"Go the F--k to Sleep", by Adam Mansbach. It's a great book that's helped me much in my personal life. I used to have trouble falling asleep at night, often finding myself worrying about issues that had come up during the day, and being unable to put work away when I needed to sleep. Since reading it, I've found that I can put away these fears and problems far better than I could before. I highly recommend it to anyone who has trouble sleeping from time to time.
Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
31–40 of 313 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#32I did not complete offcourse but I started reading The Alchemist - really very interesting book to read and the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - completed the first chapter - this is a good book written on personal inward-out change.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#33The Civilization Of The Renaissance In Italy by Jacob Burckhardt:
http://www.amazon.com/Civilization-Renaissance-Italy-2/dp/B0...
Pioneering Swiss art historian Jacob Burckhardt saw the Italian Renaissance as no less than the beginning of the modern world. In this hugely influential work he argues that the Renaissance’s creativity, competitiveness, dynasties, great city-states and even its vicious rulers sowed the seeds of a new era. Great book for entrepreneurs, scientists, thinkers, inventors, coders, radicals, and visionaries.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#34I was so incredibly tempted to put 'Twilight' down and wait for the lynch mob, but then realized that the Reddit color scheme is different.
This year was solely devoted to pleasure reading.
Neal Stephenson's REAMDE was quite good, although I imagine everybody on HN has read it, as Neal is practically a Valley institution.
The original 'Starship Troopers' by Ray Bradbury was also a good read, and easy to miss if you're into more modern science fiction.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#35"A little history of the world" by E.H. Gombrich. I've never been too enthusiastic about History in general, but I couldn't put this book down until finished.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#36I'm going to be on the receiving end of a great deal of vitriol for saying The Bible and the Koran, but sitting down and reading those two books—for the first time in my 21-year existence—was a really interesting experience.
I'm not going to turn this into a personal essay. I realized—after reading both books with a critical eye—that there are a lot of trumped-up claims made about each books' contents that ultimately fail to bear themselves out. But there's a great deal to learn from each, and I say this as a nontheist.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#37My choice is "Hackers and Painters" in Chinese edition, though it is first pressed in 2004.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#38Is it necessary to be books published in 2011? If not, Calculus Made Easy is the best book I read in 2011.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#39Not tech related, but I loved Devil in the White City by Larson and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig.
Also, I reread Rework about 3 times this year. Always a good and quick read.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#40The Art of War - Sun Tzu