"Master Switch" by Tim Wu
Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
171–180 of 224 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#1721984, followed directly by Brave New World. Our world resembles a lot from each of these books. Much like in 1984, we have devices and companies constantly monitoring us (iOS, Android, Facebook, etc.), we have “news programs” and websites seemingly modeled after the “two minutes hate”, and we clearly have some Ministry of Truth-like misinformation getting spread around while accurate information gets lost or ignored.…
I've been doing the exact same in the last few weeks in the opposite order. I remember reading these as a young teen and liking the stories, but thinking the concepts were so far from ever being possible. This was the age where the brutality stories of my grandparents surviving WWII started sinking in. I was convinced mankind would never ever allow anything to happen again that could lead to what happened in the late…
Mankind has a historically short memory (unless stories are elevated to religious levels). Witness the recent Holocaust Remembrance statement from the White House.
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#1731984, followed directly by Brave New World. Our world resembles a lot from each of these books. Much like in 1984, we have devices and companies constantly monitoring us (iOS, Android, Facebook, etc.), we have “news programs” and websites seemingly modeled after the “two minutes hate”, and we clearly have some Ministry of Truth-like misinformation getting spread around while accurate information gets lost or ignored.…
>we have soma-like drugs Having not read the book. Anyone know if that soma is based on vedic soma[1], seems like it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(drink)#Vedic_soma
From what I can see, Vedic Soma makes someone immortal and invulnerable.
Huxley's soma is some kind of narcotic haalucinogen. This is a list of quotes from the book that include the word "soma" in them, and it should give you an idea of the drug's effects and the characters' attitudes toward it: https://www.huxley.net/soma/somaquote.html
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#174Small Gods. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34484.Small_Gods It's the 13th book of Terry Pratchett's superb Discworld series, but it's the perfect entry point for anyone who hasn't read any of them because it doesn't require any exterior context, and it's pure Pratchett in his prime. I honestly can't recommend it, and the rest of the series, highly enough. If you haven't experienced Pratchett's work then I implore…
Say I read this entry in the series. If I end up liking it, would you recommend that I then go back and start from the beginning?
Some of the Discworld series, like Small Gods, can be read stand alone with out problems, but I think it's a good idea to read the first book of a main character first. Rincewind, the incompetent wizard, starts with the first book in the series, "The Colour of Magic". My favourite, Sam Vimes, is introduced in the book "Guards! Guards!"
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#175Three books I tend to re-read every 3-8 years are: Farmer in the Sky[1], The Chrysalids[2] and Dune[3][4]. Read them as a teenager and thirty years later still re-read.
Others I’ve re-read recently are:
* Camouflage [5]
* The Green And the Gray [6]
* The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August [7]
* The Martian [8]
* I Am Not A Serial Killer series [9]
I plan to re-read in the near future:
* Touch [10]
* The Hollow City [11]
* Pulling Up Stakes [12]
Yes, I read a lot. [13]
---
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50851.Farmer_in_the_Sky
[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/826845.The_Chrysalids
[3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1000049.Dune
[4] Only the first book in the series. Really disliked all the rest. Last couple of times I’ve listened to the Audible audiobook version which is excellent.
[5] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21607.Camouflage
[6] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/216455.The_Green_And_the...
[7] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18295861-the-first-fifte...
[8] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian
[9] https://www.goodreads.com/series/49883-john-cleaver
[10] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23561543-touch
[11] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13034956-the-hollow-city
[12] https://www.goodreads.com/series/94696-pulling-up-stakes
[13] http://www.michevan.id.au/content/reading-habits-of-2015/
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#176Rereading my way through the two Dune 'trilogies' now. Currently in the middle of God Emperor.
This time through it's been shocking to me to see such parallels between the politics, policies, and consequences there of and the world today.
There's a lot to think about in Dune.
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#177The Elements of Style --- well, parts of it. However, I mainly read it for pleasure.
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just finished Daemon and about to start Freedom. Great read, and it's amazing how quickly it ramps up near the end! I hadn't been hooked to a book like that since "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" and "Dune"
I just re-started this one recently too. If you enjoy those, check out one of Suarez's other: Influx. It's not a sequel but has some common threads.
I have read Daemon, Freedom and Kill Decision so far. A thing I noticed with Suarez' books is that they very much remind me of the two books of Dan Brown that I've read, yet not having to cringe hard at every scene that involves technology makes them infinitely more readable to me. The settings and plot with both are ludicrous at times, but yet Suarez manages to put some interesting ideas in.
I got a similar vibe off of Stephenson's Snow Crash.
By the way: I'm not the only one for whom Sobel's bio screamed "John Carmack" from the first page he's mentioned, am I?
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#179The Fountainhead. Makes me a better person Everytime.
Just frustrates me I can't have an awesome house designed by an amazing architect!
Re: Ask HN: Which book have you re-read recently?
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
>we have soma-like drugs Having not read the book. Anyone know if that soma is based on vedic soma[1], seems like it. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soma_(drink)#Vedic_soma
From what I can see, Vedic Soma makes someone immortal and invulnerable. Huxley's soma is some kind of narcotic haalucinogen. This is a list of quotes from the book that include the word "soma" in them, and it should give you an idea of the drug's effects and the characters' attitudes toward it: https://www.huxley.net/soma/somaquote.html
>From what I can see, Vedic Soma makes someone immortal and invulnerable.
Rig veda describes Soma is a hallucinogenic used for intoxication.
1. Intoxication, though not addiction, is a central theme of the Veda, since the sacrificial offering of the hallucinogenic juice of the soma plant was an element of several important Vedic rituals. The poets who “saw” the poems were inspired both by their meditations and by drinking the soma juice. The poems draw upon a corpus of myths about a fiery plant that a bird brings down from heaven; soma is born in the mountains or in heaven, where it is closely guarded; an eagle brings soma to earth (4.26-7) or to Indra (4.18.13), or the eagle carries Indra to heaven to bring the somabo
2. we have seen a Vedic poem (10.119) in which someone exhilarated (or stoned) on soma says that the drinks have carried him up and away, “Like horses bolting with a chariot.”
Source:
Doniger, Wendy (2009-02-24). The Hindus: An Alternative History (p. 122).