Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

news.ycombinator.com

41–50 of 57 posts

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By "Foundation Trilogy" you mean the original 'Foundation' stories as gathered in the first three books ("Foundation", "Foundation and Empire" and "Second Foundation")?

Yes, that's exactly what I meant, is there some of the trilogy I should be reading as well? :-)

No, most (non-pedantic) Asimov fans refer to the first three books (F, F&E, SF - which yes are technically collections of short stories glued together as one) as "the Foundation Trilogy". I do recommend reading the Foundation's Edge and Foundation and Earth, they're worthy sequels to the "trilogy".

The Robot novels are also a top read and tie in with the later Foundation books in a satisfying way:

- The Caves of Steel

- The Naked Sun

- The Robots of Dawn

- Robots and Empire

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#42
"Mr Penumbra's 24 hour bookstore" - Robin Sloan (a brilliant mix of history, mystery, humour and technology)

"The Cuckoo's Egg" - Clifford Stoll (it really is as good as they always say ;-) )

"Winnie the Pooh" - A.A. Milne (delightful, not only for children)

"Sofie's World" - Jostein Gaarder (a novel about the history of philosophy)

several Discworld novels - Terry Pratchett (a series that manages to satirize fantasy and real life at the same time)

... as well as a few others, but those were the best.

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#43
Solo: An American Dreamer in Europe by Wright Morris, a memoir of spending part of 1932 and 1933 in Austria, Italy, and France. Not on the whole as rewarding as his other memoirs Will's Boy and A Cloak of Light, but interesting enough.

Adolphe and Le Cahier Rouge by Benjamin Constant. The former a devastating short novel, the latter a memoir, a portrait of the artist as a young twerp. (The things we boomers would say if something comparable had been published by a millenial!)

Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, a novel read for a book club. The less said, the better.

Autobiography by Henry James. Very slow going, but rewarding, a mind at work.

My Promised Land by Avi Shalets. A history of Israel and the Zionist project by an Israeli journalist. It covers a lot of ground that most Americans (I infer from my book club) don't know. It seemed to me that it could have been maybe 15% shorter, and that David Remnick should have impounded Shalets's thesaurus.

Three Critics of the Enlightenment: Vico, Hamann, Herder by Isaiah Berlin. Well worth reading, but requiring more time than just its own reading, for now I have to read some Herder. I have already fought my way through some Hamann; the translation is heavily footnoted, as necessary for those of us who aren't handy with Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and don't have the Bible memorized.

Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit (vol. ii) by Egon Friedell. Clive James's recommendation in Cultural Amnesia put me onto this one. Most interesting, but slow going because my German is rusty.

[Edit: got rid of most of the "most interesting"s.]

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#46
post #39
post #24

A lot of interesting titles floating around in this thread! How do you guys choose your next book or Where do you find out those books which peak in the 'interestingness' factor? Especially, those which are non-technical,fiction, pseudo-fiction etc..

I spend a couple hours once or twice a month in a used book store. I browse the history, fiction, classics, science/math sections and look for titles that align with what I've been thinking about lately. I also have a mental list of authors that I will buy on sight.

Same here but s/used book store/amazon/.

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#47
post #46
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spend a couple hours once or twice a month in a used book store. I browse the history, fiction, classics, science/math sections and look for titles that align with what I've been thinking about lately. I also have a mental list of authors that I will buy on sight.

Same here but s/used book store/amazon/.

I like the browsing atmosphere of the small bookstore. Also I find it hard to get past all the titles that are currently being hyped if I go to amazon. I read more old books than I do new ones. But if I have a title in mind that I want to buy right away, amazon is my first stop

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#48
post #7

I'm not going to list all 42, but here are the highlights: How to Read a Book (Adler) World Order (Kissinger) Der Grundrisse (Marx) The Grand Chessboard (Brzezinski) Manufacturing Consent (Chomsky) Gulag Archipelago (Solhenitzyn) On War (Clausewitz) The Hidden Persuaders (Packard) Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (Dennett) The Strategy of Desire (Dichter) Skills acquired: intentional syntopical reading, p…

Do you often read blog posts? I think the only way I would manage to read 42 books in 6 months is if I stopped reading blog posts and programming resources. I'd like to know how you've manage to read 42 books

I'm wondering the same. Of you look at the books being listed in this thread, though, it's apparent there is little fiction or other material to truly savour: everything is skim-friendly.

You could probably get through one of these a week while on the elliptical or during your commute.

I wish people would qualify their posts with relationship status and employment type. If you have a partner whom you value, and are in the formative months (pre-alpha) of a start-up as a main developer (or hybrid, or one-man operation), is it really beneficial for so much new information to be making its way into your head?

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#49
post #40

None

Why don't you read? Or is it just this year that you are taking off?

Mainly habit I guess. I don't imagine enjoying it. That said I wouldn't mind reading hitchhikers guide to the galaxy again. Or thing explainer.

Ah I just remembered though... I've read dozens of kids books this year at bedtime :) for my daughter of course

Re: Ask HN: What books have you read in the first half of 2016?

#50

"The Art of Profitability" by Adrian Slywotzky "The Myth of the Rational Voter" by Bryan Caplan "Fanatical Prospecting" by Jeb Blount "Fooling Some of the People All of the Time" by David Einhorn "Confidence Game" by Christine Richard "Mouth Matters; How Your Mouth Ages Your Body and What YOU Can Do About It" by Carol Vander Stoep "Adventures in Stochastic Processes" by Sidney & Resnick "The Great Deformation" by Dav…

How did you find the goal? I worked somewhere where they implemented buffer management, theory of constraints etc. I never read the book tho.
Post reply on HN