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Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

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Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#31

Post by JonasJSchreiber »

timwaagh wrote: post #4

War and Peace by Tolstoy. it is far from 'recent' but i read it only this year. it is particularly interesting because it is not overly intellectual in nature yet still written around the time it portrays. Robin Hobbs latest Fitz and the Fool trilogy are also great books i read this year. as are all her works really.

Both are great. I was hoping for another sprawling historical fiction by Tolstoy with Anna Karenina but was treated to a sort of Russian psychological drama in the same vein as Dostoyevsky.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#34

Post by wwweston »

zachruss92 wrote: post #10

For a nonfiction book, The Millionaire Next Door was a game changer for how I though about wealth accumulation. It's the findings of a statistical analysis of the life and habits of millionaires. Deep Work had the similar effects on my work habits as the former did on my finances. If you're looking for a fun fantasy read, Elantris by Brandon Sanderson is one of my all-time favorite standalone novels.

> The Millionaire Next Door was a game changer for how I though about wealth accumulation. It's the findings of a statistical analysis of the life and habits of millionaires.

So, it's been a while since I dipped into this book, but my recollection was that I read the summary and intro and thought "this sounds like an analysis which suffers significantly from survivorship bias." Did you find with a close read that was/wasn't a problem with the picture it presented?

(Not that I think that the advice I skimmed over was bad, certainly, I don't like to buy depreciating assets like cars on credit, and more people could likely benefit from budgeting investing conscientiously.)

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#35

Post by paraschopra »

- The Origin of Wealth. Fantastic book on the new field of complexity / evolutionary economics

- The Language Instinct. How mind creates language.

- The Elephant in the Brain. I’ve posted notes here https://invertedpassion.com/notes-from-the-elephant-in-the-b...

- Existential Cafe. History of existential thought. Excellent book.

- 12 rules of life. Highly opiniated but well argued book on how to live life

- Skin in the game by Nasim Taleb.

- Daemon. The sci-fi book that anticipated what rouge blockchain like programs can do. Again, highly recommended

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#36

Post by zengid »

pbnjay wrote: post #14

For sci-fi recs: I recently read The Three-body Problem by Cixin Liu (a trilogy) and thought it was really good. Also just started another sci-fi trilogy with A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge which has some really fun and interesting (if hand-wavy) ideas about deep space physics.

I just started Death's End! Great books so far, though The Dark Forest felt very slow compared to The Three-body Problem.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#37

Post by paulgb »

minikomi wrote: post #23
cirgue wrote: post #22

‘Simulacrum and simulation’, ‘understanding media’, and ‘society of the spectacle’ right now. My focus this summer is on everything ever written about media and society. I am currently looking for works on social trends in response to radio and television.

You might want to check: Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator -- written by the PR guy who kept American Apparel in infamy.

+1 on that book, as well as the author Ryan Holiday's more recent book Conspiracy on the Hulk Hogan / Gawker trial.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#38

Post by liamcardenas »

I don't plan too far ahead, but I am going to finish the absolutely fascinating book A Natural History of Human Morality by Michael Tomasello. This is an exceptionally well researched book, full of citations, presenting a theory of how humans developed their sense of morality, from an evolutionary perspective.

I does so by contrasting our behavior with that of the great apes so that we can determine the characteristics of our common ancestor and then build a scenario for how we could have gone from there to here.

I'm about half-way through right now and I highly recommend it

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#39

Post by landakram »

cirgue wrote: post #22

‘Simulacrum and simulation’, ‘understanding media’, and ‘society of the spectacle’ right now. My focus this summer is on everything ever written about media and society. I am currently looking for works on social trends in response to radio and television.

If you haven’t already, check out “Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil Postman.
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