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Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#41
I read quite a few others that have been mentioned here, but I finally read two that hard sci-fi books that should appeal to the Hacker News crowd

Permutation City: People can run simulations of themselves or entirely migrate their consciousness into computer programs, but existence is often limited to the amount of computation that you can afford, leading to slow existences that stretch time into fractions of realtime. That premise had me hooked, but the book has fantastic thought provoking plot points throughout. Highly recommended. http://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/15...

Blindsight: Amazing first alien encounter book that should be read by everyone that is a fan of the genre. Memorable cast of characters...the Vampires are really interesting. All kinds of introductory scientific concepts throughout. Entertaining and educational. http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/r...

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#42
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius -- A fine classic I enjoyed.

Might count, might not, since it finished in March but was going on before. I loved Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky - http://hpmor.com/

Loved Masters of Doom - David Kushner

I liked Worm - Wildbow - https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/ -- but it falls short of overall greatness and I don't think it's worth its 22-average-books length if I were to go back in time and decide on rereading...

Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game (Volume I) - Janice Kim -- I've been learning Go and thought this book was particularly excellent for beginners.

There are at least 4 other books I'm close to finishing and I might get one done before the end of the month... Volume 2 of the above Go series, Mythical Man-Month, A handbook of traditional living, or The Waking Dream.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#43

Philip K. Dicks's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?": Liked the movie (Blade Runner) better, but not bad. Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms": While reading it I found it extremely boring, though there was this feel to it that still made it pleasant to read. I can't really describe it. Plutarch's "Lives" from the main figures from the end of the Republic (Penguin Classics collection): By far the best books on…

Reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was such a disappointment to me because I loved the movie so much. I would like to revisit it - maybe I would understand the parts about the empathy boxes and the wife's mood thing better now.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#44
post #23

Some of the books I enjoyed the most and found most helpful: - Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - Helped me better understand myself and others, highly recommend - The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey - Advice on mastering the mental part of doing anything, not just tennis - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - actually maybe the most importan…

I can vouch for two of these. I read "The Inner Game of Tennis" last year, because it was recommended to me. It is the kind of book that I would never pick up on my own based on the title. Luckily, the book contents has almost nothing to do with the title :)

Marie Kondo's book on tidying up is also of delightfully broader utility than the title implies. I just recently finished it - it is a surprisingly insightful book and a real pleasure to read. Highly recommended!

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#45
Freedom - Daniel Suarez - Follow up to "Daemon". https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7132363-freedom

Old Man's War - John Scalzi - My first Scalzi book and won't be the last. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War

Red Rising / Golden Son - Pierce Brown - I'm a sucker for these YA SF series. Lots of fun. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#46
Fifteen Dogs: an apologue of rare insight. Apollo and Hermes make a wager that if dogs were given human intelligence they would die miserable, not happy. This was my favorite this year.

The End of Vandalism: a tale of a love triangle in a small mid-western town. Funny, dark, and a vivid portrait of that kind of town. A huge cast of characters, some only on stage for a moment or two and yet each integral and colorful.

The Annihilation Score: I love the series but this wasn't my favorite despite starring one of my favorite characters for the first time.

The Rhesus Chart: Another of the Laundry Files series. A sanguinary disease nearly brings down the Laundry. This one was snarky, good fun. One of my favorites from the series.

Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A creepy masterpiece of haute fan-fiction.

Without Their Permission: The tale of a privileged, mediocre man extolling the Libertarian virtues of the Internet. Anyone can open a laptop and get super rich! Without anyone's permission! Because that's why we're not all rich yet.

The Internet Is Not The Answer: A counter-point from Andrew Keene to Alexis Ohanian's unbridled optimism. Decent but not strong enough.

21st Century C: Amazing! Finally a practical book about C. The modern tool-set available, the notable language features of C99 and C11, and a few in-depth projects to pull it all together. Great book.

On Numbers And Games: A fabulous book by one of my mathematical heroes. Well worth getting through it.

Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's classic. I started collecting the new Penguin Classics line and the introductions are really insightful. These are well-researched and produced editions.

The Nature of Things: The epic from Lucretius. It was really eye-opening to finally read this book. Atomism, psychology, and poetic metaphors... from thousands of years ago.

... probably more I'm forgetting.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#47
"Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years" - David Graeber - Bit of a slog, but worth it for an in depth look at the historic mechanisms of debt that are inexorably tied to violence and control

"Confessions of a Venture Capitalist" - Ruthann Quindlen - Peak into the world of VC, mostly interesting bc it was written in 2001 and her expertise was in tech. Not much has changed in that world it seems.

"One Plus One Equals Three: A Masterclass in Creative Thinking" - David Trott - Pithy treatment of design thinking from a writer with a staccato style.

"The Best Interface Is No Interface" - Golden Krishna - The best book on design out there IMO. Make it invisible. Plus the dude's name is fucking GOLDEN KRISHNA. Winner.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#48

"Thus Spoke Zarathustra" - Nietzsche (French Translation) - 5/5 An absolute Must read. "1984" - Orwell - 5/5 French law on surveillance made me want to read it again "Fahrenheit 451" - Ray Bradbury - 4/5 "La zone du dehors" - Alain Damasio - 4/5 "The name of the wind" - Patrick Rothfuss - 4/5 A great fantasy story. It's a big book, there is a lot of details, but very well written. "Stranger in a Strange Land" - Rober…

Robert A. Heinlein, not Valentine Michael Smith (although he features heavily in the story).

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#49
I read a lot this year, so I'll just point out some highlights:

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - The highlight of the year. I'm now partially through the 3rd book in the series. And amazing portrait of the friendship between 2 girls as they grow up and try to escape the violence and poverty of their small town in Naples.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - My guess is that plenty of people here have read it. Great read about the fall of civilization due to a massive flu outbreak.

Room by Emma Donoghue - Beautiful, heartbreaking, troubling and uplifting.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - A classic, glad to finally read it.

The Room by Jonas Karlsson - Absurdist take on corporate life about a man who finds a room in his office building that shouldn't be there.

Welcome To Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor - For fans of the podcast. I highly recommend both.

Uglies/Pretties/Specials by Scott Westerfeld - YA trilogy about a future in which everybody is made pretty once they reach a certain age. Not great literature, but a fun read. Although the second one is a little blah.

Get In Trouble by Kelly Link - Excellent collection of fantastical yet mundane short stories.

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine - Powerful exploration of race in America. I feel like I need to read it a few more times.

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - Still one of my favorite authors. Story of a baby whose family is brutally murdered and ends up being raised by spirits in a graveyard.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#50
"Chasing the Scream" - a timely and interesting summary of the war on drugs and its (in)effectiveness.

"Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard" - a fun book about fungi from a mycologist with a solid sense of humor.

"On the Move" - Oliver Sacks's biography. Insightful and uplifting, especially if you enjoy writing.

"Ready Player One" - a dystopian cyber thriller. Reminded me of Snow Crash. Good stuff.

"The Last Place on Earth" - a good (if labored) summary of the races to the north and south poles and their geopolitical impacts.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - been on my list for years. Long but good.

"Steve Jobs" - needs no introduction. Got me interested in Isaacson's other books.

"Hallucinations" (Oliver Sacks) - insightful analysis of the prevalence and for-reaching effects of hallucination. It's a lot more common (and puzzling) than most of us realize.

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