Alice Munro: "The Love of a Good Woman"
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Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
111–120 of 227 posts
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#112I 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,…
I wouldn't class Ready Player One as the best book of 2012, but it was certainly enjoyable (when I read it in 2011). I prefer This Is Not A Game and Pattern Recognition in this genre; also worth checking out is Tad Williams' Otherland series.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#113It Starts With Food was the book that has had the most significant impact on my life this year. Power, Speed, Endurance, which I recently got, has a shot at being the next most impactful.
Among Others was one of the most enjoyable fiction reads. Beautiful. Prep was also surprisingly good, and not something I would usually have read.
Leading So People Will Follow surprisingly insightful and clearly actionable.
The Big Nerd Ranch's guide to iOS development carried me through last Christmas and the new year admirably. I haven't really read many programming books this year but it stands out as being well crafted.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#114I read 27 books in 2012. Here are some of the more interesting ones: Shogun - James Clavel . 'Epic' is the best word I can use to describe this historical fiction. I first read it in 2009 and have reread all 1100 pages multiple times since. The first English pilot to reach the Japans discovers a culture that, while strange, is in many ways far more advanced than his own. The fictional Lord Toranaga is based on the hi…
After reading that excerpt, that Turner guy is crazy. Putting that on my reading list. Thanks!
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#115Vision and Brain by Jim Stone
http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/vision-and-brain-0
A computational neuroscience approach to the visual system. Changed the way I think about perception and cognition.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#116The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne. Probably my first favorite book, which I've read about 10 or 12 times in my life. Just re-read it again a few weeks ago. Never gets old. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mysterious_Island The three titles in The Newsflesh Trilogy by Mira Grant. I'm not normally real big on zombie stories, but this one was a breath of fresh air. Part zombies, part conspiracy story, and wildly enter…
Definitely recommend the rest of the Laundry books. Also be sure to check out Stross's short story "A Colder War", which came before those, and is very much in the same overall theme, although substantially darker.
Will do! I have a handful of other Stross books waiting in a pile to be ready already, but not sure I have any more of the Laundry ones yet. I know I have several of his other traditional sci-fi works waiting, and I'll definitely get to the rest of the Laundry books eventually.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#117I read a lot of mediocre stuff this year, but two are worth mentioning. Wool - by Hugh Howey. He self-published Wool and now has a deal to make into into a movie directed by Ridley Scott. In that, it's a pivotal work in the self-publishing movement. http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Edition-ebook/dp/B0071XO8... Blood Song - Anthony Ryan. Best epic fantasy I've read since Martin's Song of Fire and Ice . http://anthon…
A second recommendation for Wool and its sequals. I really hope the movie gets made.
Third that one. I'm not anxious to see a movie of Wool, but I hope one gets made for the sake of the author.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#1181Q84. True "literature" without feeling like it. I wish I could read the original Japenese. Also, too bizarre to really describe accurately.
I liked 1Q84. I felt it could have been a bit shorter without much loss to the story though. 'The Wind Up Bird Chronicle' and 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World' remain my favorite Murakami novels.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#1191Q84. True "literature" without feeling like it. I wish I could read the original Japenese. Also, too bizarre to really describe accurately.
just want to warn others - this is by far the worst of murakami's books. above all, it's way too long. if the three volumes were edited to one, it would be much improved. i wish i had googled for reviews (which were generally negative) before buying and reading these.
Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012
#120The God Problem by Howard Bloom