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Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

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Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#201

Post by bashkiddie »

JDye wrote: post #126

Surprised TCP/IP Illustrated (Volume 1) has only been mentioned 6 times. It's been so helpful for me, so many times. Perhaps it's because most people haven't had writing a TCP stack as part of their day job, but it's such a fundamental technology I would have thought learning about it in depth would be suggested far more frequently. Also, a proper first edition copy is really high quality with lovely thick paper. My…

I once had to write an IPv6 stack intending to cache poison internet targets (alias resolution). I just referred to the RFC.

A well behaved reference implementation would not be of help.

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#202

Post by tonymet »

hermitcrab wrote: post #180
tonymet wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This comment is a helpful way to understand Mein Kampf and whether it means its readers are Nazis. graemep on 4/15/2025 Mein Kampf IS a rant. I recommend people read it so you can understand how people like that think.

Not something I want anyone to see on my bookshelf though!

Depends on how spicy your friends are.

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#204

Post by globular-toast »

torben-friis wrote: post #195
globular-toast wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems quite obvious to me why it looks like this, and other people have explained it. All I'll say is if you meet someone who doesn't read, please please encourage them to try a "highschool read" or something "very mainstream" and don't put them off for life with some obscure liberal arts piece. If someone hasn't read something you read in high school, it's still better than they read it now.

>All I'll say is if you meet someone who doesn't read, please please encourage them to try a "highschool read" or something "very mainstream" and don't put them off for life with some obscure liberal arts piece. I think you assumed implications in my comment that weren’t at all intended. By all means read whatever you enjoy, and by keeping at it you’ll eventually reach less known work just as a side effect of getting…

I haven't read much "deeper" than the stuff in the list and most people I meet read way less than I do. Many read approximately zero by my estimations. I have a PhD so I know how deep the rabbit holes goes. I just think between TV, social media, kids etc. most people don't have time to do something that demands complete attention, sadly.

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#205

Post by lowkey_ »

silexia wrote: post #99
babblingfish wrote: post #10

Neat. I'm seeing a lot of overlap with books mentioned on r/reddit. I didn't realize, until know, how demographically similar hacker news and reddit are.

HN used to be a site for entrepreneurs to share ideas and work on things. Now the far left Reddit crowd has crashed it and anyone who has a successful business is just "lucky" and anyone who has earned wealth should have it stolen at gunpoint by the government to redistribute to those who don't produce anything.

If I compared HN today and Reddit 5 years ago, I'd agree, but I'm still extremely grateful for HN as I tried looking at Reddit this year and it actually made me feel like there's an extremely misinformed, radical, brainwashing happening there. I've never seen so much misinformation and negativity in one place aside from Truth Social or Threads.

HN today is equivalent to Reddit 5 years ago: not as great as it was when smaller 10 years ago, but still better than Reddit today.

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#206

Post by yboris »

parkersweb wrote: post #188
yboris wrote: post #87

I once commented on HN how my favorite Sci Fi novel is Accelerando and the author, Charles Stross, replied to it suggesting I try his The Rapture of the Nerds he co-wrote with Cory Doctorow; I loved it when I read it too. I love HN - it's basically the only website I visit these days (aside checking mail, watching YouTube, and gardening my GitHub repositories).

Amazon lists it as book 3 of 3 in a series - do you need to have read the first two?

Never read the first two, love Accelerando, unsure what I was missing; feels like a well-written self-contained story.

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#207

Post by troyvit »

number6 wrote: post #93
yboris wrote: post #87

I once commented on HN how my favorite Sci Fi novel is Accelerando and the author, Charles Stross, replied to it suggesting I try his The Rapture of the Nerds he co-wrote with Cory Doctorow; I loved it when I read it too. I love HN - it's basically the only website I visit these days (aside checking mail, watching YouTube, and gardening my GitHub repositories).

Accelerando is one of my favourite too! Thanks for sharing the reply, always love book recommendations

I must finished my last book and grabbed Accelerando blind based on ya all's recommendation and damn it's great. Thank you!

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#208

Post by BoiledCabbage »

yoan9224 wrote: post #38

Love this. The top programming books being SICP, Clean Code, and Crafting Interpreters feels very on-brand for HN. Surprised by how much fiction shows up though. I'd assumed HN skewed heavily technical but seeing 1984, Dune, and Foundation in the top mentions suggests the community has broader reading habits than stereotypes suggest. One bug: looks like "The Martian" by Andy Weir is getting grouped with "The Martian…

> I'd assumed HN skewed heavily technical but seeing 1984, Dune, and Foundation in the top mentions suggests the community has broader reading habits than stereotypes suggest.

Seeing 1984, Dune, Foundation as the top fiction is about as on-brand and unsurprising as it gets. I don't I could pick more expected fiction except for some popular cyberpunk and something from LOTR.

Throw in a hitchhikers guide, zen motorcycle and something from Feynman and you've covered all the bases.

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#209

Post by [deleted] »

retsibsi wrote: post #149
nottorp wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Andy Weir’s writing style is fast paced and practically a screenplay already Oh thanks for the warning. I was avoiding him based on a hunch. Now I know I was right. If anyone else is weird like me and likes books to not read like a movie screenplay, same goes for The Expanse.

For what it's worth, I found (the start of the first book of) the Expanse to be this in a bad way, but the Martian to be this in a good way. I can definitely see why some people would find The Martian annoying too, but it feels more like a passion project than a TV pitch.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025

#210

Post by Idesmi »

nottorp wrote: post #81
bdunks wrote: post #54

It was nice seeing my 2025 reading list represented. I started the year reading the first five books of the Foundation Series (book #1 on the list). A must read for anyone who hasn’t read it. I couldn’t believe how well it held up 70+ years later(!!) I just finished the 3 Body Problem trilogy, and think it’s appropriate book #2 (The Dark Forest) is on the list as it’s probably the best — but all three are great. I’m…

> Andy Weir’s writing style is fast paced and practically a screenplay already Oh thanks for the warning. I was avoiding him based on a hunch. Now I know I was right. If anyone else is weird like me and likes books to not read like a movie screenplay, same goes for The Expanse.

I loathe movie adaptations and never watch them, but the source material The Martian was a very good read in my 12th grade.

I like hard SciFi with no aliens and plausible rules.

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