10 ms·

Ask HN: Best books you've read in 2015

41 points by randomname2 11y ago

What were the best books you read this year?

DanBC 11y ago
There's probably a small amount of passive income to be made from slurping all the book recommendation threads and creating a nice simple web page with a bunch of Amazon (.com and .co.uk) referral links. You could mention how often the book has been mentioned on HN.
pards 11y ago
Continuos Delivery by Jez Humble and Dave Farley http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321601912 http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321601912
espinchi 11y ago
Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Future-Science-Shape-Destiny-ebook/dp/B004FGLX2Y http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Future-Science-Shape-Destiny-e...
jo909 11y ago
The Martian by Andy Weir (Fiction)
domaniac 11y ago
Wool by Hugh Howey (fiction)
noblethrasher 11y ago
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins The Process of Education by Jerome Bruner
VeejayRampay 11y ago
Two books by a French author called Jacques Benoist-Méchin. They work as a pair and they tell the stories of Kemal Atatürk (the founder of modern Turkey) and Ibn Saud (the founder of modern Saudi Arabia). I've found the perspective it brought to the modern geopolitics of the region invaluable. PS: Benoist-Méchin was a French far-right journalist, writer and was openly sympathetic with Nazi Germany. Not that I condone that (I don't) but the books are excellent nonetheless.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
hiperlink 11y ago
Beloved by Toni Morisson. Such beautiful prose.
stevesearer 11y ago
The books I've enjoyed reading most this year are ones I ought to have read in high school some 15 years ago, but just never did because I didn't enjoy reading and never made the effort: The Great Gatsby, As I Lay Dying, and am currently reading Cry, The Beloved Country
- jlewallen 11y ago
  I found myself in a similar position recently. I've gone back and read books usually assigned in high school and really enjoyed returning to them after all these years. Anything Vonnegut, East of Eden, and The Things They Carried, to name a few.
  - stevesearer 11y ago
    East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath are on my upcoming list of titles to read. A few others I've read since high school that I ought to have then are Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet On The Western Front, and Of Mice and Men.
monroepe 11y ago
Red Rising and Golden Son by Pierce Brown (fiction) http://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-The-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00CVS2J80 http://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-The-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B...
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
tjr 11y ago
Much enjoyed Sherry Turkle's Alone Together
JSeymourATL 11y ago
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly Tremendous insight into our own inner critic and interaction with people. Got turned onto to this book after hearing the author interviewed by Tim Ferriss, highly recommend> http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/08/28/brene-brown-on-vulnerability-and-home-run-ted-talks/ http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/08/28/brene-brown-on-vulner...
schlagetown 11y ago
Watchmen (Alan Moore) Origins of Form (Christopher Williams) Starship & The Canoe (Kenneth Brower) The Size of Lumber (Nicholson Baker) Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shunryu Suzuki) Deschooling Society (Ivan Illich) Moby Dick (Herman Melville) Bolo'Bolo (P.M.) Le Ton beau de Marot (Douglas Hofstadter) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (James Lovelock) Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation (Umberto Eco) Neuromancer (William Gibson) The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham) Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes)
OopsCriticality 11y ago
I'm cheating a little on the date, but The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin stands out. It was translated into english late last year, and received the Hugo this year for best story. It's wonderful sci-fi written on a grand scale, and made all the more interesting and refreshing to me by coming from outside the Western perspective. It's one of a trilogy: The Dark Forest english translation is out, and Death's End is coming beginning of next year. Also enjoyed Seveneves by Stephenson, and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. The former is likely known to the HN crowd; the latter draws comparisons to T.H. White's classic The Goshawk. Among non-fiction books, I enjoyed The Little Prover by Friedman and Eastlund. It was exactly what I expected, a gentle introduction into inductive proofs in the idiom established by The Little Schemer.
Taylor_OD 11y ago
I read The Martian, Snow Crash, and Ready Player One over the course of a month or two. All three of those books have their flaws but I enjoy the style and page turning nature of them a lot.
rossdavidh 11y ago
"So You've Been Publicly Shamed", by Jon Ronson, and "The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction", by Pat Shipman, are my two best reads this year (that were published in 2015). The first is a great analysis of the phenomenon (usually Twitter-based) of shame-storms, and the second is about the far, far older phenomenon of one invasive species driving a closely related one to extinction. Both very well done.
_xander 11y ago
Superintelligence - Nick Bostrom Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- jlewallen 11y ago
  I love reading just about everything and I'm having the hardest time getting momentum on Infinite Jest. I think partly due to the fact that I personally only have some vague idea of what I'm getting myself into.
  - firstworldman 11y ago
    Just keep going. One page at a time (easier to do if you employ 2 bookmarks in a paper book). It will begin to gel. Just focus on how funny it is, rather than what's going on. It is very much worth the effort.
Maultasche 11y ago
Tales of a Dying Earth by Jack Vance That was a very good book. I hadn't even heard of Jack Vance until recently, but it seems like he's been an influence on many modern authors.
sogen 11y ago
1.- Sandman 2.- Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry 3.- The Advertised Mind: Groundbreaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising 4.- The Hidden Persuaders - "A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command--The New Yorker
tech_crawl_ 11y ago
Made to Stick
_mgr 11y ago
I have 3 x Audible credits. Can anyone recommend anything that maybe better as an audio book?
- webstartupper 11y ago
  On Writing by Stephen King (narrated by the author)
- Vomzor 11y ago
  The naked truth. Leslie Nielsen fictional autobiography narrated by the man himself.
merrua 11y ago
The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett. His last work. Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson (I'd recommend this to families with young children) CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems by Lea Verou. I'm not really a front in person so this was an interesting look into CSS3 Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking Georgia Weidman I'm starting next on Rework, as I've heard a lot about it.
gadders 11y ago
I've just binge-read all the Martin Cruz Smith Arkady Renko novels - Gorky Park etc. Really well written, great plots and very droll in places.
rluhar 11y ago
Return of a King (William Dalrymple 2013) - A book about the Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th century. To paraphrase Mark Twain: History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes Being Mortal (Atul Gawande, 2014) - Powerful book about old age and confronting the mortality of our loved ones The Dark Forest (Cixin Liu, 2014) - Wonderful science fiction from China The Peripheral (William Gibson, 2015) - Bleak, near future science fiction. The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi, 2015) - More bleak, near future science fiction.

41 points by randomname2 11y ago

What were the best books you read this year?

DanBC 11y ago

There's probably a small amount of passive income to be made from slurping all the book recommendation threads and creating a nice simple web page with a bunch of Amazon (.com and .co.uk) referral links. You could mention how often the book has been mentioned on HN.

pards 11y ago

Continuos Delivery by Jez Humble and Dave Farley http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321601912 http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0321601912

espinchi 11y ago

Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Future-Science-Shape-Destiny-ebook/dp/B004FGLX2Y http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Future-Science-Shape-Destiny-e...

jo909 11y ago

The Martian by Andy Weir (Fiction)

domaniac 11y ago

Wool by Hugh Howey (fiction)

noblethrasher 11y ago

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins The Process of Education by Jerome Bruner

VeejayRampay 11y ago

Two books by a French author called Jacques Benoist-Méchin. They work as a pair and they tell the stories of Kemal Atatürk (the founder of modern Turkey) and Ibn Saud (the founder of modern Saudi Arabia). I've found the perspective it brought to the modern geopolitics of the region invaluable. PS: Benoist-Méchin was a French far-right journalist, writer and was openly sympathetic with Nazi Germany. Not that I condone that (I don't) but the books are excellent nonetheless.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

hiperlink 11y ago

Beloved by Toni Morisson. Such beautiful prose.

stevesearer 11y ago

The books I've enjoyed reading most this year are ones I ought to have read in high school some 15 years ago, but just never did because I didn't enjoy reading and never made the effort: The Great Gatsby, As I Lay Dying, and am currently reading Cry, The Beloved Country

jlewallen 11y ago
I found myself in a similar position recently. I've gone back and read books usually assigned in high school and really enjoyed returning to them after all these years. Anything Vonnegut, East of Eden, and The Things They Carried, to name a few.
- stevesearer 11y ago
  East of Eden and Grapes of Wrath are on my upcoming list of titles to read. A few others I've read since high school that I ought to have then are Red Badge of Courage, All Quiet On The Western Front, and Of Mice and Men.

monroepe 11y ago

Red Rising and Golden Son by Pierce Brown (fiction) http://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-The-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B00CVS2J80 http://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-The-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B...

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

tjr 11y ago

Much enjoyed Sherry Turkle's Alone Together

JSeymourATL 11y ago

Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead > http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588356-daring-greatly Tremendous insight into our own inner critic and interaction with people. Got turned onto to this book after hearing the author interviewed by Tim Ferriss, highly recommend> http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/08/28/brene-brown-on-vulnerability-and-home-run-ted-talks/ http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/08/28/brene-brown-on-vulner...

schlagetown 11y ago

Watchmen (Alan Moore) Origins of Form (Christopher Williams) Starship & The Canoe (Kenneth Brower) The Size of Lumber (Nicholson Baker) Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Shunryu Suzuki) Deschooling Society (Ivan Illich) Moby Dick (Herman Melville) Bolo'Bolo (P.M.) Le Ton beau de Marot (Douglas Hofstadter) Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth (James Lovelock) Mouse or Rat: Translation as Negotiation (Umberto Eco) Neuromancer (William Gibson) The Intelligent Investor (Benjamin Graham) Don Quixote (Miguel Cervantes)

OopsCriticality 11y ago

I'm cheating a little on the date, but The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin stands out. It was translated into english late last year, and received the Hugo this year for best story. It's wonderful sci-fi written on a grand scale, and made all the more interesting and refreshing to me by coming from outside the Western perspective. It's one of a trilogy: The Dark Forest english translation is out, and Death's End is coming beginning of next year. Also enjoyed Seveneves by Stephenson, and H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald. The former is likely known to the HN crowd; the latter draws comparisons to T.H. White's classic The Goshawk. Among non-fiction books, I enjoyed The Little Prover by Friedman and Eastlund. It was exactly what I expected, a gentle introduction into inductive proofs in the idiom established by The Little Schemer.

Taylor_OD 11y ago

I read The Martian, Snow Crash, and Ready Player One over the course of a month or two. All three of those books have their flaws but I enjoy the style and page turning nature of them a lot.

rossdavidh 11y ago

"So You've Been Publicly Shamed", by Jon Ronson, and "The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction", by Pat Shipman, are my two best reads this year (that were published in 2015). The first is a great analysis of the phenomenon (usually Twitter-based) of shame-storms, and the second is about the far, far older phenomenon of one invasive species driving a closely related one to extinction. Both very well done.

_xander 11y ago

Superintelligence - Nick Bostrom Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

jlewallen 11y ago
I love reading just about everything and I'm having the hardest time getting momentum on Infinite Jest. I think partly due to the fact that I personally only have some vague idea of what I'm getting myself into.
- firstworldman 11y ago
  Just keep going. One page at a time (easier to do if you employ 2 bookmarks in a paper book). It will begin to gel. Just focus on how funny it is, rather than what's going on. It is very much worth the effort.

Maultasche 11y ago

Tales of a Dying Earth by Jack Vance That was a very good book. I hadn't even heard of Jack Vance until recently, but it seems like he's been an influence on many modern authors.

sogen 11y ago

1.- Sandman 2.- Toxic Sludge is Good For You: Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry 3.- The Advertised Mind: Groundbreaking Insights into How Our Brains Respond to Advertising 4.- The Hidden Persuaders - "A brisk, authoritative and frightening report on how manufacturers, fundraisers and politicians are attempting to turn the American mind into a kind of catatonic dough that will buy, give or vote at their command--The New Yorker

tech_crawl_ 11y ago

Made to Stick

_mgr 11y ago

I have 3 x Audible credits. Can anyone recommend anything that maybe better as an audio book?

webstartupper 11y ago
On Writing by Stephen King (narrated by the author)
Vomzor 11y ago
The naked truth. Leslie Nielsen fictional autobiography narrated by the man himself.

merrua 11y ago

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett. His last work. Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson (I'd recommend this to families with young children) CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems by Lea Verou. I'm not really a front in person so this was an interesting look into CSS3 Penetration Testing: A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking Georgia Weidman I'm starting next on Rework, as I've heard a lot about it.

gadders 11y ago

I've just binge-read all the Martin Cruz Smith Arkady Renko novels - Gorky Park etc. Really well written, great plots and very droll in places.

rluhar 11y ago

Return of a King (William Dalrymple 2013) - A book about the Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th century. To paraphrase Mark Twain: History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes Being Mortal (Atul Gawande, 2014) - Powerful book about old age and confronting the mortality of our loved ones The Dark Forest (Cixin Liu, 2014) - Wonderful science fiction from China The Peripheral (William Gibson, 2015) - Bleak, near future science fiction. The Water Knife (Paolo Bacigalupi, 2015) - More bleak, near future science fiction.