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Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#321

Post by gibspaulding »

packetpirate wrote: post #313

So far this year, I've read the following: - Revelation Space - Armada - I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire - The Sleeping Dragon - Wizardry: The League of the Crimson Crescent - Snow Crash - Scythe - Off to Be The Wizard - Spell or High Water - An Unwelcome Quest - Thunderhead - Everlost - Replay - Stranger in a Strange Land - The Amulet of Samarkand - Everwild. I'm currently reading A Conjuring of Light and The Wa…

If you enjoyed Snow Crash, I would definitely encourage you to look into Stephenson's other books if you haven't already. REAMDE is very good and is also partially set in VR. Anathem is an interesting exploration of the distant future and alternate universes. Cryptonomicon has so much going on it's hard to know where to start, but it's a lot of fun.

I was also a big fan of Stranger in a Strange Land! I'll have to check out Scythe and Thunderhead.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#322

Post by lscore720 »

emit_time wrote: post #296
lscore720 wrote: post #292

I have no life outside of reading and consume nearly 200 books/year, so I'd love to offer up a few 2018 favorites! Doctor Dealer: The Rise and Fall of an All-American Boy and His Multimillion-Dollar Cocaine Empire (by Marc Bowden). Trust Me, I'm Lying: Confessions of a Media Manipulator (Ryan Holiday). Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Sam Quinones). American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring…

Woah... How much time do you spend reading? Also, what do you do in general?

I'll guess it avarages out to roughly 3-4 hours on weekdays and 10-20 over a weekend. I also love longform journalism, which can eat up a few hours per week.

I do little in general haha :/ My own reclusiveness combined with a relatively severe mental illness have kept me inside my apartment around 23/7 for years. I'm self-employed and try to hit 10-20 hours/week of work. Aside from that, my free time is endless and basically consists of reading, Netflix, and browsing the web with my two cats!

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#323

Post by renton »

Ask the Dust - John Fante

Journey to the End of the Night - Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Delta of Venus - Anais Nin

The Star Diaries - Stanislaw Lem

Maus - Art Spiegelman

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

Japanese Destroyer Captain - Tameichi Hara

Elementary Go Series #1: In the Beginning - Ikuro Ishigure

Dune - Frank Herbert

Biohacking Manifesto - James Lee

The Trumpets of Jericho - Zurn

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#324

Post by koolhead17 »

ncphillips wrote: post #111

Author: Nicole Forsgren Book: Accelerate I picked up this book after hearing high praises from Martin Fowler and Dan North during conference talks. Forsgren and her colleagues have been doing research into DevOps and its effects on organizational performance. This is a much more rigorous account than is usual in this space, so I believe it is a must read for everyone in software. --- Author: Gerald Weinberg Books: *…

+1 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance :)

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#325

Post by fdw »

gibspaulding wrote: post #320

My list has a lot more fiction than others here, but I enjoyed myself! Just For Fun - Linus Torvalds (Highly recommended, Tells of Linus's early life and how Linux came to be. I'm surprised I haven't seen this recommended more often.) Into The Plex - Steven Levy (The history of Google, definitely worthwhile) Dune - Frank Herbert (I enjoyed it, but not enough to pursue his other books) The Color of Magic - Terry Pratc…

> The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett (Kinda interesting, but rather odd)

This is the first book on Pratchett's Discworld. It definitely has a different tone than his later works. If you've not totally annoyed by it, or if you'd like to read fantasy which strongly mirrors our world, with a dry and playful humour, I'd recommend reading some later ones. They are quite independent of one another, so that you don't have to read them in order (although there's several sets with the same protagonists).

Personally, I'd always recommend Going Postal, maybe Night Watch (a bit of back story could help but is not necessary), or Monstrous Regiment.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#326

Post by billybatson »

catacombs wrote: post #185
billybatson wrote: post #164

A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley: Decent. I think this book would best be read in conjunction while working through a textbook. I will admit that it did do quite a bit to help relieve math anxiety, but the nature of the book is practicality. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: A reread. A bit depressing considering the state of the world today. I found myself wondering which reality would be preferable. Letters to…

> Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy: A classic. The Judge. I actually started this while on vacation but took a break to read something else. I'm tempted to continue.

I would definitely suggest it. The Judge character is just so damn interesting. I found myself in awe of him, then disgust, then at the end I didn't know how I felt.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#327

Post by billybatson »

derangedHorse wrote: post #303
billybatson wrote: post #164

A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley: Decent. I think this book would best be read in conjunction while working through a textbook. I will admit that it did do quite a bit to help relieve math anxiety, but the nature of the book is practicality. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: A reread. A bit depressing considering the state of the world today. I found myself wondering which reality would be preferable. Letters to…

How was The Autobiography of Gucci Mane? Was it interesting, inspiring, funny, etc? It seems like a huge change of pace from the other books haha. I’ve also read Letters to a Young Mathematician and it honestly one of the reasons I was able to survive my math classes (mentally) when I was in school.

Haha! Absolutely. I just realized that I have so much work I have to do that I don't have time to waste reading stuff that isn't important. With that being said, I'm understanding that I also need be comfortable with the fact that sometimes I just like reading easy things.

The Autobiography of Gucci Mane was actually really good. While all the adjectives you listed fit, I found myself mostly inspired. You can tell that he's being brutally honest with himself, and that he sincerely made an effort to learn from his mistakes. I think any human being can appreciate that. If you're interested, I say go for it.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#328

Post by shortcord »

I’ve read more this year than I have in the past few years.

A few I especially enjoyed: - The Effectivd Executive - How to Win Friends and Influence People - Never Split the Difference - Code Simplicity - Atomic Habits - The Lessons of History - Superhuman by Habit - The Coaching Habit - On the Shortness of Life - Deep Survival - Desiring the Kingdom - Masters of Doom

You can check out the full list at my Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/50310109-paul-cook?ord...

Planning on diving more into history and biography in 2019 if anyone has any recommendations on that front.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#329

Post by koolhead17 »

TomaszKlosinski wrote: post #162

"Atomic Habits" by James Clear - best book on the psychology and practice of habit formation. "Personal MBA" by Josh Kaufman - best introduction to business administration studies. "Why Switzerland?" by Jonathan Steinberg - book on why Switzerland is the best European country.

Read "The Power of Habit" so feels like "Atomic Habits" will not be much different.

Re: Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?

#330

Post by koolhead17 »

hypertexthero wrote: post #148

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Surprised at the amount of wisdom about life succinctly communicated on so many of the pages. Recommended. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Frankenstein: The 1818 Text by Mary Shelley. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.

+1 "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running"
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