Charles Stross, 'Accelerando'
Stephenson, 'Anathem' (first 150 pages slow)
Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
31–40 of 140 posts
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#32I basically discovered Vernor Vinge. A Fire Upon the Deep , by Vernor Vinge A Deepness in the Sky , by Vernor Vinge The Peace War , by Vernor Vinge Marooned in Realtime , by Vernor Vinge Hyperion , by Dan Simmons Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt , a fun book about some math and physics problems
more scifi recommendations: http://twitter.com/akkartik/status/7210697378
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#33I'm a fan of reading biographies and Open, Andre Agassi's biography, was a very intriguing, enjoyable, and surprisingly well-written book. The only other book I read this past year that stood out to me was GK Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday. I thought this was a very well written allegorical spy novel that had some very quippy dialogue. Next on my reading list I would like to read some Vladimir Nabokov since I'…
Yes. As a reader and speaker of the English language, you are absolutely required to read Lolita as soon as possible. It is one of the best novels ever.
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#34introduce the tenants of Objectivism How much rent do they pay? And what kind of landlady is Ms Rand.
Touché.
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#35(The links here bring you to my notes from each book, and the ISBN number for each so you can find it easily at your favorite library/store/whatever.)
How We Decide - by Jonah Lehrer: Brilliant book with one clear message: our emotional brain is faster and usually smarter than our logical brain. Our emotions are trained by years of logic and experience, retaining it all for real wisdom. Many decisions are better made by going with the gut feeling. Gets a little too technical with deep brain/neuro/cortex talk, but brings it back to usable points. http://sivers.org/book/HowWeDecide
The Investor's Manifesto - by William J. Bernstein: Absolutely my favorite author and advisor on the subject of investing. Anyone with any money to invest (or already invested) please read this book. Such clear thinking, using only facts, and using numbers not guesses. Modern portfolio theory: use passive indexes of the entire market, no speculation, no stock picking, and avoid the entire fee-sucking financial industry. http://sivers.org/book/InvestorsManifesto
Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives - by David Eagleman: Fiction. Awesomely creative think-piece of 40 different short stories of what happens when you die. To be clear: the author is not pretending this is fact! The framework is inspiring for anyone: coming up with 40 different answers to any one question. http://sivers.org/book/Sum
The Talent Code - by Daniel Coyle: A great book showing that deep practice - (struggling in certain targeted ways - operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes - experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them) - is what really makes you improve at anything. http://sivers.org/book/TalentCode
Influence - by Robert Cialdini: Classic book on the psychology of persuasion. I read it 15 years ago, thought about it ever since, and re-read it now. How to get a 700% improvement in volunteers. How to sell more by doubling your prices. How to make people feel they made a choice, when really you made it for them. http://sivers.org/book/Influence
The Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd: See my in-depth article about this book at http://sivers.org/time http://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#36Atlas Shrugged - finally got around to reading it after dozens of recommendations from good friends. Shocking how relevant and prophetic it is, especially with respect to the events of 2009.
*eye roll
It's the reaction everybody has with Rand. To be completely fair to her, she introduces a lot of people to ideas they haven't grappled with before. I'm still glad I read her, even if, three years after, I disagree with all but a strand of her ideas.
I doubt it's worth having another HN debate about Rand, though. We've thoroughly exhausted that discussion.
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#37Maybe not as high brow as some of the other suggestions here but I really enjoyed Stephen King's Under The Dome. It's basically a story of small town political corruption and the human tendency to be easily exploited by dictatorial types in a crisis.
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#38Risk, the science of politics and fear by Dan Gardner (absolutely fantastic book, I already mentioned it on here earlier in the year).
The Game (again). I read this regularly to remind me of a few things - it's the book that originally got me fascinated in human interaction.
Nemesis (Richard Mullers theory) after a recommendation on HN.
A couple of Obama's books (seemed logical to read up on him)- dreams of my Father I especially liked.
Snowball (though still chugging through that).
In Search of Schrodinger's Cat - a book all about the evolution of quantum theory (and one that gives me my favourite quote of the year: In 1905 Einstein actually published 5 times. The fifth being his PHD dissertation; yes those three individually genius works, which shook the very foundations of physics, were published my a man called Mr Einstein. Despite the artistic license I still love it as a quote :))
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#39The best book I read in 2009 was The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It's surprisingly accessible (I've never taken a biology class), and talks a lot about evolutionary game theory which I found fascinating.
Some other books I read last year:
How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. It was a great book, Pinker's writing is accessible and entertaining. Much more so than On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.
More with Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight by Paul Ciotti. I really enjoyed this one, it was the story of the first team to cross the English channel with human-powered flight.
What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. I liked this one better than Gladwell's other books. There is less theorizing and arguing a point and more telling stories, which is what Gladwell excels at.
The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett. If you are patient with what is sometimes (in my humble opinion) pointlessly arguing semantics, some of the sections are interesting.
Re: Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009?
#40I just finished a ton of great books, some that immediately come to mind:
The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris - Really made me think about life and the work I do
Tribes by Seth Godin - Love this book.
The Dip by Seth Godin - read it before, reread it again this year
Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina - really had to struggle to get past the beginning, was fantastic once I did
Find Your Great Work by Michael Bungary Stanier - I liked this one a lot, motivational
The Power of Less by Leo Babauta - no surprises here, I enjoyed the book, it reads like you would expect it to. Some new insights that aren't on the blog
Superfreakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Dubner
Blink, The Tipping Point and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (I liked The Tipping Point the best out of those 3)
Free by...Chris Anderson (?) I forget. Very interesting.
Team Up by Pete Mockaitis - Great read about accountability groups, subset of a mastermind group IMO.
Collapse by Jared Diamond - Very interesting looks at patterns in civilizations. Some people I spoke to get bored after a few examples, it is a little repetitive but I enjoy the parallels
My old faves are of course Gettings Things Done, 7 Habits, Greatest Salesman in The World, and How to Win Friends and Influence People.
More details here: http://sidsavara.com/personal-development/best-personal-deve...
I regularly (and will be posting a bunch in the next couple weeks) post reviews of books I read here: http://sidsavara.com/product-reviews