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Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#61

Post by 50 »

flandish wrote: post #56
50 wrote: post #54

Just finished reading, for the first time, the short story "Bartleby, The Scrivener" by Melville. I have also been reading the essays in David Foster Wallace in Context [1], published in November of 2022. And I'm looking forward to reading here soon the seemingly first ever English translation of Philipp Mainländer's The Philosophy of Redemption [2], just published several weeks ago. 1: https://www.cambridge.org/core…

I found Bartleby to be a fantastic short read that stuck with me. Did you like it?

Oh, yes, exceedingly so. I found it to be extraordinary[1]. It has been on the back of my mind to-read since late summer of 2019, where the recommendation came from a soft-spoken lecturer.

1: For example, ranging from "...Nippers would sometimes impatiently rise from his seat, and stooping over his table, spread his arms wide apart, seize the whole desk..." to "...at leisure intervals I looked a little into 'Edwards on the Will,' and 'Priestly on Necessity'..."

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#62

Post by snapplebobapple »

Just Finished Greg Egan's Orthogonal Trilogy (it was very interesting if you like hard science fiction but want to spice it up with a universe that operates under different fundamental laws)

Am about half way through "The constitution of Liberty" by Friedrich A. Hayek (it's got a lot of correct in it but is way too preachy/needed a better editor to cut down on some of the repetition. It's nowhere near as bad as something like Ayn Rand's Atlas shrugged in this regard though).

Started Vernor Vinge's "rainbow's end", so far it's decent but I am also very early in so that isn't really a qualified opinion until I get through another 50 or 60 pages at least.

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#65

Post by edanm »

tlubinski wrote: post #63

Just started "Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence" after the whole controversy about the book (see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39099914 ) - enjoyable read so far, but can still go both ways.

I love that book, one of my favorite reads of last year.

(Read it before the controversy.)

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#66

Post by edanm »

snapplebobapple wrote: post #62

Just Finished Greg Egan's Orthogonal Trilogy (it was very interesting if you like hard science fiction but want to spice it up with a universe that operates under different fundamental laws) Am about half way through "The constitution of Liberty" by Friedrich A. Hayek (it's got a lot of correct in it but is way too preachy/needed a better editor to cut down on some of the repetition. It's nowhere near as bad as somet…

I love Egan, and have planned to read more of his books. Haven't read this trilogy yet but definitely going on my list.

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#67

Post by n2dasun »

magnio wrote: post #29

I just finished "Song of Solomon". Toni Morrison needs no introduction, and the book is simply an irresistible whirlwind of emotions and lessons. Currently reading "The Shakespeare and Company Book of Interviews." Shakespeare and Co. is a bookstore in Paris with a long history of inviting authors to reside at and give talks there. A nice and fun pot-pourri of down-to-earth wisdom, it does not exude the typical litera…

Song of Solomon is a favorite and I love seeing it mentioned here

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#68

Post by n2dasun »

ctrw wrote: post #34
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.

Is that htdp.org?

Re: Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024

#69

Post by n2dasun »

I'm in the middle of reading "Technostress: The Human Cost of the Computer Revolution", by psychologist Craig Brod.

I'm in my late 40s and the book reads to me as a nice time capsule of how computing has reshaped our society, and sets good context for considering the effects of AI, the pandemic and our more connected and increasingly-remote world overall, and looking to the future.

I see a lot of early criticisms of his research in book reviews, but I have a tough time dismissing the observations in the book, based on what I've seen

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