8 ms·
Ask HN: What are some good books you have read lately?
- AJRF 9y agoI really enjoyed “Devil in the White City”. So much happened during the World Fair its absolutely astounding. It would have been mind boggiling to attend and glimpse so many aspects of the future at once
- avisser 9y agoGreat book. The least "non-fiction feeling" work of non-fiction I've ever read. Surprised Hollywood hasn't jumped on it yet.
- kjdal2001 9y agoIt looks like there might be a movie in some stage of production. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0959300/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0959300/
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- observation 9y agoRemind me again. Why did we stop doing World Fairs?
- playing_colours 9y ago"The Power Broker" by Robert Caro, great bio of Robert Moses, a man who had a tremendous influence on how NYC looks now, it's a great study of power, politics, and the history of NYC.
- omosubi 9y ago+1 - one of my favorite books and one of the best books on the use of power in american government that currently exists. His series on Lyndon Johnson is also incredible.
- misalyogeshwar1 9y agoreading "Antifragile". It's Good. Give it a try
- urahara 9y ago"Hopscotch" by Julio Cortázar. It's a novel published in 60s. Fantastic language and atmosphere, strongly recommended.
- omosubi 9y ago"A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again" by David Foster Wallace. This is a book of magazine articles he wrote for various publications on a range of topics. His powers of observation are unlike any other. the articles are hilarious, sad, thought provoking, and insightful all at once.
- m0ck 9y agoI'm reading "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" by Eliezer Yudkowsky right now. Never thought I would be interested in fanfic, but this is just brilliant, give it a chance. You can get a free ebook on hpmor.com, or create your own paperback version with https://github.com/ianstormtaylor/hpmor https://github.com/ianstormtaylor/hpmor (it cannot be sold, due to copyright issues)
- auganov 9y agoThe classic Clean Code by Robert C. Martin <- probably won't learn much new, but worth it, just to let the concepts reenter your consciousness. The Secret War Against the Jews by John Loftus <- Changed the way I think about inner workings of the government. But at the same time, many claims are hard to verify. The life changing magic of cleaning up by Marie Kondo <- not life changing but decent and a quick, 2-3 day read. Nassim Taleb books, pretty sure everyone on here read it or plans to so, don't need my description. Halfway through The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis at the moment, it's pretty good, a joint biography of Kahneman and Tversky (of the "Thinking, Fast and Slow", which I guess is another HN classic).
- tunap 9y ago"The life changing magic of cleaning up by Marie Kondo <- not life changing but decent and a quick, 2-3 day read." I found a similar title perusing the local library's stacks last year. Sort of a "zen of cleaning" that goes way beyond merely cleaning your sailboat... Quick & Easy Boat Maintenance: 1001 Time-Saving Tips https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1179767.Quick_and_Easy_Boat_Maintenance https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1179767.Quick_and_Easy_B...
- _jdams 9y agoMarie Kondo's other book Spark Joy is great too
- observation 9y agoI'm enjoying "Home Comforts". It's a scientific look at cleaning your house, it's great :-)
- AJRF 9y agoI've looked at hours of interviews and all his YouTube videos, and I am entirely convinced Nassim Taleb is absolutely nonsensical. He rambles and groans and heaves around a point in such a convoluted fashion I couldn't bear to finish one of his books. I find it hard to justify the love he gets.
- brudgers 9y agoChild of God Cormac McCarthy.
- AJRF 9y agoI read this few months ago. Hated it. First time I can say that about a McCarthy novel. What about it did you think was good? Sorry if that sounds argumentative, just would like a second opinion from someone who liked it.
- brudgers 9y agoIt is perhaps the only book I've ever read where my opinion changed significantly within a few hours of reading it. It was about 10 or 11 at night and I'd just knocked out the last 1/4 or third of it, and I was a bit indifferent. I'd been reading it, and sort of thinking about subsequent novels, e.g. Chigurh from No Country for Old Men and The Road's depravities and Blood Meridian's gun violence. But I was sort of left hanging by the references to 'bluebills' and 'whitecaps' that appear in the last part. And so I googled them up and spent the hour or two after I finished the novel reading various results. And for me, it made the work pop with a "Wow!" Of course, as a McCarthy fan I'm probably predisposed to such a response. Having lived in the south, it sort of hit closer to home than it might have for someone else. It took me longer to appreciate McCarthy's earlier works because the frontier in the American east is less an ordinary idea than the frontier in the American west. But those parts of Tennessee where wild an unsettled just fifty years before the American West was mostly settled.
- framebit 9y agoI'm about 70% of the way through Charlatan by Pope Brock, a non-fiction book that tells the astonishing story of a dangerous medical quack in the depression era who transcends medical quackery to infiltrate entertainment, politics, and more. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1851568.Charlatan https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1851568.Charlatan I found it through the excellent Reply All episode on the same subject. https://gimletmedia.com/episode/86-man-of-the-people/ https://gimletmedia.com/episode/86-man-of-the-people/ The episode is great, but it naturally has to leave out a lot of details and subplots that really come to life in the book. I would gladly read anything else written by Pope Brock. I think his writing is amazing.
- Treyno 9y agoAtlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand Will be reading The Fountainhead shortly afterwards!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- JCSato 9y agoGlen Cook's The Black Company. Really moody, terse writing style; very refreshing contrast to your typical fantasy novel.
- moh_maya 9y agoHave you read the Laundry Files, by Charles Stress? On similar lines..
- aloukissas 9y ago- Angel by Jason Calacanis (fantastic info + entertaining) - Venture Deals 3rd Ed by Brad Feld & Jason Mendelson (must read for startup founders raising)
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- jaypaulynice 9y ago"As A Man Thinketh" James Allen...About to read "Man's Search For Meaning" next
- shishy 9y agoThe Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt I cannot recommend this book enough -- I'm halfway through it and it's a very accessible overview of work done in moral development psychology that (for me) shed light on how people come to believe the things they do so strongly. It's increasingly relevant today, and was a bit of an eye-opener for me. Has anyone else checked it out? Curious to get your thoughts -- I'm not done yet and once I finish, I'm doing to dug through the primary sources he cites.
- sweetheart 9y agoSeconded - I'm reading it now and probably consider it one of the most personally influential books I've ever read. It doesn't hurt that Haidt is just a seriously talented writer.
- ideonexus 9y agoI just finished Tolstoy's War and Peace. I think it deserves both the hype as a masterpiece and the jokes as a sprawling verbose epic. He's like Jane Goodall observing and deconstructing human beings at all social levels from the serfs and peasants to the Russian aristocracy and Napoleon himself. His characters are so real and their motives so transparent in the way he describes them, and they are this microcosm living individual lives inside the macrocosm of the French invasion of Russia. Throughout all of it are the rambling philosophical speculations of the author that are filled with brilliant insights but always seem fuzzy on making any strong points. What I loved most about the book was how it conveys the complexity of life and the absurdity of historical analysis and the focus on "Great Men" against such complexity, which he compares to physicists trying to understand macro-phenomenon without taking into account the micro-phenomenon that add up to the macro effect. The whole books is an illustration of this through the many lives it follows in the major historical events taking place around them.
- HenryTheHorse 9y agoWhich translation was this? Pevear and Volokhonsky?
- ideonexus 9y agoThis was Louise and Aylmer Maude. I'm afraid I don't know much about the different translations. I do think I would like to read this book again one day, knowing the character arcs. I just learned the Pevear and Volokhonsky version leaves the French untranslated, which is how Tolstoy wanted it. That sounds like a great translation to read next.
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- bobosha 9y agoHitmakers by Derek Thompson. an easy breezy read choc-a-bloc with anecdotes of what makes something click.
- tc7 9y agoThe Bone Clocks, by David Mitchell. An amazing writer. The best mix of beautifully detailed characters and ambitious scope that I've read.
- unmole 9y agoSapiens by Yuval Noah Harari is the best book I've read in a while. It's like Guns, Germs and Steel but better argued and far greater in scope. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins was a great read too. A bit of a slog in some places but otherwise brilliant and insightful.
- searine 9y agoRe-reading Anathem by Neal Stephenson, because it's so god damn good. The Mandibles recently. It was okay. The economic ideas were interesting, but the story dragged. The Accusation by Bandi was good if you like North Korea stuff. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O - Was decent for a Stephenson novel, but definitely niche sci-fi/fantasy. The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse. Didn't like it. Really didn't like the ending.
- moh_maya 9y agoI've sort of finished reading Clayton Christensen's book "How will you measure your life?" [1] Using a series of personal anecdotes, stories, observations from sociological & psychological research, the book assisted me in developing a perspective & framework to understand what my priorities are & perhaps could / should be, helping me get a better sense of what I could / should do with my time. I found it very useful, given where I am in life. While I normally plough through books, this was one book where I found myself iterating(?) through the book. I'd read a few chapters, put the book away, come back after a few days, read from the start, perhaps ending at a further chapter, and then back to start. To add, I found his observations about hygiene factors (salary, well laid out work environment, etc) vs factors that can motivate you (good team, ambitious objectives, etc) very very "aha" and insightful. I'm building a team, and I now consider these at every major decision.. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13425570-how-will-you-measure-your-life https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13425570-how-will-you-me...
- ardivekar 9y agoJust finished with Terry Pratchett's Night Watch. So good.
- moh_maya 9y agoAbsolutely. Amazing writer. His nuanced observation of human nature, his wit, his affection for his characters and their humanness.. his entire series, especially the stories that center around AM and involve Vetinari, Vimes or Moist Von Lipwig..
- hitekker 9y ago"Debt" by John Graber is a book of big ideas. Not always accurate in the details, and somewhat biased in its conclusions. Nonetheless it made me rethink the underpinnings of our financial system.
- incan1275 9y agoCurrently halfway through: Emperor of all Maladies, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Amazing portrait and biography of cancer. It outlines the history of cancer, chemotherapy, surgeries and the drugs use to treat so many patients who gave their lives for cancer science. The author is a good writer, but occasionally delves into minute historical details that I sometimes don't care for. Still, it's very enlightening.
- Bucephalus355 9y agoInstead of looking for books, these days I try to keep an eye on publishers more. Consistent quality books tends to come out of the same publisher, and it's really easy to follow just a few. Also by following publishers you can be more efficiently connected "upstream" to the flows of knowledge. Most of the University Press's are pretty good, I was at Cambridge University Press Bookshop earlier today in the U.K. and it was amazing seeing their whole catalog. Other good presses are: - anything by MIT Press - Princeton and Duke Press - Polity Press if you're interested in sociology
- Bucephalus355 9y agoAlso dear god please use www.Thriftbooks.com or at least give it a chance. It dramatically lowered my prices from Amazon, by around 60% per book. Plus you get $5 back from every $50 purchased for the next time you buy, so it's effectively 10% cashback.