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Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#261

Post by sbmthakur »

These are the ones I read:

1. An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India - Highly recommended to Indians. It covers various aspects of colonization that are not covered in our history curriculum.

2. The Making of the Atomic Bomb - You will love it if you enjoy a mix of history, science and engineering. It pretty much covers everything from the discovery of the electron to the dropping of atomic bombs.

3. Sapiens - I think this is well known to HN community. It's a good read if you want summary of human development.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#262

Post by bawigga »

SillyGooseMcGee wrote: post #211
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.

Pedro Domingos

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24612233-the-master-algo...

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#263

Post by fokinsean »

nkg wrote: post #245
nop_slide wrote: post #141

- A Random Walk Down Wall Street: I got much more interested in personal finance this year, and definitely recommend this book as a stepping stone for learning about investing. - Frankenstein: Highly recommend! It is nothing like it is portrayed to be in pop culture and I thoroughly enjoyed it. - Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in America: It is literally unbelievable. It follows Katy Tur, a…

I've also read Dune this year. It deserves the status it has in the sci fi world! I don't know whether I should read the sequels or not. If it is not as good, it may spoil my feelings towards the 1st book.

Yeah I felt the same about reading the sequels. Same thing happened with me and Hitchiker's Guide and its sequels.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#264

Post by tmaly »

Never Split the Difference - I loved this book and would highly recommend it to sharpen your negotiation skills.

Extreme Ownership - I also really enjoyed this book. I listened to the audio and it was read by the authors. Both Navy Seals, the stories they used about their time in war was very eye opening. The concepts are all about leadership, and if you a manager or part of a team, you will get some benefit.

Getting Things Done - 2001 edition, very practical approach to organizing everything on your plate. I will probably re-read this again.

Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens - a great book that has great tips on learning for kids and adults.

A Philosophy of Software Design - still reading it, I really am enjoying it so far. I like the big picture approach it takes to discussing software design and complexity.

Mindset - I just started this book. So far it is just explaining the general concept in different ways. I am hoping the latter part will get into some practical tips and methods.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#265

Post by madeuptempacct »

etrautmann wrote: post #254
soVeryTired wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Three Body Problem had some flashy ideas (like controlling the CMBR, and building a computer the size of a proton), but I didn't really feel like it had much depth. It had none of the great social commentary that you often get in sci-fi, and I thought the characters were kind of two-dimensional. Overall it just didn't really do it for me.

I found it lacking in depth and interesting ideas of almost any flavor. I've heard that it's better in Chinese and something is lost in translation, but I found myself very disappointed after finishing it and not understanding the strong positive response.

Same - as said already, not a single one of the characters was memorable, except the comically stereotypical ones (rich daddy tree-hugger fanatic).

As far as scientific ideas - they were all a stretch. He is neither Stephenson in accuracy, nor Gibson in the vague, but accurate, predictions.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#266

Post by kailden »

ctchocula wrote: post #8

This year, I mostly went through books Hemingway compiled for a young writer who asked him for writing advice [1]. Henry James - The American. This book is about an American who'd made his fortune in business and goes to the old world looking for a wife, so it goes into differences of capitalist vs. aristocratic worldviews. The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue and the author later repudiated his work as being se…

I liked “Remains of the Day” - the subtlety in the tone seems to be intentional given the theme, and tempts the reader to miss the point that lies between the lines - the same theme as the book itself is wrapped around and the main character doesn’t see. I think it is well done.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#267

Post by sjellis »

wenc wrote: post #114
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…

Sherlock and Poirot are great detective genres. I'm not sure if they really have parallels. The French people however love their Inspector Maigret (by Georges Simenon). The Maigret books are apparently some of the best selling books in the Francophone world of all time. Inspector Maigret however is more procedural, and doesn't go for climatic reveals and does not have the flawed omniscient genius character that most…

> Inspector Maigret

Maigret books are really great time-fillers: there's a large number of them, they are short and self-contained, and I've yet to read a bad one.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#268

Post by madeuptempacct »

cooperadymas wrote: post #241
crimsonalucard wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found the three body problems' representation of a computer with 30 million soldiers really stupid. I didn't read the book because of people raving about how clever that concept of the human computer is. http://linusrosskamp.com/articles/2017-08/three-body-problem... Guess what. You can achieve the same power of computation with 1 person, a pen, a paper and our standard number symbols 0-9. Do people not realize why…

I understand your hesitation to read the books based on the premise of this article, but there is a lot of story complexity for why they created this computer that the article doesn't touch on. The scene is still perhaps a little cheesy, but it isn't entirely unwarranted. It's also a small part of the story. I wouldn't judge the entire trilogy based on thinking this one scene is really stupid.

" but there is a lot of story complexity for why they created this computer that the article doesn't touch on."

Didn't read the article, but I didn't see any justification whatsoever for it in the book.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#269

Post by earthicus »

andy_wrote wrote: post #195

Some good ones I read this year: - _SPQR_, by Mary Beard. Engaging book surveying the history of ancient Rome, mostly Republic and early Empire if I recall correctly. - _To Explain The World_, by Steven Weinberg. History of physics from the ancients to about the time of Newton. Don't skip the technical notes! Actually do the problems! - I reread _Wolf Hall_, by Hilary Mantel, it was as good as I remember. This time t…

I loved Weinberg's history book. I'll read literally anything by Weinberg, i'm a fanboy, i admit it! It was very different than the usual academic history, but not ignorant like they usually are. And i love that he actually works the problems himself.

My only complaints are that I think he is unfair to the ancients (for example I don't think he mentioned that they developed a universal gravitational theory, which was a direct inspiration for newton), and i wish he spend more time on optics, especially Kepler's optics which was apparently the great conceptual revolution in the field, but I know next to nothing about it!

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