Ask HN: What is HN reading?
Alright, so a month ago i made this same thread, and it seemed quite popular.
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8257369)
Since then i´ve:
Read:
Siddhartha - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)
Das Steppenwolf - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppenwolf_(novel)
Into the Wild - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(book)
Bought, but yet not read:
Godel, Escher, Bach - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach
Being and Nothingness - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Nothingness
CODE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code:_The_Hidden_Language_of_Computer_Hardware_and_Software
Let´s hear what HN recommends and is currenty reading
84 comments
[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 171 ms ] threadZero to One - Peter Thiel
Traction Book - Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares
Currently Reading:
How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
A Guide to the Good Life: Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine
Algorithm Design Manual - Steven S Skiena
Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don't Work - Dan Roam
Highly recommend the first 2, Blah Blah Blah is a rehash with a twist on Back of the Napkin.
Honestly loving Atlas Shrugged, but We The Living is easily my favorite book I have ever read. It has deeply affected how I think about life and I share many philosophical beliefs with Rand, would highly highly recommend.
Peter Thiel's take on her in Zero to One is pretty good.
edit: I also just realized that I read a pre-release screener - it may have been cut out of the published edition.
> Business student. Accounting & Economics
> The startup world fascinates me, have a bit of technical knowledge, learning to code and would probably kill a man to become a VC someday.
Guess I was completely wrong; serves me right to stereotype Rand followers :-)
It's good, I recommend it. She addresses quite well what I think is wrong with a lot of indie games these days, and offers insightful ideas to making games better.
A very entertaining read: throughout the short book, Huff satirically likens abusers of statistics to criminals.
Programming Elixir - Dave Thomas
Introducing Elixir - Simon St. Laurent and J. David Eisenberg
The Swift Programming Language - Apple
Currently reading:
Functional Programming in Swift - Chris Eidhof, Florian Kugler, and Wouter Swierstra
Recently purchased but not started:
The Algorithm Design Manual - Steven S Skiena
Sipping from time to time:
Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics - Jonathan Wilson
Michaelangelo - A Life in Six Masterpieces
Proving Darwin - Making Biology Mathematical
Handmade Electronic Music - The Art of Hardware Hacking
Reading: Predictably Irrational (more substance than most business books I've read)
Data Smart: Using Data Science To Transform Information into Insight (Foreman)
An Everlasting Meal (Waters and Adler)
Product Design and Development (Ulrich et al)
Fluent in 3 Months - Benny Lewis
Currently reading:
The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
Looking forward to:
Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)
Annals of the Former World - John McPhee https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78.Annals_of_the_Former_...
My Years with GM - Alfred P. Sloan Jr. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/275912.My_Years_with_Gene...
Bought, but yet not read : My Struggle: Book 1 - Karl Ove Knausgaard
Cadilllac Desert: The American West and it's Disappearing Water - Mark Reisner
Year Zero: A Novel - Rob Reid
Good Strategy, Bad Strategy https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11721966-good-strategy-b...
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing)
Dusty Warriors: Modern Soldiers at War (Richard Holmes)
NB A book that I read recently that I wasn't expecting to like very much but really enjoyed was "A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown" - to say that he's had an eventful life is a bit of an understatement (Royal Marines, SBS, MI6, politics) - he actually comes across as a politician with strongly held morals - shame I can't vote for him!
Currently reading:
"Zero to One" by Peter Thiel
"Discover Meteor: Building Real-Time JavaScript Web Apps" by Tom Coleman & Sacha Greif
Reading next:
"Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson
Overall, I like Isaacson's writing style, and for someone with a non-scientific background, did a pretty good job at describing physical concepts such as a relativity and space-time.
It was exciting to read his bio on Steve Jobs the day it came out, but in retrospect seemed to lack depth. I'm not sure if I learned anything new about him as a person, than just someone following Apple and his career over the years.
-The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell. Just a fun read. Fiction sucks me in pretty easily, and I enjoy the time-hopping.
-Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia's Water Crisis - Cheryl Colopy. Not enjoying this as much as I thought I would so far, possibly because I have too much academic experience in the topic area and the writer is a reporter. I'm a bit more pragmatic about large energy projects, not exactly bleeding heart, but I try to focus on the bigger picture. It was a free book on a table at work though from someone cleaning out their office, so not a big deal.
-Operations Research - Hillier and Lieberman. Also a free book from work. Something I need a stronger foundation in for upcoming projects.
Perpetual Backburner
-Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace. I've gotten a couple hundred pages in a few times. If I get distracted at all it's so hard to go back to.
-Capital in the 21st Century - Piketty. I blazed through the first couple hundred pages around when it came out, then I went on a long vacation. Now I sort of nibble at it when I'm in the mood. One of the most compelling economics books I've ever read.
Recently finished
-The Book of Basketball - Bill Simmons. Fun to read about the history of the NBA from a true fanatic. Eyes glazed over in some sections on the Celtics though.
If anyone is interested in reading DWF I'd recommend checking out his shorter fiction (Brief Interviews with Hideous Men) or non-fiction (A Supposedly Fun Thing) if Infinite Jest (rightfully) seems intimidating :)
Modern C++ Design (Andrei Alexandrescu)
The Screenwriter's Bible (David Trottier)
Clean Code (Robert Cecil Martin)
Il Codice da Vinci (Dan Brown)
The Anatomy of Story (John Truby)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton Malkiel)
The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg)
Very similar style to Infinite Jest, but the story seems much more sinister.
Now reading: Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiesen
Been on a travel themed binge the last few weeks, rereading my favorite travel books. I highly recommend Arabian Sands, gives a pretty unique view of how the Arabian Peninsula was changing right after WWII.
A rebours - J.K. Huysmans (in dutch translation: 'Tegen de keer')
Bad Astronomy - Philip Plait