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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?

#261

Post by JKCalhoun »

I read a handful of short stories from Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I liked one of them in particular, the others were okay. It is nice to read short stories since you invest very little time in each—in case it turns out the author is not really what you're in to.

Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years, Robert Dean Lurie. A band I read everything about. 1984 and the music that entered my life that year truly changed me. But I don't expect anyone that is not a fan of the early band would find it interesting.

Siddhartha, Herman Hesse. It has been recommended to me many times over the years—finally read it. As I mentioned in another comment, it's a good book that younger me might have found more profound. Older me was more or less just nodding my head, "Yep, you'll have to learn for yourself…", etc.

I've been working an analog computer so have read a bunch of old textbooks and such that I have found on archive.org and other places online.

I see quite a few books I purchased this year but have not read. (The Japanese have a word for me.) I should really try to read more next year.

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

#262

Post by tstrimple »

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…

If you enjoyed the DCC series, you should check out the live reading sessions from the audible narrator. He does such a fantastic job with the voices. I was legitimately surprised it was a single narrator.

https://youtu.be/yQ54CpkUoaM

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

#266

Post by cloverich »

Finally read Fukuyama's "Liberalism and its discontents" after reading his much larger the origin of political order previously. I enjoyed its dense, survey like nature; I particularly enjoyed his (actual) breakdown of critical theory which, after knowing only the propagandized takes on it, was refreshing.

In 2026, I hope to pivot slightly and finally read Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. I thought recent authors like Fukuyama obviated the need to read such books, but flipping through its pages, they were so poetic and beautiful, I hope it operates like an antidote to too much dry / reductionist reading (of which tools like ChatGPT are accelerating, at least for me).

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

#267

Post by tsujamin »

Cutting a long list short, the _best_ thing I read this year was W. Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage.

It’s not a book where the world changes greatly or great things are done, but honestly that’s kind of nice: It’s a compelling story of a life, the characters were engrossing (one in particular stands out for how strongly _dislikeable_ they are) and the I loved the prose.

Also shoutout to Standard EBook’s excellent, public domain edition (and all their volunteers other work!): https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/w-somerset-maugham/of-huma...

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

#268

Post by cloverich »

jsemrau wrote: post #202

1. Encyclopedia Autonomica 2. Atmosphæra Incognita - Neal Stephenson 3. Idoru (10x time) - William Gibson.

10th? That is quite the recommendation. Do you think because it is that good, or the mix of quality with your tastes (to a larger degree than normal).

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

#269

Post by tsujamin »

reidrac wrote: post #175

I read 14 books this year and my favourite was Eversion by Alastair Reynolds, followed closely by Pushing Ice by the same author. I "discovered" Cory Doctorow this year, reading 4 books (and I have another in my queue), being "Attack Surface" the one I liked most. The only technical book I read was Programming in Lua (4th edition), and still didn't work for me. I guess I don't like Lua, and that's OK.

Strong recommendation for Alistair Reynold’s Century Rain if you want another of his. It’s part 20th century alternate history, part hard boiled crime noir, and part hard space opera.

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

#270

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

I read escapist “junk.” Proud of it.

I re-read Dave Duncan’s A Man of His Word[0], and A Handful of Men series[1].

I followed up by re-reading The Great Game[2], by the same author.

I re-read the original 10 (+1) books of Chronicles of the Black Company[3], by Glen Cook, again, as he just released a couple of new books, after many years (and has 4 more, on the way). I also recently read Lies Weeping[4] (the latest one).

I just finished Tsalmoth[5], and I’m currently reading Lyorn[6], the latest book in Steven Brust’s Vlad Taltos series.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/series/53081-a-man-of-his-word

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/series/40824-a-handful-of-men

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/series/42347-the-great-game

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Company

[4] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222376544-lies-weeping

[5] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60820532-tsalmoth

[6] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/127278352-lyorn

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