What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly - I highly recommend reading this book. The title describes what the book is about ~ as a hacker it might just make you rethink everything you do.
Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
181–190 of 313 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#182In no particular order:
* Boomerang by Michael Lewis
* Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
* The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
* The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#183"The 4-Hour Body", by Tim Ferriss. Because of that book, within 3 months I went from running completely out of breath after 2 minutes of running, to finishing a half-marathon in 2 hours. And during the prior 3 months, I had lost 15 kilos by following the "slow-carb diet" described in the book. Reading it seemed to flip a switch in my brain: before, I would think of my body as something I had little control over, whil…
On a similar note I'd nominate Good Calories, Bad Calories as my book. Ferris gets my back up, especially the received wisdom that others quote from him, but Taubes really opened my eyes to the fact I could change what I eat and feel ten times better.
I'll just point out that Taubes is a charlatan, and most of his scientific claims have been debunked. See here, for one example:
http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2011/08/carbohydrate-h...
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#184Code by Charles Petzold. It's made me think about computers in another light. AND to be amazed at how simple things (input/output, on/off) can add up to really big and complex systems.
I got this for Christmas and have eagerly consumed the first few chapters. Who'd have thought that the history of information encoding would be so intriguing?
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#185The Art of War - Sun Tzu
Seriously? I've often seen this book recommended, but I just can't figure out what people find in it. Care to share?
Philosophy.
I find certain books required a deep thought before you can get anything out of it. These books aren't something that you can read in a plane on the way to New York from LA.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#186The War of Art
http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/
Break through the blocks and win your inner creative battles.
Many books mentioned here are good, this is the only I haven't seen referenced. But this one book really helped me deal with resistance and get stuff done. Seth Godin is a big fan and references it a lot in his material.
Steven Pressfield also wrote 'The Legend of Bagger Vance' and Gates of Fire (Spartan 300 kind of book but way deeper).
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#187Personally for me The Bible is and has always been. I'm not a religious fanatics but The Bible has taught me how to live life no matter how hard life is so that's good enough for me.
Lately I've been reading old books as well from Og Mandino. Ditto with technical books: books from the 70's, 80's, 90's are quite good. The rest are... "OK".
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#188* Steve Jobs biography. I couldn't put it down and I'm shocked there aren't more fans on HN For those who liked Malkiel's Random Walk, read: * Ben Graham's Intelligent Investor * Philip Fisher's Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits They counter Malkiel's thesis (yup, he's wrong) and Warren Buffet credits both men for teaching him how to invest. True classics.
Steve Jobs may be a great entrepreneur and innovator (or tweaker, whatever, people can debate this for decade) but not all people care much about his life. Especially when most of it have been exposed for years.
I borrowed the book from library and only read a few pages here and there. Returned the book within a week because I have other priorities or other books to read.
I think it's good that the "herd" mentality is missing on this book. In fact, I hope the herd/blogger mentality decreases as well in any other books (like Gladwell's, Ferris's, etc).
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#189Re-read a classic fiction, Treasure Island by Stephenson. Of the non-fiction I read, and completed, this year, Endurance: Shackelton's Incredible Voyage by Lansing.
Make sure to check out "South" which is Shackelton's own telling of the journey.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#190I'd have to recommend "Holy War" by Nigel Cliff.
Great read about how one little tiny country (Portugal)in Europe ended being the first colonial power through their dominance of the seas, spice trade and their desire to see Islam vanquished.