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Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
121–130 of 206 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#122Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I think GP has a point "I don't know what people find romantic about this nonsense" It's fine to have different literary preferences than some other people. As you say, "one might enjoy crime drama, but not gratuitous violence". But to question the literary preferences of other people is an entirely different matter. "I hate this stupid trend." It's not a trend. Writers have been writing about love triangles and ma…
I think romance as a genre has changed though. Today's romance is multiple people being involved in some weird interplay between each other and that is the main focus of the story. Whereas romance from a century ago is more about two people fighting against adversity to be together or to remain together.
I wouldn't actually place this book in the "romance" genre.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#123* The End of the World is just the Beginning, by Peter Zeihan How the globalisation is coming to an end, how the US Navy made Chinese power possible, how the 21st Century will be American after all, and many other counter-intuitive things. A must read IMO. * Atlas of AI, by Kate Crawford Politics of AI: power, exploitation, colonialism, global surveillance and control... Fascinating. Another must read.
I'm in the middle of the Zeihan book right now. Even if his prediction about globalization's end turns out to be wrong (not that I don't think it's possible), the history and worldview in this book has been really enlightening for me.
I'm reading this book too. I have to admire his case for the end of globalization. He presents the facts in a very convincing and logical manner so it's hard to say he's wrong.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#124- Build by Fadell - Hard Drive by Wallace - The Inmates Are Running the Asylum by Cooper These three books are some of the best books in their respective categories. All three are about product design in a way. Build is about the development of the iPhone and Nest. Hard Drive is about the early history of MS and about the stunts Gates pulled to win. Inmates argues that programmers tend to hijack the product design pr…
> Inmates argues that programmers tend to hijack the product design process because they can (programmers write the code after all), and that products suffer as a result. Yikes! The typical HN post says MBAs ruin everything. Who knew programmers who have troubles interacting with people would build products which have troubles interacting with people!? (i'm not an MBA)
The engineering and tech mind is different from most. We tend to focus on adding function because we think it's cool. Eventually the software gets so complicated that general users find it a chore to use. All they want to do is get their work done and move on. It's hard for us to truly believe that more function is not always better.
BTW, look at HN. It can have so many more functions but it does not. As a result it's very easy to use for everyone no PhD in HN needed.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why cannot romantic stories be nice and uncomplicated Maybe that doesn't make an interesting book?
I meant like past romantic novels, where the couple are in love and their love is "simple", but they both have to overcome some trouble together (poverty, family illness, migration, war, separation due to work, ...etc). That makes for a love story that I enjoy reading. I guess I'm too traditionally minded. I honestly think romance is dead, or at least so different from the past that it is unrecognizable to me. Someti…
I wouldn't say this book is about a couple. It's about Rakel. If anything, it's more about the "couple" of Rakel and Sofia than Rakel and Jakob.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#126I am about halfway through Journey to the Abyss: The Diaries of Count Harry Kessler 1880-1918 . Kessler was an extremely well-traveled and well-connected person and his diaries follow him through ±1900-era Mexico, Japan, India, and then back in Europe amongst figures like Rodin, Nietzsche, Verlain, and others. It's a super interesting read if you're interested in turn of the century art and culture, and also for a be…
This sounds super interesting, I plan to read it now. I read John Dos Passos: 42nd parallel (1930) and it's set during WWI. It was enlightening how similar problems are then and now. And made me realize there is so much WWII era knowledge and glorification in society, but much less about WWI.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#1271. Breathe - James Nestor I was a lifelong nighttime mouth breather due to a very dry winter climate growing up in Chicago, clogged up my sinuses. The book inspired me to look into solutions for this problem and now wake up with considerably less brain fog than I did before. 2. War and Peace / Anna Karenina - I wanted some sort of insight into Russian Imperialism and was surprised by how much my father was like some…
Another good one by Emily Nagoski with her sister Amelia is "Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle".
It really helped me understand better how to deal with stress, burnout, and how to talk about it at work.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#128* Three Body Problem. I've heard of it many times, but never read it. Picked it up a month or two ago, read the whole thing in a few sessions, one of my favourite sci-fi books ever. Will read the next book in the series. * Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive. Best pop-sci book I've read in a while. Strikes the right balance between including pertinent information without being overwhelmi…
Three Body Problem's sequel, The Dark Forest, is one of the most mindblowing books I've ever read. When they go over the Dark Forest theory, I thought, wow, the author came up with a novel solution to Fermi's paradox, after all this time.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#129Atomic Habits. It's basically the playbook to get whatever you want out of life.
I've read Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg this year, which is the original and really good. Can recommend.
+1 for going to the source. I once showed the author of Atomic Habits a picture of BF Skinner. He didn’t recognize who he was.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023
#130* Three Body Problem. I've heard of it many times, but never read it. Picked it up a month or two ago, read the whole thing in a few sessions, one of my favourite sci-fi books ever. Will read the next book in the series. * Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive. Best pop-sci book I've read in a while. Strikes the right balance between including pertinent information without being overwhelmi…
I loved Three Body Problems as well.
What are your other favorite sci-fi novels, and books in general?
(Send some general fiction recs on my way if you feel like it.)