Ask HN: What are the best unknown books you have read?

Post by inerg » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 3:10 PM UTC

thorin wrote: post #336

Not sure if these books are unknown or fallen out of favor, but I've never spoken to anyone else who's read them without me passing them on first: Travels - Michael Crichton - a number of useful life lessons I'm only just catching up on https://www.amazon.co.uk/Travels-Vintage-Departures-Michael-... The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ragged-Trousered-Philanthropists-Wo... Ishmael https://ww…

Post by dvfjsdhgfv » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 3:15 PM UTC

Post by UzhasKakoi » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 3:47 PM UTC

sramsay wrote: post #82

officemonkey wrote: post #57

Anthony Trollope's "The Warden." Trollope isn't as well known as Dickens or Austen. I think the emotional intelligence of this book makes up for the fact that nothing much happens. There's a vicar who is old friends with the Bishop. He's made Warden of an Almshouse for old men in the community. The amount of money he's going to get to do basically nothing is embarrassingly large. It's an extremely gentle book about c…

A thousand times yes to Trollope, and I think there are a lot of nineteenth-century novelists who are like that (not quite as well known as the biggest names, but absolutely superb). Wilkie Collins ( The Moonstone , The Woman in White ) is another good example from that category.

Post by teddyh » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 6:23 PM UTC

Clownfused wrote: post #200

teddyh wrote: post #179

The Network Revolution – confessions of a computer scientist (1982)¹ is the title which immediately springs to mind. I never see anyone else mention this book, but I liked it. One of the many interesting things it contains is an anonymized telling of what happened with Doug Engelbart and why, even after giving the dazzling “ The Mother of All Demos ”², the SRI company did not succeed in its grand plan for the future…

This reminds me of something my dad taught me long ago: "Be careful what you measure"

Post by dublin » Mon, Jan 20, 2020, 6:25 PM UTC

spectramax wrote: post #245

killjoywashere wrote: post #107

Not exactly a book, Assessing and Strengthening the Manufacturing and Defense Industrial Base and Supply Chain Resiliency of the United States . (1) It raises some concerns that folks in this forum are probably interested in and could do something about. Things like forcing US companies doing business in China to transfer dual-use technologies, the lack of US suppliers for certain goods, like high tenacity polyester…

As an American, we need to bolster our manufacturing in areas where IP to manufacturing output ratio is high. What I mean is, thrift manufacturing of useless gadgets we see on Amazon front page is trivial and does not add any value. Advancing semiconductor manufacturing for example is hard, and that's exactly why we need to do it. China has prowess in centralization and consolidation of their sub-supply chain - but t…