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Books I Loved Reading in 2024
- bru3s 2y ago[dead]
- amarcheschi 2y agoI read the strangest man a few years ago, a therapist I went to talk to suggested me to read it because - despite not bejng possible to diagnose dead people - he definitely had some traits that overlapped with autism. Definitely an interesting read
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- swayvil 2y agoIn the old days they called it, "habitually one-pointed". Those guys really know how to concentrate.
- globular-toast 2y agoI read it years ago and it definitely helped me get comfortable in my own skin. There's more acceptance (or at least it's given more lip service) towards "neirodivergent" people now, but for a long time it felt like I had something wrong with me because I didn't understand normies. There are also some good documentaries and books about the people working at Bletchley Park. A lot of them seemed to have been wired similarly.
- retskrad 2y agoPeople often lament the decline in literacy, but the books mentioned in the article demand hundreds or thousands of hours of focused practice to achieve even moderate reading speed and comprehension. These books can be far more rewarding than social media or YouTube, but they are often dense, esoteric, and written in complex sentence structures. Since our brains aren’t naturally wired for reading, developing this skill is a challenging and humbling process. Most people decide it isn’t worth the effort.
- Jabbles 2y ago> Most people decide it isn’t worth the effort Most people "decide" to not develop their reading skills when they are young children without the ability to understand the long-term implications.
- criddell 2y agoAI tutors might help with this because I think the constraints teachers have make it difficult to foster a love of books in a lot of kids. When I was growing up, teachers would assign one text for the entire class to read. Sometimes it was a book I enjoyed (like Canticle for Leibowitz) but more often than not it was some book I hated (like Great Gatsby which I reread as an adult and still think it’s terrible). If you really wanted to instill a love of reading and develop skills around reading, you would give students more choice. My kids had a similar experience so I don’t think much changed between 1985 and 2015. If anything, it’s worse now. It feels like schools do as much as they can to prevent kids from enjoying reading. They were assigned only books they had zero interest in and were given so much homework they had no desire or energy left to read for pleasure. It took me a long time after high school to start reading for pleasure (thank you Douglas Adams and Michael Ondaatje). I hope it works out for my kids too. So maybe the problem isn't kids who decide they don't like to read, but voters and taxpayers have decided that they don't want to pay for anything better.
- HellDunkel 2y agoThe thing is- it often isn‘t (worth it) until you can put things in context and even then it is not a given you will be rewarded. I stopped reading to forcefully educate myself and just read for entertainment. Turns out I read much more and even found many more great books i want to read.
- cinntaile 2y agoIt depends. If the complex sentence structures can be expressed more clearly using simpler structures, I would argue the writer is lacking.
- 2y ago
- coolThingsFirst 2y agothat's i think a lot
- HellDunkel 2y agoI just finished the Cicero Trilogy by Robert Harris. Probably easier to digest than the works of the man himself and a very good read too.
- buseb 2y agoSiddharta, Anna Karenina
- DavidPiper 2y agoStrong second for Born Standing Up, just in case anyone was on the fence. Steve Martin is a delight. (Get the paperback if you can, the edition I have is the most well-weighted and well-proportioned high-quality paperback I think I own. I hope they still print it like that.)
- linsomniac 2y agoBought. The Kindle edition is $2.99 at amazon right now. Long ago I read Shopgirl by Steve Martin and I recall enjoying it, but don't recall much about it. Looks like it's a movie now. Just recently, after that SNL skit about the Five Timers Club, I found that Steve Martin was the fastest to reach the Fiver Timers Club, it sounds like in 1977 he was hosting SNL all the time. Thanks for the recommendation, I've added it to my To Read list (currently working on Doctrow/Stross Rapture of the Nerds, I'm kind of Meh on it).
- bsenftner 2y agoHis finish, going into details of Nietzsche is simply wonderful. For those that have tried, but cannot penetrate these types of books, start with any Nobel Literature winner that looks interesting. They are the gateway to serious literature, and by reading the recognized "best written intellectual novel of the year" you'll be gradually exposed to the writing structures used in harder to penetrate literature. Don't be fooled into thinking that a Nobel Literature winner is difficult to read, none of them are and that is why they have the award. They are also white knuckle rides through tragic human lives where the main character wins against incredible odds, and these novels demonstrate the critical thinking and secondary considerations necessary to prevail when others are crushed. Great literature teaches one first hand how to use critical thought, a dire need today.
- AnonC 2y agoAny personal recommendations for a starter or favorites (perhaps top three or five or something like that)?
- okasaki 2y agoDoris Lessing
- stevoski 2y agoErnest Hemingway - starting with “The Old Man and the Sea”. After reading that, you’ll no longer think that Nobel Prize winners for literature write books that are difficult to read and understand.
- jgalt212 2y agoMost of Steinbeck is similarly approachable.
- otherme123 2y agoWhen someone ask for my favourite author my answer is Hemingway. Want to write better? Try to write like Hemingway. That said, people who read less tend to believe that more and bigger words equal better writting. My (usually scientific) texts are described as "telegraphic", and heavily expanded without adding any real content. E.g. "the house was white" gets transformed to "the paint that covered the beautiful house was pure white".
- ChrisArchitect 2y agoRelated: Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2024? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42508087 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42508087 Ask HN: Best non-fiction book you read in 2024? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42218828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42218828
- vmilner 2y agoI can never praise A Wizard of Earthsea enough - although it’s highly regarded I never think it quite receives the level of praise it should as a book that will move children (and adults). I first heard it read by Edward Fox on BBCs Jackanory in the mid70s and have remembered it ever since.
- thefaux 2y agoIt bums me out that we live in the world of Hogwarts rather than the world of Earthsea. Even though they are accessible to children, the depth of these books is so far beyond most contemporary culture while also beautifully stirring the imagination.
- cmiller1 2y ago> I was also going through a phase in my life where I believed reading more fiction would help power up my imagination. I kind of hate this mindset. Why does reading always have to be with the goal of self improvement? When someone binge watches a new TV series on Netflix no one asks them what skill they were trying to sharpen by enjoying that media.
- globular-toast 2y agoAs someone who reads books for fun (including hardcore technical books) I get where you're coming from. But I think the author understands that books can be both fun and useful. In fact they point it out several times. There's nothing wrong with reading books (or watching netflix) for fun, but there's nothing wrong with doing it because it's useful either.
- cmiller1 2y agoPerhaps, but the fact that they needed to include that line almost defensively speaks to the culture, as if they had to justify why they were reading fiction books.
- toofy 2y agopeople are allowed to blog why they decided to read more of some genre. why does it upset you so that someone else wrote their own personal reasons on their own blog?
- walterbell 2y agoIn censorship-plagued societies, some non-fiction can only be found in fiction.
- Sam6late 2y agoThere are many ways of reading, the selection and the diversity (old and contemporary writers) of what you read helps you see how you could appreciate a more critical view of what you are reading. Reading a novel before watching someone's rendering of the same novel into, say Netflix, may expand your imagination and possibly show you how limited the director's version of the same story. I felt that with Stephen King's thrillers, Pet Sematary and Thinner, then watching them as movies.
- pknerd 2y agoA kind of off-topic: How do you, as a techie, find time to read most of the books? Any tips or hacks? Ryan Holiday once mentioned that he managed to read extensively by always keeping books with him, allowing him to read whenever he found some spare time.
- SonicScrub 2y agoEscape into the woods for at least 1 week out of the year with no internet connection. It rekindles my love for reading, and helps keep that fire burning throughout the year.
- AnimalMuppet 2y agoI do that (for a few days, not a full week). I always read less than I intended to, because the space to be able to think, to feel, and to be is more valuable than the space to read.
- wazoox 2y agoWhen I take my breakfast, I'm reading a book. Whenever I lie on my bed, I'm reading a book. This way, I read 30-50 books every year. I don't use any of TikTok, WhatsApp, X etc, that probably helps too.
- rr808 2y agoRight and how do you stop your wife and/or kids interupting you every 30 seconds? I also I have a huge backlog of tech books that I should work on because this career kinda requires it.
- kaycebasques 2y agoMy best books of 2024: * Chemistry: A Very Short Introduction by Peter Atkins. Now that I'm into physics I had a hunch that I would now also appreciate chemistry. This book delivered. * Philosophy of Mind: A Very Short Introduction by Barbara Gail Montero. I recall it just being a really well-written overview of an interesting field. * Systemantics by John Gall. Very entertaining musings on why systems fail. * Hard-Boiled Wonderland by Haruki Murakami. Read this while in Japan. A very strange and interesting noir detective story. * All Systems Red by Martha Wells. <3 Murderbot <3 * Desert Oracle Volume 1 by Ken Layne. American southwest folklore. Read it while in Joshua Tree. * There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. Biggest brainfuck I've read in a long time, probably ever. * Fundamentals: Ten Keys To Reality by Frank Wilczek. Physics musings from a Nobel winner.
- adelmotsjr 2y agoWhat book would you recommend for Physics?
- kaycebasques 2y agoThat Fundamentals book by Wilczek that I mentioned is a good start. I'm also reading through the pop-sci classics now (A Brief History Of Time, Feynman's stuff) and they're not disappointing. I really like the Very Short Introduction series by Oxford University Press. I've read 30 of them so far (just counted). At this point they basically have a book on every aspect of physics that has interested me at one time or another: black holes, gravity, quantum theory, waves, time, thermodynamics, chaos, etc. Really love being able to literally put the book in my back pocket and read a few pages whenever I have a spare moment. Each book can be very hit-or-miss, though. Some of them are badly written and fail at their basic value proposition (providing a concise and reasonably complete overview of a field).
- sorokod 2y agoA list of Very Short Introduction books https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Very_Short_Introductions_books https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Very_Short_Introduct...
- alexpotato 2y agoI recently started putting together an organized list of books I've really loved. It's organized and filterable by: - fiction vs non fiction - author - general themes https://alexpotato.com/books/?l=hn https://alexpotato.com/books/?l=hn
- joeyagreco 2y agoMy top 3 books of 2024: 1. Right/Wrong - Juan Enriquez 2. Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl 3. How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie
- begueradj 2y agoFrom my experience, Sturgeon's law applies to books too.
- dllthomas 2y agoI mean, it would, wouldn't it? Theodore Sturgeon wrote a bunch of books, and I've always assumed his "Revelation" was initially delivered in that context.
- wannabebarista 2y agoHere's my list for 2024: * Wisdom’s Workshop (2016) by James Axtell is a history of the American research university from Medieval times to the present. * The Principles of Science (1874) by William Stanley Jevons (of economics fame) is a wide-ranging treatment of logic and philosophy of science that’s bursting with ideas. * Ballyhoo! (2024) by Jon Langmead is a history of professional wrestling and combat sports from its outlaw roots in the late nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century. * A Discourse on Political Economy (1824) by John Ramsay McCulloch is the first history of economic thought from the era of the classical economists. Check it out in more detail here: https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2024/ https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2024/
- hypertexthero 2y agoMy 2024 favorites: * The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. Maybe the best book about creative process in everyday life and art I’ve read. Positive vibes and meditations. Speaking of which… * Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Timeless advice about life and death from a ruler/philosopher who seemed to have been actually good and uncorrupted by power. And speaking of that, at the top of my to-read list for 2025 sits On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder, also available in a visual graphic edition. * Drawing on the Dominant Eye by Betty Edwards. Worthwhile, even if not as much as Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. * Not finished yet, but The Art of Game Design, A Book of Lenses by Jesse Schell is eloquent and erudite so far.
- avaika 2y agoMy 2024 top 3: - They would never hurt a fly. Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic covered the Hague trial for military crimes in Bosnia war. The book made me rethink how I view the war in general and what motivates people to do absolute evil things. - A primate memoir by Sapolsky. I can't stress enough how interesting, witty and overwhelming this book is. One of the rare reads I couldn't stop reading until the very end. - Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante. Even though sometimes it might be felt like a boulevard novel, it gave me absolutely fantastic insight and the atmosphere of Italian Naples in the 1960-1970s.
- sorokod 2y agoFerrante's novels were made into a very good tv series: "My Brilliant Friend"
- diob 2y agoBest I read in 2024: "I'm Starting to Worry About This Black Box of Doom" Highly recommend it to folks, especially if you enjoy Pargin's other works ("John Dies at the End", "Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits"). I am continually in awe at how he is evolving as a writer. His characterizations and insights convey a unique and profound interest in the world we live in, and it’s clear he takes great care in understanding others and what makes them who they are. It'll make you rethink some of your relationships / reactions to the current world (social media, other humans, etc.).
- edanm 2y agoIt's really interesting how strongly Pargin has managed to "brand" himself, at least in my mind. I read the title you mentioned, and despite only having read "John Dies at the End", I insta-guessed it's the same author. Weird thing is that "John Dies at the End" sounds like something I'd love, and yet I really bounced off of it when trying to read it. I've been meaning to give it another go.
- diob 2y agoThat series definitely had a different feel at the start compared to his current work (and even later work in the same series). He's no less funny, but he's honed in on exploring the human condition (in a natural way) in each of his books.
- unitpass 2y agoMy favorite book is Deep Work by Cal Newport
- rottc0dd 2y agoI personally loved "The Gene : An intimate history". I thought genes were hardcoded code that is needed sometime during life creation and once the cells specialized, they are done. The cells are computer that operated on proteins, the input is protein being present and output is specific protein that does specific job.
- ok123456 2y agoUnmask Alice by Rick Emerson was a very enjoyable read. It's about Beatrice Sparks and her unique genre of fake teen diaries, of which Go Ask Alice was the most famous. It chronicles her whole-cloth invention of tragic teens who succumbed to whatever the current panic is consuming late-to-mid-twentieth-century concerned suburban parents: from accidentally becoming acid freaks to ritualistic satan worship to HIV/AIDS.
- voisin 2y agoI really enjoyed Dutch House and Commonwealth, both by Anne Patchett. Beautiful writing about somewhat commonplace or relatable people and their lives.
- norir 2y agoThe most impactful book I read this year was "Computer Power and Human Reason" by Joseph Weizenbaum. For a book written about ai in 1976, it has aged very well.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- imajoredinecon 2y agoThe Idiot by Elif Batuman So funny that my face was basically fixed in a smile the entire time reading.
- bilater 2y agoHere's my book journey as a visual :) https://x.com/deepwhitman/status/1872821464417878256 https://x.com/deepwhitman/status/1872821464417878256
- hinkley 2y agoI got through almost 50 books last year, which is about what I got through in the previous three. The first trick was giving myself permission to stop a book I started in 2023. I’m about to start trying to finish it again later this week. The biggest was finding myself with too much free time which I don’t recommend. But all the physical books I read were strictly for pleasure and not self improvement. The half dozen books I consumed in the latter category were as audiobooks, and half of those were Goldratt, who cheats anyway by making his entire book into a fictional story about the moral of the book. Essentially a parable. If you want to read a lot, then do it to have a good time.
- kh_hk 2y agoHarry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
- internet_points 2y agoI find real-life "rationalists" of this kind to be quite insufferable, but that book was very fun if you like good plot puzzles.
- Apocryphon 2y agore: that Paul Dirac book, were there any atomic scientists during WWII who wasn't a mystic?
- gjm11 2y agoFeynman. Von Neumann. Teller. Ulam. (At least, they all seem pretty non-mystical from what I know of them; I am willing to be corrected by others who know more about their lives and minds.)
- sapphicsnail 2y agoIt's a little odd that he recommends Loebs for Cicero and Aeschylus. They have Greek/Latin on one side and English on the other. The translations vary in quality and they are significantly more expensive than buying an English-only translation. I have a bunch of Loebs but I studied Classics and can read Greek and Latin. I would never recommend them to a friend. Edit: Just wanted to add that Aeschylus, Euripedes, and Sophicles are great reads. You can read a whole play in one sitting. If I could recommend one from each it would be Agamemnon, The Bacchae, and Antigone. Each of those plays deeply affected me and they're fairly accessible.
- joveian 2y agoAlthough I'm only interested in a few books on the list I find it a nicely done list: a good theme and a good amount of detail per book. I can't do as well but these are my favorites this year(ish): * Fur Trade Nation by Carl Gawboy - a graphical history of the Ojibway nation between 1650 and 1850. Not a hard history with detailed discussion of evidence and possibilities but more of a grade school style overview of the history and really well done as that. I do better with text than most but I still think this style communication has a lot of advantages and should be used more. * The Birchbark House series by Louise Erdrich (historical fiction, starting at the end of the period Fur Trade Nation covers) - I've read the first three books and while they are aimed at children they have complex characters and themes (and also some cute animals and a focus on the kids). I read her book Tracks a couple of decades ago and liked it well enough to remember her name when I saw a few years ago that she has a bookstore in Minneapolis called Birchbark Books. Their online store has a great selection of books by indigenous authors. * The Gift is in the Making Anishinaabeg stories retold by Leanne Simpson - Traditional stories retold with a few recent references. This one has a few ojibway terms but is in english while I also read Plums or Nuts by Larry Amik Smallwood and Michael Migizi Sullivan Sr. which is fully in ojibway as well as english and the stories there are more personal by the first author. They are chosen primarily for language learning reasons but they are also nice "slice of life" stories and I recommend it even if you aren't trying to learn ojibway. * Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot - The author has a breakdown and writes about it. A really rough read but well writen and has a lot of love for such a tramatic story. * Bringing Joy: A Local Literary Welcome - I heard about Fur Trade Nation when it was first published and not widely available so I got it from the publisher at Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College and found this poetry collection and decided to try it even though I'm not usually into poetry. There were a couple that I will hopefully never forget and more that I enjoyed reading. I picked up What Book!? later thinking I'd try a bit more poetry but haven't enjoyed that one as much so far. * A Space for the Unbound - Technically a game not a book but very story focused and in my opinion the best game story (by quite a bit) of any game I've played. Again some severe abuse depicted and also a lot of love.
- khazhoux 2y agoUnfortunately many of the books I had time to read this year were a bust. But here's some of the ones I did appreciate very much: * Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System That Keeps You Alive - Philipp Dettmer. * The Gene: An Intimate History - Mukherjee. Won't necessarily teach you much new if you've already read a few genetics books, but a fine read nonetheless. * On Sophistical Refutations - Aristotle. Like anything by Aristotle, read it with a grain of salt and as historical document. Still, it's always a wonder how a text like this can be over 2000 years old. * Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI - David Grann. Skip the movie and read this instead. * 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus - Charles Mann. It challenges common misunderstandings of pre-columbian society without being anti-Columbus. * American History, Combined Edition: 1492-Present - Thomas Kidd. Goes beyond just the usual narratives we are all familiar with. Not recommended as a first American-history deep-dive, but a fine supplement. * The Man Who Saved Cincinnati - Peter Bronson. Entertaining civil war history book. It's not only about Cincinnati. * Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power - Carwardine. * The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets - Thomas Cech. RNA is now kinda required reading since 2020. This is a good starting point. * The Genetic Book of the Dead: A Darwinian Reverie - Dawkins. His latest is definitely worth a read, like (nearly) all his previous. * Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI - Harari. How information traveled historically, with modern technology, and in the near future. Enlightening and a little scary. * Beauty and Sadness: Mahler's 11 Symphonies - David Vernon. Even if you haven’t listened to all of Mahler’s symphonies, still very interesting read on “the first modern composer.” If you /are/ familiar with all his symphonies, the book is even better, and it will show you layers you didn’t realize were there... in case the music isn't dense enough to absorb by itself ;-) Fiction: * Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir. * Dark Matter - Blake Crouch. * Red Rising - Pierce Brown. A light read, maybe will seem derivative at this point but it was fun. * Rifters Trilogy - Peter Watts. Super bleak, very creative. * You Like It Darker - Stephen King. Another fine collection of short stories. * The Forest of Lost Souls - Koontz * House of Leaves - Danielewski. I waited way too long to read this. As good as everyone said it would be.
- dhosek 2y agoI do a yearly post of my favorite reads of the year (https://www.dahosek.com/my-favorite-reads-of-2024/ https://www.dahosek.com/my-favorite-reads-of-2024/) and this year I noted, “there are only three male authors on my top reads for the year and only five white authors. I don’t read diverse books because it’s my vitamins, I read diverse books because it’s women and people of color who are writing the best stuff right now.”
- dddddaviddddd 2y agoSome of my favourites from this year: * The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. Classic urbanist book that changed the way I see my city, and elegantly described so many things I didn't know I knew. * A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. Short, beautiful sci-fi story. * The first four Dune books by Frank Herbert, so full of intrigue.
- maguay 2y agoRecommendation since I haven't seen it mentioned here yet: Annie Jacobsen's _Nuclear War: A Scenario_ A second by, at times, millisecond, tale of what could and would happen after a nuclear attack on the US is detected. Been a long time since I read a book in just over two days.
- edanm 2y agoThis was a great book. If you haven't seen the tv show Madam Secretary (minor spoiler warning), there's an episode that more or less films this scenario playing out. You can find clips on YouTube of just the "nuclear war is about to happen" part of the episode, and I highly recommend it as a dramatization of this kind of thing. (It's a great show in general, too.)
- krishna2 2y agoHere are a few of my favorite reads from 2024. If I were to just pick one favorite, it is not even a contest. Heck, challenge me to pick one favorite in a decade, it would still be this. Charlie Munger! Charlie Munger: Poor Charlie’s Almanack I even wrote about this: https://krishna2.com/munger https://krishna2.com/munger Just like countless others, I too grew up bewildered by Jackie Chan's movies and his stunts. And I liked his autobiography. Jackie Chan: Never Grow Up I read "The Poppy War" - even though I liked it, I didn't want to go down a full-fledged series. I read "Yellowface" and loved it so much. I have "Babel" on my shelf - but (irrationally) I am not reading it thinking that it would be over if I read it. R. F. Kuang: Yellowface I can't wait for what R.F. Kuang's going to come up with next. This is an old classic -- my son recommended this to me. I enjoyed it. Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther What an amazing biography. Very very inspiring. Robin Marantz Henig: Monk in the Garden: Life of Gregor Mendel I had gotten her "Ember in the Ashes" in 2016 or so but never got to it - but this story snipper caught my attention. What a lovely book. It is set in a Motel in a Sierra Nevada town in California. Loved the book. Promptly went back to read "Ember in the ashes". This book (all my rage) won the National Book Award for Young Readers. Sabhaa Tahir: All my Rage Everyone's bound to get on this train sooner or later (I think this is being made into a movie) -- 440,000+ reviews on amazon. I got curious and got this book. Liked it. Freida McFadden: The Housemaid I am keeping the recommendations to a general audience and hence skipping my Vedanta books (which I thoroughly relish/read and read again many times). Oh, there are a bunch of business books too, a bunch more fiction this year (than my usual ratio) including a few LitRPG and of course, some running related. As always, you can see the full list here: https://krishna2.com/books https://krishna2.com/books Here's to a happy prosperous fulfilling 2025! Happy reading! This post is available at: https://krishna2.com/2024 https://krishna2.com/2024 Post on Jan 1, 2024 (2023 reading): https://krishna2.com/2023 https://krishna2.com/2023 Post on Jan 1, 2023 (2022 reading): https://krishna2.com/2022 https://krishna2.com/2022
- evw 2y agoUrsula K. Le Guin's edition of Tao Te Ching - Laozi, was the best thing I read in 2024. Very short read, poetic philosophy from 2300+ years ago that's equally relevant today. Highly recommend.
- giardini 2y agoSocial Media is Bullshit by B.J. Mendelson. Don't Read the News" by Dobelli. These two books complement each other surprisingly well in describing the media/marketing companies that underlie the Internet.