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Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

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Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

#62

Post by freefaler »

coffeemug wrote: post #30
Froedlich wrote: post #11

I'm re-reading Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine" at the moment. It's about Data General and the development of a new minicomputer. I read it at the dawn of my IT career in the 1990s and found much of was still relevant then. (the book was written in 1981) Thirty years later, I'm mostly just nodding as I follow along; yep, yep, yep. "Engineering" is a distant second to corporate politics and office pecking or…

I looked up Sled Driver and the cheapest I can find is $350 on eBay (with $475 being the next best price). Where did you find the book?

annas-archive org :)

Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

#64

Post by srid »

mindcrime wrote: post #6

Offhand I can think of a few that I've read at least 2-3 times. And in a couple of cases, maybe as many as 4 or 5 times. There are probably some others that just aren't jumping to mind, but suffice it to say that these are all books I've found very valuable. The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky Mastering the Co…

> The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

I read this book a long time ago ... 2006, I think? I should re-read it. And read the author's sequel books to it.

Out of curiosity, would you say your understanding changed or deepened upon re-reading it?

Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

#65

Post by dang »

ghshephard wrote: post #18

Interconnections: Bridges, Routers, Switches, and Internetworking Protocols 2nd Edition - Radia Perlman Every 2-3 years, particularly in the periods when I'm not actively in network engineering, I re-read this book from start-finish - and it just completely centers my mindset with regards to pretty much every fundamental topic in Network Engineering. There almost didn't need to be a 2nd Edition - most of the major to…

My copy had a blurb from tptacek on the cover. I don't know which edition that was.

After reading your comment I'm sorry I didn't keep the book!

Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

#67

Post by light_triad »

If you like history you should check out 19th Century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt's collection of essays Force and Freedom - I read it every 2 years or so. It's great summary of the different sources of power in society and how they interact during different periods. Highly recommended.

"In Force and Freedom, Burckhardt reduced the main elements of history to the state, religion, and culture, discussing the hypothetical and actual supremacy of each over the other two. “Culture” comes out best, religion worst in his value system, but the state has its dangers too..."

https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-europ...

Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

#68

Post by justin_oaks »

cinntaile wrote: post #60

Why are most of you just listing books? At least explain why you reread those particular books, that's what's actually valuable here.

I agree that it'd be much more useful if people did that.

Without that information, I assume that the books that are mentioned more than once are the ones that I should look into.

Re: Ask HN: What nonfiction books do you keep rereading?

#70

Post by mindcrime »

srid wrote: post #64
mindcrime wrote: post #6

Offhand I can think of a few that I've read at least 2-3 times. And in a couple of cases, maybe as many as 4 or 5 times. There are probably some others that just aren't jumping to mind, but suffice it to say that these are all books I've found very valuable. The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank The Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema Society of Mind - Marvin Minsky Mastering the Co…

> The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins I read this book a long time ago ... 2006, I think? I should re-read it. And read the author's sequel books to it. Out of curiosity, would you say your understanding changed or deepened upon re-reading it?

> Out of curiosity, would you say your understanding changed or deepened upon re-reading it?

It's hard to do justice to that in a few words. I think I had a different reason for reading it the second time, as opposed to the first time.

The first time around, I think I was more reading it because I like to think of myself as an educated, scientific-minded person, and it was one of "those books" that any self-respecting "educated, scientific-minded person" was sort of "supposed to" have read. That and I was mentally already in a place somewhere in the nether regions between "agnostic" and "atheist" and I knew of Dawkins as a strong advocate for atheist thinking, and I guess I was looking for something that might convince me one way or the other. Or maybe that's just post-hoc rationalization on my part, but that's what I felt like I found. I felt much better about just calling myself an atheist after reading the book.

Anyway... one thing I was struck by though, was his discussion of things like kin altruism and reciprocal altruism and some of the game theoretical stuff, including mentions of Robert Axelrod and his research. So the second time I read the book, I was really looking to focus more on those sections, and take notes and do some further research. And all of that was really driven by my interest in evolutionary computing / genetic algorithms / etc. and a thought that I might find something there that I could apply to those areas. I wound up buying Axelrod's book The Evolution of Cooperation, but I sadly have not quite gotten around to reading it yet.

> And read the author's sequel books to it.

I've also read The Blind Watchmaker twice, although that was sort of by accident. I forgot I'd already read it, and I was moderately deep into the second read before I realized I'd read it before. It was worth it though.

I still have Climbing Mount Improbable, The God Delusion, The Ancestor's Tale, and a couple of other Dawkins books queued up to read as well.

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