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Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

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Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#241

Post by palerdot »

palerdot wrote: post #227

The Count of Monte Cristo - This is one breathtaking epic. I have been putting off reading this novel for quite some time and occasionally see this name popping up in HN too, but never gave a serious thought for giving it a go. Was I wrong! This is an epic in its true sense, and you will feel a sense of amazement as you progress through the novel. I'm quite a reader, and I have not experienced such amazement when rea…

Edit:

I read Robin Buss Unabridged version from penguin for "The Count of Monte Cristo".

Also, some of other interesting books I forgot to mention in my original list

- How to Change Your Mind (don't be put off by title)

- Meditations, Marcus Aurelius (good peek into the mind of one of the greatest emperors of all time)

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#242

Post by loffa »

padraigf wrote: post #122

My criterion is 'influential on me', they may not necessarily be the greatest works of literature. Mastery - Robert Greene The Talent Code - Daniel Coyle Peak - Anders Ericsson The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning - Peter C. Brown Free Play: Improvisation in Life…

Peak is a great book, strongly recommended for anyone that is interested in the 10k hour concept that was 'glossed over' in Malcom Gladwell's Outliers.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#243

Post by Zenbit_UX »

emodendroket wrote: post #220

From a few angles: * I read the Bible out of curiosity and ended up joining a church, so that's pretty consequential. * Moby Dick and Journey to the West were probably the most sheer enjoyment I got out of books * Learning C# 3.0 by Jesse Liberty is extremely dated at this point, and was dated even when I read it, but was the first book that made me "get" many basic OO concepts and taught me a language I've gotten a…

> I read the Bible out of curiosity and ended up joining a church, so that's pretty consequential.

Is there a bigger story here? I'm not the type that would find reading the Bible appealing but I can say without a shadow of doubt that if I would, it would not awaken any latent desires for religion.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#245

Post by daxfohl »

daxfohl wrote: post #203

Nothing. I've read a bunch of them looking for some kind of enlightenment. I can't say any of them were actually worth the time invested. I expect to be downvoted, but this is truly what I feel. Read a couple of these books just to confirm to yourself they're a waste, and go lead your own life.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

--Albert Einstein

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#246

Post by pmoriarty »

palerdot wrote: post #227

The Count of Monte Cristo - This is one breathtaking epic. I have been putting off reading this novel for quite some time and occasionally see this name popping up in HN too, but never gave a serious thought for giving it a go. Was I wrong! This is an epic in its true sense, and you will feel a sense of amazement as you progress through the novel. I'm quite a reader, and I have not experienced such amazement when rea…

I'll second the recommendation of The Count of Monte Cristo.

There's a user on HN who learned French just so he could read it in the original, and I can see why.

If you read it, make sure to read the unabridged edition, and not any of the many abridged editions, which are often targeted at children and are a travesty to the mature themes in the original.

I can personally recommend David Clarke's reading of it on Librivox,[1] who does an excellent job.

[1] - https://librivox.org/the-count-of-monte-cristo-version-3-by-...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#247

Post by drieddust »

vowelless wrote: post #30

* Elements of Statistical Learning - Hastie, Tibshisrani * (Lot's of machine learning books to list: PRML, All of Stats, Deep Learning, etc.) * Active Portfolio Management - Kahn, Grinold * Thinking, fast and slow - Kahneman * Protein Power (the Eades') / Why we get fat (Taubes) * Why we sleep (Walker) * Deep Work / So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport) * Flowers for Algernon (Keyes) * Getting to Yes (Fisher)

What are your impressions of "Active Portfolio Management" ? I am asking because have a lot about passive investing and why it works.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#248

Post by andrewf »

rapper wrote: post #96

I 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 th…

You may like Alastair Reynolds, he does hard scifi infused with elements of horror and space opera. He doesn't tear down his characters' minds to the degree Peter Watts does.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade?

#249

Post by Gatsky »

Reedx wrote: post #141
w1ntermute wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, this critique of the book is worth a read: https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

Disappointing... That book has been highly recommended ad infinitum on HN, to the point that it was sounding like gospel. Maybe that should've been a hint, heh. Has Walker responded to that critique?

Another post:

https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/12/27/why-we-sle...

Now that looks quite bad.

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