Nexus by Yuval Harari is one of the most influential books I’ve read.
Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
81–90 of 459 posts
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#82Frankenstein. Superb science fiction, very readable even though written 200 years ago. And Wuthering Heights, which strangely like Frankenstein, has a complex narrative structure and an unhinged, obsessive central character
I read it this year too. I was surprised by the amount of heartfelt soliloquising the monster did, he was much more compelling than I expected. Victor of course was the real monster in the story, self obsessed, not taking responsibility for his actions, I found myself actively rooting against him.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#83The Gulag Archipelago is on my shelf, when I rotate back to Russian authors (big fan of Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Bulgakov) I will hopefully get to it.
Here's my log for 2025, most recent at the top. Currently I am slogging my way through Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast" which I'm not a fan of. Halfway done with it though!
Gabrielle Zevin, "The Hole We're In" (not my usual genre, enjoyed this though)
Robert A. Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land" (pretty good)
Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love" (PHENOMENAL, highly recommended)
Robert A. Heinlein, "Methuselah's Children" (pretty good, required to understand "Time Enough for Love")
Richard K. Morgan, "Altered Carbon" (very good)
Robert A. Heinlein, "The Rolling Stones" (young adult, but good all the same)
Robert A. Heinlein, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (very good)
Piers Anthony, "On A Pale Horse" (very good, never got very far into the series though)
Lincoln Child, "Full Wolf Moon" (okay, not great)
Lincoln Child, "The Forgotten Room" (pretty good)
Lincoln Child, "The Third Gate" (very good)
Lincoln Child, "Terminal Freeze" (okay, not great)
William Gibson, "In the Beginning… Was the Command Line" (good, but outdated, look up what he's said about it more recently)
Lincoln Child, "Deep Storm" (very good)
James Patterson, "Along Came a Spider" (not my usual genre, okay though)
Jules Verne, "Around the World in 80 Days" (from childhood, revisited)
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#84Very much enjoyed the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos
Read the first two this year. Absolutely incredible and now some of my all time favorite sci-fi.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#85The Will of the Many. An epic high fantasy adventure. I’m just about to finish the second book in the series - The Strength of the Few. I haven’t gasped this many times reading a book in while.
I’m half way down The Strength of the Few.
Always looking forward to read the next chapter.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#86Technical followed by non-technical. I read more than these, but these are the highlights. Mouse, a Language for Microcomputers by Peter Grogono - Mouse is basically an esolang with barely any abstraction facilities, but the book was well-written and the language compelling enough to explore further. Notes on Distance Dialing (pdf) by AT&T - Described the telephone systems of the USA and Canada in the mid-1950s. The…
The Shadow People: https://archive.org/details/bwb_P8-AVK-513/page/n4/mode/1up
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#87I re-read Plato's The Republic.
It's a must read for 0.001% of the population.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#88The Gulag Archipelago is on my shelf, when I rotate back to Russian authors (big fan of Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Bulgakov) I will hopefully get to it. Here's my log for 2025, most recent at the top. Currently I am slogging my way through Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast" which I'm not a fan of. Halfway done with it though! Gabrielle Zevin, "The Hole We're In" (not my usual genre, enjoyed this though) Robert A. Heinlei…
> William Gibson, "In the Beginning… Was the Command Line" (good, but outdated, look up what he's said about it more recently)
That's Neal Stephenson, not William Gibson.
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#89I don't read much any more. Mostly magazine articles.
I did re-read "The Long Run" from Daniel Keys Moran (one of the very short list of books I've re-read, and this was #4 or #5).
"Were you taught to hate Peaceforcers?" "Taught? No."
The only new book that I read was "Heat 2" by Michael Mann and Meg Gardiner.
It was "ok". It honestly felt like a mashup of "Heat", "Miami Vice", and "Blackhat". So, not as fresh as I would have liked. (Mind, I really like all of those movies.)
I'll see the movie when it comes out, but the book was just "ok".
Re: Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
#90Demian by Hermann Hesse. I wanted to scream "Stop overthinking!" to the protagonist. Something I can relate to.
Siddharta by Hermann Hesse. Helped me understand that a perfect life is a collection of ups and downs and that one must accept it all.
Amerika by Franz Kafka. Could relate to the protagonist because people take advantage of his naivety.
Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Made me see the world in a less pessimistic way.