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Good Books for a Lousy Year

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Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#121

Post by credit_guy »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #119
credit_guy wrote: post #118

We will look back at 2020 and we'll think it was not such a lousy year. I personally consider that Covid19 was a godsend. Everyone (including Gates) were saying that a pandemic is not a matter of if but rather of when. And one came. But remember, we have a flu pandemic every single year. For a pandemic to be registered as serious, it has to be more lethal than flu. And Covid19 was, but not by so much. It was quite th…

> it has to be more lethal than flu. And Covid19 was, but not by so much. COVID-19 is five times deadlier than the flu. It's killed over 1.5 million people worldwide, and almost 300,000 people in my home country (USA). It'll be many months before enough people are vaccinated to ensure herd immunity, if it ever happens. Yeah, I suppose it could improve outcomes for an even deadlier next time , but calling it a godsend…

I would say it's probably more than five times deadlier than the flu. In 2018 about 60k people died because of "influenza and pneumonia" [1], so 300k deaths due to Covid is five times worse, but that's with some quite strict lockdowns. Without lockdowns it's anybody's guess, but twice as many deaths doesn't appear outrageous.

That said, what "flu multiple" would have scared people into action? Even now, in December there are surprisingly many people in denial, up until the last moments of their lives. There are people who think this whole Covid is only a conspiracy (did you hear the one about "Gates' vaccine" which is actually just a way to inject people with nanorobots?). If Covid was only twice as deadly as the flu, would the Congress have passed the CARES act in 2 weeks? Maybe they would've if it was exactly 2.85 times as deadly as the flu, but we'll never know.

What we know is that we all die one day or another. In a regular year 2.8 to 2.9 million people die in the US. 300k is 10% of that. That's bad, and every single death is a tragedy, but this was no Bubonic Plague.

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#122

Post by akudha »

redelbee wrote: post #114
meristem wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Would love suggestions to balance things. Must include time to sleep.

I’ve read 121 books this year, and I read 129 last year. I’ll probably meet or exceed that number this year. Generally I’m reading at least two books at a time, one non-fiction and one fiction. I tend to listen to the non-fiction books and read the ebook/physical fiction book. I wake up in the morning, make coffee/breakfast for me and my wife, and read the ebook/physical book while I’m eating. I read whenever I’m in…

121! Jeez, that is crazy. Do you have time for other activities at all?

Any recommendations from the 121?

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#123

Post by dharmab »

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)

I read Station Eleven in 2019 and the timing was impeccable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Station_Eleven

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#124

Post by redelbee »

akudha wrote: post #122
redelbee wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve read 121 books this year, and I read 129 last year. I’ll probably meet or exceed that number this year. Generally I’m reading at least two books at a time, one non-fiction and one fiction. I tend to listen to the non-fiction books and read the ebook/physical fiction book. I wake up in the morning, make coffee/breakfast for me and my wife, and read the ebook/physical book while I’m eating. I read whenever I’m in…

121! Jeez, that is crazy. Do you have time for other activities at all? Any recommendations from the 121?

I have time for a solid sleep schedule, lots of exercise, work, and at least three other hobbies (bicycles, metalworking, and skateboarding) so I think so!

Fiction recommendations:

- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This book absolutely wrecked me emotionally (in a good way) for weeks after reading it

- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. I enjoyed this even more than the Underground Railroad, which was also great. Both also won a Pulitzer for what it’s worth.

- The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. This book gave me a glimpse into what it’s like for Mexicans who immigrate to the US, and the storytelling was just wonderful.

Non-fiction recommendations:

- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Mix together equal parts science, indigenous knowledge and myth, botany, and wonderful writing and you get this book. I love Kimmerer’s voice (both in terms of her writing and her performance of the audiobook) and I read Gathering Moss by her this year as well because she’s just that good.

- American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. In my opinion is the definitive book about the atomic bomb and Oppenheimer. I also read The Dead Hand by David E. Hoffman and I think that was a pretty good follow up about the arms race and Cold War that came after.

- Barbarian Days by William Finnegan. I knew nothing and cared little about surfing before this book. I couldn’t put it down after I picked it up though. I’ve heard the audiobook is great so I might just read it again in that format because it was that good.

There are so many more but I think those are a good start. If you want recommendations in a certain genre I can probably give some because I’ve read widely over the years.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#125

Post by mhh__ »

4926394057 wrote: post #102
mhh__ wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The more factual parts are genuinely dangerous if not for the late date it was published.

The more speculative aspects like the authors' judgement of Roger Hollis is genuinely really weird. We will probably never know the truth, but if he wasn't a spy there are some genuinely abnormal correlations to be explained. If you're familiar with the case the Australian intelligence analyst Paul Monk gives a fairly strong case that even if the official story on Hollis isn't wrong, it is wildly inconsistent and economical with the truth.

Wright is a bit of a loose cannon, but the late Chapman Pincher wrote an enormous book on effectively everything publicly known about the (at the age of about 100 no less) which is much more methodical.

There was a IWP panel about the case a few years ago; some evidence is so murky that some analysts were, even with a fastidiously planned and documented "argument map" to summarize the known evidence, joking about resorting to sending a freedom of information request to the GRU.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#126

Post by yoz-y »

happy_path wrote: post #26
yoz-y wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a software engineer who didn't read almost any books about software engineering I have a question: How did reading any books about SWE changed the way you work? I found that reading books on other subjects (from non-fiction I've read some biographies, some economics books, the usual suspects like Sapiens and such). I find that knowing a bit about everything is mainly a good way to keep conversations going because…

Reading technical books has helped me pass some interviews and improve my programming skills. It also helps me learn new languages (Go) and do some personal projects. No personal project has helped me get a job though... Usually the part of out-of-scope of software is dealt by product managers. Maybe it is a problem of working in a big corporation?

> Usually the part of out-of-scope of software is dealt by product managers.

Life happens outside of work too, it's nice to be able to talk about other things than coding. Out of scope questions can be also useful when asked the feared "do you have questions?" question during recruitment.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#127

Post by janekm »

happy_path wrote: post #14
janekm wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you're a "code monkey" being a software engineer involves using creativity, which in my experience requires giving your brain enough "downtime" as well as a broad range of inputs. Reading a broad range of books (fiction too) will give your brain the stimulus to create the connections that enable creativity.

I'm not a code monkey but, in my current place of work, there is no much place for creativity (micromanaging) and I miss that. I'm trying to learn some things on the side (because I'm not assigned enough challenging tasks.

Well, I don't necessarily mean just creativity in that sense but also where you have a problem to solve and during a walk or shower you get that flash of inspiration, a way to solve it that comes from your brain making unexpected connections... I find that one of the most satisfying aspects of the work.

Though maybe I'm lucky in that I have very broad architectural responsibilities in my job...

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#128

Post by meristem »

redelbee wrote: post #114
meristem wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. Would love suggestions to balance things. Must include time to sleep.

I’ve read 121 books this year, and I read 129 last year. I’ll probably meet or exceed that number this year. Generally I’m reading at least two books at a time, one non-fiction and one fiction. I tend to listen to the non-fiction books and read the ebook/physical fiction book. I wake up in the morning, make coffee/breakfast for me and my wife, and read the ebook/physical book while I’m eating. I read whenever I’m in…

I should have added "must also include elementary school-aged children care and feeding" ;)

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#129

Post by notacoward »

mrtranscendence wrote: post #119
credit_guy wrote: post #118

We will look back at 2020 and we'll think it was not such a lousy year. I personally consider that Covid19 was a godsend. Everyone (including Gates) were saying that a pandemic is not a matter of if but rather of when. And one came. But remember, we have a flu pandemic every single year. For a pandemic to be registered as serious, it has to be more lethal than flu. And Covid19 was, but not by so much. It was quite th…

> it has to be more lethal than flu. And Covid19 was, but not by so much. COVID-19 is five times deadlier than the flu. It's killed over 1.5 million people worldwide, and almost 300,000 people in my home country (USA). It'll be many months before enough people are vaccinated to ensure herd immunity, if it ever happens. Yeah, I suppose it could improve outcomes for an even deadlier next time , but calling it a godsend…

Also, fatality rates aren't the only basis for comparison. COVID-19 seems to be leaving survivors with serious long-term and quite possibly permanent damage at many many times the rate that flu does. More like polio than flu, not least in that it was the survivors who reminded everyone day after day of how serious it was.

Re: Good Books for a Lousy Year

#130

Post by fuy »

cambalache wrote: post #116
hairofadog wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

For sure. For worldwide literature translated to English you could do a lot worse that the Complete review[1] its father site the Literary Saloon is quite good too[2] If you know French La Republique des Livres is a good choice[3] In Spanish there are lots of sites, but this book recommendation section from Clarin has a good selection from all over the world [4] I really liked this site[5] in English about "post-mode…

That's a great list! Memoirs of Hadrian is such a unique book, it has got to be better known.
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