Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 400 posts

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#171

Post by perdunov »

ndesaulniers wrote: post #162

I have this weird habit where if I sit and read too much about the same topic, I have trouble retaining all of the information I just read. So, I find I can retain everything better if I read small amounts from multiple books. I sit with a stack of a few books and read chapter out of each. Weird, I know. Here's my current stack: * The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition (Bjarne Stroustrup) * Effective Modern C++: 4…

You're probably downvoted because of the multiple mentions of C++. If you'd mentioned Haskell, you would be upvoted.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#172

Post by farresito »

chubot wrote: post #149

"Quantum Computing since Democritus" by Scott Aaronson. This book makes me wish I was cool enough to understand everything in it. But still, it does a very good job at connecting the high level bits, and letting you skip over proof sketches if necessary. He is connecting quantum computing, computability, computational complexity, foundations of mathematics, probability, crypto, philosophy, and a bunch of other things…

Thank you for your suggestion! I love this type of books. Looks very interesting, although not easy at all :)

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#173

Post by draven »

I'm usually reading two books at once, one technical I read in the evening, and another one I read in bed before sleep, usually fiction.

The current technical one is Functional Programming in Scala: http://manning.com/bjarnason/ which is awesome.

The non technical one, after a few books by Vernor Vinge, is Metro 2033. I'm halfway through it and it's a good read. It's kinda weird, a postapocalyptic novel with some mysticism mixed in.

Also, thanks to everyone who answered the question, my reading list is now long enough to last me a year or two!

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#174

Post by eldavido »

kelukelugames wrote: post #150
andrea_sdl wrote: post #145

Quiet by Susan Cain, great book about introversion and why we have the "Extrovert Ideal". It's really fascinating to see how introverts have their qualities and how Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance - Robert Pirsig: Fantastic book that talks about philosophy in a new way and goes deeper into discovering what's "Quality" and what are the main 2 ways of interacting/reading the world around us. Adam Smith, theor…

Can you help me understand why Quiet is a good read? It's been recommended to me before but it just keeps on getting bumped on the backlog.

I'm about halfway through it. The first half surveys how many powerful institutions including churches, the US education system, and companies encourage/reward extroversion, perhaps without realizing it.

I'm somewhere in the middle of the E/I spectrum and the book has made me reconsider how workplaces, etc. should be structured to avoid excluding people. According to the author, something like 10-30% of the US population are more on the "I" end of the spectrum, including many of the most creative people, so it seems a terrible mistake to encourage practices that exclude such a huge number of people from contributing.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#176

Post by marpstar »

ndesaulniers wrote: post #162

I have this weird habit where if I sit and read too much about the same topic, I have trouble retaining all of the information I just read. So, I find I can retain everything better if I read small amounts from multiple books. I sit with a stack of a few books and read chapter out of each. Weird, I know. Here's my current stack: * The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition (Bjarne Stroustrup) * Effective Modern C++: 4…

I thought for sure I was the only person who hops between 5 books at a time. I'm reading:

* Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software (Eric Evans)

* F# Deep Dives (Tomas Petricek and Phillip Trelford)

* PostgreSQL: Up and Running AND PostGIS in Action, 2nd Edition (both by Regina O. Obe and Leo S. Hsu)

I'm eyeballing Purely Functional Data Structures by Chris Okasaki (1999) and a few others for after I finished the Postgres books.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#177

Post by kelukelugames »

GregBuchholz wrote: post #161
kelukelugames wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you help me understand why Quiet is a good read? It's been recommended to me before but it just keeps on getting bumped on the backlog.

(Not the OP). Maybe try the audio book, which is the route I took with "Quiet". It's been over a year since I listened to it, and I can't really recall any great take-away points, other than the generic "listening is important". Think of it more of a pep-talk for people who aren't overly talkative.

Thanks. Does the pep-talk encourage them to be more talkative?

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#178

Post by rayalez »

bko wrote: post #12

I'm reading Don Quixote and Becoming Steve Jobs. I can't get enough of reading about the history of Apple and Jobs in particular. I read the Isaacson's Jobs biography twice. It's now more of a guilty pleasure than anything. Don Quixote is good too. I'm listening to the audio book. While listening to it, I don't really know what to make of it. It's part comedy, part tragedy and all around captivating. Also recommend t…

Then I would highly recommend you to read iWoz as well.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#180

Post by vivab0rg »

The Guns of August: The Outbreak of World War I[1], the Pulitzer-award winner by Barbara Tuchman, and the book that might have helped avoid WW3 during the Cuban missile crisis, as recognized by JFK himself.

[1]: http://www.amazon.com/Guns-August-Outbreak-Tuchmans-Nonficti...

Post reply on HN