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Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

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Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#221

Post by ImaCake »

I read/listened/sampled a lot this year but a few have reached out into my life and changed me at least a little bit.

- In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan. A brilliant "not diet" book about not eating crap and enjoying chocolate cake with your friends. I followed this up with Ultra Processed People to arm myself with the facts to defend not eating the junk people call food.

- The Dispossesed - Ursula Le Guin: recommended in previous year's HN what did you reads. An absolutely triumph for how it manages to portray a believable anarchist society.

- Adult Children of Alcoholics: useful to the multitude of us who grew up with an alcoholic parent(s). I used this to identify the common patterns I share with others who grew up like me. You are not alone!

- The Invention of Clouds (not finished): I really like the context of "dissenting science" which the author conveys brilliantly. Turns out Dark Academia and Bro Science are not new.

- The Art of Frugal Hedonism: Irreverant although it comes off a little pious. This book has helped me accept that I have enough stuff already.

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#222

Post by encrypted_bird »

Not quite finished yet (and I don't think I will by the end of the year), but I've been reading Star Trek: A Woman's Trek, by Nana Visitor. I've really been loving it and it's been fascinating learning about the risks & challenges that the various women in Trek! The stories span the different shows too, from Dorothy Fontana (writer) to Nichelle Nichols (Nyota Uhura), Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (Nurse/Doctor Chapel / Lwaxana Troi / so many computer voices), Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax), Penny Johnson Jerald (Kassidy Yates), and, of course, Nana Visitor (Kira Nerys)!

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#223

Post by shnock »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #199

Sci-fi nerd recommendations follow. I binged the entirety of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. The cover, & the fact that it was on Kindle Unlimited, made me think it was probably cheap crap, but I was impressed with how well-written it was, and how much I empathized with the characters. (I probably should have read it slower; by the last two books, I was just flowing with the text, not paying as much attention to the…

DCC is êxcéllént. I have also been enjoying Pale Lights and The Years of Apocalypse.

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#225

Post by cpfohl »

numbsafari wrote: post #164

This year: - I read the entire “Frog & Toad” collection. Probably about 30 times, some stories more. - “Little Shrew’s Day”… probably 25 times. - Many of the “Construction Site” series books, especially the OG “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site”. The “Garbage Crew” and “Airport” books featured heavily. - Started to mix in some “Pete the Cat” titles. - “Detective Dog Nell” got a lot of air play. Lots of others,…

If Little Blue Truck isn’t on your regular list you should add it. We also loved Pond by Jim LaMarche (older audience, but beautifully illustrated and told), the Boynton books are fun to read aloud especially Barnyard Dance, and The Going to Bed Book. There are more, but these are the highlights from that age range

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#226

Post by hsuduebc2 »

I had few months of free time and I wanted to get back into fantasy which I loved. Sadly after staring all day into the computer I dont usually have the energy to process any other text.

The Stormlight Archive from Brandon Sanderson got me exactly back. I love it. I must recommend it for anyone who want to experience one of the best high fantasy books.

Also I need to recommend a source where I found it. I somehow stumbled upon https://www.book-filter.com/

Lovely app which scrapped all good reads reviews and let you simply filter through that because for some reason, these pages are garbage.

Have fun and happy new year!

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#227

Post by hsuduebc2 »

I need to recommend Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization by Ed Conway. Truly fascinated story also available on audible. For anyone interested into how "things works" generally is this a must.

Happy new year!

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#228

Post by __alexander »

Here are the 29 books that I read but I probably read another 100 children books.

• How AI Works: From Sorcery to Science — Ronald T. Kneusel

• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values — Robert M. Pirsig

• Martín & Meditations on the South Valley — Jimmy Santiago Baca

• Akira, Vol. 6 — Katsuhiro Otomo

• Akira, Vol. 5 — Katsuhiro Otomo

• Akira, Vol. 4 — Katsuhiro Otomo

• Akira, Vol. 3 — Katsuhiro Otomo

• Slaughterhouse-Five — Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

• Akira, Vol. 2 — Katsuhiro Otomo

• Poems & Prayers — Matthew McConaughey

• Akira, Vol. 1 — Katsuhiro Otomo

• Time’s Arrow — Martin Amis

• The Buffalo Hunter Hunter — Stephen Graham Jones

• Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly — Anthony Bourdain

• Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism — Sarah Wynn-Williams

• Dark Wire: The Incredible True Story of the Largest Sting Operation Ever — Joseph Cox

• Source Code: My Beginnings — Bill Gates

• The Afterlife of Malcolm X: An Outcast Turned Icon’s Enduring Impact on America — Mark Whitaker

• Good Inside: A Practical Guide to Resilient Parenting Prioritizing Connection Over Correction — Becky Kennedy // I would not recommend this book to anyone.

• Interior Chinatown — Charles Yu

• Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection — John Green

• Dark Matter — Blake Crouch

• Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things — Adam Grant

• Game Engine Black Book: Wolfenstein 3D — Fabien Sanglard

• Jurassic Park — Michael Crichton

• Killing Commendatore — Haruki Murakami

• James — Percival Everett

• Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre — Max Brooks

• Last Argument of Kings — Joe Abercrombie

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#229

Post by wj »

cpfohl wrote: post #225
numbsafari wrote: post #164

This year: - I read the entire “Frog & Toad” collection. Probably about 30 times, some stories more. - “Little Shrew’s Day”… probably 25 times. - Many of the “Construction Site” series books, especially the OG “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site”. The “Garbage Crew” and “Airport” books featured heavily. - Started to mix in some “Pete the Cat” titles. - “Detective Dog Nell” got a lot of air play. Lots of others,…

If Little Blue Truck isn’t on your regular list you should add it. We also loved Pond by Jim LaMarche (older audience, but beautifully illustrated and told), the Boynton books are fun to read aloud especially Barnyard Dance, and The Going to Bed Book. There are more, but these are the highlights from that age range

Napping House and Pokey Little Puppy were two of my favorites to read with my kids along with the Little Blue Truck.

Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?

#230

Post by cbare »

My favorites that I read this year were:

- Playground by Richard Powers: the ocean reminds us that we, along with our obsessions and rivalries, are small - Orbital by Samantha Harvey: a book were not much happens, but a lot goes on below the surface - Hum by Helen Phillips: looks at an AI controlled near future through a different lens - Tomorrow & Tomorrow & Tomorrow: sex, lies, and video games

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