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Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#51

Post by thomnottom »

n3on_net wrote: post #26

There are several books I read, still want to increase my reading amount: 1. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", nice bio about Feynman 2. "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", inspiring biography and business book. 3. "Apollo" by Catherine Bly Cox. Awesome book about Apollo Programm. Goes even in some technical details. 4. "Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies". Very go…

Good luck. I was just getting back into regularly reading a couple years ago. Tried for 1/month. Then it was 1-2. Now it's 3-4. Feels great - although I have to remind myself that it's okay if I don't reach some sort of quota each month.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#52

Post by tmaly »

The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway ( great book )

Hooked How to Build Habit-Forming Products - Nir Eyal ( great book very insightful )

The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg ( interesting topic, long book )

Bandit Algorithms - John White ( great book, very short and easy to get through )

Ask - Ryan Levesque ( interesting ideas on sales funnels for websites )

Predictable Revenue - Aaron Ross ( so so, I liked some of the sales ideas but I see them used too often now )

Sherlock Holmes Adventures - Mike Ashley ( good book if you like the original and want some fresh material )

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#53

Post by mjhoy »

My reading slowed to a crawl this year. Here were a few:

- Chronicles Vol 1, Bob Dylan. Inspiring, I felt very open to the world after. I loved his descriptions of Dave Van Ronk: "No puppet strings on him ever. He was big, sky high, and I looked up to him. He came from the land of giants."

- Peregrine, J.A. Baker. Intense, spiritual, like some sort of modern Moby Dick, but sparse, focused, elemental.

Next year I hope to read more Roberto Bolaño and start Elena Ferrante.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#54

Post by louisrochal »

partomniscient wrote: post #48
louisrochal wrote: post #22

"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).

Haha sorry! Edited

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#55

Post by gardano »

MuEta wrote: post #24

The Baroque Cycle - Neal Stephenson - It was 3000+ pages all told, and I LOVED it. His writing has always enthralled me, and I was hooked from the start Every Discworld Novel - Terry Pratchett - Not much can be said that hasn't already been said a million times over. If you haven't read them yet, start now The Theory of Poker - David Sklansky - Helped out my poker game tremendously. I'm much more ev+ now

Baroque Cycle, for sure.

And I'm stuck in a loop where I continue to read all the Discworld novels, over and over…

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#57

Post by noxToken »

Was light year for me:

Confessions of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer

Origins of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer

The second is a prequel of the first. I haven't read the third in the series. Light reading about a guy's descent into villainy.

Yes Please - Amy Poehler: I love memoirs. I just didn't love this one. It read a lot like Leslie Knope was the author, but there was an obscene amount of name dropping that kept interrupting the flow of the book for me.

Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir - Eddie Huang: Like I said, I'm a sucker for these things. Picked it up, because the series reminded me of a 90s Asian version of Everybody Hates Chris. The absurdity and random profanity was a little off-putting at first. Remembering how I felt as a black boy doing some of the same dumb things in the 90s really put it into perspective though.

The Serpent of Venice: A Novel - Christopher Moore: The follow up to Fool. It's a different take on Shakespearian story-telling. I can't recommend his novels enough.

Quantum Lens - Douglas E. Richards: I read this solely because I liked Wired and Amped. No-frills action with a sci-fi element. You probably won't get engrossed, but you will be entertained.

Spell or High Water & An Unwelcome Quest - Scott Meyer: Books 2 & 3 in a series about a group of guys who can manipulate reality through writing scripts. Good, but not my favorite.

Armada: A Novel - Ernest Cline: Ah yes. The long awaited sophomore effort from the author of Ready Player One. This book fell harder than it deserved to, because people where expecting it to be analogous to Ready Player One. Spoiler: it's not. The novel does have its short-comings. Repetitive dialogue, shoe-horned classic pop-culture references and shallow writing plague this book. If you've got time for a short novel, give it a whirl, but don't expect anything amazing.

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson: Book 2 of the Stormlight Archives. If it's an epic by Sanderson, do yourself a favor and board the hype train. You won't be disappointed. It's everything you want in a long fantasy novel without being bogged down with side-plots and details.

Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson: This is a standalone novel with a tie-on to Words of Radiance. I'm only halfway through it. Would recommend so far, especially since it's free from the author.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#58

Post by ifoundthetao »

The Hobbit - Liked, classic.

How Ideas Spread - It was decent, I feel like it could be condensed into an infographic after the fact, and hold great value.

The Lean Startup - Excellent. Changed the way I do business.

A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1 - Great book, wonderful universe. Apparently Martin loves himself a good descriptions of clothes.

A Clash of Kings: A song of Ice and Fire, Book 2 - Great book.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Good book for a kid, pretty irritating kid though (the kid in the book, not mine).

The Andromeda Strain - Excellent!

Christ the Sum of All Spiritual Things - Great book! Very healthy view of a Christocentric theology.

Dracula - Sleeper hit of the year. This book was awesome.

Pippi Longstocking - Read this to my son, and we really enjoyed it.

The Secrets of Power Negotiating - Helped me out during the process of buying a house by understanding various negotiation gambits. Would recommend.

Scrum - Another book that changed the way I work. Would absolutely recommend it.

The Wizard of Oz - Much better than the movie.

The 4-Hour Workweek - .... It was "okay". I don't know. I'm still torn.

The Swiss Family Robinson - Awesome book, full of fun things to talk about with your kids.

The BFG - This was the start of the Roald Dahl stage for bedtime reading.. It's a great book, one of my favorite Dahl books.

Matilda - Reading this as an adult, it was not nearly as fun as when I was a kid, however my son loved it.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox - Fun and easy read for the kids.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Pretty decent book.

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Terrible. Absolutely terrible.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

#59

Post by n3on_net »

thomnottom wrote: post #51
n3on_net wrote: post #26

There are several books I read, still want to increase my reading amount: 1. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", nice bio about Feynman 2. "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", inspiring biography and business book. 3. "Apollo" by Catherine Bly Cox. Awesome book about Apollo Programm. Goes even in some technical details. 4. "Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies". Very go…

Good luck. I was just getting back into regularly reading a couple years ago. Tried for 1/month. Then it was 1-2. Now it's 3-4. Feels great - although I have to remind myself that it's okay if I don't reach some sort of quota each month.

Very nice. How many hours per day do you read for 3-4 books/month?
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