Hitchhikers guide to the universe having 42 mentions is a cosmic level coincidence
So does Project Hail Mary...I sense a Easter Egg by the Author...
Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
101–110 of 217 posts
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#102Why does this list sound like a 16 year olds "I am very Smart" list? These are classics yes, but I was expecting something close to the forefront of the culture
You have a wayyy too skewed perception of the general tech person.
I normally get way better and varied recommendations from my philosophy friends, for example. Here it's generally just the usual mainstream sci-fi stuff about tech, space, ai/robots and such.
And forefront of culture is by definition going to be full of known stuff, else it wouldn't be culture-defining if almost nobody knows it.
What would you put in your top 5 "I'm very smart" 30+ yo book list?
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#103It was nice seeing my 2025 reading list represented. I started the year reading the first five books of the Foundation Series (book #1 on the list). A must read for anyone who hasn’t read it. I couldn’t believe how well it held up 70+ years later(!!) I just finished the 3 Body Problem trilogy, and think it’s appropriate book #2 (The Dark Forest) is on the list as it’s probably the best — but all three are great. I’m…
Funny coincidence, these are the exact sci-fi books I read this and previous year, in the exact order I read them (I read some non-sci-fi books in between to not get overwhelmed). I finished Project Hail Mary literally one hour ago. All the books were great, but Remembrance of Earth's Past series was literally life-changing, truly a masterpiece.
I'm guessing you plan to read Dune next? ;) I plan to start with it during Christmas break.
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#104Love this. The top programming books being SICP, Clean Code, and Crafting Interpreters feels very on-brand for HN. Surprised by how much fiction shows up though. I'd assumed HN skewed heavily technical but seeing 1984, Dune, and Foundation in the top mentions suggests the community has broader reading habits than stereotypes suggest. One bug: looks like "The Martian" by Andy Weir is getting grouped with "The Martian…
I was recently reading through Ursula K. Le Guin's The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, and she has so many great quotes that are directly relevant to this situation.
Here's a shorter one:
> “The use of imaginative fiction is to deepen your understanding of your world, and your fellow men, and your own feelings, and your destiny.”
And a longer one:
> “We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel – or have done and thought and felt; or might do and think and feel – is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become… A person who had never listened to nor read a tale or myth or parable or story, would remain ignorant of his own emotional and spiritual heights and depths, would not know quite fully what it is to be human. For the story – from Rumpelstiltskin to War and Peace – is one of the basic tools invented by the mind of man, for the purpose of gaining understanding. There have been great societies that did not use the wheel, but there have been no societies that did not tell stories.”
Engaging with fantasy and scifi helps us understand ourselves and the world around us. It helps find what truly moves and inspires us. It teaches us to dream of a different, better world.
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#105It was nice seeing my 2025 reading list represented. I started the year reading the first five books of the Foundation Series (book #1 on the list). A must read for anyone who hasn’t read it. I couldn’t believe how well it held up 70+ years later(!!) I just finished the 3 Body Problem trilogy, and think it’s appropriate book #2 (The Dark Forest) is on the list as it’s probably the best — but all three are great. I’m…
FWIW there are actually 4 books in the Three-Body Problem "trilogy". The Redemption of Time was written by a fan who felt the series didn't provide closure and was recognized as canon by Cixin Liu.
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#106I think some of the book associations are wrong. It shows "the martian chronicles" for mentions of andy weir's "the martian". Otherwise nice to see so many of the books i read this year mentioned. Except "Mein Kampf" of course, interesting top mention there. perhaps lots of people are reading it to understand the past? I'll need to see if it's worth it, I always considered it the equivalent of drinking water from the…
Another mistake is to place "The Road"(Cormac McCarthy) under "On the Road"(Jack Kerouac).
Imagine you were expecting one of those and read the other!
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#107So I'm guessing we passed HN through an LLM, looking for book mentions.
A number of posts here flagging disambiguation issues, I've run into this a lot.
I've been dealing with the problem using cosine distance between embeddings, but find it tricky to verify at scale.
Anyone else struggling with this?
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#108The top 3 programming books mentioned this year were 1. Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs 2. Clean Code 3. Crafting Interpreters Also, it’s quite fascinating how often fiction books were recommended! I wouldn’t’ve expected that on HN.
The world would be a better place if _Philosophy of Software Design_ would replace all mentions of the second book. https://github.com/johnousterhout/aposd-vs-clean-code
I haven’t even read your recommendation and know you are right.
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#109It was nice seeing my 2025 reading list represented. I started the year reading the first five books of the Foundation Series (book #1 on the list). A must read for anyone who hasn’t read it. I couldn’t believe how well it held up 70+ years later(!!) I just finished the 3 Body Problem trilogy, and think it’s appropriate book #2 (The Dark Forest) is on the list as it’s probably the best — but all three are great. I’m…
FWIW there are actually 4 books in the Three-Body Problem "trilogy". The Redemption of Time was written by a fan who felt the series didn't provide closure and was recognized as canon by Cixin Liu.
Woah, what an unexpected surprise!
Re: Show HN: Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
#110Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz is absent. We cultists have fallen down on the job.
By searching in all categories, I can see it's mentioned once : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42659243#42662874 For a cult, this is some remarkably low-effort proselytizing though :/
> For a cult, this is some remarkably low-effort proselytizing though :/
I think we take for granted having dang as a member and it makes us apathetic.