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Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

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Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#371

Post by enedil »

ashark wrote: post #346
enedil wrote: post #252

Some interesting books by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: Breakfast of Champions Bluebeard Deadeye Dick

Those are my three favorite Vonnegut novels. Nice choices :-) I'd second my sibling poster's recommendation of Galapagos, if you haven't read that one. Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle are probably his two most widely-read and widely-referenced books, so if you haven't read those yet and you're still on a Vonnegut kick after those three, maybe read them. They're all quick cotton-candy reads anyway, so it's a smal…

After reading Vonnegut's novel after novel, I needed to stop for a while. In a list of books of Vonnegut which I read, there is no Galapagos, no Mother Night, no Sirens of Titan, no Player Piano, and that's pretty all.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#372

Post by joekrill »

GregBuchholz wrote: post #135

"Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Others who Heat Treat and Forge Steel" by John Verhoeven http://www.feine-klingen.de/PDFs/verhoeven.pdf An interesting technical introduction to metallurgy, without being overly tedious. Congratulations to the author, for what sounds like it could be a dry subject. I am pleasantly surprised by how ignorant I was about such a common everyday material, and about the fascinating ch…

The Metallurgy book sounds very interesting, definitely going to check it out. Along those lines, but I think much more simplistic, is a book I just read called "Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World" -- one chapter each devoted to a common everyday material. You may like that one based on why you liked the Metallurgy book.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#373

Post by ldonley »

nemo1618 wrote: post #29

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid , and I'm loving it. Some parts are funny, some are dry, and some are truly mind-blowing. As someone who loves wordplay, self-reference, and multiple layers of meaning, this book is like crack. Every chapter surprises me with something new. Its reputation is well-deserved.

This book is very interesting. It is taking me eons to read because of its density, but it is well worth it.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#374

Post by Nicholas_C »

nemo1618 wrote: post #29

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid , and I'm loving it. Some parts are funny, some are dry, and some are truly mind-blowing. As someone who loves wordplay, self-reference, and multiple layers of meaning, this book is like crack. Every chapter surprises me with something new. Its reputation is well-deserved.

I see this book lauded on HN frequently. Would it be interesting/understandable for someone who doesn't have a CS background but has an interest in CS?

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#375

Post by definity »

Some I've recently finished...

Epidemiology-focused

- Virus Hunter - C.J. Peters with Mark Olshaker

- Panic in Level 4: Cannibals, Killer Viruses and Other Journeys to the Edge of Science - Richard Preston

- Asleep: The Forgotten Epidemic That Remains One of Medicine's Greatest Mysteries - Molly Caldwell Crosby

- The Woman With a Worm in Her Head and Other True Stories of Infectious Disease - Pamela Nagami

General good nonfiction

- Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin - Norah Vincent

- Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb - Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

- Life, Animated: A Story of Sidekicks, Heroes and Autism - Ron Suskind

Fiction

- Funny Once - short story collection by Antonya Nelson (sad, weird, but very good)

- It's Kind of a Funny Story - Ned Vizzini

- Backward Compatible - Sarah Daltry

Also definitely recommend the Magic 2.0 trilogy by Scott Meyer (starting with Off to Be the Wizard).

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#376

Post by raghuiyer4882 »

I'm working on "Napolean: A Life" by Andrew Roberts http://www.andrew-roberts.net/books/napoleon-a-life/. This is a well written and pretty hefty biography. The author has done a great job of poring over the enormous material available from that era and consolidating it in a coherent fashion. I've always been fascinated by that period mostly because it seems to be the first time there was so much written down on paper which is preserved till today. Almost everyone who was literate seemed to maintain a diary and take notations of everything. Pretty decent descriptions of war maneuvers and battle tactics as well, if you guys like reading that kind of stuff ( I do :) )

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#377

Post by jedharris »

Eliezer wrote: post #331

* The Fall of Doc Future - http://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/82363551272/fall-of-doc-fut... There are very few stories that strike me as having been 'natively' written for a reader like me; this is one of them. I also bought book 1 of the Bartimaeus series, read it, and am now onto book 2. * http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786852550/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...

Awesome book. Thanks for the link. There's already a sequel.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#379

Post by jedharris »

Eliezer wrote: post #331

* The Fall of Doc Future - http://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/82363551272/fall-of-doc-fut... There are very few stories that strike me as having been 'natively' written for a reader like me; this is one of them. I also bought book 1 of the Bartimaeus series, read it, and am now onto book 2. * http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0786852550/ref=as_li_tl?ie=...

Sequel: http://docfuture.tumblr.com/post/111819789111/skybreakers-ca...

Plus some short stories and outtakes set in the same universe.

Re: Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?

#380

Post by golergka »

ndesaulniers wrote: post #183
perdunov wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're probably downvoted because of the multiple mentions of C++. If you'd mentioned Haskell, you would be upvoted.

haha thank you, I was scratching my head as to the downvotes. HN is weird. I do recognize that it's difficult to maintain a healthy online community, and that if you forced people to comment when downvoting, you still don't necessarily get constructive criticism. s/Haskell/today's new JS framework/ ?

> s/Haskell/today's new JS framework/ ?

Or vim. Any books on neovim yet?

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