Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days? • Hacker News Board

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

#181

Post by habitmelon » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:24 PM UTC

justizin wrote: post #166

Command and Control, a historical account of failures in safety and other procedures with america's nuclear arsenal: http://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illu...

I'm reading that one right now too, pretty intense, I usually make the assumption that people in other industries always have a level of expertise and proper practice that puts software to shame. However, hearing about the haphazard construction of early nuclear weapons and all the things that went wrong managing the Titan II complexes was really revealing.

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

#182

Post by sharkbot » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:24 PM UTC

I'm reading "The Professor and the Madman" by Simon Winchester, a look at the creation of the Oxford English dictionary and the personalities, challenges, and environment of the people involved in its compilation.

I'm also currently learning French, so it's interesting to see that English also contains exceptions, debates and colourful characters.

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

#183

Post by ndesaulniers » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

perdunov wrote: post #171

ndesaulniers wrote: post #162

I have this weird habit where if I sit and read too much about the same topic, I have trouble retaining all of the information I just read. So, I find I can retain everything better if I read small amounts from multiple books. I sit with a stack of a few books and read chapter out of each. Weird, I know. Here's my current stack: * The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition (Bjarne Stroustrup) * Effective Modern C++: 4…

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/ ?

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

#184

Post by crossroads091 » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:27 PM UTC

"Harry Potter and The Methods Of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky. I am really liking the recasting, so far.

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

#185

Post by dasboth » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:27 PM UTC

mcgaffin wrote: post #47

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've had that book for over 10 years, but haven't read more than a chapter of it. I should give it another try.

I'm in the same boat. It certainly isn't easy to digest, light reading, but some of the initial ideas seem very interesting.

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

#186

Post by jjuhl » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:28 PM UTC

Effective modern C++ by Scott Meyers.

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

#187

Post by tehcodez » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:29 PM UTC

The Hard Thing about Hard Things (for the 3rd time).

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

#188

Post by ramidarigaz » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

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…

That metallurgy book looks awesome! I just picked up my blacksmithing hobby again recently, so this is very timely. Thanks!

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

#189

Post by dotdi » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

Last week I finished re-reading LOTR. It was awesome.

Besides that, I am currently reading Scala in Depth (Suereth) and re-reading Refactoring (Fowler).

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

#190

Post by dasboth » Thu, Apr 09, 2015, 5:31 PM UTC

monk_e_boy wrote: post #32

prezjordan wrote: post #19

Started Flatland on the train yesterday - lots of fun so far. I'm looking for more Sci-fi if HN can recommend anything! I've been reading a lot of historical non-fiction over the years, but recently finished Snow Crash and the Diamond Age. Love the genre, but don't know much about it.

"Off to be the wizard" is pretty light and fun. "John dies at the end" was fun, not really sci-fi, more buffy the vampire slayer esque. "Existence" by David Brin made me want to puke it had so many good ideas. A tiny bit dated, but very smart. "The Martian" I expect you've read it. Good romp, easy to read. Reminded me of a Michael Crichton. "World War Z" was good.

I'm a huge fan of John Dies At The End. It's really not for everyone but I found it incredibly entertaining. The follow-up, This Book Is Full of Spiders is also worth reading.