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YC’s Summer Reading

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Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#111

Post by wikwocket »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

I am working on Neal Stephenson's REAMDE. I say "working on" as opposed to "finishing" since it's more of a side job than a casual read. You don't really make progress, you just sort of periodically put another hundred pages between you and the front cover, without really budging how far down the binding your bookmark is.

REAMDE is sort of like if someone looked at the average globe-spanning complicated plot and action scenes of a Bond movie, and said, "I guess it's alright, you know, for a short story."

To answer your question, I am changing my metric from "books read per trip the library" to "trips to the library (to renew my loan) per book."

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#113

Post by maerF0x0 »

overcast wrote: post #73

I'm really surprised to see Ready Player One on there. It relied way too heavily on the 80's nostalgia, to prop up the shallow story telling. But even that got old, it was like hanging around with someone that talks entirely in movie quotes, while fun at the right times, gets stale fast. You didn't care about the character, because there was nothing for him to really lose.

I ground through it to the end. Still regret it.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#114

Post by elevensies »

guynamedloren wrote: post #81
elevensies wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finished this recently and liked it as well. My "policy" is to read every technology company related memoir or corporate history that I can get my hands on, and I found this one more interesting than most as a narrative.

Neat "policy". Also curious about your favorites. Any you can recommend?

Sure, here are my top picks:

Interesting Story

- Soul of a new machine

- Hackers by Levy

- Masters of Doom

Lots of interesting information, not so compelling as a narrative:

- Open: How Compaq Ended IBM's PC Domination

- Elon Musk (bio by Vance)

- Softwar (Larry Ellison)

Related to tech, but not really tech:

- The Decipherment of Linear B

- Oglivy on Adviertising

- The Great Beanie Baby Bubble

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#115

Post by elevensies »

billionsfan1 wrote: post #55
elevensies wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I finished this recently and liked it as well. My "policy" is to read every technology company related memoir or corporate history that I can get my hands on, and I found this one more interesting than most as a narrative.

I also like these. just read the facebook and twitter ones. which did you also find and like?

posted a list on sibling comment

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#117

Post by tedmiston »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

I don't even really read whole books. At least technical ones, I tend to hunt for the chapters/sections strictly relevant to problems at hand or upcoming. Non-technical books, I tend to skip to the most interesting chapters first and read out of order. Reading this way makes it somewhat difficult to define a pace, though I would say I read slower than average and prefer very detail-oriented reading over skimming.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#118

Post by swanson »

neves wrote: post #100
swanson wrote: post #3

I've not read the book version but "How Buildings Learn" is one of my favorite things ever (a great case-study for looking outside of software for lessons that can apply to well...software). Stewart Brand (of Longnow fame) produced a really lovely 6 part series for BBC in the late 90's and they are on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/brandst/videos -- highly recommended (Warning: there is a very loud and obnoxio…

Please let me disagree. It is a beautiful book, but really boring and repetitive. Never finished it. I'll resume it for you all: "Buildings change over time to adapt for their owners livestyle." The really good part is the author bashing renowned architects that build prize winning buildings that leak.

I've never read the book so you aren't disagreeing :)

Sounds like the video series might be the way to go if the book is too repetitive

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#119

Post by ironchief »

frisco wrote: post #19
ztravis wrote: post #14

I'm consistently surprised to hear people saying positive things about "Ready Player One" - to me it was one of the most hackneyed and silly books I've read in a long time. My review at the time of reading (originally for private consumption only): Terrible modern sci-fi about easter egg MMO quest for game creator’s fortune. Childish plot/dialog, cliches everywhere (e.g. ‘L337 Hax0r Warezhouse’), absolutely atrocious…

I agree - I really wanted to like Ready Player One but the writing was just so difficult to enjoy. In the same way I remember thinking "wow this is really well written" when reading George R R Martin, I spent most of RP1 thinking, "I will get through this for the concept but this is not a good book." Instead of Ready Player One, I recommend the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. The action is a little overdone, but it's so…

Have to agree. RP1 has taken the ideas of VR past and synthesized them in a fun young adult novel.

Nexus paves a highway over our present into the biotech future. It makes you think about how free individuals harness technology and the culture/society/gov they live in.

Re: YC’s Summer Reading

#120

Post by avindroth »

Yhippa wrote: post #12

Just curious, what's everybody's pace around here? It took me about a month to casually get through "Ready Player One" (great book BTW), and that was for a book club. It seems like a lot of the people I respect get through about a book a week. Either they're lying or have such good focus to avoid distractions other than books. Maybe I could put down the HN for a bit.

I write a lot while reading. Sort of like having a conversation with the author.

I read less books this way, but the knowledge in the books become much more internalized. I tend to implement them much faster too. And aren't we reading, in part, to better our lives (short-term pleasure or long-term changes)?

Of course, I read fiction just for the pleasure as well (like Ready Player One).

This method of reading also sharpened my bullshit detector. If I am not writing a lot, this indicates lack of insights. Either a bad book or a bad time for that book. So either way, a bad book for me.

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