Ask HN: What Are You Reading? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#41

Post by vmurthy » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 6:53 AM UTC

skytreader wrote: post #16

Lately, I've had this fascination/idea of reading about world history (or at least major events in world history) through the history of seemingly-mundane, everyday objects. The search for literature in this vein has been predictably difficult but I've been fortunate to come across two great books of this theme. The first is A History of the World in 12 Maps by Jerry Brotton. The main idea of the book is somewhat lik…

Quite possibly related to the first book you mentioned :

“Prisoners of Geography: 10 maps to tell you everything you need to know about World politics ”

I’ve only read a couple of chapters but it’s best read along with a physical map :)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25135194

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#42

Post by goose847 » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 6:57 AM UTC

Maxtylor wrote: post #38

"Brave New World " Aldous Leonard Huxley This book is a wonderful book that anticipates the present future. Not all of this book foretells, but I am reading it because I want to be able to have such foresight.

I just started this yesterday! Thoroughly enjoying it. Another great one is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It's main idea is that we decided to destroy all possibility of disagreement to make us all more comfortable by banning and burning books. Really takes you to the discussions of censorship taking place today! Highly recommended.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#43

Post by thetrost » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 7:04 AM UTC

ivanmaeder wrote: post #40

prabhupant wrote: post #36

Just finished reading "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and started "Guns, germs and steel"

Adding the Taleb book to my list. I recently read "The Black Swan" which I thought was an important read in spite of how unlikeable I find the author, how long the book is, and how tangled up the ideas are. It felt like a bit of a crazy rant, but worthwhile. Thanks!

That's exactly my impression of "The Black Swan" and all his newer books. But "Fooled By Randomness", I think, is really good!

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#44

Post by thetrost » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 7:06 AM UTC

Just finished "Coders" (Clive Thompson)

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#45

Post by anotherevan » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 9:54 AM UTC

Currently:

Through a Camel's Eye by Dorothy Johnston although admit I'm having trouble getting into it. Will give it another 50 pages before I decide.

And today started listening to Dune Messiah on audiobook. I loved the first book which I've reread many times, but didn't enjoy the following books at all when I read them years and years ago. Decided to give them another try.

Recommend:

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North for beautiful prose, charming writing and an inventive story. Her first and best book under that pseudonym.

Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard and The Moons of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen for making me care about anthropomorphic elephants.

Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky for almost making me care about non-anthropomorphic spiders.

I Am Not a Serial Killer and sequels by Dan Wells for tricking me into reading a horror novel when I at first thought it was a thriller, but really enjoying it anyway.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper for being similar but so far a lot better than Through a Camel's Eye.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#46

Post by omosubi » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 11:38 AM UTC

ivanmaeder wrote: post #40

prabhupant wrote: post #36

Just finished reading "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and started "Guns, germs and steel"

Adding the Taleb book to my list. I recently read "The Black Swan" which I thought was an important read in spite of how unlikeable I find the author, how long the book is, and how tangled up the ideas are. It felt like a bit of a crazy rant, but worthwhile. Thanks!

Wow this rings so true. I just read antifragile and while I like the ideas I can't imagine how insufferable the author is in person

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#47

Post by tomjen3 » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 3:28 PM UTC

A stitch in Time.

It is a book about how we got to wear the clothing we are wearing, essentially a book about the history of fashion over the last 2000 years.

For a guy who owns 20ish pairs of black t-shirts you might not think I cared about fashion, but it is really the history of the ordinary person, politics and technological change.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#48

Post by mindcrime » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 4:39 PM UTC

ivanmaeder wrote: post #40

prabhupant wrote: post #36

Just finished reading "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and started "Guns, germs and steel"

Adding the Taleb book to my list. I recently read "The Black Swan" which I thought was an important read in spite of how unlikeable I find the author, how long the book is, and how tangled up the ideas are. It felt like a bit of a crazy rant, but worthwhile. Thanks!

Funny, that jibes with my perception of Taleb as well. He seems a bit smug, and I'm not sure if I'd like him or not if we met in person, but his books still seem valuable and worth reading. I would say that I'm better off for having read both The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness. Still waiting to get around to reading Anti-Fragile, but it's definitely on the list.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#49

Post by nicolashahn » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 7:40 PM UTC

algaeontoast wrote: post #28

nicolashahn wrote: post #7

Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder by Gabor Mate.

Any big take away from this book so far? I was diagnosed with ADD in my early twenties, been trying to learn as much as I can.

I'm only a third of the way into it, but so far it's been about how ADD generally appears in a child as a response to a parent's heightened stress levels over a prolonged period of time. He shows a few examples that parallel what I remember from my childhood, so I'm interested in seeing where it goes from here. All "origins" and no "healing" yet though, which is what I'm primarily interested in. It's too early to say if I'd recommend it but it's promising so far.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Reading?

#50

Post by boboTea » Wed, Nov 06, 2019, 7:59 PM UTC

dandruffhead wrote: post #17

boboTea wrote: post #13

Why We Sleep https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep Firelfy Lane https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1472878.Firefly_Lane

Why We Sleep is really good. It really changed my view on sleep.

Thanks yes! Also changed my view about coffee