The Thursday murders club by Richard Osman - a fun British murder mystery, lots of tea and biscuits. It's the first of a series.
Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
171–180 of 287 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#172Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
People still smoke cigarettes despite decades of clear evidence that they will lead to a horrible death in many cases. Society has built so many disincentives to doing so, and yet they persist. Animal products will continue to be consumed no matter how obvious it is that their production is morally repugnant and environmentally destructive. I am sorry to say that I am one of those consumers despite knowing better.
Cigarette use is plummeting in the west.
Meat eating should also plummet if meat eating is banned in restaurants and there’s a minimum meat eating age that increases a year at a time. Bonus if there’s a health insurance question about meat eating and special meat taxes.
There is no societal structure to disincentivize meat eating. Social pressure from vegetarians (which is so very slight) and logical arguments are the only thing we’ve got. Tradition, convenience, identity, and preferences are all arrayed against the reasonable thing.
For now meat consumption is probably going to be somewhat inversely correlated to meat prices, as per usual.
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#174"Phi: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul" by Giulio Tononi
Having just finished "On the move", Oliver Sacks' autobiography.
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#175The Only Way Is West by Bradley Chermside
Book about Camino de Santiago. I like walking (and Camino is lot of walking), so this is interesting.
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cigarette use is plummeting in the west.
Meat eating should also plummet if meat eating is banned in restaurants and there’s a minimum meat eating age that increases a year at a time. Bonus if there’s a health insurance question about meat eating and special meat taxes. There is no societal structure to disincentivize meat eating. Social pressure from vegetarians (which is so very slight) and logical arguments are the only thing we’ve got. Tradition, conven…
In fairness it has been dropping, eg https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58831636
Here’s hoping a tipping point is reached soon
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#177Fermat's Last Theorem by Simon Singh. I really like it. There are lots of popular science books out there, but very few popular math ones. I am grateful that this exists. Read the author's Code Book before. Liked that one, too. I was also taking Cryptography and Cybersecurity as one of my Master's electives. This book does not cover the journey of solving the Fermat's Last Theorem narrowly, but broadly covers a lot o…
That reminds me that I have enjoyed all of Singh's books. But I recall he was sued for his last one and has not published in over 10 years?
Yes, the vicious lawsuit by chiropractors may have been enough to turn him off publishing. I sometimes hear him as a radio guest. It seems he went on to work on STEM policy and founded a couple of educational math paths. It’s a shame he seems to have discarded his website.
Undergraduate Ambassadors Scheme https://uas.ac.uk/about-uas/
Parallel https://parallel.org.uk/
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#178What I wish I was reading is book 9 of Joel Shepherd's "Spiral Wars" series. Unfortunately it's not out yet. But he's one of my new favorite authors, both the Scifi Spiral Wars and the more fantasy-like "Sasha" series are excellent.
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#179For tooling, I am currently reading Practical Vim by Drew Neil. Vim has been my primary editing tool for a couple of years now but I know that I am not close to maxing its capacity. I would like to supercharge my vim skill with more advanced macros and less keystrokes.
Fiction: I am currently reading the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. I love the way the book plays with logic in a fictional style. The dialogues with the little demon, Wormwood, are super interesting. More like psycho analysis in fictional form. It reminds me about reading Brothers Karamazov where you find a lot about you in characters in the book.
Re: Ask HN: What are you reading these days?
#180I've just started a book by a brilliant Cuban author: Leonardo Padura. I would recommend his "The Man Who Loved Dogs", it's about the man who killed Trotsky.
Most dedicated KGB agent ever. Spent 20 years in prison while maintaining his cover story. Kind of unreal his true identity was not uncovered until after his release.