Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? • Hacker News Board

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

#501

Post by hallway_monitor » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

jonbot420 wrote: post #472

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. Written by an AI researcher, the book explores HP as if he was a very rational and intelligent agent, rather than someone who immediately accepts all aspects of magic. It’s not just interesting, but includes real theories of rationality that made me consider how I immediately accept many things myself.

Give this book 5 minutes of time at [0] where it is released. It's a great story and drives home a lot of points about cognitive biases. I found out about this book here on HN when it was being released as a web serial. I had never read any Harry Potter books before this but I immediately got sucked in. One of my favorite books.

[0] http://www.hpmor.com/

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

#502

Post by AccountAccount1 » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

muzani wrote: post #40

OJFord wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there not a semi-official (de facto) account that creates these? They always strike me as 'karma farming' since it's just a race to create something formulaic and known to be popular. Maybe it's not a problem.

For some reason, this thread is a lot better than that one. Is it timing? The fact that OP has a few sentences? Maybe it's not a problem.

OP here, my sole intention was to get book recommendations. But I did think about two things: how I structured the description (books from previous years are OK for example) and the time I posted (good US time).

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

#503

Post by alecst » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

tappio wrote: post #277

Kluny wrote: post #86

I read Sapiens by Yuval Harari this year. It was long and fascinating, incredibly well researched, and easy enough for "light reading" that I had time for between writing research papers. A couple things that stuck with me were stories of giant land mammals that used to exist, many more than I realized, alongside humans. Wherever humans colonized, the large mammals were killed off soon after. This happened in Austral…

These books are fun, but should be taken with some skepticism. This particular story with large mammals is a good example. The assumed causality does not hold closer scrutiny. Climate was also changing into something that works better for humans, and into worse for large mammals. There were many things at play. Humans may had or may not have had a role. However, it is very unlikely that humans had a defining role. Go…

I find it hard to believe that it was the climate that killed all the large mammals worldwide in a span of tens of thousands of years. But I'm open to having my mind changed.

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

#504

Post by alecst » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:13 PM UTC

jnsaff2 wrote: post #330

Kluny wrote: post #86

I read Sapiens by Yuval Harari this year. It was long and fascinating, incredibly well researched, and easy enough for "light reading" that I had time for between writing research papers. A couple things that stuck with me were stories of giant land mammals that used to exist, many more than I realized, alongside humans. Wherever humans colonized, the large mammals were killed off soon after. This happened in Austral…

I read Sapiens and its companion a few years ago. This year I read Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity' by David Graeber and David Wengrow [0]. And found it much more nuanced, interesting and believable. Harari's narrative is just too slick. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29316008

The slickness is part of the appeal. I agree that he gets some of the details slightly wrong: the part about serotonin and depression sticks out. But at the same time, I'd rather have a slightly wrong and profoundly enjoyable book than one that's a slog to get through but gets more of the details right. I think Sapiens strikes a good balance.

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

#505

Post by nimrody » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:14 PM UTC

lysecret wrote: post #368

Veronica decides to die. Amazing book about what it means to be crazy. How to live an authentic life. Written in a funny and easy to read way. And it has the most important quality of any book IL really like. It's short and to the point haha

If you liked Veronica you'll probably also like other Paulo Coelho novels. Specifically, I can recommend "Eleven Minutes" and "By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept".

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

#506

Post by janvdberg » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:17 PM UTC

mongol wrote: post #435

janvdberg wrote: post #297

Here are all books I read (this year so far I read 50 books): https://books.j11g.com/search.php?log=3 Three books from 2021 stick out: - If This Is a Man by Primo Levi. I would urge everyone to read this. This history should be known to everyone. - Defying Hitler (the story of a German 1914 - 1933) by Sebastian Haffner. Masterfully written autobiography that explains the rise of nazi Germany more than any other histo…

How much time do you read per day? How long time to finish a book? I really should pick up reading more but there is so much that distracts me. This website for example.

I wrote about that last year: https://j11g.com/2020/07/01/how-i-read-52-books-in-a-year/

Long story short: read every day.

I notice my average is pretty steady, around 30 pages/day. So if I manage that, I’m good. But the thing is — with a good book — reading 30 pages is a breeze. And I often end up reading more. I also notice if I can’t read at least 30 pages in one sitting I probably don’t like the book very much.

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

#507

Post by meowzero » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:18 PM UTC

ryanar wrote: post #489

meowzero wrote: post #483

Being a new parent, I've read a lot of parenting books this year. One of my favorites was No Drama Discipline. Having grown up in an authoritarian, Asian, tiger-parenting style, this book opened my eyes on a more gentler, warmer way to handle kids. I hope I can practice the methods in the book.

I read Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother two years ago. Though the book has a bit of controversy around it, I really enjoyed seeing what Asian tiger-parenting looks like, and how it blew up in her face with her second daughter and how she had to adapt to a more American style of parenting. One of the interesting dilemmas was that when doing tiger-parenting in America, your children will eventually notice that their fri…

That's interesting.

Anecdotal, but my younger brother turned out different from the tiger parenting. He was also more "Americanized" than me. "Defying and undermining of authority" sounds like him.

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

#508

Post by etherio » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

Exhalation and Stories of your life and others by Ted Chaing. These collections of short scifi stories are stunning, and particularly the stories Exhalation and Story of your Life. They combine detailed technical descriptions of the science fiction aspects with raw emotional beauty. The movie Arrival is based on Story of your life.

La Peau de Chagrin (The Wild Ass's Skin) - Balzac. Beautifully written novel about desire and health, with verbose descriptions that I personally loved. Some nice quotes here [0]

Ubik by Philip K. Dick - Pretty mindbending and interesting twist on the whole "(distorted) perception of reality (what even is reality?)" theme. (9/10) [scifi]

[0]: https://knowledge.uzpg.me/dataobj/2771/#quotes

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

#509

Post by brosco » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #439

This years best book is the brothers karamazov. An excellent book with a deeply human and philosophical viewpoint. This is the last bool I read from dostojewski and after crime and punishment his best work. Atm I read „against the day“ from pynchon. Also very excellent and compared to gravitys rainbow sooo easy to read. That could be a good start to the pynchon universe for beginners. Whish you all a good time at the…

My favorite of the year was Anna Karenina. If you like Brothers Karamazov it would be right up your alley.

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

#510

Post by tbjohnston » Fri, Dec 24, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

brosco wrote: post #509

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #439

This years best book is the brothers karamazov. An excellent book with a deeply human and philosophical viewpoint. This is the last bool I read from dostojewski and after crime and punishment his best work. Atm I read „against the day“ from pynchon. Also very excellent and compared to gravitys rainbow sooo easy to read. That could be a good start to the pynchon universe for beginners. Whish you all a good time at the…

My favorite of the year was Anna Karenina. If you like Brothers Karamazov it would be right up your alley.

Anna Karenina jumped to the top as favorite novel; Brothers Karamazov as best novel...The difference between the two adjectives tells more about me than anything else. :-)