Ask HN: Which book are you reading?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6697572

by brickcap • 13 years ago

15 47 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I just finished The mating season by PG wodehouse. I will probably start Right ho Jeeves next.

thesingularity• 13 years ago

Started reading the Ender Series in anticipation of the movie. Right now on book 6.

brickcap5• 13 years ago

I did that with harry potter. Wanted to do the same with eragon but they never made any more movies :(

6thSigma2• 13 years ago

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

bennyg• 13 years ago

I love Crichton's stories more than any other author. Pirate is the one that was finished posthumously, right? I've been meaning to pick that one up.

6thSigma2• 13 years ago

Yes, it was published posthumously. There is another book that was actually finished by another author after Crichton died which is called Micro.

I get the feeling Pirate Latitudes was closer to a first draft than a final draft - but it's still Crichton.

OWaz2• 13 years ago

I've just started three books this week. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon, First Shift by Hugh Howey and Understanding Computation by Tom Stuart.

brickcap5• 13 years ago

All at the same time! How do you manage? I have tired doing that several times but I usually end of reading the one I like the most first which is why now I focus on only one book at a time.

nmcfarl2• 13 years ago

I don't know about OWaz, but I get bored quickly, so if I read one book last night, I'm not likely to want to read the same book tonight. If I have no other book in the queue I'll probably end up reading HN on the iPad, if I do have other books, well then I'll read them.

OWaz2• 13 years ago

I used to read one book at a time but now I really just want to read a lot of different things. I've started forming a habit of waking up by 6:00am (I used to wake up at 9:00am only a few months ago) and reading for an hour before going into the office. Then at night when there is some time I'll read a bit more. On the weekend I will usually spend an afternoon at the library reading or programming. I don't have kids and am not married so time is not an issue.

mindcrime• 13 years ago

Currently reading The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't - Nate Silver

Before that, I had just finished The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner.

Next, I may read Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan.

nmcfarl2• 13 years ago

Also reading The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't - Nate Silver

And also in progress:

Buried for Pleasure - Edmund Crispin

The Dying Trade - Peter Corris

Think Bayes - Allen B Downey

gruseom4• 13 years ago

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I can't figure it out. It seems like it might be terrible. I'm half enjoying it and half sort of hypnotized like a chicken by it.

foxlisk• 13 years ago

FWIW, i think it's terrible. There's a few really excellent pieces of writing sprinkled throughout it, but the whole thing felt hollow and self-indulgent to me.

gruseom4• 13 years ago

I guess it's a failed experiment the way Catcher in the Rye was a successful experiment. But it's kind of interesting despite that. I like how daringly he injects esoteric religious material into conventional 1950s settings. But it was too hard to pull off. None of the characters is captivating and most of them, especially Zooey, are asses in a way that doesn't feel entirely intentional.

I'm on a Salinger kick, having run across his books for a couple bucks in a used bookstore and never having read him before. He is a singular writer. Catcher was a freak success. Like Kurt Cobain, Salinger would clearly have been happier as an obscure cult artist. But Catcher was the opening bell of the 60s counterculture just as the 50s were getting started. Once it picked up a wave it became a tsunami.

I was surprised at how good the pieces in Nine Stories are, e.g. "The Laughing Man" and "Love and Squalor". He paints childhood and adolescence beautifully, as well as charming interactions between children and sensitive young men. But it all gives an impression of, um, arrested development. Did he write any great adult characters? The pervy teacher in Catcher doesn't count. It seems that adults in Salinger's world mostly just get sour, and the one who is clearly his favorite he has blow his brains out in front of his wife.

More Salinger books are supposed to be coming out now that he's beyond the reach of his fans and the press, and it will be interesting to see on which side of the divide they end up. One hopes they'll be awesome. But I suspect the odds are better that they'll be weird and turned in on themselves.

kcovia• 13 years ago

The Count of Monte Cristo

brickcap5• 13 years ago

You are in for a treat man. I read it once every year (not cover to cover just my favorite parts esp the prison) just to fire myself up.

Side note: The movie is also quite good.

lazyant2• 13 years ago

which movie version? (there are many)

fredyr• 13 years ago

I'm doing a Neal Stephenson marathon, just started with Quicksilver last night, after finishing Snow Crash and Reamde back to back.

Mankhool• 13 years ago

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Awesome!

Nicholas_C• 13 years ago

Categorically Unequal by Douglas Massey, great book on stratification and inequality in America. Also reading A Farewell to Arms.

hashtree• 13 years ago

Just finished East of Eden and then started up a goodreads account. Without trying, I now have 37 in queue. Pretty excited to find out about goodreads and get solid recommendations/reviews.

If anyone wants to friend up there: https://www.goodreads.com/rockymadden

frigg• 13 years ago

I'm reading Under the Dome right now. After this I'm thinking of starting The Gunslinger.

zachlatta2• 13 years ago

I know I'm a little late to read this, but I've been enjoying How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It's interesting how it objectifies social interaction with others in such short passages.

cprncus• 13 years ago

I was late to read that when I read it in 1984!

lazyant2• 13 years ago

the modern equivalent of the book is "Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi"

zachlatta2• 13 years ago

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out!

wwweston• 13 years ago

_City of Thieves_ by David Benioff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Thieves_(novel)

desmondrd• 13 years ago

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greeene. It's a Machiavellian approach to managing your life in order to maximize your personal power and influence. Although I don't plan on becoming the Prince himself, it's a quick, interesting read written from a unique perspective.

atom-morgan• 13 years ago

Design for Hackers by David Kadavy

lukevdp• 13 years ago

The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

Wezc• 13 years ago

I just bought the Chris Hadfield book "An astronaut's guide to life on Earth" :)

hvass• 13 years ago

Starting Washington by Paul Johnson and rereading a lot of favorites: John Boyd's biography by Coram & Seneca's Letters from a Stoic.

On the side, I am trying to finish Eisenhower's biography - 500/700 pages.

pearjuice• 13 years ago

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

devNoise• 13 years ago

For fun: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.

For figure out a web front end for my REST API: AngularJS by Brad Green & Shyam Seshadri

ninthfrank07• 13 years ago

The Machinery of Freedom by David D. Friedman.

sparktree• 13 years ago

Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3) - James S.A. Corey - Its a pretty amazing series.

qbrass• 13 years ago

Just finished http://www.josh.is/rood-a-cyberpunk-novel/

I actually read it a few years back, but came across it the other day, and decided to read it again.

bmelton3• 13 years ago

Not reading it currently, but I can't let a thread like this go by without suggesting the Silo Saga by Hugh Howey. The first book in the series is "Wool: Part 1", which (last I looked) was a free Kindle book on Amazon, and I'd graduated to purchasing the rest of the series before finishing the second chapter.

It's a phenomenal series, and I'm a little embarrassed that it took me so long to find it.

Aside from that, I had started (before his passing) an Elmore Leonard marathon with the goal of completing every single novel that Leonard has ever written. If you're ordinarily a sci-fi reader, perhaps this isn't the best suggestion, but I find the wit, terseness and change of pace extremely refreshing.

brickcap5• 13 years ago

Yeah that is on my radar. I have wanted to read it ever since I read more about Hugh. Really like the guy.

l0stb0y• 13 years ago

Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Gail Dines.

Should be essential reading for everyone, especially men, in this day and age.

http://www.amazon.com/Pornland-How-Porn-Hijacked-Sexuality/d...

ivan_ah• 13 years ago

I recently got back to reading Infinite jest by David Foster Wallace.

On a more technical, I'm reading SICP --- could you believe someone had thrown this book out (I guess left out for donation). I rescued it have been reading through it. Scheme is nice, but what is even nicer is the JS version: ivanistheone.github.io/SICPapp/ (credit Martin Henz for JS adaptation)

Ask HN: Which book are you reading?

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