Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#261

Post by overgryphon » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 4:10 AM UTC

ilconsigliere wrote: post #236

kenver wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen the series and read the first book and thought it did a pretty good job. What do you feel the TV show got wrong- not being argumentative btw, I'm just interested!

My only major inaccuracy is re: Sansa Stark. I found her to be a well-intentioned yet manipulated and confused child in the books. She just wants to be a quintessential 'Lady' - courteous, artful, etc. In the show they made her out to be... American. Rude, spoiled, etc. Other than that I just wish they had the time and the audience to tell the FULL story in all it's glory. Of course it's expected that the sub-plots h…

Out of curiosity, what makes you define "american" as rude and spoiled?

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#262

Post by aestetix_ » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 4:24 AM UTC

Tied between "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White and "The Baroque Cycle" (yes, all three volumes) by Neal Stephenson.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#263

Post by veidr » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 4:31 AM UTC

My choice is Spin, a novel by Robert Charles Wilson (2005).

This is IMO the very best kind of sci-fi: a plausible, scientifically grounded story about interesting people experiencing some fascinating shit.

Wilson is a great writer, too; I hadn't heard of him previously, but have since read a bunch of his works.

(As an aside, there has never been a year in my life where the best book of the year for me was a nonfiction title. Am I weird?)

http://www.amazon.com/Spin-ebook/dp/B0016IXMWI/ref=kinw_dp_k...

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#264

Post by mkopinsky » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 4:31 AM UTC

xn--ls8h wrote: post #31

"Go the F--k to Sleep", by Adam Mansbach. It's a great book that's helped me much in my personal life. I used to have trouble falling asleep at night, often finding myself worrying about issues that had come up during the day, and being unable to put work away when I needed to sleep. Since reading it, I've found that I can put away these fears and problems far better than I could before. I highly recommend it to anyo…

I'm not sure whether to downvote you for trolling, or upvote you for humor. Since I don't have a downvote button, I'll have to upvote.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#265

Post by laxaholic20 » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 5:28 AM UTC

davidw wrote: post #113

Let's see... in no particular order: * Thinking, Fast and Slow: http://amzn.to/sXQGSR - probably makes my list because I just finished it, and as he says "what you see is all there is" - we're biased towards things that come to mind easily. Actually, it is a pretty good book even looking through all the others I've read. * 1491: http://amzn.to/uaR0yf - about the Americas prior to the arrival of "Cristoforo Colombo".…

Very curious - what was the referral link impact of HN?

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#266

Post by vishaldpatel » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 7:00 AM UTC

Chapterhouse Dune.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#267

Post by fcardinaux » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 8:36 AM UTC

"Enchantment", by Guy Kawasaki

"Rework", by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

"Web Design for Developers", by Brian P. Hogan

"Scalability Rules", by Martin L. Abbott and Michael T. Fisher

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#268

Post by lawn » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 8:57 AM UTC

kenver wrote: post #143

lawn wrote: post #89

I can't really decide, but here are a few of my favorites. * Song of Ice and Fire series. I never really liked fantasy but this series is wonderful. The TV-series (Game of Thrones) is okay but a far cry from the books. * The Pragmatic Programmer. The best programming book I've seen. A must read for programmers I'd say. * Introduction to Algorithms. Haven't really gone through it but so far it's been great.

I've seen the series and read the first book and thought it did a pretty good job. What do you feel the TV show got wrong- not being argumentative btw, I'm just interested!

I agree the TV show was pretty well made, but it just wasn't as good as the book. Obviously you can't include everything in the series and it just felt kind of flat sometimes? It generally gave a different feeling from the book I'd say, maybe not better or worse but I preferred the book more. And I really disliked all the fighting scenes from the show - in my mind they were so much cooler.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#269

Post by linuxrulz » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 9:25 AM UTC

blub wrote: post #58

linuxrulz wrote: post #12

API Design for C++ - Martin Reddy

The table of contents looks very good. Do you know any other recent and worthy C++ books? I'm more interested in design-related and deeply technical ones.

Another book (though not a C++ book) that comes to mind is: Linux Programming Interface by Michael Kerrisk.

Re: Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011

#270

Post by davidw » Wed, Dec 28, 2011, 9:25 AM UTC

mjayyab wrote: post #259

davidw wrote: post #113

Let's see... in no particular order: * Thinking, Fast and Slow: http://amzn.to/sXQGSR - probably makes my list because I just finished it, and as he says "what you see is all there is" - we're biased towards things that come to mind easily. Actually, it is a pretty good book even looking through all the others I've read. * 1491: http://amzn.to/uaR0yf - about the Americas prior to the arrival of "Cristoforo Colombo".…

You should read the analysis regarding Kuran's book in the New Yorker: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/02/28/110228fa_fact_...

Looks like he may be arguing a bit at cross-purposes with Kuran's book, which primarly regards, roughly, the period from the rise of Islam to when the European colonial powers really came into their own.

But I can't tell, because it's behind a paywall.