Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012 • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#61

Post by dgallagher » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 7:43 PM UTC

"Learn cocos2d 2 - Game Development for iOS" by Steffen Itterheim and Andreas Low

http://www.apress.com/9781430244165

Still reading it (up to Chap 11 of 15).

Covers creating 2D games for iOS using the cocos2d 2.x framework, and Kobold2d 2.x framework. All code is in Objective-C, and it's expected you know Obj-C to understand the content. If you've done any OS X or iOS development already you'll have no problems following along. The frameworks are really simple to learn and use.

It does promote some inexpensive pay-for tools to aid in development, but always offers a free alternative if available. TexturePacker, Tiled (qt) (free), GlyphDesigner, and ParticleDesigner.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#62

Post by KMBredt » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 7:45 PM UTC

tokenadult wrote: post #6

The best book I read this year was not a 2012 release, but HN participants should read it if they haven't already. That book is The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande, http://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/d... which was mentioned favorably in several HN threads this year. (Thanks to the recommenders here who reminded me to read this book.) The Checklist Manifesto is pra…

I just finished the book three days ago, really liked it, and thought, that there must be a site to collect programmers checklists for different tasks to have a similar collection as the aviation experts. Turns out, there is not...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#63

Post by Reltair » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 7:45 PM UTC

How to Get Rich: One of the World's Greatest Entrepreneurs Shares His Secrets - Felix Dennis. The most life-changing book that I read this year. http://www.amazon.com/How-Get-Rich-Greatest-Entrepreneurs/dp...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#64

Post by david927 » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 7:55 PM UTC

Bootvis wrote: post #56

The Iliad, I had high expectations but it was even better than I expected.

I just finished The Odyssey and it was also better than I expected. I'll move on to The Iliad next.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#65

Post by charliepark » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 7:55 PM UTC

Urgo wrote: post #57

I read a number of good books but hands down my favorite that I read in 2012 was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This is from Amazon: At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots,…

Ready Player One was the best book I read this year, and the best in recent memory. My wife — who isn't into video games or much of 80's culture — loved it as well.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#66

Post by Tloewald » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 8:00 PM UTC

No-one seems to have mentioned Iain Banks's Hydrogen Sonata so I will. It's not first rate but it's something of a return to form over his last few (at least for me).

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#67

Post by lightblade » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 8:04 PM UTC

Seven Databases in Seven Weeks: A Guide to Modern Databases and the NoSQL Movement http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Databases-Weeks-Modern-Movement/...

Not the kind of short cut book that it may lead you to think. The book is a brief introduction to modern database types and what are their characteristics, what are their use case, and why you should choose it over other database types.

Seven Languages in Seven Weeks: A Pragmatic Guide to Learning Programming Languages (Pragmatic Programmers) http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Languages-Weeks-Programming-Prog...

Similar book as above, but introduces you to 7 different programming languages. The focus of the book is not on how to use each language, but to explore the different programming paradigms introduced by each programming language. (prototypical inheritance, functional programming, logic programming, object-oriented programming)

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#68

Post by omarchowdhury » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 8:07 PM UTC

The Brain Audit by Sean D'Souza

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#69

Post by ThomPete » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 8:09 PM UTC

I read a lot of books this year but these are my favorites:

The Post Capitalist Society - Peter F. Druckert

The War of Art - Pressfield, Steven

Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology (Bradford Books) - Braitenberg, Valentino

The Art of Doing Science and Engineering - Hamming, Richard W. (this book is even better if you are good with math, which I am not) it's still fairly inspirational.

Re-read:

Mindstorms: Children, Computers, And Powerful Ideas Papert, Seymour A.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#70

Post by jlangenauer » Tue, Dec 25, 2012, 8:09 PM UTC

Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofsteder. Barely needs any introduction here, but the depth of thought is just staggering.

Lights Out in Wonderland by D.B.C. Pierre. A wonderful story with a few incidental observations about modern society.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Sure, you can read about people who've made everything, but what about people who lose everything. Absolutely everything. Shattering, tragic fiction.