Gödel, Escher, Bach, by Douglas Hofstadter.
Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
31–40 of 213 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#32The Art of Eating, by MFK Fisher: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Eating-Anniversary-Edition/dp/... I love food, and I love the anthropology of food. The writing here is engaging and entertaining, but the content is quite interesting if you are at all curious about mid-century French cuisine from the perspective of an American ex-pat chef.
I second this. I have read every page of MFK Fisher that I can find. I have never regretted a single page. Not just a food writer; she possesses a poet's eye for the human condition, and genius-level writing skills.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#33For me it was
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond.
One critique I received was that there is repetition of ideas but I think its because primarily humans carry past successes anf failures so most of the changes are evolutionary to what worked previously and second this book is akin to a thesis and every chapter is essential to building up the case.
By far the best non-fiction I've read.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#34Blinkist provides pretty good summaries of hundreds of books. They are using a freemium model. (I am not involved with the company.)
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#35Here are 3 that I particularly liked in the last few years: The Information, James Gleick A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss Abundance, Peter Diamandis
I was surprised to see a recommdation for The Information. Gleick seems the epitome of a rambling author who says almost nothing. I made it through Chaos, but could not get through Feynman or The Information. This kind of InfoJunk is what the OP is trying to avoid, I think.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#36Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter?
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#37Since you don't say specifically what topics you are interrested in I'll just name a few of my own favorite non-fiction books that have a great signal-to-noise ratio:
- Computer Organization and Design, Fourth Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface
- Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment
- Effective Modern C++
- SFML Game Development
- Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#38Reasons and Persons by Derek Parfit
I read this about the same time I read the Selfish Gene, had a similar effect. It's one of the few philosophy books that I still think about today.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#39The best book I've read in the last 5 years is David Simon's, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets"...if you've watched The Wire, half of its material is derived from this real life account of being embedded in Baltimore's homicide unit: https://books.google.com/books/about/Homicide.html?id=N8LS0b... All of Atul Gawande's books, notably: The Checklist Manifesto [1]: http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manif…
Homicide is one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. I can think of no higher praise.
Re: Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?
#40The best book I've read in the last 5 years is David Simon's, "Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets"...if you've watched The Wire, half of its material is derived from this real life account of being embedded in Baltimore's homicide unit: https://books.google.com/books/about/Homicide.html?id=N8LS0b... All of Atul Gawande's books, notably: The Checklist Manifesto [1]: http://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manif…
Homicide is one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. I can think of no higher praise.