Ask HN: What are you reading? What've you read lately?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3335496

by heydenberk • 15 years ago

11 41 15 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

The last two truly great books I read were:

- James Gleick's _The Information: A History, a Theory, A Flood_ (http://www.amazon.com/Information-History-Theory-Flood/dp/0375423729/), an interdisciplinary overview of the human history of the creation, understanding and exchange of information.

- Manuel de Landa's _Philosophy and Simulation: The Emergence of Synthetic Reason_ (http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Simulation-Emergence-Synthetic-Reason/dp/1441170286/), about how computer simulations have allowed humans to begin to truly understand emergentism and to advance science at a level between theory and experimentalism.

EDIT: I'm asking about books -- not necessarily dead trees, of course, but long-form non-fiction or fiction.

da02• 15 years ago

The Unheavenly City by Edward Banfield: PDF: http://www.kevinrkosar.com/Edward-C-Banfield/Edward-C-Banfie...

Review: http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/92789.html

His time preference classes explains so much of people regardless of race, religion, nationality, etc.

Rise of the Fourth Reich: http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fourth-Reich-Societies-Threaten/d...

This is where I learned about Konrad Zuse creating a digital computer and programming language miles away from Bletchley Park in the early 40s.

Dealers of Lightning: http://www.amazon.com/Dealers-Lightning-Xerox-PARC-Computer/...

It's about XEROX PARC. Unfortunately, they did not talk about how PARC made the OS and apps obsolete by using objects communicating over a network. I had to learn about that from an Alan Kay video. It did show how PARC contributed to the Internet by creating an internet before ARPANET.

Last and best of all: http://vpri.org/html/writings.php

The latest report, "Steps Toward Expressive Programming Systems", describes a computer system without an OS. They seem to be refining what PARC did back in the late 1970s.

riffraff• 15 years ago

You should probably clarify if you want to know the last X we read in general, fiction/non-fiction/both/specific topics, the last X great books, whether books or else (e.g. graphic novels, comics).

tangentcity2• 15 years ago

I've noticed too that when people recommend books or say what they're reading, it's almost never novels. It's either technical, or memoirs.

Here's one novel I just finished rereading that's almost like an anti-Oprah book in that you won't identify with any of the characters, it doesn't build to sweet resolution, it doesn't say great things about the human spirit, yet at the end you feel enobled for having spent time with such a true work of art: Michel Faber's Under the Skin. http://www.amazon.com/Under-Skin-Novel-Michel-Faber/dp/01560...

tangentcity2• 15 years ago

And before that I read, back-to-back, George W. Bush's and Keith Richards' autobiographies - both great reads though odd shelf-fellows.

pettinato2• 15 years ago

The System of the World by Neal Stephenson - for pleasure

Hadoop: The Definitive Guide - for fun

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software - for work

Effective C++ by Scott Meyers - for work

More Effective C++ by Scott Meyers - for work

ashconnor• 15 years ago

Currently reading:

iOS Programming - Big Nerd Ranch - 2nd Edition

Agile Web Dev with Rails - Pragmatic Programmers - 4th Edition

A Clash of Kings - GRR Martin

gforces• 15 years ago

Philip Roth's 'Indignation. Julian Barnes 'The sense of an ending'. And a few other novels. Plus I'm reading 'The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity by Jeffrey Sachs. I would recommend one and all.

aestetix_• 15 years ago

The Baroque Cycle. It's absolutely brilliant, I recommend it to anyone with an interest in security or economics.

tokenadult• 15 years ago

Visible Learning, by John Hattie

http://www.amazon.com/Visible-Learning-Synthesis-Meta-Analys...

Teaching as Leadership, by Teach for America

http://www.teachingasleadership.org/

http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-As-Leadership-Effective-Achie...

Understanding Numbers in Elementary School Mathematics by Hung-hsi Wu

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Numbers-Elementary-Schoo...

renownedmedia• 15 years ago

The Lean Startup and Crossing The Chasm

happyrichpinoy• 15 years ago

Ready Player One http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030788743X/ref=as_li_qf_sp_...

The Wise Man's Fear http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756404738/ref=as_li_qf_sp_...

unignorant• 15 years ago

Reading or recently finished:

The Book of the New Sun: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_New_Sun

Influence: Science and Practice: http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Practice-Robert-B-Cialdini/d...

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: http://www.amazon.com/Self-Editing-Fiction-Writers-Second-Yo...

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M...

Wraeththu: http://www.amazon.com/Wraeththu-Storm-Constantine/dp/0312890...

gruseom7• 15 years ago

Cialdini is classic. It's the only science book I've stayed up all night to finish, it's such a page turner. Plus I remember astonishingly more of it than I do of most books. His anecdotes really help with that.

(It was a different edition though.)

tptacek8• 15 years ago

I read Cialdini years ago because Joel Spolsky recommended it here:

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/navLinks/fog0000000262.html

From that list, I also highly recommend:

* Peopleware (get your cofounders to read it too)

* Godel Escher Bach

* A Pattern Language (but don't bother reading it straight through)

* Growing A Business

bmajz• 15 years ago

Dive Into Python (http://www.diveintopython.net/)

The Facebook Effect (http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connect...)

The Name of the Wind (http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicles-Day/dp...)

gruseom7• 15 years ago

I'm almost at the end of Vanity Fair. It is long, surprisingly light, and psychologically astute. There's one passage where Thackeray nails the concept of cognitive dissonance so strikingly (100 years before Festinger) that it ought to be in textbooks. Many of his observations have made me laugh with their classic English wit. He also has one hell of an anti-heroine. This book reminded me why I used to love literature.

Also, Strangers to Ourselves by Timothy Wilson - a good book on research into unconscious thought processes.

limita• 15 years ago

Fiction: Carl Sagan - Contact Non-fiction: Uresh Vahalia - Unix Internals

dtwwtd• 15 years ago

The Tangled Web: A Guide to Securing Modern Web Applications: http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/tangled/

tptacek8• 15 years ago

Have heard absolutely nothing but great things about this book.

tptacek8• 15 years ago

Just bought a (physical) Kindle; it has:

_Wolf Hall_ (http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Hall-Novel-Booker-Prize/dp/080508...)

_Tree of Smoke_ (http://www.amazon.com/Tree-Smoke-Novel-Denis-Johnson/dp/0374...)

(I'm about halfway through both; I'm trying to get better about reading fiction).

_The Lean Startup_ (http://www.amazon.com/Lean-Startup-Entrepreneurs-Continuous-...)

(Having trouble getting myself propelled into this one)

_Imbibe!_ (http://www.amazon.com/Imbibe-Absinthe-Cocktail-Professor-Fea...)

(Probably the best book on booze ever written, my favorite thing I've read all year)

_Bitters_ (http://www.amazon.com/Bitters-Spirited-Cure-All-Cocktails-Fo...)

(The Atlantic liked this book, but I found it slight --- although we're going to make bitters from this book in our office, so maybe I'll appreciate it more later)

Finally, I didn't read this "recently", but I'll take the opportunity to STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE:

_Ideas in Food_ (http://www.amazon.com/Ideas-Food-Great-Recipes-They/dp/03077...)

This book blew my freaking head off. The authors are modernist ("molecular", gag) consultant/chefs with a very popular blog; the book adapts the stuff on their blog to home and professional cooking.

What's amazing about it is that they did such a great job translating modernist techniques not just to home kitchens but to home cooking, so that the same concepts that give you wanking spherification and foam dishes in restaurants give you hands-free bulletproof risotto at home. I could go on and on about this thing. It is simultaneously the geekiest and most useful food book I've ever bought. Own it immediately.

(Do audiobooks count? If so, add to the list _Thinking Fast And Slow_ by Daniel Kahneman, _Blood, Bones & Butter_ by Gabrielle Hamilton, and Caro's _Power Broker_).

wallflower• 15 years ago

> (Probably the best book on booze ever written, my favorite thing I've read all year

Highly recommend:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0971958769

japhyr• 15 years ago

The End of Faith by Sam Harris - http://www.amazon.com/End-Faith-Religion-Terror-Future/dp/03...

It's the first non-technical book I've read in a while, and I am loving it.

euroclydon• 15 years ago

The Confusion - Neal Stephenson (I'm starting to tire a little of the female hero character who's in all his books, but on the whole, The Baroque Cycle, which this is the second volume of, has been very educational and always entertaining)

The Visual Display of Quantative Information, Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations, and Beautiful Evidence (I picked up all four books by Edward Tufte at his one day training course. At the 2011 SVG Open, I was blown away by Mike Bostock's D3 demo, and Niel Fraser told me to read all of Tuftes books to see where these revolutionary ways of displaying information came from)

ESV Bible, actually hoping to find time to get my Python script running so I can download the audio, chapter by chapter, because the audio version I bought is nigh impossible to navigate.

pettinato2• 15 years ago

I'm just finishing the last book of the The Baroque Cycle, and it's pretty good. I recommend making it through.

tptacek8• 15 years ago

Is Beautiful Evidence good?

VDQA is an all-time favorite of mine, and I've even paid to see him talk live about this stuff, but I've found his books got fuzzier and increasingly subjective over time, so that I really don't even remember what Visual Explanations was trying to say anymore.

m0nastic2• 15 years ago

Right now I'm reading:

Fiction- - Reamde (Bought it when it came out, but had to wait to start until I finished some other stuff on my list)

- The Big Blowdown by George Pelecanos

Nonfiction- - Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia (Volume 1) -- primarily for research, but it's fascinating.

- Dark Markets by Misha Glenny

- How to Live on Mars by robert Zubrin

- The Lightness of Being by Frank Wilczek

- This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin

- Towards a New Architecture by Le Corbusier

- and Strange Things Happen by Stewart Copeland

Technical- - Tangled Web (I saw someone else mention it, and it's really really good so far)

- Skiena's Algorithms book (making slower progress than I'd like).

tptacek8• 15 years ago

I read Misha Glenny's _McMafia_ and it kind of left a bad taste, even before they got to the cybercrime stuff where I knew some of his sources were just making things up. How's _Dark Markets_?

Love that Skiena book.

m0nastic2• 15 years ago

So far, Dark Market is a little too "Dateline expose" for my taste, but I'm only about a third of the way in (maybe it gets better).

I actually picked up Skiena purely from your recommendation of it on here. I wanted to go back to algo fundamentals, and I was irrationally opposed to buying CLRS for the second time (having bought and then sold it back in college), so I figured I'd give it a try. I like the presentation of material a lot better, but I've just been a lazy git about plowing through it.

sidcool• 15 years ago

I am reading 'Facebook App development for Dummies'

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