I read a decent amount of books but the ones that stood out are:
- Anatomy of the State (Murray N. Rothbard)
- Diaspora (Greg Egan)
- The Freeze-Frame Revolution (Peter Watts)
Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
21–30 of 459 posts
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#22Getting into reading again this year after a long break. The most memorable read of this year was "The Count of Monte Cristo" (1846) by Alexander Dumas . It's one of the greatest stories ever told. It's ~1250 pages but I sped through it in 3 weeks even if I'm a slow reader. Highly recommended! I also read The Stranger by Camus and the two top Orwells which lived up to the hype.
The Count of Monte Cristo was published in serial form. Daily from 1844 to 1846.
That explains a lot the format, which tended to try to retain the audience.
Also, the author wrote in advance of the daily publication, but the book was written "live", answering to public perception and response. This is a reason why the book is so "good": the author had the chance to adjust the story based on data from sales and feedback from readers.
Of course Dumas was a great writer too, but this live writing, data based is probably why the book resonates so well with audiences.
So, as a joke, if you read count of monte cristo in 3 weeks, you did the equivalent of bing reading it.
This happens with soap operas too. 10 years ago, they lasted 1 year. They had an initial structure, the story, the characters, but responded in "real-time" to audience feedback.
For those willing to read the book, give yourself some time. Try to read it over a course of some years. Read a little, come back to it.
There are several famous books written in the same form, like Crime and Punishment or The Three Musketeers.
Oh, and also authors got payed by installment, so that explains the lenght lol
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#23Humble Bundle has spoiled me and my ebook library has grown by around a 100 books this year...
Tech book recommendations: 'Secure by Design', 'Designing Data-Intensive Applications', 'Building Secure and Reliable Systems' and 'Fundamentals of Software Architecture'.
For scifi: 'Murderbot Diaries' and 'The Expanse' - both are just great entertainment
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#24I was actually writing, been doing it full time for months. I've spent probably over 1,000 hours ...
Not trying to make any money, just feel compelled to do this.
A fiction story about how personal computers have dismantled society over 40 years... it takes place in 1983 and involves a vulnerable opportunistic time traveler who's getting more than he bargained for.
Here's some quotes to give you a feel:
"The smartphone is the electrical stunner in the slaughterhouse of society"
"You’ll be able to access any TV or radio station in real time, around the world, talk to people overseas in high resolution video with live translations for free and be bored by it"
"In the future the hermetic spaces of solitude will be breached as we build a global village. The private will become public and, ironically, the public will become private as the streets empty of experiences taken indoors, inside of bedrooms, beneath our screens of glowing grace."
It's intentionally meant to be ambitious, brutal and challenging. And hopefully insight will materialize from the dust of forgotten dreams.
If you are interested in reading it, just hit me up
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#25I gave Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations a go and gave up around half way. Maybe if I knew the historical context it would seem more profound?
I enjoyed Three Body Problem a lot more than I thought I would. That was probably the best book I read in 2025.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#26Started making side projects as a developer this year and hope to start working on my own products full-time from next year. Two books I found useful for positioning the product:
- Obviously Awesome by April Dunford (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45166937-obviously-aweso...)
- Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210137279-building-a-sto...)
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#27History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours
For those interested in the subject (and who can also read French) I also heartily recommend the most recent edition of Augustin Thierry's Récits des temps mérovingiens [1]. Of course that it has most probably long been surpassed when it comes to historic accuracy, after all it was written almost 200 years ago, but it is very interesting nonetheless for being one of the first books that really put the focus on the Me…
if you do read french, proust’s “in search of lost time” (vol 1) is a lot more accessible and enjoyable than my high school teachers made it sound years and years ago. it even contains a depiction of what a learned engineer should be like.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#28How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg
Bhagvad Gita by Eknath Easwaran
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
How The World Really Works by Vaclav Smil
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Chaos by James Gleick
Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive #5) by Brandon Sanderson
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle
The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#29Early in the year I picked up "Dark Wire" by Joseph Cox. It was a fascinating dive into the world of "secure phones", particularly a company called Anom.
I also read:
"Digital Fortress" - Dan Brown (not strictly technically plausible but the suspense kept me hooked) "Never Enough" - Andrew Wilkinson (meh)
Currently working on: "The Technological Republic" - Andrew Karp "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" - Martin Kleppmann
I had a tendency of a lot of false starts on books this year. I picked up several recent LLM/AI books and would make it like a chapter before realizing it was mostly just AI generated slop and gave up.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#30Loved “The Winds of War” and “War and Remembrance” by Herman Wouk - middlebrow from the 70s but no less good for that.
Re-read “The Art of Not Being Governed” by James C Scott which is really mind-expanding stuff.