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Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

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Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

#201

Post by alatkins »

sydd wrote: post #175
aresant wrote: post #49

The Alchemist Heard about it for years, always wrote off as too esoteric but as an entrepreneur it seriously resonated and somehow made it all seem a little more manageable. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alchemist_(novel)

I hated this book. It was like a kitschy, easy digestable, consumer friendly version of other (much) better south american writers. It was like a Borghes book told by the author of Harry Potter.

Could you recommend some of these other writers? Because I quite liked The Alchemist, though I'm dubious of some of Paulo Coelho's philosophical ideas at times.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

#202

Post by Kutta »

alatkins wrote: post #201
sydd wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hated this book. It was like a kitschy, easy digestable, consumer friendly version of other (much) better south american writers. It was like a Borghes book told by the author of Harry Potter.

Could you recommend some of these other writers? Because I quite liked The Alchemist, though I'm dubious of some of Paulo Coelho's philosophical ideas at times.

Borges and Marquez are the two I latin americans I'm acquainted with and they are overall the most famous too. Borges is always very brainy and philosophical in a very good way; sometimes he even ventures into flat-out mindfuck territories. He mostly wrote short stories that are consistently good. Marquez has a lovely vivid and very visual prose and writes either in a realist or slightly magical realist style. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Love in the Time of Cholera" are the pivotal points of his bibliography.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

#203

Post by smutticus »

huhtenberg wrote: post #116
smutticus wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read all of his novels and must say I am an Ian M Banks addict. I've read some of his fiction as well which he publishes under Ian Banks. My favorite is The Use of Weapons. I liked Surface Detail but I do think you should read the Culture novels in the order they were written. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

Have you read Peter Hamilton? Specifically, the Commonwealth Saga. Banks is good, but I find his universes are to be sketchy and sometimes fairly shallow and not well-thought through (e.g. the one in the Algebraist). Hamilton is as creative as Banks, when it comes to the concepts, but he really delivers on the depth and complexity of the story lines and the actual execution. If you haven't read him, do it. If you hav…

I've never read any Peter Hamilton. But I'm gonna check him out now. Thanks for the tip.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

#207

Post by zizou »

Dananjaya wrote: post #67

"A Little History Of The World" by E.H Gombrich http://www.amazon.com/Little-History-World-H-Gombrich/dp/030... From a long time I wanted to dig deeper in to the subject of human history starting from the undocumented prehistoric era. But the plethora of information available in the internet often bewilders me and I find my self thinking where to start. This book--mind you first printed in 1936--describes the story o…

read guns germs and steel by jared diamond if you wanna know more about why history of mankind panned out the way it has.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

#208

Post by tptacek »

aik wrote: post #126
elptacek wrote: post #45

"Switch" by Chip and Dan Heath. Website here: http://heathbrothers.com/switch/ . I don't tend to go out of my way for self-help type books, which this may or may not be. The authors leverage a lot of research and rhetoric that was already familiar, plus some that was not. It was pleasing to learn some new vocabulary, such as "Fundamental Attribution Error" and "Ego Depletion." Since my kids were born, it has been ver…

Very interesting. I haven't read the book, but is the only reason you see some of the manipulations as "positive" because you are an authority figure to your children and you know "what is best for them"? At what stage is the manipulating a detriment to their development? Would you call it brainwashing? Building structures within their mind without them realizing (at the current time anyway)? Am I misunderstanding he…

Obviously, you're not a golfer.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2010 and briefly why

#210

Post by alatkins »

Kutta wrote: post #202
alatkins wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you recommend some of these other writers? Because I quite liked The Alchemist, though I'm dubious of some of Paulo Coelho's philosophical ideas at times.

Borges and Marquez are the two I latin americans I'm acquainted with and they are overall the most famous too. Borges is always very brainy and philosophical in a very good way; sometimes he even ventures into flat-out mindfuck territories. He mostly wrote short stories that are consistently good. Marquez has a lovely vivid and very visual prose and writes either in a realist or slightly magical realist style. "One H…

Hey I just noticed this comment - thanks, I'm going to check out the authors you mentioned.
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