14 ms·

Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?

• dbalan 11y ago
  I finished "Thinking Fast and Slow" by Kahneman - A slow read, but a good one. He talks about the intricacies and surprising observations about how me take decisions. "Logicomix" - A brief "history" of logic, its not always historically accurate. Did I tell you its a graphic novel? "Show Your work" - Aston Kleon - A short motivating read about sharing ones work, he makes some good arguments for sharing the process as well, not just the product. Picked up "Coders at work" - read two chapters, a great read so far (I know its pretty popular one amoung HN)
• pyotrgalois 11y ago
  Two great books: - "Functional Programming in Scala" by Paul Chiusano and Rúnar Bjarnason - "Big Data: Principles and best practices of scalable realtime data systems" by Nathan Marz and James Warren
  • lghh 11y ago
    I just looked over the first chapter or so of "Big Data" that's online with the intent of purchasing it yesterday. It seemed decent enough. What were you general thoughts on it?
• 6footgeek 11y ago
  Ready Player One. by Ernest Cline. Brilliant geeky read (fiction) :)
  • smcl 11y ago
    I haven't read it, but it was featured on I Don't Even Own A Television with hilarious results: http://www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2014/06/19/010-ready-player-one-w-mike-sacco/ http://www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2014/06/19/010-ready-...
• rodolphoarruda 11y ago
  Disclaimer: I am a manager. No Hero - M. Owen; Zero to One - P. Thiel; The 7 Principles of Professional Services - S. Anastasi.
• ing33k 11y ago
  Not including technical books "The Four Steps to the Epiphany" - I got a very detailed view on customer development. "Zero to One" - got some fresh ideas on how to think differently wrt business. "Dhandha: How Gujaratis Do Business" - collection of stories , which highlight why/how Gujaratis are so successful in businesses.
• musgravepeter 11y ago
  "Leaving Orbit - Notes from the last days of American spaceflight" - pleasantly sentimental view of the wind down of the shuttle program. "The Dark Forest" 2nd installment in Three Body Problem series. Quite clever. "This Changes Everything" - triggered by a quote from the doc on the radio about trying not to think about climate change and whether it's possible to be bored by the end of the world. Lots of good info (including a visit to a climate deniers conference), bit long winded. "The Princeton Companion to Applied Mathematics". If I read only 10% still worth it. Lots of things to dip into. "The Astronomer and the Witch" Kepler fights to save his mother from persecution.
  • bargl 11y ago
    I loved the Dark Forest. The whole series is awesome.
• onion2k 11y ago
  "Chance: The science and secrets of luck, randomness and probability" It's a collection of New Scientist essays based around probability. Well worth reading, and because it's just short essays it's easy to pick up for just a few minutes at a time.
• arethuza 11y ago
  Books this year that I loved: "A Place of Greater Safety" - Hilary Mantel [French Revolution - Danton, Robespierre, Desmoulins ...] "One Summer: America 1927" - Bill Bryson "Napoleon the Great" - Andrew Roberts "Seveneves" - Neal Stephenson Reading "The Box" at the moment which is pretty interesting.
  • MuEta 11y ago
    Just started Seveneves (still in part one), and, as usual, I am blown away by Stephenson's world-building and character development. I freaking love his stuff.
• danso 11y ago
  I re-read Dune for the first time since I was a kid. Boy that did not hold up well. The world and lore building, which is what I guess I fondly remember, were still fantastic. The constant inner dialogues, not so much.
• Diederich 11y ago
  One of the most interesting books I read was mentioned here on HN early this year: A Thread Across the Ocean http://www.amazon.com/Thread-Across-Ocean-Heroic-Transatlantic/dp/0060524464 http://www.amazon.com/Thread-Across-Ocean-Heroic-Transatlant... It covers the beginnings of one of the most important historical legs that most of our amazing technology rests on.
• smcl 11y ago
  I had a weird year, reading no new 2015 books. Here's a handful I enjoyed the most: "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynmann" - probably needs no introduction here on HN, but some wonderful anecdotes by Richard Feynmann. "Red Plenty" by Francis Spufforth. Enjoyable (and apparently thoroughly well researched) depiction of life in the Soviet Union during its rise and decline "My Ten Years Imprisonment" by Silvio Pellico. An autobiographical account of an Italian revolutionary during the times of the Austro-Hungarian empire, he was imprisoned in a castle I live next to. "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer - luckily a couple of months before Everest was released (it was recommended in an HN discussion)
• nothingpersonal 11y ago
  Do audio books count? If so my favorites from this year would be Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, and Armada by Ernest Cline. Books I actually read which were good: The Informationist by Taylor Stevens Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
• hkmurakami 11y ago
  "Shopgirl" - Steve Martin - short and poignant. Recommended. "Madame Bovary" - Gustave Flaubert - Considered to be one of the masterpieces of literature, but it's so long that I can't really recommend it. "The Sales Acceleration Formula" - Mark Roberge - I'd recommend this to any entrepreneur. "Status Anxiety" - Alain de Botton - A pretty good pop scienc-y psychology book. "Zero to One" - Peter Thiel - A philosophy book imo. "Tokyo Vice" - Jake Adelstein - A look at the underbelly of Japanese society. "Capitalism and the Jews" - Jerry Muller - A very good overview of the intersection of the Jewish faith and culture with their business success. "The Richest Man in Babylon" - George S. Clayson - A personal finance parable. Recommended. "The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up" - Marie Kondo - A philosophy book. Worth a look even if you don't ascribe to its teachings.
  • KhalilK 11y ago
    >it's so long that I can't really recommend it. Tell that to the teacher who made us read it at the age of 14. A masterpiece nonetheless.
    • hkmurakami 11y ago
      Yeah I think it's a book that you pick up when the time is right for you. Thus, I too think it is a great book, but at the same time, I wouldn't exactly "recommend" it to anyone. Same with Great Expectations.
  • orky56 11y ago
    Just curious why you found "Zero to One" to be a philosophy book? Despite its academic approach, it was surprisingly practical even if not many startups/entrepreneurs would find it accessible right away in their first venture.
    • hkmurakami 11y ago
      I think the book is predominantly about Thiel's view of the world, which in turn is his philosophy.
• adrianhoward 11y ago
  This year's finished reading so far https://gist.github.com/adrianh/f6aca0e6ac3b2e9aec94 https://gist.github.com/adrianh/f6aca0e6ac3b2e9aec94 (doesn't include stuff skimmed or unfinished)
• bryogenic 11y ago
  "Cryptonomicon" - Neal Stephenson "Expecting Better" - Emily Oster "The 9/11 Commission Report" - National Commission on Terrorist Attacks "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS" - Joby Warrick "Power Wars: Inside Obama's Post-9/11 Presidency" - Charlie Savage (not finished yet)
  • arethuza 11y ago
    I can strongly recommend The Baroque Cycle - the loosely connected "prequels" to Cryptonomicon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Baroque_Cycle [Jack Shaftoe is probably my favourite fictional character]
• SuperChihuahua 11y ago
  I've read 33 books so I'm not going to publish the list here, but i blogged about it: http://blog.habrador.com/2015/12/books-ive-read-in-2015.html http://blog.habrador.com/2015/12/books-ive-read-in-2015.html The books I liked the most were: - The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why - On Intelligence - The Martian - The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution - Einstein: His Life and Universe - Alan Turing: The Enigma - Neuroscience for Dummies - Thunder Run - (which is about the battle of Baghdad in 2003)
• gadders 11y ago
  I re-read all the Akady Renko books by Martin Cruz Smith, and the Harry Bosch by Michael Connolly. I enjoyed both very much, but I would say the Cruz Smith books edge it.
• Sherlock 11y ago
  "The Magicians", "The Magician King", "The Magician's Land" - Lev Grossman. 4/5 "Inside Job" - Connie Willis. 4/5 "Norwegian Wood (Tokio Blues)" - Haruki Murakami. 4/5 "Old Man's War" - John Scalzi. 5/5 "Persepolis" - Marjane Satrapi. 5/5 Non fiction: "The 10,000 year explosion" about recent evolution. 3/5 ton of evidence for their thesis, but lacks predictions. "What if" well known by HN. 5/5 "The nurture assumption" about education, 2/5. Maybe a 4/5 when it was published, but now their ideas are in the water supply. "The man who mistook his wife for a hat", by Oliver Sacks 4/5. Several stories about neurological deficits.
• louisrochal 11y ago
  "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" - Nietzsche (French Translation) - 5/5 An absolute Must read. "1984" - Orwell - 5/5 French law on surveillance made me want to read it again "Fahrenheit 451" - Ray Bradbury - 4/5 "La zone du dehors" - Alain Damasio - 4/5 "The name of the wind" - Patrick Rothfuss - 4/5 A great fantasy story. It's a big book, there is a lot of details, but very well written. "Stranger in a Strange Land" - Robert A. Heinlein - 3/5 Awesome concept, but very slow "The Inverted World" - Christopher Priest - 4/5 Great short book
  • partomniscient 11y ago
    Robert A. Heinlein, not Valentine Michael Smith (although he features heavily in the story).
    • louisrochal 11y ago
      Haha sorry! Edited
• dcolgan 11y ago
  Some of the books I enjoyed the most and found most helpful: - Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain - Helped me better understand myself and others, highly recommend - The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey - Advice on mastering the mental part of doing anything, not just tennis - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - actually maybe the most important book I've read in a while, helped me throw away a lot of stuff I didn't need - Models by Mark Manson - very helpful and ethical advice on attracting women for people like me who never really quite figured it out - A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine- discussion of a philosophy of life that seems like it would work well for modern living
  • ckpwong 11y ago
    I read all these books this year too, except for Models.
  • jdimov10 11y ago
    I can vouch for two of these. I read "The Inner Game of Tennis" last year, because it was recommended to me. It is the kind of book that I would never pick up on my own based on the title. Luckily, the book contents has almost nothing to do with the title :) Marie Kondo's book on tidying up is also of delightfully broader utility than the title implies. I just recently finished it - it is a surprisingly insightful book and a real pleasure to read. Highly recommended!
  • palimpsests 11y ago
    Kondo's book is definitely amazing - a very important book, like you say. The system behind it is extremely simple and quite powerful.
• MuEta 11y ago
  The Baroque Cycle - Neal Stephenson - It was 3000+ pages all told, and I LOVED it. His writing has always enthralled me, and I was hooked from the start Every Discworld Novel - Terry Pratchett - Not much can be said that hasn't already been said a million times over. If you haven't read them yet, start now The Theory of Poker - David Sklansky - Helped out my poker game tremendously. I'm much more ev+ now
  • gardano 11y ago
    Baroque Cycle, for sure. And I'm stuck in a loop where I continue to read all the Discworld novels, over and over…
    • MuEta 11y ago
      I can see that being an issue. I'm in the same habit with LOTR, ASOIAF and Harry Potter, reading each series once every two years or so, and it crushes my ability to read a lot of new books. I've avoided rereading Discworld so far because I know that it will never be as magical as the first read through. But oh god, Baroque Cycle was unparalleled from a character-building perspective. I loved every second of it.
• n3on_net 11y ago
  There are several books I read, still want to increase my reading amount: 1. "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!", nice bio about Feynman 2. "Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future", inspiring biography and business book. 3. "Apollo" by Catherine Bly Cox. Awesome book about Apollo Programm. Goes even in some technical details. 4. "Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies". Very good and thorough book about bitcoins, the author implements most import concept in the book. 5. "F'D Companies: Spectacular Dot-com Flameouts". I seldom don't recommend a book, but this one is hard to tell. It is interesting read about a lot of failed dot-com era companies. But the layout and writing style looks like an automatic rip-off of some blog articles (I read on kindle). It's not totally bad, but be warned before buying. Try some free chapters. 6. "Structures: Or Why Things Don't Fall Down", good layman general introduction into static. Nice overview why all the buildings/bridges etc around you don't fall apart. 7. "Never Eat Alone", Classics of networking. Actually basic stuff that people probably already know about networking. But still good to read, and author always shows examples on successful persons or himself. 8. "The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory", reading this at the moment. Very nice and simple introduction to relativity theory and quantum mechanics. I finished around 100 pages and like it. I read 8 books this year. My aim is around 2 books/month. Reading can make difference.
  • thomnottom 11y ago
    Good luck. I was just getting back into regularly reading a couple years ago. Tried for 1/month. Then it was 1-2. Now it's 3-4. Feels great - although I have to remind myself that it's okay if I don't reach some sort of quota each month.
    • n3on_net 11y ago
      Very nice. How many hours per day do you read for 3-4 books/month?
      • thomnottom 11y ago
        About 30-60 minutes per day. Every couple of weeks I'll hit a point in one of the books where I'll just read the rest of it in a couple hours. Of course these numbers all depend on the books - this year did not include anything longer than 500 pages. Also, don't get too hung up on the numbers. The past couple months were hectic and my pace has really slowed down, and that's totally fine.
• mlent 11y ago
  "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson (Love it -- hilarious, witty, a pleasure to read) "Kafka on the Shore" by Haruki Murakami (Strange good -- but I'm not sure if I liked it as much as liked "The Wild Sheep Chase") "One hundred years of solitude" by Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez (Very slow, had a hard time honestly) "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn (A fast, exciting read but found the ending unsatisfying. But would recommend) "Still Life with Woodpecker" by Tom Robbins (Fantastic prose, fantastical characters and situations. Will read more from him) And for technical books, I read "The Art of Agile Development". Was alright.
• Symmetry 11y ago
  Here are the ones I'd be willing to recommend, in reverse chronological order of when I read them. I read 59 total. Listen to books on tape while working out has maybe doubled my reading rate. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy - Great book on how the Mongol Empire came to be, who Genghis was, and it put the whole thing in perspective for me in a useful way. The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch - What it says on the tin. Actually a good overview how some important technologies interrelate. Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction - How to be wrong less often. Based on the Good Judgement Project results. The Three-Body Problem - Decent enough science fiction but extra interesting because it's science fiction from a different culture. Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants - A history of things that go boom. Engaging writing and I learned things about chemistry. The Traitor Baru Cormorant - I'm nominating this for a Hugo. It tells you it's going to stab you in the gut but when it does you don't see it coming. Plus high quality scheming and speculation on economics, society, and empire. The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Excellent use of voice and an overall good book. Bloom - Made my skin crawl in places and also was good at making you feel a radical change in perspective. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed - An interesting perspective on certain aspects of government. A bit too negative for the topic, the factors outlined are also why commercial economies were able to develop more centralized economies than agrarian ones in the early modern era. Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy - Quite good book on bureaucracy though not as excellent as the previous book on the origins of states. Last First Snow - It's always great to read books about the struggles between people with sympathetic motivations. The Unwelcome Warlock - The latest in a series of fantasy books where people use magic in creative and sensible ways. Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy -Mostly about all the different sorts of asteroids. Seveneves - Neal Stephenson's latest. If you like his books read it but maybe skip the last 1/3 after the timeskip. Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future - Wow he did a lot of cool stuff. Stories of Your Life and Others - Brilliant and poetic short stories. Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life - Some interesting perspective on materialism. Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life - Best science book I've read in a while! Shows why mitochondria matter, the fundamental limits of prochariotic life, and several important ways mitochondria influence again and evolution. Blue Remembered Earth - Awesome near futureish book that does well at imagining a future that isn't just a linear extrapolation but is still believable. A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark - Not enough pacifist badass grandmothers in urban fantasy. Quantum Computing since Democritus - I understand QM much better now.
• necessity 11y ago
  Philip K. Dicks's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?": Liked the movie (Blade Runner) better, but not bad. Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms": While reading it I found it extremely boring, though there was this feel to it that still made it pleasant to read. I can't really describe it. Plutarch's "Lives" from the main figures from the end of the Republic (Penguin Classics collection): By far the best books on Roman history I've ever read. Livy's books on the Second Punic War (Penguin Classics collection): A bit extensive, very detailed. I liked Plutarch's better (even though he's a bit more imaginative according to modern historians), but nevertheless a great read. Various books by Machado De Assis (Quincas Borba, Helena, among others): National author, I just love his books, even though they all share a common plot. A book on Alexander the Great. Can't remember the author. It was a summary of his life and conquers, very short but entertaining reading. This year I'm planning to read some more Ancient History narrated by the classics, some Shakespeare and maybe Nietzsche or Dante (heavy reading I guess). I'm just as fond of history as of fiction, as Livy puts it: I shall find in antiquity a rewarding study, if only because, while I am absolved in it, I shall be able to turn my eyes from the troubles which for so long have tormented the modern world...
  • g_delgado14 11y ago
    That's exactly how I would describe my experience reading a Hemingway book.
  • thomnottom 11y ago
    Reading "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was such a disappointment to me because I loved the movie so much. I would like to revisit it - maybe I would understand the parts about the empathy boxes and the wife's mood thing better now.
    • scandox 11y ago
      I think it's important to recognise there is a minimal relationship between book and movie. If one keeps them mentally discrete it is much easier to enjoy both. Do Androids Dream... is a very spiritual book. The movie doesn't / can't capture that element and wisely creates a totally different experience from the same elements...
• HCIdivision17 11y ago
  "The Long Earth" - Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter - First in trilogy about parallel worlds; the combination of those two authors makes it both fanciful and grounded, which is a bit odd. "Clockwork Rocket" - Greg Egan - First in the Orthagonal trilogy; An alien story where physics is different. "Seveneves" - Neal Stephenson - Goes great with the recent hard sci-fi space movies. EDIT: "What-if" - Randall Munroe - Saw this on another list and need to make sure is shows up as often as possible. This is the thing to hand every kid as part of their back-to-school pack.
• mziel 11y ago
  Not-technical "The World's Toughest Endurance Challenges" - Very nicely illustrated "Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words" - Extremely enjoyable. People here certainly are aware of xkcd and it's type of humor. Technical "Functional programming in Scala" - good read for Scala beginners, especially after "Scala for the Impatient" "Learning Spark" - the best book on Spark so far "Assessing and Improving Prediction and Classification" - couple of interesting ideas for ML and Data Science "Neural Network Design" - Quite basic, but I like the flow and introducing mathematical concepts just before they're needed.
• baby 11y ago
  to kill a mocking bird: it was refreshing, looking for more simple books like this one
• thelonelygod 11y ago
  Pretty terrible data viz of everything I read this year: http://ruparel.co/book-viz/ http://ruparel.co/book-viz/ TL:DR is I read too many comic books.
  • ing33k 11y ago
    nice !
• fmax30 11y ago
  I had read zero books by April 2015. Have read the following since then. 1. 1984 by Orwell 2. Animal Farm by Orwell 3. 40 Rules of Love by Elif Shafak 4. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 5. The Man in the high castle by Philip k Dic 6. Tuesdays with morrie by Mitch Albom 7. Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie 8. The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell 9. Veronica Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho 10. The Little Prince by antoine saint exupery 11. A Monster calls by Patrick ness Books that I am currently reading very very slowly ( 1-3 chapters per week ) 1. The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking 2. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Murakami (I am really enjoying the slow reading here) 3. Zen and art of motorcycle by Robert Pirsig Edit: Formatting
• garysieling 11y ago
  These are the ones I've liked best Neal Thompson - "Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR" Dee Brown - "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" Nicholas Johnson - "Big Dead Place" - about living in Antartica Mark Noll - "The Civil War as a Theological Crisis" David Halberstam - "The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War" Stanley Karnnow - "In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines" Esmerelda Santiago - "When I was Puerto Rican" Lara Pawson - "In the Name of the People" (about Angola) Marc Benioff - "Behind the Cloud" (surprisingly good for a business book) Keith Anderson - "The Digital Cathedral" (book a friend of mine wrote, hard to describe, but suprised me at how good it is) Adam Hochschild - "King Leopold's Ghost" (how the Congo became a colony) Jessica Livingston - "Founders at Work" "The Singapore Story: The memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew" (a little dry / long at points, but otherwise very instructive) "Listening spirituality, Vol. 1: Personal Spiritual Practices Among Friends" (a book about Quakerism that was surprisingly good) Michael Fogus - "Functional Javascript" David Shi - "The Simple Life: Plain Living and High Thinking in American Culture" (traces the historical movements in the U.S. that value "simplicity" as a virtue, this was an interesting way to look at history) A.J. Swoboda and studies, "Blood Cries Out" (recommended to me by someone I know who is in seminary, this is Pentacostal theologians writing about ecology) Frank Moraes - "The Importance of Being Black" (an Indian journalist in the 60s who took a tour of Africa and wrote a book; his books are hard to find though)
• Hortinstein 11y ago
  I read quite a few others that have been mentioned here, but I finally read two that hard sci-fi books that should appeal to the Hacker News crowd Permutation City: People can run simulations of themselves or entirely migrate their consciousness into computer programs, but existence is often limited to the amount of computation that you can afford, leading to slow existences that stretch time into fractions of realtime. That premise had me hooked, but the book has fantastic thought provoking plot points throughout. Highly recommended. http://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/1597805394 http://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Novel-Greg-Egan/dp/15... Blindsight: Amazing first alien encounter book that should be read by everyone that is a fan of the genre. Memorable cast of characters...the Vampires are really interesting. All kinds of introductory scientific concepts throughout. Entertaining and educational. http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1450882718&sr=1-1&keywords=blindsite http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640/r...
  • stuxnet79 11y ago
    Permutation City has a brilliant premise but I found sections of it mostly unreadable and I can't say I enjoyed it very much. Egan would have been better served presenting the content in an essay format. Egan's more unforgiving stories are an acquired taste IMO. I started out with his short stories and found them enjoyable when there wasn't so much pretentious info-dumping and preaching. Permutation City felt like one of his harder to parse short stories stretched to the length of a novel. Blindsight is on my Kobo right now, but after reading Permutation City I'm scared to start reading it because I don't want to reach halfway and want to chuck it like I did Permutation City. On a more positive note, I just want to say that I liked how prescient the novel was in foretelling AWS.
    • birdperson 11y ago
      > Blindsight is on my Kobo right now, but after reading Permutation City I'm scared to start reading it because I don't want to reach halfway and want to chuck it like I did Permutation City. I read Blindsight before Permutation City. The way he describes the situations and the way his characters are often extremely confusing. But you get used to it at some point along the way. The story line itself and the Aliens are somewhat off the left field which makes the story very interesting. I personally liked it. Permutation City is, on the other hand, simply boring as hell. Drier than ye olde Abstract Algebra textbook.
• Jach 11y ago
  Meditations - Marcus Aurelius -- A fine classic I enjoyed. Might count, might not, since it finished in March but was going on before. I loved Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - Eliezer Yudkowsky - http://hpmor.com/ http://hpmor.com/ Loved Masters of Doom - David Kushner I liked Worm - Wildbow - https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/ https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/ -- but it falls short of overall greatness and I don't think it's worth its 22-average-books length if I were to go back in time and decide on rereading... Learn to Play Go: A Master's Guide to the Ultimate Game (Volume I) - Janice Kim -- I've been learning Go and thought this book was particularly excellent for beginners. There are at least 4 other books I'm close to finishing and I might get one done before the end of the month... Volume 2 of the above Go series, Mythical Man-Month, A handbook of traditional living, or The Waking Dream.
  • jndsn402 11y ago
    HPMOR was fantastic - very well done re-imagining of Harry Potter with Harry as a rationalist, challenging long-held beliefs about magic. Plot, pacing, etc. were great. Really influenced how I think about my own beliefs as well.
  • sundarurfriend 11y ago
    > Meditations - Marcus Aurelius -- A fine classic I enjoyed. Which version did read, and where did you get it? The translation I found on Gutenberg was too archaic and hard to understand.
    • kornish 11y ago
      The Gregory Hays translation is by far the best out there.
    • Jach 11y ago
      Sorry, missed this. For Meditations I actually listened to it on audio book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcmkSqAqTI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXcmkSqAqTI I'm not sure which translation it is, looks like George Long's from http://www.amazon.com/Meditations/dp/B004INMVDY http://www.amazon.com/Meditations/dp/B004INMVDY but I also remember browsing http://www.bartleby.com/2/3/ http://www.bartleby.com/2/3/ a few times afterwards and thought it was readable (much better than the Gutenberg one).
• jpalmer 11y ago
  Freedom - Daniel Suarez - Follow up to "Daemon". https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7132363-freedom https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7132363-freedom Old Man's War - John Scalzi - My first Scalzi book and won't be the last. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/51964.Old_Man_s_War Red Rising / Golden Son - Pierce Brown - I'm a sucker for these YA SF series. Lots of fun. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15839976-red-rising
• agentultra 11y ago
  Fifteen Dogs: an apologue of rare insight. Apollo and Hermes make a wager that if dogs were given human intelligence they would die miserable, not happy. This was my favorite this year. The End of Vandalism: a tale of a love triangle in a small mid-western town. Funny, dark, and a vivid portrait of that kind of town. A huge cast of characters, some only on stage for a moment or two and yet each integral and colorful. The Annihilation Score: I love the series but this wasn't my favorite despite starring one of my favorite characters for the first time. The Rhesus Chart: Another of the Laundry Files series. A sanguinary disease nearly brings down the Laundry. This one was snarky, good fun. One of my favorites from the series. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?: A creepy masterpiece of haute fan-fiction. Without Their Permission: The tale of a privileged, mediocre man extolling the Libertarian virtues of the Internet. Anyone can open a laptop and get super rich! Without anyone's permission! Because that's why we're not all rich yet. The Internet Is Not The Answer: A counter-point from Andrew Keene to Alexis Ohanian's unbridled optimism. Decent but not strong enough. 21st Century C: Amazing! Finally a practical book about C. The modern tool-set available, the notable language features of C99 and C11, and a few in-depth projects to pull it all together. Great book. On Numbers And Games: A fabulous book by one of my mathematical heroes. Well worth getting through it. Frankenstein: Mary Shelley's classic. I started collecting the new Penguin Classics line and the introductions are really insightful. These are well-researched and produced editions. The Nature of Things: The epic from Lucretius. It was really eye-opening to finally read this book. Atomism, psychology, and poetic metaphors... from thousands of years ago. ... probably more I'm forgetting.
• profEpcot 11y ago
  "Debt - Updated and Expanded: The First 5,000 Years" - David Graeber - Bit of a slog, but worth it for an in depth look at the historic mechanisms of debt that are inexorably tied to violence and control "Confessions of a Venture Capitalist" - Ruthann Quindlen - Peak into the world of VC, mostly interesting bc it was written in 2001 and her expertise was in tech. Not much has changed in that world it seems. "One Plus One Equals Three: A Masterclass in Creative Thinking" - David Trott - Pithy treatment of design thinking from a writer with a staccato style. "The Best Interface Is No Interface" - Golden Krishna - The best book on design out there IMO. Make it invisible. Plus the dude's name is fucking GOLDEN KRISHNA. Winner.
• thomnottom 11y ago
  I read a lot this year, so I'll just point out some highlights: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante - The highlight of the year. I'm now partially through the 3rd book in the series. And amazing portrait of the friendship between 2 girls as they grow up and try to escape the violence and poverty of their small town in Naples. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel - My guess is that plenty of people here have read it. Great read about the fall of civilization due to a massive flu outbreak. Room by Emma Donoghue - Beautiful, heartbreaking, troubling and uplifting. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - A classic, glad to finally read it. The Room by Jonas Karlsson - Absurdist take on corporate life about a man who finds a room in his office building that shouldn't be there. Welcome To Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor - For fans of the podcast. I highly recommend both. Uglies/Pretties/Specials by Scott Westerfeld - YA trilogy about a future in which everybody is made pretty once they reach a certain age. Not great literature, but a fun read. Although the second one is a little blah. Get In Trouble by Kelly Link - Excellent collection of fantastical yet mundane short stories. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine - Powerful exploration of race in America. I feel like I need to read it a few more times. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - Still one of my favorite authors. Story of a baby whose family is brutally murdered and ends up being raised by spirits in a graveyard.
• acj 11y ago
  "Chasing the Scream" - a timely and interesting summary of the war on drugs and its (in)effectiveness. "Mr. Bloomfield's Orchard" - a fun book about fungi from a mycologist with a solid sense of humor. "On the Move" - Oliver Sacks's biography. Insightful and uplifting, especially if you enjoy writing. "Ready Player One" - a dystopian cyber thriller. Reminded me of Snow Crash. Good stuff. "The Last Place on Earth" - a good (if labored) summary of the races to the north and south poles and their geopolitical impacts. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" - been on my list for years. Long but good. "Steve Jobs" - needs no introduction. Got me interested in Isaacson's other books. "Hallucinations" (Oliver Sacks) - insightful analysis of the prevalence and for-reaching effects of hallucination. It's a lot more common (and puzzling) than most of us realize.
• tmaly 11y ago
  The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway ( great book ) Hooked How to Build Habit-Forming Products - Nir Eyal ( great book very insightful ) The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg ( interesting topic, long book ) Bandit Algorithms - John White ( great book, very short and easy to get through ) Ask - Ryan Levesque ( interesting ideas on sales funnels for websites ) Predictable Revenue - Aaron Ross ( so so, I liked some of the sales ideas but I see them used too often now ) Sherlock Holmes Adventures - Mike Ashley ( good book if you like the original and want some fresh material )
• mjhoy 11y ago
  My reading slowed to a crawl this year. Here were a few: - Chronicles Vol 1, Bob Dylan. Inspiring, I felt very open to the world after. I loved his descriptions of Dave Van Ronk: "No puppet strings on him ever. He was big, sky high, and I looked up to him. He came from the land of giants." - Peregrine, J.A. Baker. Intense, spiritual, like some sort of modern Moby Dick, but sparse, focused, elemental. Next year I hope to read more Roberto Bolaño and start Elena Ferrante.
• noxToken 11y ago
  Was light year for me: Confessions of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer Origins of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer The second is a prequel of the first. I haven't read the third in the series. Light reading about a guy's descent into villainy. Yes Please - Amy Poehler: I love memoirs. I just didn't love this one. It read a lot like Leslie Knope was the author, but there was an obscene amount of name dropping that kept interrupting the flow of the book for me. Fresh Off the Boat: A Memoir - Eddie Huang: Like I said, I'm a sucker for these things. Picked it up, because the series reminded me of a 90s Asian version of Everybody Hates Chris. The absurdity and random profanity was a little off-putting at first. Remembering how I felt as a black boy doing some of the same dumb things in the 90s really put it into perspective though. The Serpent of Venice: A Novel - Christopher Moore: The follow up to Fool. It's a different take on Shakespearian story-telling. I can't recommend his novels enough. Quantum Lens - Douglas E. Richards: I read this solely because I liked Wired and Amped. No-frills action with a sci-fi element. You probably won't get engrossed, but you will be entertained. Spell or High Water & An Unwelcome Quest - Scott Meyer: Books 2 & 3 in a series about a group of guys who can manipulate reality through writing scripts. Good, but not my favorite. Armada: A Novel - Ernest Cline: Ah yes. The long awaited sophomore effort from the author of Ready Player One. This book fell harder than it deserved to, because people where expecting it to be analogous to Ready Player One. Spoiler: it's not. The novel does have its short-comings. Repetitive dialogue, shoe-horned classic pop-culture references and shallow writing plague this book. If you've got time for a short novel, give it a whirl, but don't expect anything amazing. Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson: Book 2 of the Stormlight Archives. If it's an epic by Sanderson, do yourself a favor and board the hype train. You won't be disappointed. It's everything you want in a long fantasy novel without being bogged down with side-plots and details. Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson: This is a standalone novel with a tie-on to Words of Radiance. I'm only halfway through it. Would recommend so far, especially since it's free from the author.
• ifoundthetao 11y ago
  The Hobbit - Liked, classic. How Ideas Spread - It was decent, I feel like it could be condensed into an infographic after the fact, and hold great value. The Lean Startup - Excellent. Changed the way I do business. A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1 - Great book, wonderful universe. Apparently Martin loves himself a good descriptions of clothes. A Clash of Kings: A song of Ice and Fire, Book 2 - Great book. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Good book for a kid, pretty irritating kid though (the kid in the book, not mine). The Andromeda Strain - Excellent! Christ the Sum of All Spiritual Things - Great book! Very healthy view of a Christocentric theology. Dracula - Sleeper hit of the year. This book was awesome. Pippi Longstocking - Read this to my son, and we really enjoyed it. The Secrets of Power Negotiating - Helped me out during the process of buying a house by understanding various negotiation gambits. Would recommend. Scrum - Another book that changed the way I work. Would absolutely recommend it. The Wizard of Oz - Much better than the movie. The 4-Hour Workweek - .... It was "okay". I don't know. I'm still torn. The Swiss Family Robinson - Awesome book, full of fun things to talk about with your kids. The BFG - This was the start of the Roald Dahl stage for bedtime reading.. It's a great book, one of my favorite Dahl books. Matilda - Reading this as an adult, it was not nearly as fun as when I was a kid, however my son loved it. The Fantastic Mr. Fox - Fun and easy read for the kids. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Pretty decent book. Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator - Terrible. Absolutely terrible.
• anatoly 11y ago
  Non-fiction, best to worst: Henry Marsh, Do No Harm. A brilliant memoir by a neurosurgeon about his work, the nature of his profession, successes and mistakes (especially the latter). Frequently touches or verges into the personal. Not morbid, but often sad. Keith Johnstone, Impro for Storytellers. Viola Spolin, Improvisation for the Theater Two very good books about improvisation, although Spolin's is too dry and theory-laden for me (it's meant for teachers more than practitioners). Both, however, pale compared to Keith Johnstone's earlier Impro: Improvisation and the Theater, which is a life-changing book about what improvisation can teach us about spontaneous creativity and relationships between people. I recommend that one first and foremost if you know nothing about improvisation and are curious. Martinus J G Veltman, Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics. A readable account - necessarily simplified, of course - of the current state of affairs in elementary particles and much of the last 50 years of history, by one of the participants (a Nobel prize winner). Not as organized and methodical as I thought it would be, and half a year later I forgot most of the physical explanations, but it was an interesting read. Robert B. Edgerton, Sick Societies. A thorough examination of the hundreds of horrible examples when "natural" societies studied by anthropologists have customs that are not only bad from our modern Western point of view, but arguably fail in achieving their own objectives. The whole book exists to counter lazy cultural relativism of the "maybe we don't like X, but if they do it, it must be for a good reason and it must be a useful adaptation for them" kind. Michael Harris, Mathematics Without Apologies. A very eclectic and idiosyncratic book by a mathematician on the sociology and epistemology of mathematics as a discipline. To be appreciated for its wealth of ideas and references to other interesting books and theories, rather than for any particular argument or thread. Milton Rokeach, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. A story on what happened when a psychologist tried to bring three psychiatric patients, each believing themselves to be Christ, together and to talk it out amongst themselves. Happened in the 1960s. The idea is more interesting than the outcome. Fiction, best to worst: Patrick O'Brian, The Hundred Days. The penultimate book in the series of the best historical novels (the Aubrey-Maturin series) ever written, by a huge margin. The series transcend the genre and I count the Aubrey-Maturin books among the very best books I read in the last decade. Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle. A brilliantly written coming-of-age story about a girl growing up in an impoverished family occupying a decaying castle in the English countryside, set in the 1930s. Reminded me in many ways of Rebecca West's The Fountain Overflows, a novel in the similar genre (but with a younger protagonist) that's known much less than it deserves. Juan Rulfo, Pedro Paramo. If you read and liked Garcia Marquez's A Hundred Years of Solitude, this one is shorter, darker, involves many more dead people, and you may want to give it a try. Alfred Hayes, In Love. A story of a man obsessed by love in a mid-century NYC. Unexpectedly touching, very convincing psychologically. Iain M. Banks, Against a Dark Background. SF, a grand heist novel set in a advanced civilization living in a star system located unimaginably far away from any other stars and galaxies, and so doomed to a lone struggle with its own long history. A wealth of technological and social ideas you'd expect from Banks. The ending felt a bit forced. Gene Wolfe, There Are Doors. Gene Wolfe, Nightsite of the Long Sun/Lake of the Long Sun. Gene Wolfe is the best writer American science fiction produced in the last half-century. "There are Doors" is a pretty weird fantasy novel about an alternate world where men die after their first intercourse (as some spiders do in ours), and the hero travels back and forth between that world and ours. It's good, but not as strong as Wolfe's best, which to my taste is the Book of the New Sun tetralogy, the novellas in the Fifth Head of Cerberus collection, and many of his short stories (well-collected in The Best of Gene Wolfe). The other two are the first half of the "Book of the Long Sun" series that I'm still reading through. Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed. Superb political SF about an imagined anarchist [anti-]utopia. A serious attempt to describe a human society with no central power structures and no ownership. The hero is a physicist born and raised in that society who escapes to a sibling planet with the more typical modern states. This novel took all the awards in the 1970s when it was published, and deservedly so. [cont'd]
• skorgu 11y ago
  I was on a sf kick this year apparently. Full list (why can't amazon show me the read dates of my kindle books?!): - Ancillary Sword - The Magician's Land - The Three Body Problem (incomplete) - Libriomancer, Codex Born, Unbound - Thank You, Jeeves - Omon Ra (incomplete) - Stations of the Tide - 1Q84 (staggeringly incomplete) - The Desert Spear (incomplete) - The Lost Fleet: {Dauntless,Fearless,Courageous} (third one incomplete) - Superintelligence - Nexus, Crux (incomplete) - Another Fine Myth - The Annihilation Score - The Man with the Golden Torc, Daemons are Forever - The Fractal Prince (incomplete) - Crooked - Ancillary Mercy - The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - The Traitor Baru Cormarant - Excession - Hive Mind - Seveneves
• lmcnish14 11y ago
  A few books I read for fun this year: - Armada: Ernest Cline - Very disappointing and predictable - Library of Souls: Ransom Riggs - Easy but engrossing book - Ruby Under a Microscope: Pat Shaughnessy - I find his style of explaining things very accessible - Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End: Atul Gawande - It's a hard subject to think about but helped me to understand that prolonging life and continuing treatment shouldn't necessarily be the end goal for every case. - Go in Action: William Kennedy - A must if you're learning Go lang
  • EliRivers 11y ago
    - Armada: Ernest Cline - Very disappointing and predictable ... but much improved (although still bad) if you take the interpretation that everything that happens after he almost beats someone's head in with a tire iron happens inside his head during his full-on psychotic break. You can push some of the earlier events into being clues towards that, mix in his father's conspiracy theory insanity for a genetic component, and then view everything that happens as purely a story he tells himself, fuelled by his obsession with eighties sf. It's a push, but it makes it a better book (although still pretty bad) :)
• kirk21 11y ago
  Best books I have read this year: - Shareholder letters of Warren Buffett: http://amzn.to/1OgZVh9 http://amzn.to/1OgZVh9 - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage: http://amzn.to/1Oh09oz http://amzn.to/1Oh09oz
• DrNuke 11y ago
  My favourite has been "Industrial Applications of High-Performance Computing: Best Global Practices", CRC Press, April 2015.
• ycom13__ 11y ago
  Here are all the ones I read this year A Dance with Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire) by George R. R. Martin A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) by George R.R. Martin The Confident Speaker: Beat Your Nerves and Communicate at Your Best in Any Situation by Harrison Monarth House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsk To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain by Steven D. Levitt Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance Finders Keepers: A Novel by Stephen King The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I by Barbara W. Tuchman The Wright Brothers by David McCullough Seveneves: A Novel by Neal Stephenson The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson Hitler's Last Day: Minute by Minute by Emma Craigie The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins Robopocalypse: A Novel (Vintage Contemporaries) by Daniel H. Wilson Robogenesis by Daniel H. Wilson In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick My 5 favorite ones from that list are In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance To the Last Man: A Novel of the First World War by Jeff Shaara Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
  • Pietertje 11y ago
    What is your opinion on The Guns of August? I'm still looking for a good book on World War I.
    • ycom13__ 11y ago
      I liked it a lot, it is really good. I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to learn about WW I. Also highly recommended is Dan Carlin's 6 part podcast series Blueprint for Armageddon Here is the link to episode I http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-blueprint-for-armageddon-i/ http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-50-bluepri...
• Pietertje 11y ago
  I'll skip some mentioned already by others. Books I really enjoyed this year: The Wright Brothers, David McCullough - wonderful book on the Wright Brothers, easy to read, shows that persistence and logic thinking pays out. 5/5 The autobiography of Malcom X, Malcolm X - Nice bio, a bit repetitive sometimes. 3/5 Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand - Although the book has more than 1200 pages it really kept me going. I read this book to get a better understanding of the ideology of some republicans. Fun read. 4.5/5 Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt - Levitt studies all kind of different everyday questions using economics. 4/5, short, easy to read Guantanamo Diary, Mohamedou Ould Slahi - Diary of a Guantanamo prisoner who has been imprisoned since 2002. The US has never charged him with a crime. Profound and disturbing. 5/5 No place to hide, Glenn Greenwald - Story on Edward Snowden, probably read by most of HN. Enjoyed it, that's it. 4/5 How to lie with statistics, Darrel Huff - Short book on statistics, easy to read and fun. 4/5
  • iandanforth 11y ago
    Atlas Shrugged needs to come with a warning label. "If you are male and between the ages of 13 and 21 this book should be considered harmful and potentially dangerous. If you are high achieving academically but socially awkward you should not read this book as it may exacerbate anti-social personality disorders."
    • Pietertje 11y ago
      Well... yes and no... Rand divides all the characters into two groups, to put it simple into the socialists and the capitalists. The capitalists get the virtues of honesty, integrity and are rational and so on, while the socialists are depicted as dishonest, corrupt, irrational etc. If you fail to understand these characteristics are not necessarily tied to either of the groups, yes the warning label is appropriate. If you do understand this - and I hope some males between the ages of 13 and 21 do - this book can help you improve your attitude towards work. After reading Atlas Shrugged I must say I'm more eager to get things done and ignore pessimistic people who think things simply cannot be done because it is a lot of work. It definitely helped me.
• r3bl 11y ago
  I've started keeping a file on my GitHub account where I'm listing every book I have read (or at least remember reading). Most of those listed there I have read in 2015 (there's also a score next to each one): https://github.com/aleksandar-todorovic/notes/blob/master/00_books.md https://github.com/aleksandar-todorovic/notes/blob/master/00... Unfortunately I am quite a bit behind the goal I gave to myself (14/25 at the moment).
  • Maultasche 11y ago
    I started doing something like this, but then I discovered goodreads.com. I use it to not only keep track and rate what I have read, but to keep a list of books I want to read. It's probably nearing 300 items by now.
• ThrustVectoring 11y ago
  Books I'm glad I've read: The Inner Game of Tennis Impro by Keith Johnstone Seeing Like a State The Timeless Way of Building Linear and Geometric Algebra by Alan Macdonald Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (read this one thrice) The Tao of Pooh Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd The Drama of the Gifted Child Interaction Ritual What Do You Say After You Say Hello? Of niche use: Mathematics: its Content, Methods and Meaning - mostly useful for figuring out what math you don't know. I recommend reading it at a fairly decent pace, and noting what subjects don't sound like an overview of something you've already learned.
  • randcraw 11y ago
    What did you think of MacDonald's book? Did you feel the content could have practical use to you? I'm intrigued, but reluctant to invest the time/effort if the topic has only theoretical implications.
    • ThrustVectoring 11y ago
      It's the kind of book that lets you solve the same amount of problems with much more concise mathematical knowledge and structure. I didn't have a pressing need for linear algebra, so I didn't get everything out of it that I could have, but overall it helped clarify the way I thought about many math concepts. For example, in two dimensions there is one direction for "sideways", so complex numbers have a one-dimensional vector `i`. In three, there are three coherent directions for "sideways", so quaternions have a three-dimensional vector `i`. If you have coordinate-free ways of thinking about linear algebra, you can treat both complex numbers and quaternions as "the same kind of thing" in many ways. I especially recommend this book if you need mathematical elegance in order to learn things and have a low tolerance for explanations that amount to "that's just how things work, go memorize stuff".
  • andrei_says_ 11y ago
    Impro! Is incredible. If you liked the Tao of Pooh, you may enjoy The Te of Piglet
• projektir 11y ago
  Daring Greatly by Brené Brown - discussion of shame culture, its effects on people, and how to combat it - pretty good book about a topic that doesn't get raised often enough, even if I don't agree with everything the author says. The Sports Gene by David Epstein - how genetics may affect sport performance (and not only that); a bit of a counterpoint to Gladwell's Outliers - probably my favorite book this year. The Martian by Andy Weir - a guy tries to survive on Mars - found this one rather bland. I would have liked to see more psychology and less calculations, and I am not sure how I feel about its presentation of the scientific community.
  • jharohit 11y ago
    you found The Martian bland ?! That's...I am...speechless. It is an amazing book. The characters are superbly fleshed out and Andy Weir's humour is par excellence. The calculations were not tedious at all. LOL - if you stuck on Mars, calculations are you best friend. I think the author has actually dumbed it down quite a lot TBH.
    • EliRivers 11y ago
      I also found it bland; it became repetitive and dull. Problem, exposition of solution, repeat. The character interaction, by the nature of the plot, was pretty minimal and almost all the problems were technical - there was very little inter-character conflict or character development. At the end of the novel, everyone was pretty much the same as they were at the beginning. The journey was entirely physical, and the dangers were personal. I am befuddled that you say the characters were superbly fleshed out; I found them rather two-dimensional, and some of them clearly existed only because there needed to be more people hanging around.
      • palimpsests 11y ago
        I completely agree – very unrealistic characters (maybe that's why there was no character development). Also there was a lot of exposition about how extraordinarily 'funny' the main character was and I didn't get that at all, it felt very heavy handed with the jokes. Also, the bit about cannibalism made no sense whatsoever.
• Church- 11y ago
  Oh where to start... too many to name of course. But several new favorites of mine from this yewr would have to be: Blindsight, Essentials of Programming Languages, Welcome to Nightvale, Glasshouse and finally after puttering around it for three years, Accelerando.
• benajibayassine 11y ago
  1- The Emperor's Handbook by Marcus Aurelius. Jan, 10th 2015 2- The crowd, a study of the popular mind by Gustave Le Bon. Jan, 10th 2015 3- Remote by Jason Fried. Jan, 11th 2015 4- The shape of the world to come by Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, Jan, 20th, 2015 5- Post office by Charles Bukowski. Jan, 23rd 2015 6- Gang leader for a day by Sudhir Venkatesh. Feb, 6th 2015 7- Zen mind, beginner's mind by Shunryu Suzuki. Feb, 8th 2015 8- The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Feb, 23rd 2015 9- Darkness Visible by William Styron. March, 1st 2015 10- Zero to One by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters. March, 9th 2015 11- The Kaizen way: One small step can change your life by Robert Mauter. March, 11th 2015 12- Time by Alexander Waugh. March, 12th 2015 13- Max and the cats by Moacyr Scliar. March, 14th 2015 14- Scattered by Gabor Mate. March, 20th 2015 15- East of Eden by John Steinbeck. March, 30th 2015 16- Crossing the unknown sea by David Whyte. April, 7th 2015 17- Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. April, 13th 2015 18- The World beyond your Head by Matthew Crawford. April, 22nd 2015 19- How to Think about Exercise by Damon Young. April, 23rd 2015 20- Solitude by Anthony Storr. May, 8th 2015 21- Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. June, 10th 2015 22- The bastard of Istanbul (in Arabic) by Elif Shafak. June, 21st 2015 23- L’ordre libertaire: la vie philosophique d’Albert Camus by Michel Onfray. July, 7th 2015 24- Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse. July, 10th 2015 25- The arab uprisings by James Gelvin. July, 13th 2015 26- How to worry less about money by John Armstrong. July, 13th 2015 27- Self comes to mind by Antonio Damasio. July, 31st2015 28- Muhammad: The First Muslim by Lesley Hazleton. August, 4th t2015 29- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. August, 15th 2015 30- Heidegger's Being and Time by William Blattner. August, 18th 2015 31- Heidegger and a hippo walk through those pearly gates by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein. August, 19th 2015 32- Why nations fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. October, 3rd 2015 33- Charlie Munger: the complete investor by Tren Griffin October, 9th 2015 34- The selfish gene by Richard Dawkins October, 23rd 2015 35- The philosophical baby by Alison Gopnik October, 28th 2015 36- The three-body problem by Cixin Liu November, 1st 2015 37- Open letter to a young man by Andre Maurois November, 13th 2015 38- Thinking fast and slow by Daniel Kahneman November, 16th 2015 39- What do you care what people think by Richard Feynman November, 18th 2015 40- When the body says No by Gabor Maté November, 29th 2015 41- The truth will set you free by Alice Miller. December, 5th 2015 42- The shallows by Nicholar Carr. December, 7th 2015 43- What matters most byJames Hollis. December, 14th 2015 44- Finding meaning in the second jalf of life byJames Hollis. December, 20yh2015
• scorchio 11y ago
  Leave it to Psmith - 10/10 Anna Karenina - 8/10 The Code of the Woosters 8/10 Fooled by Randomness 7/10 Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life 8/10 How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia 9/10 Reluctant Fundamentalist 9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10 Something Fresh, something new - 7/10 Karma Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 8/10 Thinking, Fast and Slow - 9/10 Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates 10/10 The Pearl by John Steinbeck 7/10
  • martythemaniak 11y ago
    Leave it to Psmith - 10/10 Anna Karenina - 8/10 The Code of the Woosters 8/10 Fooled by Randomness 7/10 Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life 8/10 How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia 9/10 Reluctant Fundamentalist 9/10 The Sense of an Ending - Julian Barnes 8/10 The Last Question - Asimov - 9/10 The Magic of Thinking Big - 6/10 The catcher in the Rye 8/10 Models 7/10 High Fidelity - Nick Hornby 8/10 The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Neil Gaiman 7/10 The Surrender Experiment - 10/10 Untethered Soul - 9/10 The Autobiography of a Yogi - 7/10 Raja Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 7/10 Something Fresh, something new - 7/10 Karma Yoga - Swami Vikekandanda - 8/10 Thinking, Fast and Slow - 9/10 Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates 10/10 The Pearl by John Steinbeck 7/10
• pmcpinto 11y ago
  Thoughts on Design - Paul Rand, Design as Art - Bruno Munari, Meditations - Marcus Aurelius, Ways of Seeing - John Berger, The War of Art - Steven Pressfield
• neilsharma 11y ago
  "The Righteous Mind" - Jonathan Haidt. This book helped me understand conservative thinking, made me less heated in my opinions, and provided a convincing framework for me to understand moral arguments "Emperor of All Maladies" - Siddhartha Mukherjee. An excellently written history of cancer. "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" - Lansing Alfred. A true story of one of the last great explorations man has taken
  • todd8 11y ago
    I just want to add that for a cross country drive, there is no better audio book than "Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage". The audio version is absolutely gripping; the suspense is incredible, more so because of the strict linearity of the story as audio (no peeking ahead). I also liked "Into Thin Air" on audio.
• DanBC 11y ago
  Mostly kids books. These stood out - I've read each of these at least 30 times. This is not my hat: http://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Not-My-Hat/dp/0763655996 http://www.amazon.com/This-Is-Not-My-Hat/dp/0763655996 Smelly Louie: http://www.amazon.com/Smelly-Louie-Catherine-Rayner/dp/1447271807/ http://www.amazon.com/Smelly-Louie-Catherine-Rayner/dp/14472... WOLVES: http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Emily-Gravett/dp/1405053623/ http://www.amazon.com/Wolves-Emily-Gravett/dp/1405053623/ Gorilla: http://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Anthony-Browne/dp/0763673668/ http://www.amazon.com/Gorilla-Anthony-Browne/dp/0763673668/ Goodnight, goodnight, construction site: http://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Construction-Sherri-Duskey-Rinker/dp/0811877825/ http://www.amazon.com/Goodnight-Construction-Sherri-Duskey-R... The Promise: http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Nicola-Davies/dp/0763666335/ http://www.amazon.com/Promise-Nicola-Davies/dp/0763666335/ Some of these won the Kate Greenaway Award - an award for excellent illustration. I've made a partial list here (this is an ugly list because I just needed a list of all the books in one place, with links to amazon, and I'm too lazy to do more now it works): http://danbc.neocities.org/index.html http://danbc.neocities.org/index.html The official list is here. http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/ http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/greenaway/
  • japhyr 11y ago
    Have you seen The Boy Who Loved Math? It's a bio of Paul Erdos written for kids, and we've really enjoyed it. http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Loved-Math-Improbable/dp/1596433078/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= http://www.amazon.com/Boy-Who-Loved-Math-Improbable/dp/15964...
• joefreeman 11y ago
  I really enjoyed Kevin Kelly's 'What Technology Wants'.
• nkzednan 11y ago
  Riyria Revelations trilogy - quite good. Follows two thieves for hire. Read the books in publication order Ready player one - liked it samurai's garden Expanse series by James Corey entertaining Steelheart and Firefight by Sanderson- good but like Mistborn better Worm online serial parahumans good Nonfiction I read: Delivering happiness, Drive, Power of Habit, Power of full engagement
• laxatives 11y ago
  The Memory Book - Fantastic, maybe not always practical unless you have a lot of practice, but extremely useful to at least understand some of the strategies to memorizing strings Understanding Weatherfax - for an attempted (and failed) circumnavigation Sail Power Kon Tiki Shogun Art of the Sailor Business Adventures Metamorphoses (by Ovid, not Kafka) Guns, Germs, Steel Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time - this book had so many rave reviews. it has a tremendous hook and style for the first 50 pages, but overall I thought it was terrible Cryptonomicon -- fantastic Simulacra and simulation -- started, but I need to start over. this is not an easy read... Predictably Irrational -- another book with great reviews, but reading this book was not time well spent. the author just summarizes psychology experiments with pages of dumbed down explanations and tedious anecdotes The Alliance -- read this on my last day at my old job, a good reminder on the social contract between you and your employer and how it should be mutually beneficial, lots of boring filler though Triple your reading speed -- I wanted to take a speed reading course when I was in elementary school, but my dad thought it was a waste of time. I think I really missed out on something, but late is better than never. Siddhartha -- rereading of one of my favorite books of all time The Alchemist -- rereading of one of my favorite books of all time Jazz (by Leveaux) The Jazz Piano Book Mastering the Piano Big Blue Book of bicycle maintenance Probability (by Pitman) -- its embarassing statistics/probability isn't a required course in many programs Elements of Statistical Learning Advanced Analytics with Spark -- feels like this book was published only 80% done Optimization Models (by Calafiore and El Ghaoui) -- going to finish this is 2016 Functional Programming with Scala -- going to finish this is 2016 Linux Programming Interface -- going to finish this is 2016 Finished 18 books cover to cover in 2015, 6 of which were textbooks/academic texts. Currently have 7 in progress, 2 of which are piano workbooks and 3 are textbooks. Goal for 2016 is 30 books cover to cover, at least 8 textbooks/academic texts.
  • sp527 11y ago
    Could you expand a bit on your inclusion of 'Elements of Statistical Learning'? That book is essentially the holy grail of ML understanding and I find it difficult to believe you were able to grasp any meaningful proportion of it in what must have been a very condensed span of reading/study time. But maybe you're some kind of genius, in which case pardon me.
• 1812Overture 11y ago
  Dune by Frank Herbert- I'm one of the few people on Earth who enjoys the David Lynch adaptation so I finally had to get around to reading the book. Kind of awkward stylistically and structurally but a lot of fun. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen - It's seemed to me that there are political philosophies that focus on economic needs and those that focus on personal freedom. This is the best I've read at uniting those concepts. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! - A blast to read and great insight into the thinking of a great mind. The LA Quartet by James Ellroy (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz) - Really the pinnacle of dark gritty noir. If you like that I can't recommend highly enough. The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett - I like a lot of Hammett's other work but this seemed to have a lot of wheel spinning. City of Quartz by Mike Davis - As an Angeleno this gave me so much insight into the city I love. I have no idea if it would be of any interest to an outsider. Antifragile by Nassim Taleb - Nassim Taleb is great and I've definitely been influenced a lot by his ideas, but he's getting too in love with the smell of his own farts. Various books/textbooks on programming and databases - Nothing thrilling in this category. Gotta eat your vegetables.
  • DyslexicAtheist 11y ago
    agree on Taleb Antifragile and it is an awesome book but oh man what an angry person to follow on twitter or facebook. he is really becoming annoying and breeds the same character in his followers which is quite a shame considering the potential of his ideas.
    • bewe42 11y ago
      absolutely agree, in fact, for me I need to look beyond his constant anger to not lose the value of his ideas. I also read "Bed of Procrustes" which I couldn't finish.
• kwhitefoot 11y ago
  The Child of Time : Isaac Asimov, Robert Silverberg Liked it.
• wushupork 11y ago
  Traction by Justin Mares, Gabriel Weinberg - would probably reread Growth Hacker Marketing by Ryan Holiday How to Fail at Almost Everything by Scott Adams - great read Scaling Up By Verne Harnish Great By Choice by Jim Collins - love the whole series The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes - probably worth a reread How to Win at the Sport of Business By Mark Cuban - good read Elon Mush by Ashlee Vance - need I say more The Hard Thing about Hard Things By Ben Horowitz The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg - probably need to deeply absorb this - a lot of good stuff Copy This! By Paul Orfalea - another good "small business" entrepreneur book The E-Myth Revisited By Michael Gerber - 2nd time read. Got more out of it this time. The People's Tycoon (Ford) by Steven Watts - I love reading about businessmen from this age Scrum by JJ Sutherland Jeff Sutherland - good read for development teams
• dllthomas 11y ago
  Off the top of my head: reread "The Left Hand Of Darkness", "The Mythical Man-Month", and the end of "A Mote In God's Eye"; read "A Night In The Lonesome October". All worth reading, the last probably the least enduring.
• goddess_divine 11y ago
  i read a shit ton of books, but only keep the ones i'd like enough to read again. New to my library this year: the checklist manifesto friday the left hand of darkness banker for the poor iq52 the pragmatic programmer star diaries cat's cradle the dead mountainer's inn spanner darkley
• eecks 11y ago
  1984
• FatalBaboon 11y ago
  I've been trying to up my game on reading: - Founders at Work: Jessica Livingston. Good. Less repetitive than Coders at Work. - Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage. Awfuly boring. But I don't care at all about sailing (it was a gift). - Terre des Hommmes: Antoine de St Exupéry. Brilliant, the chapter with the 2 girls made me decide to read all his work in 2016. - Practical Common Lisp: Peter Siebel. Had to start Lisp!
• hackerbloos 11y ago
  I've just updated my list of books I read this year. Scores are out of 5. If there is a + it means I found it to be extra special for some reason or other. = Jan = Smarter Than You Think - Clive Thompson 3 The positives of tech and the internet. = Feb = Super Sad True Love Story - Gary Shteyngart 4 Science fiction set in the not too distant future. Main themes include life extension and surveillance. = Mar = The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams 4 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams 3 Had never read this series, thought it might be about time. = Apr = What does it all Mean? - Thomas Nagel 2 (though it is kind of meant for people who have never done any Philosophy, ever, so would recommend to someone like that. Will pass it on to someone taking an interest in the subject) An introduction to Philosophy. Earth - David Brin 5+ Science fiction set in the not too distant future, written in the 90s. Really interesting themes / vision of post climate change world. SlaughterHouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut 5 Semi autobiographical account of the bombing of Dresden in WW2. Really funny and clever ideas. Very good. = May = Nick Cohen - What’s Left? 4 Account of how the left has degenerated since the collapse of the hard left and the winning of liberal battles e.g. LGBT rights. Basic premise is that those on the left hate the West and the status quo so much they stoop to allying themselves with anyone who also opposes the status quo. = June = Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy won’t go away - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein 5+ Plato has somehow appeared in the 21st century and is doing a talk at Google! A really enjoyable account of how Plato’s philosophy could be applied to modern issues. Really good. I want to go to Athens. = July = The Mind Body Problem - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein 4 Novel about a female philosophy student shagging around and philosophising about it. Believing Bullshit - Stephen Law 4 Book detailing the various tricks / schemes played by charlatans and how to avoid being taken in by them. = August = 36 Arguments for the Existence of God: a work of fiction - Rebecca Newberger Goldstein 3 Novel about an academic and his mentor. It was ok. = September = The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams 3 Think I’m done reading these for now, don’t feel the urge to finish the set. Kafka - The Trial 5 Really good. Love the surrealism - the nightmarish / dreamish-ness of it. Saw it in the Theatre as well after reading it, thought that was great too. = October = = November = Existence - David Brin 3 Not as good as Earth. Glad I read that first. Interesting imagining of what form contact from alien life could take though. Also interesting look at existential risks. The main part I didn’t like was how it skipped forward in time 3 decades about 3/4s of the way through, I had thought the characters were a little weak in general up until then anyway, and then they were pretty much gone entirely at that point. = December = Alone Together - Sherry Turtle 4 The negatives of tech, robotics and the internet. Interesting and important read. Imperium - Robert Harris 5 First in the semi-fictional trilogy accounting the fall of the Roman Republic, told through the eyes of Cicero’s secretary, Tiro. Really good. The politics, the corruption, the ancient city really brought to life. Enhanced by having visited Rome in the Summer. Also currently reading ‘Reclaiming Conversation’ by Sherry Turkle, an account of the negative affect being permanently tethered to the internet has on our conversations, our capacity for empathy and our relationships, and Nietzsche’s 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra'.
• jaylitt 11y ago
  "Debt: The First 5000 Years" David Graeber "Kokoro" Natsume Soseki "The Politics of Dialogical Imagination" Hirano Katsuya "History and Repetition" Karatani Kojin "The Structure of World History" Karatani Kojin "Anti-Oedipus" Gilles Deleuze & Felix Guattari "Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors" Nicholas Wade "Capital, Volume I" Karl Marx These books have been the most informative and thought-provoking for me this year.
• brikis98 11y ago
  My full list of books, including reviews, is here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015 https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015 From that list, my favorite ones were: The Four Steps to the Epiphany: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/827338560 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/827338560 Made to Stick: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/897777811 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/897777811 How to Measure Anything: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/698402984 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/698402984 The Non-Designer's Design Book: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1170518622 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1170518622 Masters of Doom: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/899580915 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/899580915 The Martian: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1136330196 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1136330196 The Mistborn Trilogy: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1388373037 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1388373037
  • imrehg 11y ago
    Hey, just a heads up, that the first link on Goodreads links to each Goodreads user's own book list. Can get the correct link by clicking "share on Twitter" and copying the link from there. E.g. mine is https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/3669238 https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/3669238 Good stuff, though, thanks for sharing your highlights! Looking at back my own list, a lot of good, but few if any great books on it... The good effect is more in the aggregate learning than any one of them in particular.
    • brikis98 11y ago
      Ah, thanks for the heads up! Doesn't look like I can edit my post anymore, but the proper link is: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/1363537 https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/1363537
• wycx 11y ago
  All consumed as audiobooks. American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America - Colin Woodard; I learned much about early US history. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman - Jon Krakauer Find Me - Laura van den Berg Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel The Dog Stars - Peter Heller Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage - Alfred Lansing; I was fortunate enough to read this right before Seveneves, so the references made immediate sense. Endurance looks to be popular on this list/this year. How many were inspired by Seveneves? Seveneves - Neal Stephenson The Years of Rice and Salt - Kim Stanley Robinson Crystal Fire: The Birth of the Information Age - Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson; I highly recommend this book. Like The Making of the Atomic Bomb, but for the transistor. Lots of background on John Bardeen, William Shockley and Walter Brattain. I was unaware of the great legacy of John Bardeen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bardeen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bardeen The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes; If you have not read this book, read it, just for the summary of discoveries that lead to the atomic bomb. Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank The Man Who Ate His Boots: The Tragic History of the Search for the Northwest Passage - Anthony Brandt The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen - Stephen R. Bown I am looking for other books similar to Crystal Fire and The Making of the Atomic Bomb, that cover the history of scientific and technological discoveries. Any recommendations?
  • pknerd 11y ago
    Would you like to share your experience about audio books?
    • wycx 11y ago
      I listen as I drive to and from work (25-30 mins each way) and over lunch (~40 mins). For a little while this year I had a <10 min commute, which was too short to start listening, and thus I missed my longer commute. I did Melbourne-Canberra-Sydney drives a few times this year, but usually mix it up with some podcasts rather than a single 8 hour session. When you start an new audiobook, I find it takes time for me to warm to the narrator. Initially, some narrators can be quite grating, but eventually I get used to them. I find I have to look out for when my mind wanders. The 30 second rewind button gets used a lot, though sometimes when I am still thinking about things from work on my drive home, I need to relisten to the entire 30 mins again. Its as if I paid no attention at all. The same for any driving that is not autopilot driving, e.g. to new places/complex traffic-an audiobook is too distracting so I turn it off. I wish the Audible app would put the 30 second rewind button on the lock screen rather than next/previous track. Having to unlock just to rewind whilst driving sucks. The audible widget does not consistently appear on the lock screen.
• theologic 11y ago
  Got a new job in May so slowed me down, but got through around 8 this year. I'm a Lencioni fan: Death by Meeting -- Describes 3 types of meetings Getting Naked -- Describes how to consult I'm also a Marshall Goldsmith fan: What Got You Here Won't Get You There - Once you get beyond a Director level with some mistakes, read this book Mojo, How to Get It, How To Keep It - Another "look yourself in the mirror" book Also: 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership - John Maxwell. A little prod to act more like a leader. Ready Player One -- Ernest Cline, Great Young Adult Book. Escapist fantasy. Every Shot Counts -- Mark Broady, Statistical Look At Golf, but has some smell of Kahnemann To Kill A Mockingbird -- Timeless Classic I Never Got To. Loved Atticus. I won't read a Watchman if it spoils my view of what Atticus was all about. Started But Not Finished: Business Dynamics Thinking -- Sterman (out of MIT). I need to take off work to read this 'cause it is so massive. Basically it is control theory applied to business modelling. However, I am convinced if somebody can apply these models, it really is the best competitive advantage. However, too people willing to stick with it. How to Measure Anything -- Douglas Hubbard. Sort of makes me mad because it is so commonsense, yet most businesses don't apply this commonsense approach.
• yetanotheracc 11y ago
  Absolutely amazing, changed the way I look at the society, will re-read: - George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying Loved: - Alastair Reynolds, House of Suns - Andy Weir, The Martian - Neal Stephenson, Seveneves - Greg Egan, Teranesia Liked: - Arthur C. Clarke, 3001: The Final Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke, 2061: Odyssey Three - Richard Feynman, The Character of Physical Laws - Richard Feynman, The Pleasure of Finding Things Out - Jonathan Slack, Stem Cells: A Very Short Introduction - John Scalzi, Fuzzy Nation (bought the audiobook for Wil Wheaton's narration) - Ray Monk, Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center - Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space - David C. Cassidy, Beyond Uncertainty: Heisenberg, Quantum Physics, and the Bomb Found full of BS, did not finish: - Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power Textbooks: - order of 10^3 pages of Open University textbooks - Klauber, Student Friendly Quantum Field Theory - Feynman & Hibbs, Quantum Mechanics and Path Integrals - Wald, General Relativity (5 chapters) - Peskin & Schroeder, An Introduction to Quantum Field Theory (5 chapters) Not as bad as I felt before making the list, but underwhelming in terms of quantity. I intend to read a whole lot more in 2016.
  • proxyswapi 11y ago
    I just bought "Understanding Power". Why do you think it's BS?
    • yetanotheracc 11y ago
      Overall, I think the views presented in the book are superficial and do not give significant insight into power relations underlying the decision making. The wider context is often ignored. A lot of bold, unjustified statements that sound like a piece of propaganda. I just opened the book at a random page and found this: There are lots of planned economies-the United States is a planned economy, for example. I mean, we talk about ourselves as a "free market," but that's baloney. The only parts of the U.S. economy that are internationally competitive are the planned parts. For example, his treatment of the Cold War. Like many people whose countries fell on the dark side of the Iron Curtain, I am grateful for all that the US did to contain and defeat the Soviet Union. When countries like Poland were oppressed under the communist rule which was in some ways more destructive than the second world war, Chomsky would have liked to let a large chunk of the third world fall under the same yoke just to avoid confrontation and casualties. This is a view that I find dangerous, ignorant and BS. One could get a much more objective, fuller and clearer picture of things as well as appreciation of the complexities involved by getting an international relations textbook such as International Relations Since 1945 by Kent or a lighter read, The Global Cold War by Westad.
• krishna2 11y ago
  Here is my list from 2015: 1. Mark Derby: England my England 2. Bill Messenger: Elements of Jazz [great courses] 3. David Mamet: GlenGary Glen Ross 4. Neil deGrasse Tyson: The Pluto Files 5. Elizabeth Vandiver: The Illiad by Homer [great courses] 6. Elizabeth Vandiver: The Odyssey by Homer [great courses] 7. Elizabeth Vandiver: The Aeneid by Virgil [great courses] 8. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Liszt - His Life and Music [great courses] 9. David Christian: Big History [great courses] 10. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann - Their Lives and Music [great courses] 11. Steven Novella: Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills [great courses] 12. Ramesh Menon (Veda Vyasa): Mahabharatha 13. Mark W. Muesse: Practicing Mindfulness: An Introduction to Meditation [great courses] 14. J.K. Rowling: Book 1: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone 15. J.K. Rowling: Book 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 16. Steven Pressfield: The War of Art 17. Barnaby Conrad, Monte Schulz: Snoopy's Guide to the Writing Life 18. J.K. Rowling: Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 19. Ramesh Menon (Veda Vyasa): Siva Puranam 20. Professor Allen C. Guelzo, Professor Gary W. Gallagher, Professor Patrick N. Allitt: The History of the United States, 2nd Edition [great courses] 21. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Brahms - His Life and Music [great courses] 22. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Tchaikovsky - His Life and Music [great courses] 23. Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni: The Palace of Illusions 24. J.K. Rowling: Book 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire 25. Austin Kleon: Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative 26. Stephen King: On Writing: A Memoir Of The Craft 27. David McCullough: 1776 28. Prof. Roy Benaroch: Medical School for Everyone [great courses] 29. J.K. Rowling: Book 5: Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix 30. Siddartha Mukherjee: The Emperor Of All Maladies 31. J.K. Rowling: Book 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince 32. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Shostakovich - His Life and Music [great courses] 33. J.K. Rowling: Book 7: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 34. Neil deGrasse Tyson: The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries [great courses] 35. Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli: Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader 36. Shurnyu Suzuki: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind 37. William Shirer: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich 38. Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies 39. Stephen Greenblatt: The Swerve: How the world became modern 40. Professor Andrew R. Wilson: The Art of War [great courses] 41. Prof. Jennifer Paxton: 1066: The Year That Changed Everything [great courses] 42. Prof. Sherwin B. Nuland: Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through Biography [great courses] 43. Sun Tzu: The Art of War 44. Prof. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Mahler - His Life and Music [great courses] 45. Prof. Seth Lerer: The Life and Writings of John Milton [great courses] 46. Prof. Robert Greenberg: Great Masters: Stravinsky - His Life and Music [great courses] 47. Stephen Guise: Mini Habits: Smaller Habits, Bigger Results 48. J.R.R. Tokien: Hobbit 49. George Orwell: Animal Farm 50. Prof. Seth Freeman: The Art of Negotiating the Best Deal [great courses] 51. Ram Dass: Be Here Now 52. Prof. Gregory S. Aldrete: The Decisive Battles of World History [great courses] 53. Conn Iggulden: Conqueror Series Book 1: Genghis: Birth of an Empire 54. Conn Iggulden: Conqueror Series Book 2: Genghis: Lords of the Bow 55. Prof. Frederick Gregory: History of Science 1700-1900 [great courses] 56. Prof. Indre Viskontas: 12 Essential Scientific Concepts [great courses] 57. Conn Iggulden: Conqueror Series Book 3: Genghis: Bones of the Hill 58. Conn Iggulden: Conqueror Series Book 4: Khan: Empire of Silver 59. Conn Iggulden: Conqueror Series Book 5: Conqueror 60. Prof. Robert Hazen: Origin and Evolution of Earth [great courses] 61. Mark Forsyth: Elements of Eloquence 62. Prof. Patrick Allitt: Industrial Revolution [great courses] 63. Ramesh Menon (Valmiki): Ramayana 64. Prof. John McWhorter: Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths of Language Usage [great courses] 65. Dava Sobel: Longtitude 66. Prof. Robert Hazen: Origins of Life [great courses] 67. Prof. Daniel Robinson: The Great Ideas of Psychology [great courses] 68. Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine 69. Prof. Garrett Fagan: History of Ancient Rome [great courses] 70. Kurt Vonnegut: Slaughterhouse Five 71. Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita 72. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby 73. Kalki: Ponniyin Selvan: Book 1: Pudhu Vellam [apple music] 74. Upton Sinclair : The Jungle 75. John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath 76. Kalki: Ponniyin Selvan: Book 2: Suzhar Kaatru [apple music] 77. Karl Marx, Friedrich Engles: Manifesto of the Communist Party 78. Kalki: Ponniyin Selvan: Book 3: KoduVaal [apple music] 79. Kalki: Ponniyin Selvan: Book 4: Mani Magudam [apple music] 80. Kalki: Ponniyin Selvan: Book 5: Thiyaga Sigaram [apple music] 81. Kalki: Parthiban Kanavu [apple music] 82. Hugh Howey: Wool [Silo Series : Book 1 of 3] 83. Kalki: Sivagamiyin Sabatham: Book 1: Boogambam [apple music] 84. Kalki: Sivagamiyin Sabatham: Book 2: Kanchi Mutrugai [apple music] 85. Kalki: Sivagamiyin Sabatham: Book 3: Bhikshuvin Kadhal [apple music] 86. Kalki: Sivagamiyin Sabatham: Book 4: Sidhaindha Kanavu [apple music] 87. Thomas Sterner: The Practising Mind 88. don Miguel Ruiz: The Fifth Agreement 89. Prof. Jonah Berger: How Ideas Spread [great courses] 90. Prof. Robert Sapolsky: Being Human [great courses] 91. Michio Kaku: Einstein's Cosmos 92. Guy Kawasaki: Art of the Start 2.0 93. Edward Dolnick: Clockwork Universe 94. Prof. John Medina: Your Best Brain [great courses] 95. Sherman Alexie: Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 96. Prof. Thad Polk: Addictive Brain [great courses] 97. Jeff Kinney: Diary of a Wimpy Kid 98. Prof. Scott Huettel: Behavioral Economics [great courses] 99. Rob Walling: Start Small, Stay Small 100. Ernest Hemmingway: Old Man and the Sea 101. Prof. Robert Greenberg: Brief History of Holiday Music [great courses]
• aws_ls 11y ago
  1) Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree - Rating 3/5 - Got an idea about the times in receding Muslim powers, at the end of the 15th Century, in Spain - The author is an historian so positive point is that fiction rooted in history. But some of the fictional narratives could have been better, as he was not a fiction writer when he started out. 2) Zero to One - Rating 4/5 - Thoroughly enjoyed reading the book. Insights into and anecdotal examples of Paypal mafia, among the numerous over there. 3) Liar's Poker - Rating 4/5 - The first of several best seller's by Michael Lewis, gives insights into the working of Investment Finance business, and in a very interesting way (lots of humor) 4) Devotion of Suspect X - Rating 4/5 - Work of fiction by the Japanese best seller author Keigo Higashino. Enjoyable read - contrasts a Physicist and a Mathematician trying to out think each other in a crime context (reference to Maths/Physics are just pop-level so don't expect too much) 5) 'Digital Gold...' by Nathaniel Popper - Currently reading (very enjoyable at around 41%) - Captures the history of evolution of Bitcoin. Also made me sad for various people for different reasons, e.g. Hal Finney, who was the first adopter of Satoshi Nakamoto's idea. Reading this book made me appreciate why not knowing who is SN is important. I am no longer curious. 6) Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond - Rating 5/5 - A perspective changing book, if there can be one. Had picked it up from Gates notes' reading list couple years back. After reading this, my entire perspective on religions, politics, culture changed and I view everything from the reference point of when we started to do agriculture some 20,000 years ago, and of course geographical perspective. Some others in my to-read list (hope to pick one before the turn of the year): 1) Emperor of all maladies - book on cancer research 2) Ashley Vance's book on Elon Musk 3) 100 years of solitude 4) The selfish gene 5) The hard thing about hard things 6) Or, if I see any other book: either on this page, or on Gates Notes or on HN reading share the other day. Am a big fan of exchanging/sharing reading lists. Edit: Formatting. HN post editor needs two new lines ('\n') to display one Edit 2: Had wrongly named book #4 as Salvation of a saint (which is another book, I read earlier by the same author)
• galfarragem 11y ago
  Would be interesting to have kind of a poll with HN top recommended books. If somebody as a good idea on how to make/implement it. edit: not only programming oriented books
  • simula67 11y ago
    http://hn-books.com/ http://hn-books.com/
• jiggaboo 11y ago
  1. This is a title that demonstrates I'm much smarter than everyone else. 2. A book that shows I am destined to be a successful entrepreneur. 3. How to recover from a childhood of being bullied.
• horofox 11y ago
  - Make me a German(great read, even if you aren't into germany, nice read/comedy). Still reading "Meditations" from Marcus Aurelius, definitely a must read. You can easily see why he was an imperator and can probably guess how much far a human can get even in today's society with the mindset he provided in the book. Maybe it's a good idea to finish this up this xmas. It was a very poor year in reading for me, but compensated by the fact I've moved to Germany.
• oerb 11y ago
  german translation to "the Blank Slate. The Modern Denial of Human Nature." -Steven Pinker - opens me a new view into Hell of Live german Book "Darm mit Charm" - Giuelia Enders - Never laught so often by reading a Science book about my bowel. "The angry Smile" - Jody E. Long, Nicholas J. Long, Signe Whitson - in 2014 i discovered passive agressive behavior arround and against me. But all Books I found since, had the one solution "get around them - do not talk to them - get rid of them" but if you need to work with passive agressive behavior, that isn't what you need. So this book gives me the hinds to hack this behavior.
• oerb 11y ago
  The other Books that are not so live changing this Year: - "Fitness für den Kopf mit Superlearning" - Sheila Ostrander, Lynn Schroeder (not much news, but good) - "Menschen lesen" - Joe Navarro (not much news, but good) - "Intros und Extros" - Sylvia Löhken (now I'm clear - I am an Intro" :) - "Lassen Sie Ihr Hirn nicht unbeaufsichtigt" - Christine Strenger - (nice book about how to remember things, but I decided that it is not my way to remember. Need to fix my memory to real things) - "Thinking, Fast and Slow" - Daniel Kahneman - ( something about thinking I descoverd 20 years ago by my selve) - "Assertiveness at work" - Ken Back, Kate Back ( The way I walk now to Hack passive agressive behavior ) - "Emotional Vampires at Work" - Albert J. Bernstein - (Helped me to discover the passive agressive behavior I never noticed as what it is before.) - Profile Books about: 1. Michel Foucault, 2. Jacques Derrida, 3. Villém Flusser - "Theorie des kommunkativen Handelns Band1" - Jürgen Habermas (started Band 2 Book 2 month ago) - "Super-Brain" Deepak Chopra, Rudolph E. Tanzi - ( uhhh... you need to find a better book, but easy to read) - "Der Pychopath in mir -engl.:The Psychopath Inside" - James Fallon (nice Book - found some Psychopath around me and give them hinds now not to stumble)
• haylem 11y ago
  This will be an unlikely HN entry, but as there was not pre-requirement, I thoroughly enjoyed a French book named "Peste et Cholera" by Patrick Deville, about Alexandre Yersin [1]. Yersin is mostly known for identified the bacillus responsible for the plague [2]. Not that it relates to our field, but the guy's dedication and hard-work was inspiring (similarly, Pasteur's life is quite interesting to read about). Also out of our usual targets here, though somewhat more related, I enjoyed "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" [3] by Haruki Murakami. I found the universes interesting and enjoyed the setting of a world were programmers learn to compute and encrypt things in their brains (even if it's a small part of the story). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Yersin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexandre_Yersin [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yersinia_pestis [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard-Boiled_Wonderland_and_the_End_of_the_World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard-Boiled_Wonderland_and_the...
• irongeek 11y ago
  I would add Poverty Creek Journal by Thomas Gardner
• eibrahim 11y ago
  I broke all my records for reading in 2015. I set off to read 12 books and ended up reading 49. You can see them at https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15981902-emad-ibrahim https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/15981902-emad-ibrahim There were some helpful books but a ton of fiction. I got hooked on Mitch Rapp and Jack Reacher series and couldn't stop :) Not educational but lots of fun.
• satyajeet23 11y ago
  Check out the books i read in 2015 (16 books or 5309 pages or 14 pages/day) https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/9692204 https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2015/9692204