Ask HN: Books you read in 2018? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#221

Post by ctchocula » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

badpun wrote: post #19

ctchocula wrote: post #8

This year, I mostly went through books Hemingway compiled for a young writer who asked him for writing advice [1]. Henry James - The American. This book is about an American who'd made his fortune in business and goes to the old world looking for a wife, so it goes into differences of capitalist vs. aristocratic worldviews. The main character is a bit of a Mary Sue and the author later repudiated his work as being se…

> John Steinbeck - Cannery Row. This book is about a poor community in Monterey, Califor ia during the Great Depression. I didn't like this book as much as Grapes of Wrath, but there are some memorable parts near the end. 4/5 If you like Steinbeck, try "East of Eden". For me it was his best.

Thank you for your recommendation! I was looking for something interesting to read.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#222

Post by dcminter » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:32 PM UTC

_emacsomancer_ wrote: post #184

sharmi wrote: post #58

This year, I discovered Agatha Christie. A few years back, when I was temporarily advised bed rest for a month, my sis loaned me a collection of Hercule Poirot short stories. I was always a Sherlock Holmes fan and really enjoyed the logical detective work. Hercule Poirot felt like just like a pretentious quirky old man, making denouements based on evidence that is flimsy and tenuous at best. This year, I came across…

Dorothy L. Sayers, perhaps.

If you like depth of character in your 30s detective fiction I warmly endorse this recommendation.

If you're only going to try one then "The Nine Tailors" is arguably her finest work.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#223

Post by crimsonalucard » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:34 PM UTC

madmax108 wrote: post #134

My recommendations from books I read this year: Bad Blood : Man, this book really does read like a Hollywood movie screenplay. The rise and fall of Theranos, documented through interviews with hundreds of ex-employees by the very author who came up with the first expose of Theranos. Truly shows the flaws in the "fake it before you make it" mindset and how we glorify "geniuses". Shoe Dog : Biography of the founder of…

I found the three body problems' representation of a computer with 30 million soldiers really stupid. I didn't read the book because of people raving about how clever that concept of the human computer is.

http://linusrosskamp.com/articles/2017-08/three-body-problem...

Guess what.

You can achieve the same power of computation with 1 person, a pen, a paper and our standard number symbols 0-9.

Do people not realize why we use gates and binary logic in electrical computer systems?

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#224

Post by crimsonalucard » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:40 PM UTC

The little typer

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#225

Post by mr_overalls » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:41 PM UTC

soVeryTired wrote: post #179

madmax108 wrote: post #134

My recommendations from books I read this year: Bad Blood : Man, this book really does read like a Hollywood movie screenplay. The rise and fall of Theranos, documented through interviews with hundreds of ex-employees by the very author who came up with the first expose of Theranos. Truly shows the flaws in the "fake it before you make it" mindset and how we glorify "geniuses". Shoe Dog : Biography of the founder of…

The Three Body Problem had some flashy ideas (like controlling the CMBR, and building a computer the size of a proton), but I didn't really feel like it had much depth. It had none of the great social commentary that you often get in sci-fi, and I thought the characters were kind of two-dimensional. Overall it just didn't really do it for me.

> It had none of the great social commentary

I mean, the author is an employee of the Chinese government, and doesn't seem to be a fool.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#226

Post by Delmania » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:43 PM UTC

jonahx wrote: post #206

james_s_tayler wrote: post #22

Why Nations Fail (amazing!) Chimpanzee Politics (interesting) Corporate Confidential (paranoid, but worth a read) Developer Hegemony (red pill for developers!!!) Bargaining For Advantage (reasonable) Tempo: Timing, Tactics and Strategy in Narrative-Driven Decision Making (abstract as hell but rewarding) Thinking Fast and Slow (loved it) The Elephant In The Brain (seriously underrated) The Brain That Changes Itself (i…

> Man's Search For Meaning (brooo... I am so sorry) ??

First hand account of being in a concentration camp. Frankl was lucky in that he was shipped from Auschwitz, but it was still a brutal existence.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#227

Post by ryanstorm » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

I have a post at my blog here: http://westby.io/5-books-ive-read-2018-1/

Some other books I read that I'd recommend: - Anathem - Deep Work - A Canticle for Leibowitz - Into Thin Air - Shoe Dog - Happiness Hypothesis

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#228

Post by jonahx » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:47 PM UTC

Delmania wrote: post #226

jonahx wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Man's Search For Meaning (brooo... I am so sorry) ??

First hand account of being in a concentration camp. Frankl was lucky in that he was shipped from Auschwitz, but it was still a brutal existence.

Yes I know what it is, I was questioning the "brooo... " comment, which seemed so tonally inappropriate and weird in what otherwise seemed like a thoughtful list.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#229

Post by RmDen » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:48 PM UTC

Some of the books I read

Artemis Andy Weir Liked it.. but liked the Martian better

Origin Dan Brown If you are into this sort of thing.. I know his writing is not the best but I like the story

We were Yahoo! Jeremy Ring

About the rise and fall of yahoo.... some interesting stuff

1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music Andrew Grant Jackson Good read.. lots of events that year

Ready Player One Ernest Cline what is there to say....

A Frozen Hell William Trotter About the the war between Finland and the Soviet Union

3 Kings: Diddy, Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, and Hip-Hop's Multibillion-Dollar Rise Zack O'Malley Greenburg Like this a lot

The Outsider Stephen King Back to classic King.. recommended

Stalin New Biography of a Dictator Oleg V. Khlevniuk If you are interested in this character..then I recommend this

Skin In The Game Nassim Nicholas Taleb Taleb's latest

Dead Reckoning: The Untold Story of the Northwest Passage Ken McGoogan After watching the Terror on tv.. I had to read this

Nobu Nobu Matsuhisa What a life, loved it

Hunting El Chapo Andrew Hogan/Douglas Century Good read

Bad Blood John Carreyrou WHat a messed up person and company

Tesla: Inventor of the Modern Richard Munson This was very good

The Revenge of Analog David Sax I liked this book a lot... maybe because I remember all these items when they existed

Tasting the Past: The Science of Flavor and the Search for the Origins of Wine Kevin Begos If you want to learn a little more about wines and the origins..

Bag Of Bones Stephen King One of his best

Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence Joseph E. Aoun We all know it's coming

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#230

Post by robin_reala » Wed, Dec 12, 2018, 5:49 PM UTC

I’ve spent the year producing and proofing a bunch more PD books for Standard Ebooks.[1] I keep the full set of books I’ve produced on my site[2]; highlights for me from this year were:

The Little Demon by Fyodor Sologub https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/fyodor-sologub/the-little-...

The Awakening by Kate Chopin https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/kate-chopin/the-awakening

Wilfred Owen’s poetry https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/wilfred-owen/poetry

[1] https://standardebooks.org/

[2] https://www.robinwhittleton.com/books/