Earth Abides (50s post-apocalyptic set in the Bay Area)
Blood Meridian
Lord of the Flies
Deliverance
Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
91–100 of 434 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#92For founders: #1 is Oren Klaff Pitch Anything. Then: Crossing the Chasm, Zero to One, Blitzscaling, Never Split the Difference, Oversubscribed: A Founders Guide to Seed Fundraising, Exactly What To Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact, Miracle Morning, 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#93Probably Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger or Prometheus Rising back in 2010. The “reality tunnel” concept has defined much of my personal and intellectual exploration of the past 10 years. “ When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented. We tend to think they are mad, or that they are crooks trying to con us in some way, or…
Cosmic Trigger was great, but I must say it's hard to speak of Robert Anton Wilson without mentioning his magnum opus, The Illuminatus Trilogy .
Hail Eris!
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#94Out of Control by former Wired editor Kevin Kelly. This book was a labor of love and it shows--every chapter explores some fascinating new topic on the intersection of biology and technology. Even though the book was written 25 years ago it feels completely fresh. I'm sure anyone who reads this site would enjoy it.
David Deutsch's The Beginning of Infinity. If you know him, it's probably because Deutsch did some pioneering work in Quantum computing back in the day, but this book covers everything from physics to biology to computing to art with a grand sort of theory of everything. There are few popular science books more densely packed with original ideas.
Borges' collected fictions. There probably isn't much that needs to be said about this that hasn't already been said. Borges was a visionary.
Proust.
Stanislaw Lem's Solaris. Completely changed the way I think about sci-fi.
Nick Bostrom's Superintelligence. I think this is still the gold standard of speculative AI books.
Sapiens. Like everyone else I loved this one.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#95Both sapiens and The art of happiness were great books I've read.
Sapiens made history very interesting, I loved the idea behind our species being able to believe in the concept of a Created Myth( capitalism , companies, money, socialism, religion) as the main thing that made homo sapiens thrive.
The view of empires as not something bad and how they shaped our world of today and we essentially living in a global empire as well was a great point.
Buddhism is truly incredible and while I don't consider myself a Buddhist I have very similar approach to life.
Having a western psychologist/ researcher having conversations on topics about suffering, happiness, death, loneliness with Dalai Lama and how their separate views of the world interacted was awesome.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#96I skimmed through the answers and didn't find anything to do with math. To anyone interested in math, what math text/books and papers of the decade seemed the most interesting to you?
As far as fiction, this decade I discovered Peter Watts, Ted Chiang and Clive Barker. Now I am obsessed with horror and sci-fi in the style of these authors. If you are into these genres (and possibly authors), who/what blew you away this decade? Thanks.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Foreword by Deepak Chopra” is hardly co-authoring.
The amazon book page is confusing, it lists him as a co-author. The book's cover says it's just a foreword, so I guess you're right. Still, not to surrender in this thread completely, letting such type of person to write a foreword for a book is not a very good initial signal in itself - it casts doubt on the main author's judgement with regard to whom she considers an authority in matters of communication (or, in an…
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Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#98Brain Rules for Baby by John Medina, because it made me a better father; Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, because it taught me of the importance of something that I’d occasionally dismiss as a nuisance; Pain Free and Pain Free at Your PC by Pete Egoscue, because it completely changed the way I understood posture, pain, and how repetition influences my body; and Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, because it…
+1 for Why We Sleep. It's one of those books that really changed my outlook on a fundamental aspect of life that too many of us take for granted.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
“Foreword by Deepak Chopra” is hardly co-authoring.
The amazon book page is confusing, it lists him as a co-author. The book's cover says it's just a foreword, so I guess you're right. Still, not to surrender in this thread completely, letting such type of person to write a foreword for a book is not a very good initial signal in itself - it casts doubt on the main author's judgement with regard to whom she considers an authority in matters of communication (or, in an…
I haven't looked too closely, but the author was already dead by the time this edition came out so it's quite possible he had no say in the matter.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
> various groupings of people. why isn't left/right a valid grouping then?
Because there is no logical consistency to the attributes used to define each grouping. They're just a hodgepodge of loosely related (at best) ideas. So a lot of people simply don't fit in either category. For example: I am absolutely pro-choice on the abortion issue. I am also rabidly pro-gun on the second amendment issue. So do I fall into the "left" bucket or the "right" bucket? The answer is "neither".
but can't you define your grouping by the disapproval for other group. eg: You are a red group if disapprove blue group.
Even in your own example you can fall into either group by selecting what you care about the most and giving up others. Group where others in the group have made similar compromises.
Otherwise how can you possibly form a group, there is no one else is the world that has the precisely the same preferences as me.