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Ask HN: The Code Book by Simon Singh but for Other Fields?
I just finished reading The Code Book by Simon Singh. I really liked it. It is slowly paced, goes into a lot of details yet easy enough to read while having lunch.
And this book is also rich in history and anecdotes.
What are some other books that are like this, but for other fields?
- tapeloop 4y agoit's an awesome book. He also did Fermat's Last Theorem which is equally well-paced and detailed.
- rg111 4y agoI already added that to my list. Thanks.
- webmaven 4y agoGodel, Escher, Bach: The Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time by Dava Sobel
- rg111 4y agoAlready read the first two. Heard about the third one. Will give the last two a try. Thanks.
- dev_0 4y ago[dead]
- warrenm 4y agoHit the nostalgia note on that one! I read that just after it came out ... maybe 25[ish] years ago? In the same field, you should read David Kahn's The Codebreakers
- warrenm 4y agoI knew I read it my first semester in college .. didn't realize it came out the same year :) So it's just under 24 years ago, not 25
- warrenm 4y ago>What are some other books that are like this, but for other fields? Simon Winchester's got several that are quite good, I'm currently working my way through The Perfectionists
- rg111 4y agoSounds really interesting. Will check it out.
- warrenm 4y agoEric Dolan's books have been good, in my experience: Leviathan is about the whaling industry; Black Flags, Blue Waters about America's pirates; Fur, Fortune, and Empire about, well, the fur trade
- banjo_milkman 4y agoSiddhartha Mukherjee's books 'The Gene', 'Emperor of all Maladies', 'The Song of the Cell' all mix biology and history with lots of detail and are easy to read.
- rg111 4y agoThanks, will try them out.