Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#1

Post by dbalan » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 1:51 PM UTC

I'd like to know which books HN read this year. Did you like them or hate them?

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#2

Post by dbalan » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 1:59 PM UTC

I finished "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahneman - A slow read, but a good one. He talks about the intricacies and surprising observations about how me take decisions.

"Logicomix" - A brief "history" of logic, its not always historically accurate. Did I tell you its a graphic novel?

"Show Your work" - Aston Kleon - A short motivating read about sharing ones work, he makes some good arguments for sharing the process as well, not just the product.

Picked up "Coders at work" - read two chapters, a great read so far (I know its pretty popular one amoung HN)

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#3

Post by pyotrgalois » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

Two great books:

- "Functional Programming in Scala" by Paul Chiusano and Rúnar Bjarnason

- "Big Data: Principles and best practices of scalable realtime data systems" by Nathan Marz and James Warren

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#4

Post by 6footgeek » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:04 PM UTC

Ready Player One. by Ernest Cline. Brilliant geeky read (fiction) :)

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#5

Post by smcl » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:07 PM UTC

6footgeek wrote: post #4

Ready Player One. by Ernest Cline. Brilliant geeky read (fiction) :)

I haven't read it, but it was featured on I Don't Even Own A Television with hilarious results: http://www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2014/06/19/010-ready-...

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#6

Post by rodolphoarruda » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:09 PM UTC

Disclaimer: I am a manager.

No Hero - M. Owen; Zero to One - P. Thiel; The 7 Principles of Professional Services - S. Anastasi.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#7

Post by ing33k » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:10 PM UTC

Not including technical books

"The Four Steps to the Epiphany" - I got a very detailed view on customer development.

"Zero to One" - got some fresh ideas on how to think differently wrt business.

"Dhandha: How Gujaratis Do Business" - collection of stories , which highlight why/how Gujaratis are so successful in businesses.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#8

Post by musgravepeter » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

"Leaving Orbit - Notes from the last days of American spaceflight" - pleasantly sentimental view of the wind down of the shuttle program.

"The Dark Forest" 2nd installment in Three Body Problem series. Quite clever.

"This Changes Everything" - triggered by a quote from the doc on the radio about trying not to think about climate change and whether it's possible to be bored by the end of the world. Lots of good info (including a visit to a climate deniers conference), bit long winded.

"The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics". If I read only 10% still worth it. Lots of things to dip into.

"The Astronomer and the Witch" Kepler fights to save his mother from persecution.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#9

Post by onion2k » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

"Chance: The science and secrets of luck, randomness and probability" It's a collection of New Scientist essays based around probability. Well worth reading, and because it's just short essays it's easy to pick up for just a few minutes at a time.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#10

Post by arethuza » Wed, Dec 23, 2015, 2:12 PM UTC

Books this year that I loved:

"A Place of Greater Safety" - Hilary Mantel [French Revolution - Danton, Robespierre, Desmoulins ...]

"One Summer: America 1927" - Bill Bryson

"Napoleon the Great" - Andrew Roberts

"Seveneves" - Neal Stephenson

Reading "The Box" at the moment which is pretty interesting.