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Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#281

Post by emodendroket »

100k wrote: post #279
emodendroket wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So where does that leave Locke, Smith, et al?

She argues that it's inaccurate to call them liberals because the term didn't exist then (at least with the same meaning, "liberality" meant generous) and they wouldn't have any idea what you were talking about. Basically, Anglophones retcon'd a rights-based liberalism in the late 1800s. Personally, I think she takes the argument a bit too far. She credits Constant and de Staël for formalizing liberalism in the after…

But then, does she still acknowledge that they represent some sort of tradition or at least chain of thinking? Maybe it should be called something besides "liberalism" but it seems odd to say that you can't name a school of thought ex post facto.

This is perhaps just getting hung up on one part of what seems to be a more substantive corrective than that, though.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#282

Post by eecc »

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/205587.The_Seasons_of...

Found it in my late parents’ library while clearing it out.

Haven’t quite finished it yet but my therapist is eager for me to follow through and discuss it.

Essentially it’s about realizing (I guess it’s less controversial today than it was when the book was published, although I did meet people that led me to believe they didn’t quite agree) that men - and women, there’s a sequel book dedicated fo women too - don’t plateau and stay the same once they exit post-adolescence.

There are legitimate passages later in life, that don’t necessarily mean crises or failures to resign to one’s fate, that need to be lived through rather than dismissed.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#283

Post by selimthegrim »

7thaccount wrote: post #116
cgh wrote: post #84

I’ll go with Piranesi by Susanna Clarke and Prussian Blue by Philip Kerr.

I really enjoyed Piranesi as well. Easy to read and a lot of fun.

Thirding Piranesi. Finished it in a longer sitting than it felt like.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#284

Post by Oras »

The Little Book of Stoicism by Jonas Salzgeber.

I was searching for the meaning of happiness, what makes me happy and how to maintain it.

Before reading the book, my mind was wired that programming is my passion (as I've been doing it for 20+ years now). While reading and reflecting, I discovered that DIY is my passion! I love create things and programming was the tool that allowed me to enjoy that satisfaction.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#285

Post by selimthegrim »

tkgally wrote: post #269

Life in London, or the day and night scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom in their rambles and sprees through the Metropolis by Pierce Egan. I read this book for the second time this year, the two hundredth anniversary of its publication. It was a bestseller in the nineteenth century and led to many spinoffs, but nobody seems to read it anymore. A scan of an 1869 reprint is at [1]. Th…

If you’ve never read Three Men in a Boat or Tristram Shandy you might try those too.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#287

Post by jldugger »

The Book of Why by Judea Pearl was good, and informative, and left me wanting to find a good textbook on the subject with practice problems so I can apply the concepts in my real life causality problems. Unfortunately it seems the textbooks on causal inference aren't quite designed that way, and I may need to learn R before proceeding.

It's already a well regarded title, so perhaps you've read it already, but Never Split the Difference was a pretty good book on negotiation, focused on navigating the emotional barriers to a mutual agreement. I'd put off reading it because the title sounded trite: "focus on win-win situations!" but really the book is about defusing conflict, and persuading people to agree to things already in their best interest, not brainstorming outside-the-box solutions to things.

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#288

Post by tkgally »

selimthegrim wrote: post #285
tkgally wrote: post #269

Life in London, or the day and night scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend Corinthian Tom in their rambles and sprees through the Metropolis by Pierce Egan. I read this book for the second time this year, the two hundredth anniversary of its publication. It was a bestseller in the nineteenth century and led to many spinoffs, but nobody seems to read it anymore. A scan of an 1869 reprint is at [1]. Th…

If you’ve never read Three Men in a Boat or Tristram Shandy you might try those too.

Thanks. I have read Three Men in a Boat and I enjoyed it. I started reading Tristram Shandy a long time ago but couldn’t get into it; I should give it another try.

Speaking of unread books, this year I compiled a list of fifty nineteenth century novels that nobody seems to read anymore [1]. I’ve read a couple of them myself, and they were reasonably entertaining. Maybe others on the list are as well.

[1] https://blog.archive.org/2021/07/14/forgotten-novels-of-the-...

Re: Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

#290

Post by rnoorda »

gibspaulding wrote: post #160

I just finished this one so it might just be fresh in my memory, but I really enjoyed Kiril Yeskov's "The Last Ringbearer". It's a sequel/retelling of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" written from the Mordorian perspective and based on the premise that LOTR is "a history written by the victors". It has a completely different feel than Tolkien's writing, and sort of stuffs something resembling Cold War politics into Midd…

I read this probably 6 or 7 years ago- thanks for the reminder! I should read it again.
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