'The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer' by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
271–280 of 313 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#272Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes! I've read "How to Live, or A life of Montaigne" and it _is_ brilliant, partly due to Montaigne being brilliant I'd recommend Penguins Great Ideas Book "On Friendship" by Montaigne. And seeing as you mention on of my favorites to, I'll be sure to check out The Checklist Manifesto, thanks.
Care to share the gist if the book?
"""Montaigne likes to point out that philosophers don’t know everything, and that they would be a lot wiser if they laughed at themselves a little more. He also writes in a personal and often very frank way designed to shock the prudish. “Kings and philosophers shit, and so do ladies,” he says, “Even on the highest throne in the world, we are seated still upon our arses.” """
Sounds like a good man.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#273Always on the lookout for a good read. Thanks for posting the question. Through HN I discovered: "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy" Which I enjoyed very much.
I can strongly recommend this book!
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#274"Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftmanship" by Uncle Bob.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
Second this. I'm a huge Michael Lewis fan. If you enjoyed this, I would recommend reading (in the following order): - Liar's Poker . Lewis' account of how the bond market really got huge in the 80's. The book that put him on the map. He was a bond salesman in Solomon Brothers investment bank, a really interesting read with many larger than life characters. An insider account on how companies and financial institution…
Thanks for the recommendations. Those are free to read on my Kindle with amazon prime membership, definitely will be reading them now!
You're welcome. Lewis also writes for Vanity Fair, where in fact some of the material for Boomerang and his other works originated. You might be interested in these also.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#276Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#277I'm surprised I'm not seeing more 1Q84 here.
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#278Let's see... in no particular order: * Thinking, Fast and Slow: http://amzn.to/sXQGSR - probably makes my list because I just finished it, and as he says "what you see is all there is" - we're biased towards things that come to mind easily. Actually, it is a pretty good book even looking through all the others I've read. * 1491: http://amzn.to/uaR0yf - about the Americas prior to the arrival of "Cristoforo Colombo".…
Very curious - what was the referral link impact of HN?
[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#279Let's see... in no particular order: * Thinking, Fast and Slow: http://amzn.to/sXQGSR - probably makes my list because I just finished it, and as he says "what you see is all there is" - we're biased towards things that come to mind easily. Actually, it is a pretty good book even looking through all the others I've read. * 1491: http://amzn.to/uaR0yf - about the Americas prior to the arrival of "Cristoforo Colombo".…
Very curious - what was the referral link impact of HN?
Not much - enough for a few extra books, which is appreciated. For me it's more of a 'why not?' thing: it's more 'beer money' type quantities, but what the heck...
Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness are both great reads from N.N. Taleb. Imho both are must reads.
I'm reading Fooled by Randomness and really like it. The Black Swan I couldn't finish because it kind of rambled. Not sure if he had a better editor for Fooled by Randomness or what.
Fooled by randomness seemed to me a little bit less rambling as well and a little bit more straight to the point. But I liked the more essayistic style of Black Swan as well (well, I studied literature, so i think I am just used to these kinds of writing).