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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?

#421

Post by andrei_says_ »

james_niro wrote: post #155
mke wrote: post #66

2010 - Outliers, Malcom Gladwell 2011 - In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan 2012 - Born to Run, Christopher McDougall 2013 - Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss 2014 - Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon 2015 - Awaken the Giant Within, Tony Robbins 2016 - Black Swan, Nicolas Taleb 2017 - Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman, Richard Feynman 2018 - The Prophet, Khalil Gibran 2019 - Three Body Problem (series), Liu Cixin These…

I love all these books except the four hour work week. I do not believe Tim understand what it takes for a person in low income class to be successful.

Selling a well-packaged promise for easy riches has proven to be a successful strategy over and over again.

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

#422

Post by charliepinto »

gotoeleven wrote: post #142
s3nnyy wrote: post #115

Everything from Nassim Taleb, basically "the incerto", his four books are basically one book ( https://www.amazon.com/Incerto-Fooled-Randomness-Procrustes-... )

I'm not sure why everyone is so excited about Taleb. Whatever wisdom there is in it is buried in page after page of bizarre chest thumping and silly stories. Reading it gives me a constant feeling of "ok he's finally going to get to his point.." but he never does. I'd recommend reading one book before buying the whole stupid boxed set. If you want mine you can have it!

May I have your entire stupid boxed set, please?

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

#423

Post by carte_blanche »

DavidPiper wrote: post #276
ljm wrote: post #144

Before I scan the thread for inspiration, these are mine: 1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; I have no words for this except that it was profound and I was ready for it. 2. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team; a classic where history knows better than we do. 3. Special Topics in Calamity Physics; a fictional tale that shows you how damn easy it is to get lost in conspiracy and speculation. 4. House of Leaves;…

+1 for House of Leaves! Didn't expect to see that here. Bizarre and mind-bending. Awesome experimental fiction. Really have to go back and read it again sometime soon. (And no, there's no eBook - that I know of. You'll err... understand why when you see the physical copy.)

I loved this book, and honestly it's one of the best books I read in the past decade. There does exist an eBook, because I read it on Kindle and I remember I used to wonder how amazing it would be to read it in hard copy. Well, it's been almost 3 years now - time for a re-read in Hardcover!

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

#424

Post by me_me_me »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #419
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…

People here are quick to dismiss the Bible as trivial but it has some very good stories and wisdom if you read it with an open mind. In the same way some books help you understand life, relationships and your place in the world the Bible will help you with that. Unfortunately some people start interpret it towards their view of life which lead to some extreme and harsh views that separate us.

Yes it does.

It is also great source of knowledge of what to do for example:

how to beat up your slave so to not offend god

what to do if your daughter is raped (spoiler alert sell her to the rapist).

what to do to people having tattoos or wearing mixed fabrics.

It is also a great that non of it contradicts itself: https://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradict...

Bible is what it is, but its not a source of never-ending wisdom. And being treated as holy book gives impetus to bad people to do bad things and feel good about doing it.

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

#427

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

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 picked up The Count of Monte Cristo on a dusty shared bookshelf on some combat outpost in Afghanistan circa 2010. I read through it in two days and loved it so much that I ordered the unabridged as soon as I had the means. Fantastic read.

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

#428

Post by Breza »

me_me_me wrote: post #424
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #419

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People here are quick to dismiss the Bible as trivial but it has some very good stories and wisdom if you read it with an open mind. In the same way some books help you understand life, relationships and your place in the world the Bible will help you with that. Unfortunately some people start interpret it towards their view of life which lead to some extreme and harsh views that separate us.

Yes it does. It is also great source of knowledge of what to do for example: how to beat up your slave so to not offend god what to do if your daughter is raped (spoiler alert sell her to the rapist). what to do to people having tattoos or wearing mixed fabrics. It is also a great that non of it contradicts itself: https://infidels.org/library/modern/donald_morgan/contradict... Bible is what it is, but its not a sour…

You have to remember that The Bible isn't one book. It's a collection of a bunch of different books in one convenient binding. I finally finished reading the whole thing last year and was surprised by how many different perspectives it contained. Anybody who says "The Bible says x!" is at risk of missing the point. It's far more accurate to say something like "In one of his letters, Paul said x" or "Esther told her father x." Context is critically important for this collection of very different books.

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

#429

Post by Breza »

Intermernet wrote: post #319
emodendroket wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are factors working against it, like the length, the popularity of the KJV with its archaic language, long sections of somewhat boring genealogies or religious laws, and so on. But I'd always chuckle at Bart Ehrman's observation that it was very strange how many students he had who said they believed the Bible was the literal, inerrant word of God yet hadn't ever read it -- after all, "wouldn't you want to know…

I wonder what the absolute number of living people who have actually read the bible is compared to the number of people who have read Joyce, Tolkien, Tolstoy, even George R R Martin! There are many texts that are long and arduous, yet they are sometimes worth the effort to read! In many instances the rewards are seemingly unsubstantial but they all provide something that can shape subsequent thoughts in many ways. I…

I finished the Bible last year. It took a lot longer than other equally long books have taken me to read. The Bible is really a collection of a bunch of different books. The constant narrative changes can be hard to follow. To be clear, I'm really glad that I read it, but I understand why a lot of people don't.

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

#430

Post by Breza »

digianarchist wrote: post #162
briga wrote: post #94

Out 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 pion…

Didn't care for Sapiens. Very pop-science with the author's opinion littered throughout alongside wild predictions on AI, automation. The only other book I read this year was Evicted by Matthew Desmond. It was an excellent account of poverty cycles as it relates to housing.

Evicted offers a great view into a topic that may be new to many HN readers
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