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The Best Books I Read in 2015
- deu30v09 11y agoThese are list of must read books next year- How i wish i was aware of this books before now, i would have digest all by now. Not late , will still read them
- e15ctr0n 11y agoHere are some other lists of 'Best books of 2015': Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2015 https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2015 Amazon http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13108091011 http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13108091011 The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/entertainment/best-books-of-2015/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/entertainment/best-b... The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-books-of-2015.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-b... The Economist http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21679439-best-books-year-are-about-north-korea-detroit-nagasaki-and-being-pilot-shelf http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21679439-best-b...
- jbuss 11y agoThe Goodreads top books list is just a popularity contest. People vote for the books they recognize.
- maaaats 11y agoAnd that is bad why? At least for me, it's a bigger chance that I would enjoy a book from that list than from a list made by some professional critic.
- jbuss 11y agoIt's not necessarily bad, but "best" books should be judged on rating, not recognition. With this rating system a book with 1000 reviews rated at 3.5 stars would score higher than a book with 500 reviews rated at 4.5 stars.
- jenshoop 11y agoI used to balk at anything on the "best-sellers' list," assuming the majority would be poorly-written beach read material, but I realized that there can be compelling reasons to read beyond the literary merit of a particular work. Pop literature can help us understand and analyze the culture we're living in, tap into the zeitgeist, participate proactively. It can lead to moments of cognitive dissonance, for sure, but that's healthy.
- jorgearturo 11y agoI'm constantly divided between two options. 1. "Tapping into the zeitgeist and participate proactively is great." As you put it so eloquently :) 2. The alternative is to follow your own curiosity and read whatever you really have a hunger for. Time is so limited it can get hard to choose reading material sometimes.
- mturmon 11y agoSpeaking for music best-of lists, as compiled from votes of critics: I've found these lists are not very helpful in finding music I actually care about. It's frustrating, because there seems to be so much utility there. I've explained it like this: To get on the list, something has to be considered at-least-good by a lot of people, and this tends to reward (1) herd mentality; (2) lowest-common-denominator. The list selects against anything in any niche, even when it's excellent. As I look back through music that has meant a lot to me, there is just not much overlap with best-of lists. Note: I'm talking about critics-vote, pooled, best-of lists. Single-critic best-of lists don't average out niche tastes and, for the right critic-listener match, can be very helpful indeed.
- bmelton 11y agoMoreso for music than books, but I personally find that most of my favorites tend to have at least as many people that hate it as love it. Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", for example, is an extremely polarizing album. Between Mangum's nasally vocals, beginner-to-intermediate technical talent, the inclusion of saws and theramin as instruments; it all adds up to a love/hate affair. I'm not a big fan of any of Mangum's other works, but AOtS has an allure that is just... indescribably gripping. I don't go around recommending it, but when it comes up in my playlist, I find that I am simply compelled to stop what I'm doing and listen to the entire album, which is thankfully short, as far as albums go.
- sveme 11y agoThank you. Haven't thought about that album for many years, but now that you brought it back to my attention, I'll listen to it later today - which nicely supports the point you're trying to make.
- hrnnnnnn 11y agoI remember a counter-example to this (which may be a fluke) a few years ago when Burial got album of the year on metacritic for a spacey, ambient dubstep record. Maybe not super-niche but definitely not mainstream.
- lazyant 11y agothere's a phycological effect (I don't remember if there's a name for it) where we tend to value or rank more favourably things that are popular or familiar. Tests have been done with groups classifying newly heard songs with and without knowing a fake ranking and the group exposed to the ranking tended to follow it.
- r00fus 11y agoNot to mention that Amazon acquired Goodreads in 2013. The integration makes the Amazon "best of" more likely to be aligned with Goodreads.
- jacalata 11y agoDo you have any evidence of that, or are you just saying 'of course Amazon must have done something'? I use goodreads and haven't noticed any changes that would cause that.
- r00fus 11y agoI have - mainly for Audible - I've noticed some commenters noting how there's only interest in a given book (in this case, the Arawn Cycle) because Audible did a sale on the series. Why did Amazon purchase Goodreads?
- officemonkey 11y agoMost people aren't active readers. Goodreads users are active readers. Amazon bought Goodreads (and other sites like Shelfari) because that's where the readers are. I read 74 books so far this year. Most of them were purchased from Amazon. Also, Goodreads has an active review community, and good "by reader" data for recommendations (as opposed to Amazon's "by account" data. If Amazon were smart, they'd be working very hard on improving recommendations with their Goodreads data.
- gnrme 11y agoGoodreads rating system is useless anyway. It's 'out of five' which means most people will give a good book a 4 or a 5 star - it's not like IMDb's more nuanced 'out of ten' rating. They also display a bespoke meaning for the stars (i.e. 3 doesn't mean average), so for those that follow that meaning, their ratings will be different.
- jay_kyburz 11y agoI find it's still a fairly good indicator. Last time I was looking for a new author I went back and compared the author's average rating. Authors I like were 4+. Authors I think are OK scored about 3.5. Authors who I won't read again were generally 3 or so.
- gnrme 11y agoPerhaps 'useless' is a strong word. It's good for getting a general idea but too many books hover around the 4 mark. Whereas with IMDb anything 6 and above is worth the risk.
- andreygrehov 11y agoThere is an interesting read as for the ratings on Amazon vs Goodreads vs B&N: http://www.thenewdorkreviewofbooks.com/2011/06/amazon-vs-b-vs-goodreads-rating-ratings.html http://www.thenewdorkreviewofbooks.com/2011/06/amazon-vs-b-v...
- RobertoG 11y agoI know, but I tried one time to vote for books that I didn't recognize and it felt weird.
- estefan 11y agoYeah it's like how there always seem to be a few too many films from the last 5 years in "top 10 best films of all time" lists when the public vote for them.
- avar 11y agoI haven't read it, but interesting that "Fates and Furies: A Novel" a 3.5 star novel on Amazon makes the top 20 list. Is this purely a function of sales, not ratings?
- saturdaysaint 11y agoThose are editors' picks - unrelated to customer sales or ratings. This is a pretty common phenomenon in the world of literary fiction where (a) some are clearly just disappointed that the book in question isn't an easily digestible genre work and (b) many people are inclined to be especially vociferous about their opinion of something they've sunk 8 - 20 hours into. FWIW, I thoroughly enjoyed Fates and Furies in audiobook format, although it isn't without it's flaws. Critic James Wood gave it a tepid review in The New Yorker.
- lmm 11y agoTIME fiction http://time.com/4135131/top-10-fiction-books-2/ http://time.com/4135131/top-10-fiction-books-2/ and nonfiction http://time.com/4135245/top-10-nonfiction-books-2/ http://time.com/4135245/top-10-nonfiction-books-2/ A whole bunch of subcategories from the Guardian/Observer: http://www.theguardian.com/books#books-of-the-year http://www.theguardian.com/books#books-of-the-year
- Steko 11y agoKottke serves up a number of lists: http://kottke.org/15/11/best-fiction-of-2015 http://kottke.org/15/11/best-fiction-of-2015 Among those not already linked upthread or sibling: Tyler Cowen, fiction and non-fiction: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/11/best-fiction-of-2015.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/11/bes... http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/11/best-non-fiction-books-of-2015.html http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2015/11/bes... Buzzfeed Fiction: http://www.buzzfeed.com/isaacfitzgerald/books-we-loved-in-2015#.mbKM701j1 http://www.buzzfeed.com/isaacfitzgerald/books-we-loved-in-20...
- strick 11y agoQuartz: What critics agree are the best books of 2015 http://qz.com/566945/what-critics-agree-are-the-best-books-of-2015/ http://qz.com/566945/what-critics-agree-are-the-best-books-o...
- gammarator 11y agoI've made a habit of making my own "best books" list each year--it's a fun way to remember and distill a year's reading. Here's the 2015 version: http://bellm.org/blog/2015/11/27/the-best-books-i-read-in-2015/ http://bellm.org/blog/2015/11/27/the-best-books-i-read-in-20...
- bewe42 11y agoDon't forget brainpickings' best-of: https://www.brainpickings.org/tag/best-of/ https://www.brainpickings.org/tag/best-of/
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- kjhughes 11y agoI have nothing against affiliate links, but you should try to add value rather than just copy Gates' list, and you really should declare their use explicitly rather than implicitly via a link shortener. [Update: Rather than delete your post, you could have added your impressions of the books (or recommended better ones) and merely mentioned the use of affiliate links.]
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- hullo 11y agoFair enough, an experiment.
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- Negitivefrags 11y agoI'm always sad that lists like this from tech people never contain any fiction. I have often seen the sentiment that everything you read should have some kind of educational value or it's just a waste of time. Does Bill Gates not read fiction? Perhaps he understands that he would be looked down on if he were to include some in his list.
- kasperset 11y agoHere is one example of fiction: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Rosie-Project http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Rosie-Project
- hullo 11y agoI think part of it too is feeling qualified to (publicly & prominently) judge fiction, which doesn't come as naturally to as many folks as judging "ideas" on a nonfiction list like this may – & particularly with the extended write-ups Gates is doing.
- knughit 11y agoRight. book lists like this are in service of political goals. Far fewer fiction books promot promote a clear polical vision.
- krupan 11y agoThey surely contain fiction, just the authors' don't admit it :-) -from a fellow fiction lover
- devindotcom 11y agoI lol'ed
- davepeck 11y agoIf you look through past years, you'll see that Gates does indeed read and even occasionally recommend works of fiction.
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- DenisM 11y agoDid anyone read the books he recommended last year? Were they worthwhile?
- Cyph0n 11y agoI went through his list last year and selected two books that got my attention. The first is a book about the rise of the shipping container. Really informative and clearly describes the design process behind a technique we've always taken for granted. It's a historical account mainly, starting from the idea all the way to modern day shipping. http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller/dp/0691136408 http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller/dp/... The second, which I read through the first few chapters of, describes the origins of the steam engine, but it was a bit bland for my tastes. http://www.amazon.com/The-Most-Powerful-Idea-World/dp/0226726347 http://www.amazon.com/The-Most-Powerful-Idea-World/dp/022672... Both are interesting books to be frank so I'd recommend at least checking them out.
- smackfu 11y agoYeah, The Box is a good read. A few years old now.
- e15ctr0n 11y agoIn 2010, Bill Gates praised books by Vaclav Smil, a professor emeritus of environment and geography at the University of Manitoba.[1] It's true that Smil's books are packed with facts and ideas about ecology issues. But much before Smil, Buckminster Fuller had urged every engineer to ask the question 'How much does the structure weigh?' From that starting point, Fuller went on to design geodesic domes and other light weight structures of immense strength and no weight.[2] Shortly after Bill Gates made Vaclav Smil famous as his go-to person on ecology, Wired got Smil’s take on the problems facing America and the world.[3] From the Wired article, > WIRED: Let’s talk about manufacturing. You say a country that stops doing mass manufacturing falls apart. Why? > SMIL: In every society, manufacturing builds the lower middle class. If you give up manufacturing, you end up with haves and have-nots and you get social polarization. The whole lower middle class sinks. The share of manufacturing in all jobs has been declining steadily in the US since 1950. The service sector has always had a larger share than manufacturing. The ability of poorly educated males in the US in the 1950s and 1960s was due to limited competition from other countries. Once other countries also built up their educated people, the US wage rates had to suffer, relatively speaking. It does not matter which sector these poorly educated people are employed in – the problem is that they are poorly educated but want high wages, and this is no longer competitive. > WIRED: You also say that manufacturing is crucial to innovation. > SMIL: Most innovation is not done by research institutes and national laboratories. It comes from manufacturing—from companies that want to extend their product reach, improve their costs, increase their returns. What’s very important is in-house research. Innovation usually arises from somebody taking a product already in production and making it better: better glass, better aluminum, a better chip. Innovation always starts with a product. Look at LCD screens. Most of the advances are coming from big industrial conglomerates in Korea like Samsung or LG. The only good thing in the US is Gorilla Glass, because it’s Corning, and Corning spends $700 million a year on research. Under Smil's nose, Microsoft, Google and Apple and cellphones have changed the world – with hugely disruptive innovation almost equal to the invention of the printing press. But, if you are looking at the wrong place, you will not see innovation that has improved the lives of billions around the world. > WIRED: Can IT jobs replace the lost manufacturing jobs? > SMIL: No, of course not. These are totally fungible jobs. You could hire people in Russia or Malaysia—and that’s what companies are doing. Not the IT innovation jobs. There’s no IT innovation coming from these countries. > WIRED: Restoring manufacturing would mean training Americans again to build things. > SMIL: Only two countries have done this well: Germany and Switzerland. They’ve both maintained strong manufacturing sectors and they share a key thing: Kids go into apprentice programs at age 14 or 15. You spend a few years, depending on the skill, and you can make BMWs. And because you started young and learned from the older people, your products can’t be matched in quality. This is where it all starts. Again looking at the wrong place. The quality of Japanese cars beats almost any manufacturer in the price range. Toyotas are world-class – even beating VW. > WIRED: You claim Apple could assemble the iPhone in the US and still make a huge profit. > SMIL: It’s no secret! Apple has tremendous profit margins. They could easily do everything at home. The iPhone isn’t manufactured in China—it’s assembled in China from parts made in the US, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, and so on. The cost there isn’t labor. But laborers must be sufficiently dedicated and skilled to sit on their ass for eight hours and solder little pieces together so they fit perfectly. Agreed – Apple could make huge profits even if the iPhone is assembled in the US. But, Apple would not pay them $30/hour, which is what you need to support a lower middle-class life. > WIRED: But Apple is supposed to be a giant innovator. > SMIL: Apple! Boy, what a story. No taxes paid, everything made abroad—yet everyone worships them. This new iPhone, there’s nothing new in it. Just a golden color. What the hell, right? When people start playing with color, you know they’re played out. Agreed that iPhone 5 is no innovation. But, iPhone and iPad did not come from Germany or Switzerland! > WIRED: Your other big subject is food. You’re a pretty grim thinker, but this is your most optimistic area. You actually think we can feed a planet of 10 billion people—if we eat less meat and waste less food. > SMIL: We pour all this energy into growing corn and soybeans, and then we put all that into rearing animals while feeding them antibiotics. And then we throw away 40 percent of the food we produce. Meat eaters don’t like me because I call for moderation, and vegetarians don’t like me because I say there’s nothing wrong with eating meat. It’s part of our evolutionary heritage! Meat has helped to make us what we are. Meat helps to make our big brains. The problem is with eating 200 pounds of meat per capita per year. Eating hamburgers every day. And steak. You know, you take some chicken breast, cut it up into little cubes, and make a Chinese stew—three people can eat one chicken breast. When you cut meat into little pieces, as they do in India, China, and Malaysia, all you need to eat is maybe like 40 pounds a year. Agreed, if this can be done. But, that’s not the world trend, Chinese per capita consumption of meat has gone up many times in recent years. [1] http://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Important-Books-About-Energy-by-Vaclav-Smil http://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Important-Books-About-Energ... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_fuller https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_fuller [3] http://www.wired.com/2013/11/vaclav-smil-wired/ http://www.wired.com/2013/11/vaclav-smil-wired/
- tlrobinson 11y agoCheatsheet, without the affiliate links (another commenter posted these with affiliate links then deleted it after being called out): The Road to Character, David Brooks - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081299325X http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081299325X Thing Explainer, Randall Munroe - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251 Being Nixon: A Man Divided, Evan Thomas - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812995368 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812995368 Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open, Julian Allwood - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190686005X http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190686005X Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?, Nancy Leys Stepan - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801450586 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801450586 Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322 Honorable Mention: The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life, Nick Lane - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393088812 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393088812
- aerovistae 11y agoAffiliate links? Like, Bill Gates gets some money when you click through his blog? Please tel me I'm misunderstanding.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- vonnik 11y agoAnyone who refers to David Brooks as "the insightful New York Times columnist" has lost me as a reader. I can't remember the last time he had an original, or even accurate, thought. http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-dont-think-david-brooks-is-okay-you-guys-1702674607 http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-dont-think-david-brooks-i... Here are two good books: * The Korean War: A History - Little known fact: The US took the wrong side in the Korean War by putting the former officers of the Japanese imperial army in power in Seoul. It committed countless atrocities to achieve its stalemate, including fire-bombing half the country (Germany redux) and using napalm on whole villages, a foreshadowing of Vietnam. * Old School - A novel by Tobias Wolff. If you're tired of tired prose, try Wolff. He cares about sentences.
- vlehto 11y agoI skimmed your article and I'm now convinced that Albert Burneko is a mean person. That was about 3479 words of ad hominem. I have to respect such persistence. But I have no opinion on David Brooks.
- vonnik 11y agoI don't think it's entirely ad-hominem. This is actually a fairly accurate description of his output: "...He has been a reliable producer of out-of-touch, tissue-thin pronouncements on the perils of our secularized, technologized 21st century lives, virtually all of which rightly can be interpreted as passive-aggressive nostalgia for what Family Circus comics told him “outdoors” might have been like when he was a kid. You could just about set your calendar by it: In a month of Brooks, you’d get the call to begin or continue a war with Iraq or Iran, the grasping attempt to paint some cretinous Senator or presidential hopeful as the intellectual heir to Edmund Burke, and then, at last, the decline-and-fall column. You’d see a headline like “The Slow Virtues” or “The Hollow Century” or “Why the Teens Are Despicable,” and you’d know ol’ Dave’s coffee shop was out of plain croissants a week ago and the barista had a nose-ring and he’d decided he’d witnessed the death of the Western moral tradition."
- saeranv 11y ago
- rcavezza 11y agoGates has also reviewed all of these books in more detail on gatesnotes.com. Here's the link to the Thing Explainer review (which I ordered today) - http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Thing-Explainer http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Thing-Explainer Others Below: Eradiation: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Eradication http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Eradication Mindset: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Mindset-The-New-Psychology-of-Success http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Mindset-The-New-Psychology-o... The Road To Character: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Road-to-Character http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Road-to-Character Being Nixon: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Being-Nixon http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Being-Nixon Sustainable Materials: http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Sustainable-Materials-With-Both-Eyes-Open http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Sustainable-Materials-With-B...
- scholia 11y agoRandall Monroe is currently doing a book tour so you can hear him speak and get a signed copy if you're in the right place at the right time. He was at NASA in Houston today.....
- farresito 11y agoIf anyone is interested in the book Sustainable Materials, it's free: http://www.withbotheyesopen.com/read.php http://www.withbotheyesopen.com/read.php
- Isamu 11y agoI second the review of Mindset by Carol Dweck. This book is a result of her work studying these issues as a psychologist. Re-posting my summary: Two mindsets: Fixed mindset - talents, abilities and intelligence are fixed, endowed Growth mindset - talents, abilities and intelligence are learned and can be developed These mindsets are learned, and have fundamentally different reactions to challenges. The two-mindsets model is a simplification for the purposes of explanation. Failure The growth mindset embraces failure as a necessary part of learning. In fact failure is a indicator of an area for potential growth, if the opportunity is taken to overcome that failure. The fixed mindset avoids and fears failure; it is taken as evidence of a hard limit of your endowed talent. Motivation The growth mindset sees effort as necessary to mastery. Almost any level of mastery may be attainable with the right regimen of practice. Obstacles are a normal part of mastery and must be overcome as a matter of course in order to grow. Criticism is not taken personally, but used to indicate areas for improvement and growth. The fixed mindset sees effort as producing only small effects compared to their fixed ability. May be more prone to give up in the face of obstacles since it is thought that there is no new mastery to be gained. Criticism is more likely to be taken personally, as the individual identifies with the perceived limits of their ability and thinks that improvement is impossible beyond a certain point. Perceiving others The growth mindset is not threatened by others’ abilities. Others’ examples may serve to inspire. The fixed mindset is more likely to be jealous of others’ abilities since they are perceived to be highly desirable gifts and the result of luck and circumstance. Teaching Children Praise children by emphasizing their work and persistence. Do not use labels like “smart” or “gifted” that would reinforce a mindset of fixed abilities. Relationships Growth oriented mindset is more likely to be understanding and ready to learn from experience. Fixed mindset sees problems as a result of unchangeable personal attributes and are pessimistic about change. More likely to have unrealistic expectations, like not having to work at a relationship that is “meant to be”. Examples Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth and Wilma Rudolph are given as examples of overcoming early setbacks with a growth mindset. Last chapter is a “workshop” of situations and questions to help you develop a growth mindset.
- dorfsmay 11y agoIs "The Mindset" a new edition? If so, is it worth reading if you are familiar with the original one? For people who haven't read it BTW, I highly recommend it, especially if you are a parent.
- rdl 11y agoIs The Three-Body Problem worth reading?
- Paul_S 11y agoIt's terrible sci-fi but the sci-fi bit is only there to draw moralistic parallels between aliens and the Chinese. Some gruelling stories about China's culturual revolution that were pretty interesting but otherwise it's pretty bad. I'm sure the quality of the writing is lost in translation so I'm not complaining about that - just talking about the story.
- nostrebored 11y agoYes. It's excellent sci Fi with some fantasy elements. There's a completely different writing style that is a bit reminiscent of Asian movies, which I thought was pretty cool.
- lacker 11y agoI thought it was quite fascinating, both the sci-fi and the storyline. Strong recommend
- oafitupa 11y ago"Waking up: A guide to spirituality without religion" by neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris. Don't be so quick to dismiss it please, give it a try. It's not mysticism.
- ryanSrich 11y agoIf you liked this book, or if it just sounds interesting, Sam Harris' podcast is a treasure - Waking Up with Sam Harris[1] 1. http://www.samharris.org/podcast http://www.samharris.org/podcast
- crusso 11y agoIt's not mysticism It's the opposite of mysticism. It's a great neuroscientist-based look at meditation. I'd highly recommend it if you're interested in meditation but put off by all the mumbo jumbo you get from many other sources of meditation info.
- puredemo 11y agoBut my chakras..
- adrianlmm 11y agoAtheist material.
- pdeuchler 11y ago"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy "Flash Boys: Not So Fast: An Insider's Perspective on High-Frequency Trading" by Peter Kovac "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson
- legohead 11y agoIf you like fantasy, there are three series you need to read: The Blade Itself (3 books) The Kingkiller Chronicle (waiting on third and final book) The Stormlight Archive (waiting on third and final book)
- extesy 11y agoThe Blade Itself (3 books) There are 3 more books which read like sequels (same world, same heroes). The Kingkiller Chronicle (waiting on third and final book) We've been waiting for years and still no information if this book is even in the works The Stormlight Archive (waiting on third and final book) Ten books are planned in the series. See wikipedia for reference.
- anchpop 11y agoThe 3rd book in The Stormlight Archive series will not be the last. It is planned to be a 10-book series
- legohead 11y agoThat's good news! Dunno why I thought it was three books.
- ThrowayAccount 11y agoI was once berated for posting a blog article on how to build a multitude of data structures, in 3 different programming languages. The reason for this was because "This is hacker news, and this article is first year computing science stuff." - Yet Bill gates reads a book about Richard Nixon, and suddenly it is the top item on here, even though it is in no way related to anything technical. I'm out, this place is most definitely a circle jerk at this point.
- molsongolden 11y agoIt might be that people see this headline and are interested in returning later to skim the book list and all of the other lists linked here in the comments. Upvoting Bill's book list might not mean they like his list, think it belongs at the top of HN, or that they even read the blog post. The top-of-front-page ranking could just be the result of a large number of readers upvoting in order to have the discussion show up in their "saved stories". edit: A "save story" button that is independent of the voting/ranking mechanism might actually change the front page significantly.
- bthomas 11y agoConversely, the list of most saved stories seems more useful than most upvoted.
- knughit 11y agoYou are paying too much attention to one internet rando's disapproval.
- ThrowayAccount 11y agoI wish that were the case, except there were over a hundred comments, about how it didn't belong on here because it isn't of a high enough standard for hacker news. I still write a well known advanced programming blog, but I don't share links here as a result - I have found better outlets for content which actually concerns people in tech circles, as opposed to things like : "Why I scrapped X and did Y", "X is broken, we are fixing it", "Bill Gates read a book, Click here to see what it is! - You will never believe number 3!"
- ThrowayAccount 11y agoI was once berated for posting a blog article on how to build a multitude of data structures, in 3 different programming languages. The reason for this was because "This is hacker news, and this article is first year computing science stuff." - Yet Bill gates reads a book about Richard Nixon, and suddenly it is the top item on here, even though it is in no way related to anything technical. I'm out, this place is most definitely a circle jerk at this point.
- mei0Iesh 11y agoI can't read any of that because I'm distracted by the mental image of Bill telling someone the best books he read, with some conversation, and that person asking some questions while writing notes, then spending hours in front of his laptop, emailing a draft to someone else, who asks Bill a few more questions then returns a draft to someone else who finalizes it and publishes on "GatesNotes" written as if he sat down on his blogging backend and typed it out in a textfield. I have no idea the process behind this website, but it seems unlikely enough that he'd sit down and write it himself that I can't take it seriously. From what little I read, it doesn't sound like something produced directly from him without first passing through others, at least for formatting and correction.
- bostonpete 11y agoI think people read these notes for the "big ideas" presented, not for the majestic prose of Bill Gates. Given that, why do you care who assembles and copyedits the information for him?
- mei0Iesh 11y agoIt's kind of like if you turned on TV to watch the President's speech, and noticed it was a computer-generated 3D representation. It wouldn't be distracting? He's saying all these things, and I can't receive the message because all I see is a puppet pretending to be a man. I'm wondering about who actually wrote it, how many people it took to animate, whether it's even an authentic message or if it's part of some propagandic theatre. I think if someone is going to use their personal name on a website, they should actually write it. Otherwise, it's deceptive. If it's going to be a team effort, then call it a different name, and don't show a big picture of your face at the top of the screen.
- carlosgg 11y agoRe: "The Road To Character", an interview of the author on On Point in April: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/04/20/moral-guidance-david-brooks-new-book http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/04/20/moral-guidance-david-broo...
- mathgenius 11y agoI've read two of Nick Lane's books: he is a fantastic writer, and writes about hard-core biology that will set your brain on fire.
- graffitici 11y agoI wonder how much that video must have cost him! It's such a great production. I really like the way the table and the props match the theme of the relevant book. I'm guessing $10K for the one minute video?
- jonknee 11y agoI'm sure he's got video people on staff, so probably very little marginal cost. Look back at some older posts, there are a lot of videos. Here's one from last week about his dad's 90th birthday: http://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Happy-Birthday-Dad http://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Happy-Birthday-Da...
- guscost 11y agoThing Explainer is fantastic. Some of the best presentations of complicated ideas I've ever seen. It's a spinoff from this classic: https://xkcd.com/1133/ https://xkcd.com/1133/ Also check out a similar piece on general relativity: http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-space-doctors-big-idea-einstein-general-relativity http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-space-doctors-big...
- weavie 11y agoI've just bought this for my son in the hope that it will encourage him to actually read something rather than always look stuff up on YouTube.
- programminggeek 11y agoIf you like books on making things, you might like my book: http://brianknapp.me/creative-pursuit/ http://brianknapp.me/creative-pursuit/ It's $0.99 on Amazon, but if you want a free copy, just email me hi@brianknapp.me and I'll send you one.
- Artoemius 11y agoFor me, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is hands down the best book of 2015: http://hpmor.com/ http://hpmor.com/
- smaddox 11y agoThanks, looks interesting.
- reitanqild 11y agoAnyone here like me who is happy to have read one (or very few) fiction books[0] during 2015? [0]: Books you read primarily for someone kids not included ;-)
- mrharrison 11y agoHere is a list of lists https://popsnip.com/topic/863/Best-Books-of-2015-List-of-Lists https://popsnip.com/topic/863/Best-Books-of-2015-List-of-Lis...