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Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

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Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#31

Post by DarkTree »

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson).

It's a cursory overview of all of history (title) from the dawn of time to the evolution of humans. It seems to be only slightly dated in some information, but really interesting to learn how the knowledge we assume is true today came to fruition over time.

Before that,

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Ben R. Rich)

Such an awesome book about not only the engineering feats achieved by Lockheed Martin during the Cold War Era, but the incredible ability to keep developments secret from the mostly everyone. If you want to know more about the purpose of Area51, check it out.

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#32

Post by strictnein »

Recently:

- The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War

- The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries

Both excellent and pair really well. Add in "Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible" and you've got some decent insight into modern Russia, I think.

Just finished:

- Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda

Interesting to read. Author is rather sure of himself, but I guess that helped him be successful. Also interesting to see what the CIA redacted, since they left all the redactions in place in the book and used classical music in the audio book to represent them. Kind of sloppily redacted at times, with the redacted country or entity clearly referenced a sentence or two later. And then there's strange things redacted, like the language of bootleg DVDs that are purchased in SE Afghanistan. It's Farsi, for the record.

- The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age

If you're interested in kind of an overview of the cyber (yes, I hate the word too) space, from the perspective of nation states and the impact of their actions, this is a good read.

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#34

Post by strictnein »

Skunkleton wrote: post #8

I am reading the Dark Tower series. I have been meaning to read it for a long time, and with the upcoming movie I figured I should read it before someone spoils it for me :)

I'm jealous of you. Wish I could read it again for the first time.

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#35

Post by FredrikMeyer »

* "The history of western philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. A fun read so far (~100 pages). Russell is not afraid to tell the reader that he really dislikes Plato, and thinks he destroyed western philosophy.

* SICP (Structure and interpretation of computer programs). Learning Scheme for fun now with this book. I'm only in chapter 2 so far, but it is really fun

* "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hoefstadter. The story in one line: he have a theory that consciousness aries from "strange loops". Along the way he talks about fractals, programming, patterns in music and in pictures,...

* "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyevskij. Fun read.

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#37

Post by thisisforyou »

'The Woman in the Dunes' by Kobo Abe: Sometimes called the Japanese Kafka. Looks at a Japanese salaryman who is imprisoned in the bottom of a sand pit with a woman he does not know and is forced to remove the sand in order to protect a nearby village. Creepy and ripe for symbolic analysis.

Before that:

'Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps' by Robert Conquest. A nice, short overview of the Kolyma Region with a special focus on the especially brutal years of 1937-1938. Has some great eyewitness accounts as well as some semi-rigorous historical analysis (as well as appendices of camps, administrative regions at c.)

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#38

Post by pvarangot »

FredrikMeyer wrote: post #35

* "The history of western philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. A fun read so far (~100 pages). Russell is not afraid to tell the reader that he really dislikes Plato, and thinks he destroyed western philosophy. * SICP (Structure and interpretation of computer programs). Learning Scheme for fun now with this book. I'm only in chapter 2 so far, but it is really fun * "Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hoefstadter. The story…

Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics is a nice book to read after SICP if you like torturing your brain with extremely thorough material written by and for geniuses that want to master something everybody think he knows bu he really doesn't.

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#39

Post by mrexroad »

thisisforyou wrote: post #37

'The Woman in the Dunes' by Kobo Abe: Sometimes called the Japanese Kafka. Looks at a Japanese salaryman who is imprisoned in the bottom of a sand pit with a woman he does not know and is forced to remove the sand in order to protect a nearby village. Creepy and ripe for symbolic analysis. Before that: 'Kolyma: The Arctic Death Camps' by Robert Conquest. A nice, short overview of the Kolyma Region with a special focu…

"The Woman in the Dunes" is an excellent film as well.

Re: Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?

#40

Post by bawigga »

DarkTree wrote: post #31

A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson). It's a cursory overview of all of history (title) from the dawn of time to the evolution of humans. It seems to be only slightly dated in some information, but really interesting to learn how the knowledge we assume is true today came to fruition over time. Before that, Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed (Ben R. Rich) Such an awesome book about n…

SkunkWorks was a fantastic read! The aviation history was great and I also really liked seeing how they accomplished so much with a small team.
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