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Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

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Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#41

Post by jxsonl »

Not written in 2018 but these are some of the books I’ve read this year

The Bullet Journal Method - Ryder Caroll - A how to and the philosophy behind bullet journalling. Am doing a 1 year test to see if the system works for me.

Spark Joy - Marie Kondo - Book about living minimally, got this suggestion because the previous book mentioned it and was curious.

The Hacked World Order - Adam Segal - got interested in cybersecurity thanks to my internship, so picked up a book to read about it and am planning to study and get certification/qualification to get into the field. Will be working in IT/Network Engineering for 2-3 years while learning cybersecurity during free time.

Jony Ive - just like biographies in general.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#42

Post by DanBC »

The Making Data Count PDF. I also have a hardcopy of a shorter version. https://improvement.nhs.uk/resources/making-data-count/

I like this because it's an easy to read and understand guide to statistical process control charts, and common cause variation vs special cause variation.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#43

Post by taleodor »

guiambros wrote: post #28

* Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker * Masters of Doom, by David Kushner * What Doesn't Kill Us, by Scott Carney * Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou * The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondō * How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams

thanks for mentioning Bad Blood - truly great book, possibly best in 2018

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#44

Post by wraithdroplets »

I am interpreting the question as being: "What was my greatest pleasure reading experience in 2018?" Thus my answer is: Nimoy, Leonard: I Am Not Spock (1975). Since it contains the greatest pleasurable experience of the most influential TV scientist of our times, even when he didn't have green blood -- his time as Tevya in Fiddler of the Roof when the cast presented him with awards for his service and they ate a cast dinner together. Thus he received the greatest emotional outlet of his quite in-held life.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#45

Post by EamonnMR »

Exploding the Phone (Phil Lapsley): A history of the Phone Phreak phenomenon. If you've browsed around ancient hacker lore or read textfiles.com, you'll enjoy it.

Giving Good Weight (John McPhee): Some John McPhee articles. They're very good, as usual, the title article being about farmers markets and told in an experimental style.

Rust: The Longest War (Jonathan Waldman): Explores several different stories tied together by the theme of metal corrosion and the people who contend with it.

Hallucinations (Oliver Sacks): Mostly about what malfunctions of the brains of a few can tell us about how all of our brains are structured.

Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry (Parts 1 and 2 so far) (Shannon Appelcline) The history of a bunch of start-ups.

Re: Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?

#46

Post by sien »

Factfulness (2018) by Hans Rosling is fantastic about the real state of the world.

How the Internet Happened (2018) by Brian McCullough is a fantastic read about the history of the internet from first internet bubble to the iPhone.

Educated (2018) by Tara Westover is an amazing autobiography.

Enlightenment Now (2018) by Steven Pinker is pretty good, even if he doesn't know that much about the actual enlightenment.

Autonomy (2018) by Lawrence Burns about self-driving cars is well worth a read.

Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff is good about the very strange world inside the Trump administration.

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