Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#1

Post by DanielBMarkham » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 6:58 PM UTC

I just finished Red Rising, which I really enjoyed. And I see a post on the front page about The Martian, which was also good.

So what books did you read over the last year that you would recommend to fellow HN'ers?

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#2

Post by musgravepeter » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 7:19 PM UTC

A Darkling Sea, The Three Body Problem

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#3

Post by wsc981 » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 7:21 PM UTC

I started reading (not yet finished) The Innocents Abroad from Mark Twain. The book was recommended in a previous thread on HN I think.

It's an hilarious read and at the same time it's also interesting to read how people lived in Europe and the Middle East ~150 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#4

Post by webnrrd2k » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 8:39 PM UTC

I've been really getting into the Discworld novels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#5

Post by karambahh » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:11 PM UTC

webnrrd2k wrote: post #4

I've been really getting into the Discworld novels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

For readers who are afraid to start such a huge amount of books and for Discworld readers who haven't read them yet, please have a look to The Carpet People (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carpet_People) and The Nome Trilogy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nome_Trilogy)

They are listed as "children's novels"(1) on WP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett) but they are in my opinion even better than some of Discworld books

(1)English is not my first language and for some reason, "'s" sounds wrong to me, I would have only used a "'" but since WP use it, I guess it is indeed correct?

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#6

Post by tricolon » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:36 PM UTC

karambahh wrote: post #5

webnrrd2k wrote: post #4

I've been really getting into the Discworld novels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld

For readers who are afraid to start such a huge amount of books and for Discworld readers who haven't read them yet, please have a look to The Carpet People ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carpet_People ) and The Nome Trilogy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nome_Trilogy ) They are listed as "children's novels"(1) on WP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett ) but they are in my opinion even better than…

“children's novels” is correct. Could you try to explain why it sounds wrong to you? “Children” is the plural of “child” and so its possessive is formed by adding “'s”.

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#7

Post by DanBC » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:44 PM UTC

I like books by Tibor Fischer. I re-read "The collector collector" which I particularly enjoy for the sense of entitlement the petty criminals have.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0099268191/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qi...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0099268191/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=...

There's probably a passive income project in scraping HN once a month for book recommendations and putting them on a page with referal links to the various formats of the books on various sites. Not sure how passive that is.

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#8

Post by karambahh » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 9:56 PM UTC

tricolon wrote: post #6

karambahh wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For readers who are afraid to start such a huge amount of books and for Discworld readers who haven't read them yet, please have a look to The Carpet People ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carpet_People ) and The Nome Trilogy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nome_Trilogy ) They are listed as "children's novels"(1) on WP ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett ) but they are in my opinion even better than…

“children's novels” is correct. Could you try to explain why it sounds wrong to you? “Children” is the plural of “child” and so its possessive is formed by adding “'s”.

I think my reasoning goes that in french, a trailing s denotes a plural much more regularly than in english (or so it seems to me, I have no way to measure this in a serious way).

I know the grammar rule that says that "James's bicycle" is not correct, "James' bicycle" is (and I seem to remember that the only reason is that a double s cannot be pronounced)

Combine these two facts and you've got "no s as possessive at the end of a plural" rule that formed in my tired mind :-)

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#9

Post by pjlegato » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:02 PM UTC

karambahh wrote: post #8

tricolon wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“children's novels” is correct. Could you try to explain why it sounds wrong to you? “Children” is the plural of “child” and so its possessive is formed by adding “'s”.

I think my reasoning goes that in french, a trailing s denotes a plural much more regularly than in english (or so it seems to me, I have no way to measure this in a serious way). I know the grammar rule that says that "James's bicycle" is not correct, "James' bicycle" is (and I seem to remember that the only reason is that a double s cannot be pronounced) Combine these two facts and you've got "no s as possessive at…

"James' bicycle" is an orthographic convention; it's pronounced as if it were written "Jameziz bycycle" (i.e. both Ses are pronounced, as Zs.)

Re: Ask HN: What were the best fun books you read in 2014?

#10

Post by pjlegato » Sat, Jan 10, 2015, 10:03 PM UTC

"Game of Thrones" and its successors, by George R. R. Martin.