I was going to recommend "2001: A space Odyssey". But non-fiction might rule that one out ?
Ask HN: Summer reading
21–30 of 48 posts
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#22I really enjoyed The Most Human Human by Brian Christian. It's about Turing tests and The Loebner Prize.
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#23Summer? But the winter is starting here in the South Hemisphere!
Sorry. I couldn't resist
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#24If you're interested in fitness and exercise, read "The First 20 Minutes" by Gretchen Reynolds (http://www.amazon.com/The-First-20-Minutes-Surprising/dp/159...). It's somewhat a review of the current state of scientific thought in exercise (tons of studies are cited throughout the book)
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#25I've enjoyed Abundance by Peter Diamandis, CEO of the X-Prize foundation. It's by no means laden down with details, but it is an entertaining overview of emerging technologies and how they might be put to use.
http://www.amazon.com/Abundance-Future-Better-Than-Think/dp/...
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#26I've just finished reading Bruce Schneier's "Liars and Outliers":
http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Outliers-Enabling-Society-Thrive...
Very interesting and gives you a lot to think about. Highly recommended.
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#27I'm actually kind of bored of reading business and tech books. A couple that I've read lately that I've enjoyed are listed below. I'd love to read about what other people have been reading that's sort of "off the beaten path", but interesting to someone who is not an expert in the subject. The New Geography of Jobs: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008035HQQ/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... - a lot of it won't be all that surpri…
On Writing Well by William Zinsser (http://www.amazon.com/Writing-Well-30th-Anniversary-Edition/...) is fantastic. It's not specifically about ad copy, having passion about what you're writing, as well as the fundamentals in this book, will help a ton.
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#28"The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" http://www.amazon.com/The-Drunkards-Walk-Randomness-Rules/dp... was a great book that showed that not everything is under your control
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#29If you'd like a great non-technical tour of how computers really work conceptually, starting from simple morse-code switches through to assembler, Charles Petzold's "Code" is awesome:
http://www.amazon.com/Code-Language-Computer-Hardware-Softwa...
Even having understood for years how computers work in principal, nothing quite put it together for me like this book.
There's a similarly great book on the history/methods of cryptography called "The Code Book" by Simon Singh that I recommend too - http://www.amazon.com/The-Code-Book-Science-Cryptography/dp/... It's great because it traces the history but also walks you through how the cyphers actually worked, and provides the best intros I've ever seen to public key and quantum cryptography.
Re: Ask HN: Summer reading
#30"The Information," by James Gleick, is a rich history of information theory. Densely packed with lots of novel ideas, but totally worth the time.
How much of it is "been there, done that" knowledge for your average HN reader?
Not too much, tbh. It's less Jonah Lehrer, "why smart people are dumb" stuff and more of a historical look at the transmission of information throughout history.
Chapters discuss, among other things, English dictionaries, Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace, the telegraph, and memes. Great read.
EDIT: saw that you're bored of reading business and tech books. This is definitely a breath of fresh air--it unquestionably falls in a different category than "Switch" or "Rework."