I re-read Dune for the first time since I was a kid. Boy that did not hold up well. The world and lore building, which is what I guess I fondly remember, were still fantastic. The constant inner dialogues, not so much.
Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
11–20 of 165 posts
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#12One of the most interesting books I read was mentioned here on HN early this year: A Thread Across the Ocean
http://www.amazon.com/Thread-Across-Ocean-Heroic-Transatlant...
It covers the beginnings of one of the most important historical legs that most of our amazing technology rests on.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#13I had a weird year, reading no new 2015 books. Here's a handful I enjoyed the most:
"Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmann" - probably needs no introduction here on HN, but some wonderful anecdotes by Richard Feynmann.
"Red Plenty" by Francis Spufforth. Enjoyable (and apparently thoroughly well researched) depiction of life in the Soviet Union during its rise and decline
"My Ten Years Imprisonment" by Silvio Pellico. An autobiographical account of an Italian revolutionary during the times of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he was imprisoned in a castle I live next to.
"Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer - luckily a couple of months before Everest was released (it was recommended in an HN discussion)
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#14Two 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
I just looked over the first chapter or so of "Big Data" that's online with the intent of purchasing it yesterday. It seemed decent enough.
What were you general thoughts on it?
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#15Do audio books count? If so my favorites from this year would be Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, and Armada by Ernest Cline.
Books I actually read which were good: The Informationist by Taylor Stevens Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#16"Shopgirl" - Steve Martin - short and poignant. Recommended.
"Madame Bovary" - Gustave Flaubert - Considered to be one of the masterpieces of literature, but it's so long that I can't really recommend it.
"The Sales Acceleration Formula" - Mark Roberge - I'd recommend this to any entrepreneur.
"Status Anxiety" - Alain de Botton - A pretty good pop scienc-y psychology book.
"Zero to One" - Peter Thiel - A philosophy book imo.
"Tokyo Vice" - Jake Adelstein - A look at the underbelly of Japanese society.
"Capitalism and the Jews" - Jerry Muller - A very good overview of the intersection of the Jewish faith and culture with their business success.
"The Richest Man in Babylon" - George S. Clayson - A personal finance parable. Recommended.
"The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" - Marie Kondo - A philosophy book. Worth a look even if you don't ascribe to its teachings.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#17"Cryptonomicon" - Neal Stephenson
"Expecting Better" - Emily Oster
"The 9/11 Commission Report" - National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
"Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" - Joby Warrick
"Power Wars: Inside Obama's Post-9/11 Presidency" - Charlie Savage (not finished yet)
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#18I've read 33 books so I'm not going to publish the list here, but i blogged about it: http://blog.habrador.com/2015/12/books-ive-read-in-2015.html
The books I liked the most were:
- The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why
- On Intelligence
- The Martian
- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution
- Einstein: His Life and Universe
- Alan Turing: The Enigma
- Neuroscience for Dummies
- Thunder Run - (which is about the battle of Baghdad in 2003)
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#19I re-read all the Akady Renko books by Martin Cruz Smith, and the Harry Bosch by Michael Connolly. I enjoyed both very much, but I would say the Cruz Smith books edge it.
Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?
#20"The Magicians", "The Magician King", "The Magician's Land" - Lev Grossman. 4/5
"Inside Job" - Connie Willis. 4/5
"Norwegian Wood (Tokio Blues)" - Haruki Murakami. 4/5
"Old Man's War" - John Scalzi. 5/5
"Persepolis" - Marjane Satrapi. 5/5
Non fiction:
"The 10,000 year explosion" about recent evolution. 3/5 ton of evidence for their thesis, but lacks predictions.
"What if" well known by HN. 5/5
"The nurture assumption" about education, 2/5. Maybe a 4/5 when it was published, but now their ideas are in the water supply.
"The man who mistook his wife for a hat", by Oliver Sacks 4/5. Several stories about neurological deficits.