 times total in my life by now. I'm not as crazy about Gibson's later stuff, but the Sprawl and Bridge books are great.
2. The rest of the HHGTTG "trilogy" besides the first book. I'd read the first book a couple of years ago but never got around to reading the rest until this year. Note that when I say "the rest" I'm excluding that one book that was written by another author after Douglas Adams' passing. I may still read it one day, but I'm not in any hurry to do so.
In terms of non-fiction:
Real-World Reasoning: Toward Scalable, Uncertain Spatiotemporal, Contextual and Causal Inference by Ben Goertzel, Nil Geisweiller, and Lucio Coelho is the stand-out of the lot. How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker and How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? by John R Anderson are also worthy of a mention.
> I'm excluding that one book that was written by another author after Douglas Adams' passing.
If this is _A Salmon of Doubt_, I can strongly recommend that book. It's a collection of the things they found on his computer (with permission to publish it). It's a great and varied set of DNA's writing. I really enjoyed reading it.
The best book I read this year, providing a glimpse on the crude reality of corruption on boxing, an immersion in the 40s, and a very human commentary on being defeated.
I read the main Earthsea Cycle books by Ursula Le Guin. Really enjoyed them, her prose is so evocative yet terse, especially in comparison to what would now be considered young adult fiction.
Earthsea is great. Ursula also wrote a lot of amazing science fiction: left hand of darkness, the dispossessed, the lathe of heaven, the word for world is forest etc. All are worth reading.
Ursula Le Guin has a gift for punchy prose. I've also read The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness by her and her ability to come up with truly novel, unique storyline and views of the world is incredible.
* Starting the evolution by Namkhai Norbu - on spiritual development using an authentic tradition, not some new age stuff
* John Osterhout's Philosophy of Software Design - vastly overdue, I love this book. I already apply many points presented in this book but several fragments gave me an enlightening perspective on my daily tasks
I loved it when I read it. Apologies if you're already familiar with this, but you should have a look at Giovanni Piranesi's Carceri series of prints which seems to have inspired the book's name (and main idea).
I have read almost all of Zecharia Sitchin works on Anunnaki, the ancient astronauts, this year. Still have couple of books to go. I read the 12th planet when in elementary school a long time ago and always wanted to read more on this. So I finally did and am very glad. Best things is that he is merely interpreting in his own way all the found sumerian, akkadian, babylonian... literature and jewish writings and bible. So no one can say he is wrong because there is no authority on interpretation of those writings and translations. You can choose to go along with his ideas or not. He does not force-feed you anything, which I like. And in the end, his version of our history makes the most sense to me from anything to this day, however weird it might be at first. Scientists also confirmed the mathematically expected existence of the famous Nibiru so with time, more and more proof is confirming his views, along with new discoveries of writings and artefacts. One negative sides of his writing, after the first 12th planet s that it becomes too abstracts - descriptions of land, locations, structures... with lacking images in the books the reader becomes a bit lost and disconnected. But when he is talking about stories and events that took place in the past, that's when you're hooked in. Also the first book has about 80% of everything, the rest of the books is a lot of repetition for new readers and not much new information. Still worth reading but one will get most out of the 12th planet and I'd say the Anunnaki chronicles which is kind of a summary of his work and i think the last book released by his estate put together fro all his previous released and unreleased works.
i have noticed a lot of bs attached to anunnaki when i wanted to research more on this. a bunch of ufo, lizard-people... crap. i am interested in facts, not fiction.
I agree, it's a legitimately interesting subject in the history of religions (and history overall), but there's little to go by that's not, eh, scholarship-free.
But to be fair, mythical accounts of deities, and the impetus for such accounts, is a very difficult subject to approach.
E.g., in the end of the first rhapsody of Odyssey, the goddess Athena is described having "the splendour of the sun" and departing from her meeting with Telemachus by ascending in the sky like an eagle.
I'll accept (and do accept, I'm not mad, I tell ya) all the reasonable explanations - poetic liberty, theatrical engineering with cranes and ropes, and whatnot.
At the same time, it's very interesting (and useful) to try and recreate the mental model that allows for such a metaphor to emerge, to be thought up in the first place, and to identify the cultural and technological triggers that might have caused such a dea ex machina description.
But Graham Hancock-style "research" (read up, smoke up, come up) really doesn't cut it, and I'd rather accept that there's no reachable answer with the currently available archaeological and textual evidence, than try and force one.
So (to close the digression), I think your only avenue is to learn Sumerian and Akkadian and go to the tablets. Shouldn't be too hard, really - I'm not being sarcastic - go for it, they are well-researched languages, grammatical and lexicographical resources are available, and the absolutely best reason to start learning a language is to have a specific question in mind or a specific text that you want to read, it'll push you onward.
Not to mention that by coming into contact with the original texts is the only way to approach whatever of the original meanings is still accessible.
These were so enjoyable I read them all straight through twice. I'm now reading through the Japanese translation of them as well. (Which, unfortunately, isn't as funny as the original.)
281 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 280 ms ] threadReally opened my persona in being gracious towards our partners platonic or otherwise.
They're sci-fi but fun reads.
I'd wager that anyone with an average knowledge of history and a basic understanding of how social systems work, independently discovers "the trick" rather quickly and thankfully with much less cringy imaginery.
The ideas are very interesting, strong second recommendation for Technological Society.
And I finally read Dune, probably the best book of this year, surprisingly good, I like the writing style.
I've completely lost any interest in reading fiction, because it's almost always a letdown. Good ideas with poor writing. Good writing with poor endings. The disappointments go on and on, and that's hours wasted. I've tried my friends' suggestions, best-of lists... the stories are consistently lame, except for the handful of masterpieces like Dune.
On the other hand, I'll gladly curl up with a nice comp sci or math book, and that'll be enriching, challenging, and time well spent.
There are plenty of classics that people still recommend; I find they're generally a better read than anything current, and they have utility in exposing you to the context/background/meaning for things people reference from them.
I've also found reading just before bed helps me tremendously. If I read until the words are a blur I usually have a very good night of sleep.
Thought it was timely, and wanted to know more about the soviet perspective, from a different angle. Easy to go through as it's a series of short oral accounts written down. Sometimes a person shares a single memory, sometimes a few. Hard to get through at points due to the subject, obviously.
How applying the principles of design thinking to our life can help us have a better life.
The Kalevala [2]. I am familiar with the Eddas, the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, but the Finnish national epos was beautiful and refreshingly different. While I'm sure the English translation pales next to the original, it was nevertheless quite lyrical.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59069071-ducks
[2] https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/elias-lonnrot/the-kalevala...
* "Legends & Lattes" by Travis Baldree
* "Dreadgod" by Will Wight
* "Tongue Eater" by John Bierce
* "The Umbral Storm" by Alec Hutson
* "Soul Relic" by Samuel Hinton
* "The Weirkey Chronicles" by Sarah Lin
* "The Eldest Throne" by Bernie Anés Paz
* "The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet" by Becky Chambers (reread)
This one made me think, is there any sci-fi by female authors, which involves aliens, but doesn't depict or mention sex with them?
There's quite a lot of interesting African sci-fi around at the moment, usually feels quite different from the usual western fare.
Sadly, it didn't quite live up to the impact of first book. Whilst it's mainly the same, there are a couple of areas where the pacing is a bit uneven. He has an overlong chapter on creating a clock. And his later chapters on programming in higher languages, with examples in javascript, are not as compelling as the earlier stuff.
In the last third however, higher level concepts, languages etc. are introduced, and there's nothing new or even very interesting in that part for anyone with a year or more of regular coding experience.
1. The entire Sprawl Trilogy by Gibson, and the entire Bridge Trilogy, also by Gibson. The former I'd read before (multiple times) while the latter I had not read all the way through until now. Neuromancer I've read probably 7 or 8 times total in my life by now. I'm not as crazy about Gibson's later stuff, but the Sprawl and Bridge books are great.
2. The rest of the HHGTTG "trilogy" besides the first book. I'd read the first book a couple of years ago but never got around to reading the rest until this year. Note that when I say "the rest" I'm excluding that one book that was written by another author after Douglas Adams' passing. I may still read it one day, but I'm not in any hurry to do so.
In terms of non-fiction:
Real-World Reasoning: Toward Scalable, Uncertain Spatiotemporal, Contextual and Causal Inference by Ben Goertzel, Nil Geisweiller, and Lucio Coelho is the stand-out of the lot. How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker and How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? by John R Anderson are also worthy of a mention.
If this is _A Salmon of Doubt_, I can strongly recommend that book. It's a collection of the things they found on his computer (with permission to publish it). It's a great and varied set of DNA's writing. I really enjoyed reading it.
The best book I read this year, providing a glimpse on the crude reality of corruption on boxing, an immersion in the 40s, and a very human commentary on being defeated.
Amazing book about the role female leaders played in the “Holy Land.”
She spends chapter after chapter talking about these fascinating women who built a country.
She also tries to talk about the women rulers in the nearby Islamic countries. But she can’t, because there aren’t any.
I strongly recommend!
If one book from the 21st century will be remembered in 500 years, I am convinced this will be it.
* Starting the evolution by Namkhai Norbu - on spiritual development using an authentic tradition, not some new age stuff
* John Osterhout's Philosophy of Software Design - vastly overdue, I love this book. I already apply many points presented in this book but several fragments gave me an enlightening perspective on my daily tasks
Keep in mind, all this stuff is fiction, sort of magic realism in the garb of documentary exposition, and scholarly dubious research.
But much more enjoyable than hollow earth or flat earth stuff!
My favorite bit of it is the presaging of the Dyson sphere in the “energy grid” that surrounds the earth, limiting life form travel.
Even better than their theory of the moon as a manufactured satellite.
Goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: make sure you don’t treat fiction as fact too much :) This stuff can be mentally corrosive.
But to be fair, mythical accounts of deities, and the impetus for such accounts, is a very difficult subject to approach.
E.g., in the end of the first rhapsody of Odyssey, the goddess Athena is described having "the splendour of the sun" and departing from her meeting with Telemachus by ascending in the sky like an eagle.
I'll accept (and do accept, I'm not mad, I tell ya) all the reasonable explanations - poetic liberty, theatrical engineering with cranes and ropes, and whatnot.
At the same time, it's very interesting (and useful) to try and recreate the mental model that allows for such a metaphor to emerge, to be thought up in the first place, and to identify the cultural and technological triggers that might have caused such a dea ex machina description.
But Graham Hancock-style "research" (read up, smoke up, come up) really doesn't cut it, and I'd rather accept that there's no reachable answer with the currently available archaeological and textual evidence, than try and force one.
So (to close the digression), I think your only avenue is to learn Sumerian and Akkadian and go to the tablets. Shouldn't be too hard, really - I'm not being sarcastic - go for it, they are well-researched languages, grammatical and lexicographical resources are available, and the absolutely best reason to start learning a language is to have a specific question in mind or a specific text that you want to read, it'll push you onward.
Not to mention that by coming into contact with the original texts is the only way to approach whatever of the original meanings is still accessible.
Excellent read, I wonder what other readers think about it