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Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

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Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#31

Post by paganel »

Found this on a friend's bookshelves: Warfare in Antiquity - History of the Art of War, Volume I [1], a 1970 English translation of a book written by a very knowledgeable German guy in the early 1900s, and I must say it is very intellectually challenging, helps you see battle/wars in a new light.

[1] https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska-paperback/9780803...

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#32

Post by lofaszvanitt »

temeya wrote: post #17

'The Systems Bible, 3rd Edition, by John Gall as a light introduction to Systems Theory as well as 'How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know, 3rd Edition' to brush up on my Linux. "Computer Organization and Design, 5th Edition" after those two. On the fiction front, I just finished "Queen City Jazz", by Kathleen Ann Goonan, and I've got "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez queued up as well.

No starch books have a terrible track record... every superuser should know, is that book an exception?

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#34

Post by ctrw »

Swalden123 wrote: post #26

I’ve been working through the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, reading Stillness is the Key and Siddhartha. The SICP might take me a year.

The first three chapters will take you a year. The next two will take you longer.

I always find it odd that no one talks about the lisp book where you write a hardware simulation of a computer to run the compiler you also wrote on.

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#35

Post by temeya »

lofaszvanitt wrote: post #32
temeya wrote: post #17

'The Systems Bible, 3rd Edition, by John Gall as a light introduction to Systems Theory as well as 'How Linux Works: What Every Superuser Should Know, 3rd Edition' to brush up on my Linux. "Computer Organization and Design, 5th Edition" after those two. On the fiction front, I just finished "Queen City Jazz", by Kathleen Ann Goonan, and I've got "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez queued up as well.

No starch books have a terrible track record... every superuser should know, is that book an exception?

I mean, so far, its helped make things a bit easier for me to understand. I've also read "Automate the Boring Stuff with Python" by Al Sweigart, which as someone with a non-CS background, I found very helpful, even when going back as a reference.

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#36

Post by lnxg33k1 »

So far in 2024 I’ve finished a dissertation(?) of Schopenhauer work which is in italian and doesn’t exist in English, the name can be translated like “The art of not giving a fuck about other’s judgement”, then animal farm and another italian book “Leonardo Sciascia - Una storia semplice”, then in the same area of “recreational” reading I’ve started “Thinking fast and slow”, and in terms of books needed professionally I’m reading “Math for programmers”

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#37

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

say_it_as_it_is wrote: post #14
zi_ wrote: post #11

"From the soil: Foundations of Chinese Society" by Fei Xiaotong. It is a book (accessible to non-chinese) that helps one understand a population of >1.4 billion in less than 180 pages. Wouldn’t one call this a bargain? https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/134293.From_the_Soil

Depends on whether it's a brutally honest, historically accurate assessment or simply imaginative propaganda.

As could be said for any recounting of history

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#39

Post by raybb »

I just finished Cory Doctorow's The Lost Cause and wrote a short review [1]. I'm not a huge fiction person so maybe my standards are not so high but I found it quite inspiring and relevant to my current life. Grappling with feelings about climate change and housing shortages and how to use my skills to improve the world but also setting limits and enjoying life. Well... At least those are the things I felt in the book but maybe not really the main topic.

Currently reading Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow which I like but I only started reading because I found a copy in a free pile.

I'd like to read some nonfiction next and I think it'll be A City is Not a Tree by Christopher W. Alexander. I think it was recommended on HN recently but I'm also doing and Urban Studies master program so the urban things have been on my mind lately.

[1] https://blog.rayberger.org/book-review-the-lost-cause

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