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Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#211

Post by SillyGooseMcGee »

madmax108 wrote: post #134

My recommendations from books I read this year: Bad Blood : Man, this book really does read like a Hollywood movie screenplay. The rise and fall of Theranos, documented through interviews with hundreds of ex-employees by the very author who came up with the first expose of Theranos. Truly shows the flaws in the "fake it before you make it" mindset and how we glorify "geniuses". Shoe Dog : Biography of the founder of…

Who is the author of Master Algorithm? There is a few similar looking books on Goodreads.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#212

Post by earthicus »

rgrau wrote: post #37
earthicus wrote: post #4

Ofer Gal - Baroque Science. A highly academic history of the scientific revolution, not the most readable book. It focused quite a bit on mathematization, especially in optics (and Kepler's optics revolution in particular), and also in observation via instrumentation like telescopes and microscopes. Paul Nahin - The Logician and the Engineer. About Boole and Shannon's work; I had already learned the material so i ski…

> Michael Chriton - Jurassic Park. The movie was better. That surprised me as I found the book far better than the movie, and in fact it's a book I keep recommending. What did you find lacking there?

The book had a whole bunch of additional plotting at the beginning which initially drew me in. Unfortunately, it never really went anywhere interesting - it was all mostly just dropped - so I think the movie was justified in cutting it out.

But the much bigger issue is that the story relies heavily on a kind of tense suspense/action, plus the wonder and terror of the basic premise: bringing dinosaurs back to life. But Crichton isn't particularly adept at descriptive literature, so that I thought the suspense/wonder/terror worked much better in a visual medium. This is not a case where there is something rather ambiguous best left to the shadowy imagination of the mind's eye. Maybe a different author could have pulled it off.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#213

Post by Casseres »

I just ordered the book Can't Hurt Me by David Goggins (just came out).

If you haven't watched David Goggins' interview by Joe Rogan, it's definitely worth it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvWB7B8tXK8

David Goggins was the subject of Jesse Itzler's book Living With A SEAL which I did read after watching the interview.

If you haven't heard of David Goggins, he went from 280 lb bug exterminator to SEAL, and is now retired and runs seemingly-impossible marathons.

He is truely a "mind-over-matter" kind of person.

---

Otherwise, this year I started reading Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Pretty good and recommened.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#216

Post by ajvs »

Tangokat wrote: post #208

The "book" I will recommend is: A practical guide to evil [1]. Extremely fun read. [1] https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/

Review: One of the best series in the rational fiction genre (i.e people don't randomly hold idiot balls, there's no "they're just evil" and instead people have nuanced motivations, etc).

This story has the epic fantasy and action of the Lord of the Rings, the banter of a good comedy, the rising anticipation of a good thriller and all whilst having an ever intriguing world that is being slowly revealed.

You'll like it if you've ever read Worm, Mother of Learning, or HPMOR. Though mainly I'd say it's for people who want to read truly interesting complex characters, as well as enjoys the intellectual stimulation of trying to figure out what the protagonist should do next, and are at least open to the fantasy genre.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#217

Post by freehunter »

ashelmire wrote: post #54

Lots of dystopian and alternate world sci-fi (most recently read first): 1) The Handmaid’s Tale 2) Off to be the Wizard 3) The Three-Body Problem 4) Good Omens 5) We Are Legion (We Are Bob) 6) American Gods 7) Ready Player One I really enjoyed all of these, though the Neil Gaiman books are rather long-winded. Ready Player One in particular is something I’d recommend to any geek or 80s movies and music fan. I found my…

I've been putting off Ready Player One because I could never get through Snowcrash, and everyone says "if you like Snowcrash you'll love Ready Player One". I finally got around to reading it and it was far better than I thought it would be. There was still a bit too much handwaving away the most amazing coincidences, but I thoroughly enjoyed it right through the end.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#219

Post by LgWoodenBadger »

sharmi wrote: post #58

This year, I discovered Agatha Christie. A few years back, when I was temporarily advised bed rest for a month, my sis loaned me a collection of Hercule Poirot short stories. I was always a Sherlock Holmes fan and really enjoyed the logical detective work. Hercule Poirot felt like just like a pretentious quirky old man, making denouements based on evidence that is flimsy and tenuous at best. This year, I came across…

The Nero Wolfe novels by Rex Stout fit the bill. Archie is one of my favorite characters, and I don't think any author writes dialog as well as Stout.

Just don't start with "Before I Die," it's a stinker.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#220

Post by binarnosp »

All available for Kindle on Amazon:

== Case studies (US government) ==

T-6A TEXAN II Systems Engineering Case Study - Derivative of PC-9 Pilatus Aircraft - JPATS Program, Training System, Hawker Beechcraft History (World Spaceflight News, Air Force Institute of Technology, Air Force Center for Systems Engineering, Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Military, U.S. Air Force (USAF) )

Theater Battle Management Core System Systems Engineering Case Study - History and Details of TBMCS Integrated Air Command and Control System (U.S. Military, Air Force (USAF), U.S. , of Technology, Air Force Institute , Spaceflight News, World , Defense (DoD), Department of , Systems Engineering, Air Force)

Global Positioning System (GPS) Systems Engineering Case Study - Technical Information and Program History of America's NAVSTAR Navigation Satellites (World Spaceflight News, Air Force Institute of Technology, Air Force Center for Systems Engineering, Department of Defense (DoD), U.S. Military, U.S. Air Force (USAF))

== Aeronautics ==

The History of the XV-15 Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft: From Concept to Flight - XV-3 Program, Stability Issues, Army and Navy Participation, VTOL, Flight Research Incidents and Crash, V-22 Osprey (U.S. Government, Space Administration (NASA), National Aeronautics and, Spaceflight News (WSN), World Spaceflight)

Bell X-1 (Peter E. Davies)

North American XB-70 Valkyrie (X-Planes Book 7) (Peter E. Davies)

Aviation Psychology: Practice and Research (Goeters, Klaus-Martin)

== Space ==

The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs Its Job (Emily Lakdawalla)

The Right Kind of Crazy: A True Story of Teamwork, Leadership, and High-Stakes Innovation (Adam Steltzner, William Patrick)

Mars Rover Curiosity: An Inside Account from Curiosity's Chief Engineer (Rob Manning, William L. Simon)

Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto (Alan Stern, David Grinspoon)

Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight (David A. Mindell)

The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission (Jim Bell)

== Astronomy ==

The Perfect Machine: Building the Palomar Telescope (Ronald Florence)

== Process ==

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (Atul Gawande)

NASA Lessons Learned in Engineering: Marshall Engineers Recount Problems and Solutions on Saturn V Rocket, Apollo, Space Shuttle, SSME, Hubble Space Telescope, X-33, Other Vehicles and Systems (U.S. Government, Space Administration (NASA), National Aeronautics and, Spaceflight News (WSN))

== For myself ==

Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams (Matthew Walker)

Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming (Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway)

== If you have children ==

The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives (William Stixrud, Ned Johnson)

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