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Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

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Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#361

Post by vagab0nd »

stochastic_monk wrote: post #152

As for me —- 0: Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths Anyone interested in information theory, intelligence (artificial or otherwise), many-worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics, metafiction, the nature of art, or even probabilistic sequence modeling should read Borges’ short stories. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. 1: Hero With A Thousand Faces A classic book collating world mythologies and psychoanalytical tho…

If you want to get a taste of Jorge Luis Borges, I strongly recommend the short story, The Garden of Forking Paths. Especially if you like twist at the end.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#363

Post by mavilia »

glorithm wrote: post #349

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, by Mark Manson https://www.amazon.ca/Subtle-Art-Not-Giving-Counterintuitive... Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity, by Kim Scott https://www.amazon.ca/Radical-Candor-Kick-Ass-Without-Humani...

The Subtle Art is a great book that helps put things into perspective. At times you will open it to a chapter randomly, but it still has some application to a part of your life that you may be struggling with. I like to keep the audio book around so that I can have little reminders daily because of course the concepts are useless without application.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#364

Post by balladeer »

- The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor

- The Mirror of Beauty by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi (I am reading it in Hindi/Urdu[0]. Anyone who loves historical fiction should check this out)

- Safe Area Goražde: The War in Eastern Bosnia, 1992-1995 (received it as a birthday gift; my first graphic novel and I am loving it)

- Shoes of the Dead by Kota Neelima

- Everybody Loves a Good Drought by P. Sainath (one of the best non-fiction works I have read)

- and some Manto, Pratchett, and John Le Carré.

I have been reading three of the books among these forever and I intend finish them. I am again starting to spend time reading that I had basically allocated to Internet and just doing nothing.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26021373-kai-chaand-the-...

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#365

Post by fao_ »

sah2ed wrote: post #328
fao_ wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's funny. The course I've been doing (dominochinese.com) has approached Chinese from a different angle and it's ridiculously accessible. I remembered and understood more Chinese in a week, than I ever understood of another language (I have attempted learning German, Russian, and Japanese -- in many different learning styles). The perspective given by the course shows to me that Chinese is one of the most sensible…

> Of course traditional learning methods (by rote, etc.) are not going to work for a pictographic language, but mnemonic learning is greatly aided by the story and history of the symbols therein. Upvoted just for your last sentence. I've found that this is true for correctly learning certain topics that appear to be impenetrable to me when using standard reading materials. So what I do now is try to read up on some h…

Exactly. I find a lot of people tend to try and teach things in a vacuum. Not only does that leave you without a mental context for the thing, it is also not how humans operate on a basic level. If you think about the longest cultural memories we have, they are all stories. Humans operate on stories. If you can tell the story of a thing, it is often very difficult to forget the fact entirely.ematic

Indeed, most of the time the initial problem is caught up in the history and story of it, so not only does it give a mental context, but it helps you in applying the thing that you're learning!

For example, Mathematics became much more accessible to me when I learned the historical context for the maths first. Polynomials seemed not only completely useless, but also utterly mystical. Now I will never forget that once-upon a time, ability to solve Polynomials and other similar things were used not only as the measure of a person, but also became a type of challenge, and through that a form of gambling!

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#366

Post by mojoe »

kenjinp wrote: post #129
mojoe wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two are fantastic, and if you like Vernor Vinge check out "A Deepness in the Sky" -- I think it's his best work, and is much more plausible (centered around slower-than-light travel). I have a few more recommendations in that vein here: http://compellingsciencefiction.com/blog/2016-12-18.html

omg I love your website!

Thank you!

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#367

Post by tmaly »

I finished Never Split the Difference a month back. Fantastic read.

I am almost finished with Thinking Fast and Slow. I kinda wish I had read it years back given all the useful insights.

I just bought a copy of the 1961 version of Stranger in a Strange land.

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#368

Post by therealdrag0 »

stochastic_monk wrote: post #152

As for me —- 0: Jorge Luis Borges, Labyrinths Anyone interested in information theory, intelligence (artificial or otherwise), many-worlds interpretations of quantum mechanics, metafiction, the nature of art, or even probabilistic sequence modeling should read Borges’ short stories. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough. 1: Hero With A Thousand Faces A classic book collating world mythologies and psychoanalytical tho…

Anyone tried this Borges' audiobook? https://www.audible.com/pd/Classics/Collected-Fictions-Audio...

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#369

Post by therealdrag0 »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #103

I'm going to do something a bit different from everyone else and suggest some poetry. 1) Songs of Innocence and of Experience from William Blake. 2) The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde 3) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge I've started to enjoy reading poetry again. The education system managed to extinguish any love I had for poetry. It's been a bit over half a decade since I was in sch…

Many years ago I collected short stories I enjoyed in an Evernote list. Here it is if you want some inspiration. :)

Asimov, Isaac - "Nightfall"

Asimov, Isaac - "The Last Question"

Barthelme, Donald - "Some of us had been threatening our friend Colby"

Beckett, Samuel - "That Time"

Bisson, Terry - They're Made Out of Meat

Boyle, T. C. - The Hit Man

Carver, Raymond - Little Things

Chekhov, Anton - "The Bet"

Dick, Philip K - "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" Gibson, William - Dogfight ("...he had nobody to tell it to. Nobody at all.")

Hemingway, Ernest - The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

Hemingway, Ernest - Hills Like White Elephants

Makkai, Rebecca - "The Briefcase"

Bradbury, Ray - "The Veldt"

Saroyan, William - "Seventy Thousand Assyrians"

Re: Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?

#370

Post by therealdrag0 »

AllegedAlec wrote: post #213
sdevoid wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her Hainish novels (SF) may be more to your liking, but I think all of her works are informed by the kind of mysticism that informed her translation of the Tao Te Ching . What made A Wizard of Earthsea dry for you?

Much of it was written in the way of "The wizard went here and this this, and it was pretty damn cool". It wasn't necessarily dry, but it was so differently written from the fantasy I normally read I couldn't get used to it on my first time reading it. It should probably try again at some point, however. The setting was really cool.

It definitely is distinct. Personally I find it refreshing after all the 500-1200pg fantasy I read. There's something poetic about compressing so much into so little words. I find that it flows nicely. It's more poetic than dramatic.
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