Though many but a few recommendations:
- Hooked
- The dollar trap
- Built to sell
- Brain rules
- The doctor in the house (Memoir of Malaysian PM, Mahathir)
- 1984 by Orwell (Still reading)
Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
301–310 of 357 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#302A selection: Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari, 2014 [English]) - A bit late to the party on this one. Mostly enjoyed it, especially the early ancient history stuff, but I felt it got a bit contrived in the middle - like the author was forcing it. Overall a good read though. How to Invent Everything (Ryan North, 2018) - First book I've pre-ordered in a long time. A look at the history of civilization and technology through…
The Art of Racing in the Rain was one of my favorite books to read!
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#303A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley: Decent. I think this book would best be read in conjunction while working through a textbook. I will admit that it did do quite a bit to help relieve math anxiety, but the nature of the book is practicality. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: A reread. A bit depressing considering the state of the world today. I found myself wondering which reality would be preferable. Letters to…
How was The Autobiography of Gucci Mane? Was it interesting, inspiring, funny, etc? It seems like a huge change of pace from the other books haha. I’ve also read Letters to a Young Mathematician and it honestly one of the reasons I was able to survive my math classes (mentally) when I was in school.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#304I've been reading/ listening (TTS Audiobook) of the trio essayist: Elizer Yudkowsky, Paul Graham and The starlex Codex.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
LibraryThing reports 854 editions of books identified by "Bad Blood". Please add at least the author's name to make life easier for people who want to check your suggestions. (I am not picking out specifically you , I had similar problems with whoever suggested "Code" above, and I am sure more will be found in the rest of the thread...)
You're probably being downvoted because more than a dozen comments on this thread mention Bad Blood (including the author), which was a bestseller this year and has been widely described and discussed across popular media. It's pretty easy to guess that the person you're replying to probably meant that.
a) As I specifically mentioned, "Bad Blood" is not the only title with this problem. Also, what if in this case we were talking of one of the dozens other books with "Bad Blood" in the title?
b) It is a bit sloppy to just throw out a title hoping that someone else in the thread will do a better job.
c) Unless we are talking of extremely well-known books (Dune? The Mythical Man Month?) I think it is better to always provide the author: to give an example, I personally dislike Tom Clancy, so if I see "Title-I-Am-Not-Familiar-With-Because-I-Am-Far-From-Being-A-Clancy-Completist, by Tom Clancy" I will just pass, while "Obscure-Title-I-Cannot-Recognize-Because-I-Read-It-In-Translation, by Jack Vance" would be enough to make me work a little to find out more.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#306Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price The Hunting Apes: Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior by Craig B. Stanford The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability by Lierre Keith Craft Beef: A Revolution of Small Farms and Big Flavors by Joe Heitzeberg, Ethan Lowry, and Caroline Sanders Don’t Eat the Oil! The Health Consequences of Consuming “Vegetable” Oils by Thomas L. Copmann, MS, P…
This is't a comment on his ideas or philosophy, as that will just descend into a total garbage fire, but I found 12 Rules For Life an absolute mess to read. Peterson badly needs an editor who will whip his writing into shape.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#307This 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…
Margery Allingham was active at about the same time (her last book was in the '60s), and ought to be much better known. Her writing is great, she's a really sharp observer of human psychology, but there's always a lightness to her stories.
She wrote a long series centred around the character of Albert Campion, and the books evolve as the times changed. The very first books are murder mysteries, but have a 39 Steps feel to them, then they evolve into Golden Age mysteries, and the post-war novels become more grounded crime novels, although never really bleak. The very last book, set in the 1960s, has a touch of science fiction.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#308This 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…
Not quite the same vein but I found Higashino Keigo's works really enjoyable.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#309Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just finished this one and I have to say it was eye opening and a great read. My one criticism is that sometimes he ignores oppositional arguments where I think he should address them. For example, he argues against market regulation in a number of cases, but doesn't admit that some market regulation is a good thing. However, I'm very glad I read it and think it's much more good than bad.
> My one criticism is that sometimes he ignores oppositional arguments where I think he should address them. Yes, that's because Thomas Sowell skews libertarian as mentioned by another commenter elsewhere in the thread. I think this Amazon review [0] and a few others did a decent job of mentally preparing me wrt Sowell's biases before I committed to reading his very well-written book. It's essentially a caveat that t…
I'm not sure if he skews libertarian because of his economic views, or vice-versa, but I agree that he is libertarian.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
#310East of Eden - John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck Cannery Row - John Steinbeck Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl Deep Work - Cal Newport The Little Prince - Antoine de Saint The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Mark Manson Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person - Hugh Pra…
I've been looking forward to reading Steinbeck for a while. Thanks for this :)