31–40 of 50 posts
One exception is for books chosen (by others) for the neighborhood book club. Those I read through, however bad.
For me selecting what to read though, is I was a voracious reader of non fiction when I was younger - but as I have aged, non-fiction seems like too much of a time sink (even though it is not), I find that when I am reading non fiction, instead of my mind engorged in the book with my imagination running all sorts of parallel scenarios, or sending me off into a daydreaming side topic...
I find that I begin to let the real world intrude, which is to me, is a function of my stress level.
I try guesstimating the "information density". Often you can tell from the title that a topic is so specific that the book shouldn't be as long as it is. Self help books selling you one revolutionary idea are an example. Other books (often general business advice types) will fill themselves with many examples, but there's little novelty with each next example. On the other hand, some topics, e.g. history, would have…
Caveat: Older books are harder to read, not necessarily because they have more information, but because the context is lost today. In a certain era, you're immersed in it, and some things don't need explaining. I spent a lot of time searching for what a Greek chorus is, seems like it's the ancient equivalent of a laugh track.
The test of time. I just recently finished reading Skunk Works, and in the last few months seen a few references to it here on HN and and on reddit. It was published almost 30 years ago and people still talk about it online? That's an easy signal for quality to go by. Counter example: Freakanomics. It did not pass. Even though everyone was so hyped about it at the time. Too bad we don't have a time traveller hanging…
I still quote things I learned from Freakonomics - the babysitter thing, the prostitution thing, abortions, and the MBA gangster thing for example. Maybe it fell out because it wasn't a primary source, people who remember the stories just look it up and share the story directly.
My favorite book that failed the test of time is The Startup Owner's Manual, Bob Dorf and Steve Blank (2012). It's pretty amazing, literally a checklist on how to build a startup. It might be why it's not popular. It smells like a textbook. It takes all the mystery out of building startups - people want to know that they failed because they were unlucky, not because they didn't follow a checklist.
The original TDD by Example (2000) is great too, but now there's a million TDD books and consultants. Many of these have never read the original. It was meant to be easy, for dumb people who can't code better. There's a little guide at the end of the book for when you get stuck on these things.
Clean Code (2008) is still making the rounds, and I don't think anyone understood it. I ask people why they make one line functions and they quote the book. It seems more popular as a way to justify bad code rather than being best practice.
The test of time. I just recently finished reading Skunk Works, and in the last few months seen a few references to it here on HN and and on reddit. It was published almost 30 years ago and people still talk about it online? That's an easy signal for quality to go by. Counter example: Freakanomics. It did not pass. Even though everyone was so hyped about it at the time. Too bad we don't have a time traveller hanging…
I'm not sure I agree with this. I still quote things I learned from Freakonomics - the babysitter thing, the prostitution thing, abortions, and the MBA gangster thing for example. Maybe it fell out because it wasn't a primary source, people who remember the stories just look it up and share the story directly. My favorite book that failed the test of time is The Startup Owner's Manual, Bob Dorf and Steve Blank (2012)…
By Kent Beck, right?
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure I agree with this. I still quote things I learned from Freakonomics - the babysitter thing, the prostitution thing, abortions, and the MBA gangster thing for example. Maybe it fell out because it wasn't a primary source, people who remember the stories just look it up and share the story directly. My favorite book that failed the test of time is The Startup Owner's Manual, Bob Dorf and Steve Blank (2012)…
> The original TDD by Example (2000) is great too By Kent Beck, right? [1] https://www.amazon.com/Test-Driven-Development-Kent-Beck/dp/...
The contemporary publishing industry is designed around expanding an often very simple idea into a book-length treatment, typically to support the author's book tour and consulting career. It is not designed to create beautifully-written books that are worth reading in their entirety.
None of this applies to fiction, in case that was unclear. It also doesn't apply as much to biographical-style books that offer some insight into the author's life and mindset.