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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?

#531

Post by morazow »

cushychicken wrote: post #17

The Dispossessed , by Ursula K. Le Guin. It identified so many of the "edges" of society and how I think about and interact with the world, on a daily basis. Without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe even the best. The only other book that came close this year was Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir .

I also read it this year.

It came very close to me. The society of the book was very similar to the society in which I grew up, Soviet Union in 90s.

Some of the lines from the book:

".. the social consience completely dominates the individual conscience, instead of striking a balance with it. We don't cooperate - we obey. We fear being outcast, being called lazy, dysfunctional, egoizing. We fear our neighbor's opinion more than we respect our own freedom of choice."

"No matter what their society's like, some of them must be decent. People vary here, don't they? Are we all perfect Odonians? But in a sick organism, even a healthy cell is doomed."

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

#532

Post by kingcharles »

lmm wrote: post #467
hans0l074 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. The Hail Mary Project was a great read and even made it into Barack Obama's list[1]. I am working my way through The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and so far it's a page turner. [1]: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1471168495312420877

Curious, I wouldn't call Three-Body Problem a page turner - there was a whole lot of nothing happening the whole time. Even fans of the book (which I am not) tend to retreat into "well actually it's the sequels that are good".

I couldn't put the thing down. Then I had to immediately order the sequels. Different strokes for different folks. There have been plenty of books that people have recommended to me as page-turners and I just couldn't get through them at all.

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

#533

Post by e40 »

rory wrote: post #477
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…

As a PSA: this book is old enough to be public domain, the audiobook is (legally) available for free on LibriVox: https://librivox.org/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor-dostoy... . The written version is available on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28054 . I listened to it while swimming laps. The readers have great, rhythmic pacing.

It's in podcast form, as well. I just searched for the name of the book in Pocket Casts and the author is listed as Loyal Books. Going to give it a try on my walk today. Thank you!

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

#535

Post by randcraw »

bawolff wrote: post #50

Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. Its an older book i read kind of randomly but really liked. It is a novel about a telepath who is slowly losing his ability, delving deeply into the character.

My favorite of Silverberg's books. The writing style grows more distant and cold as the hero involuntarily withdraws from life. Much overlooked, IMO.

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

#536

Post by Strom »

surajs wrote: post #44
muzani wrote: post #39

Aristotle's Poetics. Yes, it was published before 2021. A lot of writers try to set their own rules, but according to the best, you need limitations to be creative. Just like you would play sports with rules. That rulebook is Poetics. It's the kind of book that's so information dense that you have to read it slowly. Summaries are often as long as the book itself. There's some aging in there. Notably the concept of ha…

"you need limitations to be creative", who sold you that? this whole genre of "adversity builds character" type of advice is a backwards rationalisation at its purest. no, adversity does not build character but merely reveals it, just as limitations don't make you creative, rather creativity forces you to find newer ruts. also, you lost me at aristotle ;)

> "adversity builds character" type of advice is a backwards rationalisation at its purest. no, adversity does not build character but merely reveals it

This seems like the classic fixed vs growth mindset situation. There are those who think that we are born with all our capability and then there are those who think that we can gain new capabilities through experience.

If you're truly set on believing that everyone is static, then fine. However if you have some curiosity, then a pretty good gentle introduction to growth mindset can be seen in this short 10 minute summary of an RSA talk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yl9TVbAal5s

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

#537

Post by rory »

pahool wrote: post #491
rory wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a PSA: this book is old enough to be public domain, the audiobook is (legally) available for free on LibriVox: https://librivox.org/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor-dostoy... . The written version is available on Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28054 . I listened to it while swimming laps. The readers have great, rhythmic pacing.

What headphones do you use while swimming? I've been looking into getting a pair for swimming, and am interested in recommendations.

They're called "SYRYN Swimbuds Flip and Waterproof MP3 Player". Just got them a few years ago as a quick, inexpensive Amazon purchase. Looks like they're a bit more expensive nowadays, but not too bad.

They work fine-- only ones I've ever had, so I have nothing to compare them to. I can confirm they've survived over 200 hours of lap swim, though.

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

#538

Post by therealdrag0 »

lmm wrote: post #467
hans0l074 wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this. The Hail Mary Project was a great read and even made it into Barack Obama's list[1]. I am working my way through The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and so far it's a page turner. [1]: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1471168495312420877

Curious, I wouldn't call Three-Body Problem a page turner - there was a whole lot of nothing happening the whole time. Even fans of the book (which I am not) tend to retreat into "well actually it's the sequels that are good".

Yep snooze fest for me too. DNF

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

#539

Post by meristohm »

Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer [0], because it brought the concept of reciprocity to the fore for me this year, and nudged me towards Finding the Mother Tree (Suzanne Simard), Eat Like a Fish (Bren Smith), and The Wayfinders (Wade Davis), all about ways of life that embrace diversity towards resilience in the face of the hyperobject of climate change. The life stories of the authors has been helpful in my personal development to be a better parent to my child, and a better spouse, so that we’re better-able to adapt to and shape change.

[0] https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=braidi...

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