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Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

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Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#171

Post by DigitalJack »

jlees wrote: post #112
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,…

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.

In what way is Pattern Recognition similar to Ready Player One? I was intrigued by the description of RPO, but when I read you talking about Pattern Recognition being in the same genre, I was really confused.

I thought Pattern Recognition was truly awful and couldn't finish it.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#173

Post by [deleted] »

pg wrote: post #52

Liddell Hart's The German Generals Talk ( http://www.amazon.com/German-Generals-Talk-Basil-Liddell/dp/... ), originally published in England as The Other Side of the Hill . Probably the most interesting book I've ever read about WW II. I'm surprised it's not better known.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#174

Post by davidw »

I recently started a review 'blog':

http://davids-book-reviews.blogspot.com/

Of that list, "Information wants to be shared", and "The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick" stick out as being pretty good. "Climbing the Charts: What Radio Airplay Tells Us about the Diffusion of Innovation" was also very interesting, and a clever use of statistics to look at how one specific sector works. I also loved "The Oregon Desert", although it's probably not very interesting to most people out there.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#175

Post by davidw »

steve19 wrote: post #169
arram wrote: post #104

I 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…

You might like Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series. They cover the same period and similar themes as Forrester's Hornblower. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey-Maturin_series

If you liked that, what's fascinating is that the first book was more or less lifted from the life of an actual person:

Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00422LERA/?tag=dedasys-20

I only read the first of the O'Brian books, but Cochrane's life was full of fascinating episodes, and I highly recommend that biography of him.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#176

Post by sayemm »

I recently came across these two interesting reads about how Eisenhower was an expert bridge player and during WWII, he required officers on his staff to be good card players as well:

http://home.comcast.net/~dist8adv/jun09/ike.htm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1...

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#177

Post by pavs »

paulovsk wrote: post #82
StavrosK wrote: post #74

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: http://hpmor.com/ And my free ebook conversion: https://leanpub.com/hpmor/

Best book of the year by far. A hell of a fiction, but the most important part is that it awakens on the reader the awe to the universe and the fascination to science, rationality, evolution, etc.

It looks like the book is not finished?

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#178

Post by Kluny »

ceautery wrote: post #152
QuantumGuy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Military strategy? Some people have ambition of world domination I suppose but in all seriousness all you need is The Art of War. Oh yeah the link in the second computer science thread is bad.

Nonsense. "A Book of Five Rings" is the strategy book for the pure pragmatist. "Art of War" is for sounding cool at parties.

Protip - if you start talking about Art of War at a party, you will not get laid. Save that for the morning after.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#179

Post by davidw »

aik wrote: post #133
nichodges wrote: post #91

A few highlights for me... Abundance - Peter H. Diamandis, Steven Kotler. Diamandis has an almost infectiously positive way of looking at the world. And a hope that's not just based on a philosophical belief but is backed up with hard data. Distrust That Particular Flavor - William Gibson. I never got into Gibson as a fiction writer, but this collection of essays, articles and talks immediately made me appreciate him…

Hey nichodges -- I'd love a beta account for kindred.it. I've been seriously wanting something like that ever since I got a Kindle a few years ago and am completely amazed that what Amazon offers in terms of highlight management is so extremely poor. I'm also curious about the tech under it.

> I'm also curious about the tech under it.

Me too - I did not realize the highlights or much of anything else was available through some sort of API.

Re: Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012

#180

Post by nhebb »

ericfrenkiel wrote: post #154
elliottcarlson wrote: post #145

Sadly I don't really read quite as much as I used to; but following are the books I read this year (though none of them were released this year). - Founders at Work: Stories of Startups' Early Days http://www.amazon.com/Founders-Work-Stories-Startups-Problem... Excellent book covering interviews with founders of companies that became really big. I thought this book was really insightful and inspirational. - Coders at…

I'm a huge fan of Dan Simmons, and his Hyperion series is well worth the time. Once you make it beyond the first few pages of Hyperion, I guarantee you'll be hooked. There are a total of 4 books in the series and each is truly a masterpiece in science fiction. I would also recommend "The Terror," which is a historical fiction piece loosely based on the first expedition to the North Pole. Simmons has won multiple awar…

I read Hyperion a few months ago, and I only read to the end so that I wouldn't be left with that nagging feeling of leaving a book unfinished. Much like the Grammy's and the Emmy's, I've found that book awards may be a good indicator of what other people like, but often not a good indicator of what I like.
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