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Ask HN: What should I read next?

news.ycombinator.com

31–40 of 44 posts

Re: Ask HN: What should I read next?

#31
If you like Foundation, you might like the Ringworld series by Larry Niven. Ringworld is a classic.

Robert Heinlein's books are great. Some come to mine are The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers (much better than the movies), Stranger in a Strange Land, Double Stars, and The Puppet Masters.

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness is amazing. The Earthsea series are fun read if you want to get beyond SciFi.

Re: Ask HN: What should I read next?

#34
post #6

It would be nice if you provided a lot more detail. I like recommending people books, but when all you say about your preferences is "I like Foundation and Hitchhiker's Guide" (like every other nerd in the universe) there's not really much space for figuring out what you would enjoy and what you wouldn't.

I bet he would like Ender's Game - the other book that every other nerd in the universe likes. :)

Re: Ask HN: What should I read next?

#35
I just read Daemon and Freedom by Daniel Suarez. The second one is better, but they're both very entertaining. Also, Matthew Soble, the mastermind character in Daemon and Freedom reminded me a lot of Hari Selden.

Re: Ask HN: What should I read next?

#37
I alluded to this in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865350 , but want to respond to your comment about reading "making you think."

I had a major breakthrough in my creative (programming, music) life when I realized that my most intensely creative periods were fueled by reading.

What would happen is that I would work tirelessly drafting ideas, hacking or making music until I burned out and got very depressed. I stayed like this and, through some accident, started reading as a way to pass time. Before I got through more than one or two books, I'd have forgotten the depression and be back to creating stuff again.

Now, I try to make time for reading daily (instead of binging/purging). It helps me avoid burnout on creative projects and gives me new ideas all the time.

For the past two years I've been reading a handful of authors and will recommend them instead of specific books: HP Lovecraft, Jorge Luis Borges, Haruki Murakami, Philip K Dick, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Franz Kafka.

I also very much enjoyed a book called Science and Society in the 16th and 17th Centuries that I picked up at a college library booksale. I don't recall the author, unfortunately.

Re: Ask HN: What should I read next?

#38
If you are not too particular about sci-fi, I would suggest Neil Gaiman's Sandman. Its fantasy, but extremely stimulating. Its a series of 10 graphic novels, but you need not necessarily read it in order. Some are better than others, but every book has a very high level of story-telling.

Re: Ask HN: What should I read next?

#40
Charles Stross and Ian McDonald are my new favorite sci-fi authors. I just finished Accelerando by Stross which had lots of great ideas played out over the next several centuries. Cyberabad by McDonald is a collection of short stories that push at the fantastic edges of where tech could be going.
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