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Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#41

I realize this isn't really the intent of the question, but I read "The Count of Monte Cristo" this year for the first time and it's now my favorite book. It's a classic that I just had never bothered with and the story sucked me in. The redemption, revenge, scheming, secrecy. It was phenomenal.

Absolutely one of my favorite books. The unabridged, modern (early 2000s, I think) retranslation by Robin Buss is the best English version, IMO. It's long, but worth every page.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#42

Mme. Bovary. First it just was an exercise to show to my wife how _descriptions_ are _action_. I was trying to improved her everyday writing, you know, memos from work, informal/formal letters. I'm reading French just a little as English. So we are doing this... _exercises_ based upon an Spanish translate. And there it was. Just like I used to be remember it: fabrics that suddenly becomes a living creature embracing…

I cannot understand what you’ve written here.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#43
For some reason "Who We Are and How We Got Here" (David Reich on early human history via DNA) was just a delight, to have so many open questions be slammed shut.

"The Need to be Whole", from Wendell Berry, is deeply thought-provoking in a sort of spiritual-political way, though far too long for how much it has to say, and questionable at times.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#45

I realize this isn't really the intent of the question, but I read "The Count of Monte Cristo" this year for the first time and it's now my favorite book. It's a classic that I just had never bothered with and the story sucked me in. The redemption, revenge, scheming, secrecy. It was phenomenal.

I love it so much. I am sad that the Halas and Batchelor animated version I watched as a kid seems to be unobtainable :-(

I _strongly_ suggest searching out the modern Robin Buss translation (Penguin books sell it in the Uk) rather than the public domain version as the text is far clearer and several large redactions are replaced.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#47
Easily The City & The City by China Miéville.

The premise is great, the characters are fun, the plot will keep you engaged.

A noir detective story about a murder that happens in the space between two cities which are in superposition. That is, they share the same geographic space, but citizens are forced to live in only one of the cities by a seemingly omnipotent power called Breach that maintains the borders of the two cities.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?

#48
Fiction

I discovered and read Blake Crouch this year

- Dark Matter

- Recursion

- Upgrade

- Pines

I also discovered and read

- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

- Gravity by Tess Gerritsen

- A Man by, At the End of the Matinee Keiichiro Hirano

It's between Recursion and Project Hail Mary for me. I am leaning more towards Recursion.

Non-fiction

I discovered and read the following this year

- Deep Work by Cal Newport

- The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J. DeMarco

- Zero to One by Peter Thiel

- How to Start a Business Without any Money by Rachel Bridge

- Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima

- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel

- Show Your Work, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon

- Press Reset by Jason Schreier

I would say Deep Work and Steve Jobs had the biggest impact on me.

Programming

I am learning Elixir using Elixir In Action by Sasa Juric.

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