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Good Books for a Lousy Year

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Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#101

Post by 4926394057 »

russellbeattie wrote: post #2

I've read The Spy and the Traitor, and it was quite good. I had just come off a binge of spy novels written by John LeCarre and it was amazing to read the same exact sort of craziness, but in a real life situation. I would actually recommend doing something similar, as the fiction definitely help set the mental stage for the history. That said, Roger Federer is a generalist?!? Why, because he has trouble beating Rafa…

I think a couple of Macintyre's other works even top The Spy and the Traitor in terms of "craziness". Particularly Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat (out of those I've read). They're both thoroughly worth a read if you enjoyed this one.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#102

Post by 4926394057 »

mhh__ wrote: post #52
russellbeattie wrote: post #2

I've read The Spy and the Traitor, and it was quite good. I had just come off a binge of spy novels written by John LeCarre and it was amazing to read the same exact sort of craziness, but in a real life situation. I would actually recommend doing something similar, as the fiction definitely help set the mental stage for the history. That said, Roger Federer is a generalist?!? Why, because he has trouble beating Rafa…

Read Spycatcher by Peter Wright. It's an opinionated tale of someone actually doing the business of catching spies. Even better for the HN crowd, the author was an engineer so there's some tidbits about just how advanced spook technology was even in the 50s and 60s (i.e. using acoustics to lift encryption keys through embassy walls as they were being typed)

The fact it was banned for a while is also a fairly good indicator that there's something in there worth reading.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#103

Post by eatbitseveryday »

Brajeshwar wrote: post #20

Every year, I add Gates' recommended books to my reading list. This year, 2020, when the Pandemic hit and our prospective Investor walked off, leaving me with a team I cannot support; I turn to extra reading for support. In early 2020, when I realized I read over 50+ books in 2019, I had decided to read slower, and more picky to digest the books better. Unfortunately, I ended up reading lot more this year. By GoodRea…

Do you have children? I am finding it difficult to make time to even read my newspapers.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#104

Post by svachalek »

rv-de wrote: post #70
apples_oranges wrote: post #15

I have read "Range" and was underwhelmed. I feel like the idea in it can be summarised in a 5-15 minute blog post. I also think that this year was probably not lousy for many people, me included, and I'm a bit tired of giving 2020 negative adjectives.

That's the problem with most books. Stretched out like a Netflix production.

Ha, I actually associate Netflix with the opposite, killing their best works before they come of age.

Non-fiction books are terrible for this though, there's often a few brilliant pages buried in hundreds of pages of filler. Fiction (ironically, as a deliberate consumption of free time) is often not nearly as bloated.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#106

Post by gibspaulding »

ctrlp wrote: post #57
rob74 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an (apparently untranslatable) word in German for people who are only interested in amassing knowledge in their own domain and totally ignorant of anything else: "Fachidiot" (see also https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/327748/is-there-... ) - it's not really a flattering term. So, in my book, expanding your horizons is a good thing. Of course, Sherlock Holmes would disapprove ( https://news.ycombinat…

In English was that person a 'Fachingidiot'.

This was my first thought as well. It looks like "Fach" translates to something like compartment, or subject, which I suppose makes sense in the context:

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Fach#German

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#107

Post by hairofadog »

cambalache wrote: post #96
hairofadog wrote: post #83

Not exactly on topic, but in case anyone is interested, the most reliable source I know for fiction recommendations is the Tournament of Books: https://themorningnews.org/tob/

Seeing that website and its picks it reminded me of the acerbic comment of a Swedish academic: "Permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy Horace Engdahl told the Associated Press that US writers were "too sensitive to trends in their own mass culture", which he said dragged down the quality of their work. "The US is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialog…

For sure; I should have added a note to say it's not any sort of definitive list of books – they cover a pretty narrow set of tastes, mostly English-centric literary fiction [^1] – and they're pretty explicit about the idea of it being a contest is really just "dumb fun" (their words) to kindle discussion about books they like. I'm always looking for good sources of book recommendations if you've got any that cover a wider array of tastes.

[1]: That said, one of my new favorite authors is an Argentinian writer named Samanta Schweblin whose I discovered on TOB: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samanta_Schweblin

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#108

Post by agency »

robin_reala wrote: post #23
jcynix wrote: post #6

I'm currently reading "The White Plague" (1982) by Frank Herbert, which seems somehow appropriate given the current pandemic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Plague (contains spoilers)

On a similar theme, try A Journal of the Plague Year , The Decameron , and Plague Ship . https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/daniel-defoe/a-journal-of-... https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/giovanni-boccaccio/the-dec... https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/andre-norton/plague-ship

Also The Plague by Camus

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#109

Post by svachalek »

chad_strategic wrote: post #93

I'm not sure I'm would be comfortable reading books recommended by Bill Gates. Maybe the books are good, but I would rather have them recommended from other sources, with a mix of other books. The last thing I would want to do is think like Bill Gates. I wouldn't read books recommend from Donald Trump either. I also question any books that algorithm put together for me. The only good book list is probably a list of b…

I'd look at them more as a representation of the image the older, philanthropic Gates wants to project rather than as indoctrination to become a ruthless billionaire.

I don't tend to read the kind of socio-political stuff he always includes, but he's quite smart and has pretty good taste in science reading.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#110

Post by gibspaulding »

delaynomore wrote: post #87
happy_path wrote: post #3

When I see this kind of lists I always think of getting some of these books and reading them. However, I feel like reading books that have no relationship with my job (software engineer) is a waste. Do any feel the same? Is this a harmful mindset and should stop worrying about "wasting" my free time?

While I do read non-technical books, I don't read fiction for the same reason. It does feel like a waste of time when I could simply watch TV/surf the net instead :)

I read a lot of SciFi, and have actually found that while I might not learn a ton from a book directly, I'm often inspired to do nonfiction reading on ideas or events mentioned in the book.
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