Ask HN: What book(s) are you reading? Or have recently read?

I just finished The Left Hand of Darkness, and now I am reading HMS Surprise.

"The Idea Factory" by Jon Gertner. It's a history of Bell Labs starting in the early 1900s. It pre-dates silicone valley and goes into a lot of detail behind how telecommunications came to be. Fascinating for anyone interested in how a culture of innovation and invention can be created and sustained.

Fassbinder: Thousands of Mirrors. Once I've finished that, on to Money: 5,000 Years of Debt and Power.

Currently "The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation" by Cory Doctorow.

I’ve almost finished ‘Determined A life of science without free will’ - which I see keeps being posted about on here and other places. I really like the writing style. I also think that the author makes some really good points, that are relevant whether you believe in free will or not. However, it may be that I think that because I am a hard determinist so it’s easier for me to agree with what the author says.

Then next will be V for Vendetta, the graphic novel which was delivered to my house yesterday. I don’t usually like to read fiction but I accidentally impulsively bought it online after watching the movie for the 3rd or 4th time, so I’m looking forward to reading it and curious as to how much the movie is like the book. I’ve also never read a graphic novel before so wondering if it’s a better or worse reading experience than normal fiction books.

The Fund. It’s a book critical of Ray Dalio lol

Just finished “The Prague Cemetary” and “Jade Dragon Mountain”.

Now reading “Telluria” by Vladimir Sorokin and “Designing Data-Intensive Applications”.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable from Nassim Taleb. I'm rereading the book for the third time. Previous two times were in 2015 and 2019.

"Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents" (Saw it recommended here, was hoping it would help me get unfucked. It didn't.)

"In the Ocean of Night" by Gregory Benford. Very nice XXth century style sci-fi. Written by an academic, so it describes lots of nasty committee meetings.

"The Fish That Ate the Whale" - about bananas

"Count Belisarius" by Robert Graves - historical novel, Byzantium, early Christians

"My World Line" by George Gamow - autobiography; not very relatable for someone with a lower class background

Recently read through all the Narnia books. They are charming and relaxing to read.

I also recommend the Hyperion Cantos. It's solid sci-fi with a good amount of depth without being overwhelming.

Also also anything by Haruki Murakami. Particularly Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. It's good weird, hard to explain.

I'm currently reading Sun Tzu's The Art Of War, it's the nice little penguin pocket hardback edition. The translation is good and the compilation of different commentaries that accompanies it really helps you to understand it and the context it was written in.

“Night” by Elie Wiesel (summary - https://ivypanda.com/essays/night-by-elie-wiesel-and-the-boo...). It would be fun to see such threads monthly :)

Finally finished "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by by Douglas Hofstadter. Hugely original and entertaining, and although it's pretty old now, some ideas still very relevant to current AI debates.

Also "Ringworld" by Larry Niven. Entertaining.

And "Ficciones" by Jorge Luis Borges. Mostly a bit disappointing but some high points.

Monthly thread would be fun.

"The Passenger" by Cormac McCarthy. It's an absolute delight. Nobody's working on his level.

Currently reading:

- Algorithms To Live By. The Computer Science of Human Decisions.

- A Programmer's Guide to Computer Science. A virtual degree for the self-taught developer

I am reading Abbey Road NW8, a history of the studio and recorded music in general. Pretty good so far in a bill bryson kind of way.

- Roman Stories by Jhumpa Lahiri

- Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years by A.S Dulat

- The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber,David Wengrow

1632 by Eric Flint, it turned into a series, it's alternative history, with a lot of infrastructure education baked in.