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Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#151

Post by myth_drannon »

Eric_WVGG wrote: post #130
myth_drannon wrote: post #117

Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series. As someone who read a lot of sci-fi, I'm surprised I've discovered it only now. It's considered the Dostoevsky of scifi, very different from golden age hard scifi. Already started books of the Long Sun. Disappointment of the year - The three body problem. Feels like buying on amazon a product with thousand of rave reviews only to realize its all fake Chinese reviews.

The Death//Sentence podcast did a terrific four part dive into the series recently. https://overcast.fm/+w14JdCU34

Also Alzabo Soup, podcast discussing Gene Wolfe's books.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#152

Post by curious16 »

agomez314 wrote: post #93

- Conquest: Cortes, Montezuma, and the Fall of Old Mexico by Hugh Thomas , because he brings history to life and the story of the Spanish and the Mexica is stranger than fiction, more subtle and terrible than you might think, and has many lessons on human behavior applicable to today. - Ecclesiastes by Qoheleth: In my opinion, superior to Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. "Go, eat your bread with enjoyment, and drink you…

What other CS books did you find amusing?

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#153

Post by plants »

I’m sure not everyone came here to hear tech book recommendations, but I will add another vote for Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman. It’s one of the best tech reference books I’ve ever read. It manages to explain SO much while requiring so little prior knowledge from readers.

Another book that is relatively new that I loved was Designing Machine Learning Systems by Chip Huyen. I worked in productionizing ML systems for 3 years and this book equips you with exactly what you need to do so. It does a great job of explaining the whole ML modeling pipeline and some of the commonly overlooked nuances that can cause your models to fail spectacularly in production. I will be referencing this book for years to come.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#155

Post by drclau »

dope9967 wrote: post #143
bobbykrk wrote: post #74

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch and The Three-Body Problem Trilogy by Liu Cixin. I especially recommend reading this combination. Both books fill up with optimism about humanity. First one by providing framework for infinite progress of humankind. (written by acknowledged quantum physics professor). Second one by by outlining how we can overcome difficulties on the way (written by talented Chinese science…

Interestingly enough, Liu Cixin's books got me thinking in more pessimistic ways, and maybe even more realistic - how we are still just a bunch of brutal animals, MAD being the only thing that's keeping us from destroying each other. His "Wandering Earth" is also a very good read.

I read the trilogy, which is actually named “Remembrance of Earth’s Past”, with “The Three-Body Problem” being the first, and IMO the weakest of the books.

Great read, but I can’t see how anyone would be optimistic about humankind after reading them: a group of humans who think we should be eradicated and invited aliens to do it, or at the least enslave us; collaborators when that eventually happens; and then as you mentioned, MAD, and then a series of bad, emotional decisions, all leading to near extinction.

I just can’t find any optimism in there. And it feels very realistic. I read the entire series during the pandemic, lockdowns, and the poor management of all of it, and the books resonated way too well.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#156

Post by emj »

zasdffaa wrote: post #77
AlecSchueler wrote: post #46

I Choose Elena and My Body Keeps Your Secrets by Lucia Osbourne Crowley. Can highly recommend these to any man who is wanting to better understand issues of sexual assault against women, in terms of how normalised it is, the challenges women face in being believed by other men and the long term health effects that manifest themselves after such attacks and after hiding the truth. Wanted to mention it here because I b…

There's enough understanding that things need to be changed, now the doing is needed. > because I become more aware each passing week of the blindspots in the HN community regarding the struggles and perspectives of women That's presumptuous and plain insulting. I've no evidence many guys here on HN are keeping women down in any way - that needs verifying (though it may be true). I've personally seen too few women in…

I have never known physical or mental abuse, until I realized that some aspects of my upbringing were clearly strange. Reading about "real" abuse, made me feel exactly what you said: not wanting to get dragged down by it. It was a good thing actually, in a sad way I guess.

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#157

Post by sitzkrieg »

criddell wrote: post #101
kzrdude wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I brought back my habit of reading this year. New rule, no internet and youtube right before sleep, read instead. I fall asleep sooner and much better. And I finally read Dune, probably the best book of this year, surprisingly good, I like the writing style.

I sometimes regret my habit of reading before bed. I think I’ve conditioned myself so anytime I start reading I start feeling sleepy.

had same, avoid reading in bed if you can

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#159

Post by chrisshroba »

plants wrote: post #153

I’m sure not everyone came here to hear tech book recommendations, but I will add another vote for Designing Data-Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman. It’s one of the best tech reference books I’ve ever read. It manages to explain SO much while requiring so little prior knowledge from readers. Another book that is relatively new that I loved was Designing Machine Learning Systems by Chip Huyen. I worked in prod…

I finally read DDIA this year and loved it. If anyone has any more suggestions for similarly enlightening books, I'd love to hear them!

Re: Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022?

#160

Post by tuffacton »

sien wrote: post #57

How the World Really Works by Vaclac Smil is one of the best book I've read this year. It gives such a great perspective on how much energy and material we use. It's one of the most readable books by Smil and has gems like this : “Moreover, within a lifetime of people born just after the Second World War the rate had more than tripled, from about 10 to 34 GJ/capita between 1950 and 2020. Translating the last rate int…

Last year I read Strong Towns by Chuck Marohn and that’s put me in solid YIMBY territory, as well as completely changed my perspective on our car-centric urban planning in the US.
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