The Best Books I Read in 2013

http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Best-Books-2013

by kissgyorgy • 13 years ago

248 156 13 years ago

At least no Malcolm Gladwell. Bill Gates the voice of sanity - who woulda thunk it.

Anon84• 13 years ago

After the Microsoft years he has proven to be a brilliant individual with a genuine interest I. Using his fame and fortune (and everything that goes with it) to try to improve the world.

mixmastamyk2• 13 years ago

Why is this Gladwell character brought up so often? I'd never had known he exists if it wasn't for his detractors.

rgrieselhuber• 13 years ago

You're not missing anything.

spenuke3• 13 years ago

How many college-educated liberal folks with a non-engineering background do you know? It's all but impossible to avoid him in these circles.

(I say this as a philosophy degree-holding liberal pinko who is is exasperated by Gladwell. To be fair, I'm more exasperated with the culture of cherry-picking near-banalities wrapped in an engaging narrative that he and the TED folks have propagated rather than their work itself.)

untitledly• 13 years ago

Top comment on the blog post.

"Bill, you are really inspiring me to increase my concern for the critical issues of economy and technology. You are a gift to the world. thank u."

Wow, Gates has really cleaned up his public perception.

mcintyre1994• 13 years ago

No offence, but where have you been getting news on his perception in the last few years? He's proven probably the most significant philanthropist in history, this isn't new.

ternaryoperator• 13 years ago

Let's say one of the most significant philanthropists. Carnegie and Rockefeller were extraordinary philanthropists and in inflation-adjusted dollars, Rockefeller gave away more.

What Gates has done that's unique is to pressure/induce other super-wealthy individuals to also donate their wealth to charity.

vowelless2• 13 years ago

Well, he is the Andrew Carnegie of our generation. I would say he has helped a very large number of people and been an inspiration to even more, especially outside of the US.

Jun82• 13 years ago

"But I read mostly nonfiction because I always want to learn more about how the world works."

Boy oh boy, if I had a quarter every time I heard that probably I could get a tall Starbucks latte. Many, many people are under the assumption that fiction is stuff that somebody made up and hence useless while non-fiction gives you information about the world; so if you're a busy person, read non-fiction (it's of, course debatable if such a neat classification even can be done). What these people do not realize is that great fiction can provide more information about the world, humanity in general, and what's even more important, yourself, then you can ever glimpse by reading another Gladwell book.

baby4• 13 years ago

Still, fiction is fiction.

It's like all those questions : would you rather do this, or live all your life with this. They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination.

Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life.

e.g. Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

a_bonobo• 13 years ago

Fiction is the same to me, yes it came from a real context, but it's still a work of fiction and doesn't teach you anything about real life.

And what is fiction based on, if not real life? Fiction is the number one way to learn how to see the world from the point of view of a completely different person, only in fiction can you leave your own shoes. I'm pretty sure that reading fiction makes you a better person, and it's proven that reading fiction improves a person's empathy [1]. Increased empathy means that you can put yourself into other leaders' heads and guess what made them make their decisions, thereby learning how the world works.

And yes, you can learn about dating from a romance novel, except that about 99% of them are not about real life.

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/liter...

JamesArgo• 13 years ago

You may learn things about the expectations of those that read romantic novels, some of whom you may want to date. Fiction is instrumentally useful insomuch as it teaches you the cultural context others are immersed in. It's probably worth it for most peoples to learn how fiction works and why it is appealing, something that can't be done exclusively through non-fiction. Spending ~10% of one's reading time on fiction isn't an unreasonable use of a rational person's time, disregarding the pleasure of it entirely. At least, this is my rationalization.

jmduke3• 13 years ago

As a simple counterpoint, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is a fictional book that imparts upon the reader many things about 'real life': both historical/factual (what Russian gulags were like; what the climate of WWII-era Europe was like) and personal (the true value of things; how one survives in the face of suffocating adversity).

Osmium2• 13 years ago

e.g. Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

Well, since romantic novels aren't really about dating, I'm not sure the question makes sense. A better question would be: "Will you learn more about love from reading fiction or by reading nonfiction?" And for that I think the answer is obvious.

ericdykstra• 13 years ago

They are fun, but they are useless as they never happened. There is no point thinking about them besides playing with your imagination.

Just because something happened doesn't mean it's useful to think about. Conversely, just because something never happened doesn't mean it isn't useful to think about. I've read fiction books that made me examine my perspective or way of life in a way that nothing else has, and I've read non-fiction books that didn't register a single change in me.

look_lookatme• 13 years ago

    Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

What we all need are experiences (and any reading counts as an experience) that change us, that help us grow and mature our worldview and increase our self-awareness. Reading good fiction can help tremendously.

You may not learn about dating by reading Ishiguro, but it's the case that the profound humanity of his writing makes you a more compassionate and confident person and that's the kind of stuff that can and will make you more desirable to be around.

FreakLegion• 13 years ago

Still, fiction is fiction.

"You can tell a true war story by the questions you ask. Somebody tells a story, let's say, and afterward you ask, 'Is it true?' and if the answer matters, you've got your answer.

For example, we've all heard this one. Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast and saves his three buddies.

Is it true?

The answer matters.

You'd feel cheated if it never happened. Without the grounding reality, it's just a trite bit of puffery, pure Hollywood, untrue in the way all such stories are untrue. Yet even if it did happen -- and maybe it did, anything's possible -- even then you know it can't be true, because a true war story does not depend upon that kind of truth. Absolute occurrence is irrelevant. A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth. For example: Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast, but it's a killer grenade and everybody dies anyway. Before they die, though, one of the dead guys says, 'The fuck you do that for?' and the jumper says, 'Story of my life, man,' and the other guy starts to smile but he's dead.

That's a true story that never happened."

ekianjo• 13 years ago

e.g. Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

Your point is moot. Even non-fiction is fiction in a way. The writer may have changed details, selected only specific facts, hidden some parts of the truth. You never know. At least with fiction you KNOW it's made up, but with non-fiction you can not really tell what is true or not because of your limited knowledge of how it was written and redacted.

gnaritas2• 13 years ago

You need to read better fiction. Look around you, speculative science fiction is what inspired the world you live in; it created this reality. You have global communications via satellite because Author C Clark wrote a piece of fiction that sprung the idea upon the world. Fiction generates ideas, to think that somehow doesn't matter because it hasn't happened yet is massively missing the point.

auctiontheory3• 13 years ago

Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

Well, if you are straight guy, you could learn a lot (everything) about what women want by carefully reading the romance novels they read.

There's also this embedded assumption in your statement and in BG's that non-fiction tells some sort of factual truth about "real life." Negatory.

Jun82• 13 years ago

In one sense this is true, non-fiction works are much richer in factoids; conversely, however, fiction is richer in certain other facts:

   It is difficult
    to get the news from poems
		yet men die miserably every day
				for lack
    of what is found there.

This doesn't mean that non-fiction works cannot pertain to the reader/viewer that kind of knowledge, e.g. the iconic image of Phan Thi Kim Phuc burn by napalm in Vietnam (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc) "speaks volumes" as they say.

As for dating, here's some good advice (assuming you're a man): grab a copy or Pride and Prejudice and read it to get a grasp of the female psyche. And if you don't read it at least carry it around where she will see.

grey-area• 13 years ago

Are you gonna learn about dating by reading romantic novels or real life stories?

I contend that you'd learn an awful lot more about love and relationships from a novel like Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina, than you ever will from 'non-fiction' like The Game (which you've mentioned up-thread).

Drawing a clear distinction between fiction and non-fiction is in my opinion pointless - you can tell any story you like by using selected facts, you can tell multiple stories with the same facts, and people often do twist the truth when reminiscing and celebrating the past, or present the truth from a very limited, insular point of view in so-called non-fiction books. So in this sense I see non-fiction as very similar to fiction; it's used to tell stories, to present the world as the author sees it, and to educate and entertain. All of these functions are performed by both fiction and non-fiction, and in both cases we're trusting the author to tell us something about the world from their perspective.

The best stories (be they memories of a real-world event, or imagined events based on life experience) transcend the particular and become lessons about human behaviour and life.

jmduke3• 13 years ago

My mantra:

Non-fiction teaches you about the world.

Fiction teaches you about yourself.

gbog4• 13 years ago

Mine:

Good books teach you about the world and about yourself.

Joeri2• 13 years ago

And yet I learnt more about myself by reading the non-fiction book 'The Happiness Hypothesis' than from any fiction book.

theuiguru• 13 years ago

"Every protagonist of every story, show or movie is the story of my life."

oskarth• 13 years ago

This is a very common viewpoint among technical people, sadly. Kind of like how humanists think math is about counting things. I'm not implying Gates is of that variety, but, you know, his kind, our kind. Not that there's much point in reading Shakespeare nowadays, anyway.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_cultures

bqe• 13 years ago

Why do you think there's no point in reading Shakespeare?

I like many people, read Shakespeare in high school and disliked it. Reading it again as an adult is a completely different experience, and one I highly recommend.

My favorite play is Titus Andronicus. How often do you have Anger, Rape, and Murder personified on stage, or forced cannibalism? The Quentin Tarantino of Shakespeare for sure.

bennyg• 13 years ago

Shakespeare's comedies are absolutely hilarious. You need to watch one at an authentic Shakespeare festival as well. His tragedies and histories are good too, but I'm a sucker for the humor, play on words, and overall wit in his writing.

Renaud• 13 years ago

Well, we can satisfy both our needs for geekiness and culture by watching Sir Patrick Stewart play Shakespeare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZnaXDRwu84

alan_cx• 13 years ago

"This is a very common viewpoint among technical people, sadly"

Really? The usual image is that techie geek types lap up scifi and fantasy, which when done properly are all about the human condition.

Osmium2• 13 years ago

Couldn't agree more. To quote a favourite author, "After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world." I believe this to be true.

sho_hn2• 13 years ago

Reading fiction tends to be the best way to train the habit of seeing the world through someone else's eyes, and a little empathy goes a long way in many life situations indeed.

ashearer• 13 years ago

There's an associated danger with fiction: though it reflects how the author sees the world, it may not match how the world really is. Fiction can intentionally or unintentionally invite readers to draw universal lessons which are misleading.

I'd even suggest that some authors, particularly those with strong political views, may be motivated to write fiction in order to give support to their own ideas. It's a blank canvas onto which to project an idealized world, and to fulfill wishes. (If that's the case, it can serve as a mildly negative Bayesian signal about whether the ideas are really true. If there were so many real-world examples illustrating the beliefs, why would the author be moved to write fiction to promote them?)

Apart from politics, plots are more interesting when they're surprising, but almost by definition, surprising plots are less likely to be generalizable to the world.

(Of course, non-fiction can really be fiction in disguise, but at least non-fiction can be fact-checked. To cite a recent Hollywood example, wherever the movie Argo is suspenseful, it's simply made up. Minor spoiler: If you drew a lesson about how going directly against the instructions of both the President and your CIA boss can be a useful tool to cause your boss to suddenly rally around you and later commend your success, you would be gravely misled. Interesting plots thrive on such unrealistic conflict.)

dudurocha2• 13 years ago

Tell me two books that'll teach me so much. Please.

jmduke3• 13 years ago

I'd recommend Steinbeck's East of Eden and Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.

xkarga00• 13 years ago

Byron Crawford's The Mindset of a Champion

cm20122• 13 years ago

You may have read "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck (if you havn't, I highly recommend it.)

You might not have heard of some of her other novels. One such book, "Pavilion of Women", is almost life changing. It is subtle. It has an unmatched understanding and portrayal of human nature. Everyone I know who's read it has been affected by it.

I can't recommend "Pavilion of Women" enough - it was a magical experience to read it.

donniezazen• 13 years ago

He probably means he wants facts and not paradigms.

waterlesscloud• 13 years ago

Ah yes, "these people".

All that fiction and still buying into "us and them".

auctiontheory3• 13 years ago

I was shocked by that quote from someone in such a position of power and influence. As kids we are taught that "non-fiction" is "true" and that "fiction" is "made-up stories" but I would hope that most of us, as we get through life, eventually figure out that nether of those statements is accurate.

Camus said it best: 'Fiction is the lie through which we tell the truth.'

tokenadult4• 13 years ago

Well, if you compare the whole genre of "great fiction" to "another Gladwell book," that gives the initial advantage to "great fiction," for sure.

I read some of fiction and some of nonfiction, but definitely skew to reading more nonfiction. One nonfiction book, which I think someone on HN told me isn't even the best book on its specific topic, was very meaningful to me and helped me learn a lot about myself. I read the entire book out loud to my dad when he was paralyzed, about three years after his paralyzing accident (which was about three years before he died). The book is The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition,[1] entirely nonfiction, but nonetheless a way to be transported into an earlier time and a place that I am unlikely ever to see in my lifetime. The characters were all real, but they all got me thinking about how I think and about how I get along in life. Great nonfiction can can provide more information about the world, humanity in general, and what's even more important, yourself, then you can ever glimpse by reading another science-fiction novel.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Endurance-Shackletons-Legendary-Antarc...

Shamanmuni4• 13 years ago

What are you arguing against? He didn't say that fiction is always better than non-fiction for learning about the world.

However, many people (Bill Gates included apparently) operate under the opposite assumption that non-fiction gives you more information about the world by default. And that's simply not true. Fiction can change your views, give you new ideas and insights, challenge your beliefs, etc.

Fiction writers create based on their life experiences, their feelings and ideas and also the information they got from different sources. It's pure ignorance to assume they only offer brainless entertainment.

arethuza2• 13 years ago

The Endurance expedition is an example of truth being stranger than fiction - a remarkable tale of adventure and leadership:

"Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope is gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton."

The voyage of the James Caird must account as one of the greatest bits of seamanship in history:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_James_Caird

Negitivefrags• 13 years ago

Why does reading have to be about learning? Can we not just read to have fun.

I don't know how we got to the point where so many see entertainment for it's own sake as a negative thing.

mujunto• 13 years ago

It seems to me that entertainment without learning isn't possible. Indeed, the pleasure that entertainment affords is a straightforward signal that the brain is learning, without exception. Take humour. What was funny in the past is usually not funny now, because humour depends on our current state of knowledge and is a means of opening our minds to new ideas.

Even the pleasure that comes from addiction and drug use indicates that learning is taking place -- learning the context of the 'high' (more and more subtle detail concerning the smell of the coffee, the crackle of the cigarette paper, the label of the wine being poured, the faces of one's fellow drinkers, etc, and linking this information to the pleasure itself).

Contrariwise, if one is not entertained, if one cannot find some pleasurable feature in the situation, then one is learning nothing. So learning without entertainment is not possible either!

dhaivatpandya• 13 years ago

This works on a philosophical level of "knowing more about the world", but with regard to just information, fiction doesn't cut it (nor is it meant to). For example, you don't learn more about shipping containers or processor architecture with fiction.

gsz• 13 years ago

I prefer anthropology, sociology, history and psychology to fiction when it comes to learning more about humanity.

ovatsug25• 13 years ago

Agreed. Fiction lets me say some things that would be ignored otherwise. There is something insidious about it. My stories would be off-putting in a frank manner. But through fiction, you can rest your case and expose a world that would otherwise be ignored. For example, The Kite Runner is probably the only way to learn about Afghanistan for many people.

kevinkyyro• 13 years ago

In defense of non-fiction readers, it seems that one could make the statement quoted above in order to say "this is my intent in reading, so it leads me to read these types of books because they aim to serve that purpose"; it does not necessarily deny fiction the ability to teach one about the world and more than a good non-fictional work.

However, choosing to read fiction puts no lower bound on the amount of real information you will get nor the amount you will learn about the world, yourself, or humanity. Meanwhile, a non-fictional piece will at least have a reasonable guarantee to contain information of some kind.

why-el• 13 years ago

This reminded me of a video where chomsky was asked what he would do if he had time and he said: "I will probably read a novel from the 18th century."

mcdowall• 13 years ago

I find lists like this and Sivers.org/book very useful for finding new reading material, some good ones I've read this year (in no particular order);

Who owns the future - Jaron Lanier

Canoeing the Congo - Phil Harwood

Margaret Thatcher - The Authorized Biography

Venture Deals - Brad Feld / Jason Mendelson

1000 Ultimate Experiences - Lonely Planet

bigsparky• 13 years ago

if you like those lists check out http://www.sparkened.com

we are collecting lists of influential peoples favorite stuff

we have warren buffett, bill gates, elon musk, heaps more

swanson• 13 years ago

Well, I'm no Bill Gates, but here are the best books I read in 2013:

* So Good They Can't Ignore You (Newport). If you've ever daydreamed about how much better your life would be if you were only working at that cool company, you should seriously read this book. By not focusing on just getting a cool job, but instead doing deliberate practice and being "so good they can't ignore you" you can increase aspects of any job that are scientifically-proven to make you happier (control, autonomy, and expertise).

* The Making of a Chef (Ruhlman). If you have any interest in cooking (even if you just watch Top Chef) you will like this book. A major theme of the book is discipline which aligns well with software; code quality, good design, maintaining a test suite — all of these things are signs of a true craftsmen, but they are easy to shrug off without discipline.

* Are Your Light's On? (Gause, Weinberg). I would recommend it to anyone dealing with arguments about solutions or confusion about problems, especially when non-technical folks are involved. The biggest win for me was making a mental shift from "Problem Solver" to "Solver of Problems", which allows us to focus on finding who is impacted by a problem and identifying the real story behind the problem.

I'm currently reading Punished By Rewards (only halfway through) but it is pretty interesting so far and will probably make the cut on my final list :)

gammarator• 13 years ago

Me either! I've also been writing similar lists for a few years now. Here's my list for 2013:

http://bellm.org/blog/2013/11/29/the-best-books-i-read-in-20...

vowelless2• 13 years ago

I'm a huge fan of Cal Newport. I've been following his blog for years and I love his methodical approach towards deconstructing and demystifying various career related things.

Some books I read this year that stand out:

* Emperor of All Maladies (Mukherjee): Beautiful look into the most elusive disease of our generation. Mukherjee provides a biography of cancer.

* The Art of Learning (Waitzkin): I've been following Josh Waitzkin since I was a little kid. I fell in love with his Chessmaster series. Waitzkin was the inspiration for (and child actor in) Searching for Bobby Fischer. A chess prodigy and former IM, Waitzkin deconstructs his learning style and how it allowed him to become a leading Tai Chi martial artist.

* Humble Pie: Autobiography of Gordon Ramsay. I am a fan and found it pretty honest (although his cockiness leaks in a bit). It's a very quick read.

FedRegister• 13 years ago

Thank you for bringing up 'The Making of a Chef'. I'm a classically trained computer scientist and my fiancee is a classically trained French chef, and we've often joked about how much (at the highest end) the programming world and culinary world are similar. Now I think I have something to read that can help me relate more.

imrehg• 13 years ago

The Beginning of Infinity - David Deutsch (enhanced my critical thinking)

The Wide Lens - Ron Adner (a more complete view for developing projects, foreseeing the inevitable problems beyond your immediate reach)

Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami (just awesome)

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson (tomorrow's world, written the day before yesterday)

And here's all the 40-something book I've read this year: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/562634

contextual2• 13 years ago

Currently reading Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath and it's easily one of my favorites of 2013. The introduction - Gladwell explains what actually happened in the epic biblical battle of the same name - is revelatory and an unforgettable piece of literature.

Malcolm Gladwell may be too popular to be 'cool', but he's a master storyteller. Haters gonna hate.

nekopa2• 13 years ago

I enjoy reading Gladwell's books, but recently I have seen information that means I need to stop regarding his books as non-fiction. Maybe a lot of his books should be sub-titled "Inspired by true events".

tokenadult4• 13 years ago

Gladwell comes up so often here on Hacker News that I have a FAQ about him:

Malcolm Gladwell, who has said in an interview[1] that he writes to try out ideas, is good, while trying out ideas, at crediting his sources. Any reader of a Malcolm Gladwell book (as I know, from being a reader of the book Outliers) can check the sources, and decide from there what other sources to check and what other ideas to play with. Gladwell doesn't purport to write textbooks, but I give him a lot of credit for finding interesting scholarly sources that haven't had enough attention in the popular literature. He is equaled by very few authors as a story-teller who can tie ideas together in a thought-provoking assembly.

[1] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122671211614230261.html

"Q: Do you worry that you extrapolate too much from too little?

"A: No. It's better to err on the side of over-extrapolation. These books are playful in the sense that they regard ideas as things to experiment with. I'm happy if somebody reads my books and reaches a conclusion that is different from mine, as long as the ideas in the book cause them to think. You have to be willing to put pressure on theories, to push the envelope. That's the fun part, the exciting part. If you are writing an intellectual adventure story, why play it safe? I'm not out to convert people. I want to inspire and provoke them."

contextual2• 13 years ago

The BS on HN is much worse than anything I've read from Gladwell. Where's your FAQ for that?

dylanz• 13 years ago

I just took a road trip and looked at one of Bill Gates previous favorite books list, and picked "Tap Dancing to Work: Warren Buffett on Practically Everything, 1966-2012". I've always wanted to know more about Mr. Buffet, so I thought this would be a great choice.

I almost drove off the road listening to him talking about bonds vs stocks and percentages. It was interesting, but definitely not a road trip book.

That said, I finished Snow Crash on the trip, and it was a great book. I think I preferred Cryptonomicon a bit more, but some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time. Hiro Protagonist and YT are also awesome characters.

maxerickson• 13 years ago

With "The Baroque Cycle", you can combine the experiences.

(I'm mostly kidding, I enjoyed it, but some parts do go on)

tricolon• 13 years ago

No kidding. Here I am 80% done after only six years!

lmm3• 13 years ago

The Baroque Cycle was fun but didn't really come together as a self-contained story with beginning and end. Which may have been his intention, but still; I much preferred Anathem.

defen2• 13 years ago

some of the theories in Snow Crash were incredible, and way before their time.

The namshubs from Snow Crash are pretty heavily inspired by ideas from The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. It's a very interesting book. Richard Dawkins said of it "It is one of those books that is either complete rubbish or a work of consummate genius, nothing in between! Probably the former, but I'm hedging my bets."

mcguire2• 13 years ago

Have I gone 'round the bend, or has Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Tap-Dancing-Work-Practically-Everythin...

gbog4• 13 years ago

Mine:

- Jules Michelet, History of France (pg suggested somewhere to read books about history. I now fully agree, it is a way to get the best possible understanding of today's world. As much as we have to understand how a cell has grown from nothing to its current state to really understand what it is, we also have to understand how a country has been built in the long history to understand it's current issues)

- Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (read it again).

MichaelGG• 13 years ago

I see he mentioned Catcher in the Rye. I read it after hearing so many people say how it was such an influential book for them. John Lennon was even killed by a guy supposedly inspired by this book, and it's been often banned (some of the scenes might be unsuitable for a conservative school, I suppose).

Can any technical-types here explain if they found it particularly impressive? It's well written but I didn't think it very notable. Do I need to read it with a specific mindset?

evanrich• 13 years ago

I am in the same boat as you. People who love it are crazy about it. I started it on a plane flight and the guy next to me chatted my ear off about how it changed his life for 20 mins. My current theory is that if you read it in your childhood, it resonates with you. I was 25 when I read it and it did not.

lmm3• 13 years ago

I read it in my childhood and was unimpressed, so it's not just that.

cm20122• 13 years ago

I despised the book in high school. I couldn't relate to Holden.

calbear81• 13 years ago

It was more interesting to me as a teenager and is normally found on the required high school reading canon. It's been so long so I'm going simply by memory here (instead of going to Wikipedia and quoting verbatim) but what's stuck after 15+ years has been the themes of individualism, independence, and desire to map out one's own destiny.

DonGateley2• 13 years ago

I consider it the most harmful book ever written. It's impact on the mood and choices of several generations has been devastating if not catastrophic.

Had he been offed in the war the U.S., at least, would be a much more optimistic and forward thinking place.

ececconi• 13 years ago

Nonfiction still has the viewpoint of the writer. Even if the narrator is silent, their biases and worldviews infiltrate the work. At least in fiction this is explicit.

ibsathish• 13 years ago

Need not have to label the Fiction genre as a non-educative one. Numerous amount of fiction books teach about the world, the cultures and provokes self-introspection.

Non-fiction, agreed. Especially Biographies of successful people who made it from the scratch after a lot of struggling, like Mr. Gates himself.

pre-show-mac• 13 years ago

If your dad owns private equity in starbucks and gives you money to buy software from IBM -- THAT is hardly pulling yourself up from the bootstraps yo.

Shamanmuni4• 13 years ago

Apparently he read Gates' fictional biography...

skriticos2• 13 years ago

I have an awfully long commute each day (around 3 hours) and spend most of the time reading fiction (scifi and fantasy).

I do this for two reasons:

1. It's fun.

2. In fiction authors have the liberty to go dip shit crazy with their possibilities. They can even change the inertia of the universe they are in.

I also think reading this kind of books helps to think outside the box and often helps to get a fresh view on problems I'm working on.

It also helps me relax my mind while reading, which I feel is a prerequisite for it to work properly.

PS: here are some of the works I particularly enjoyed lately:

Howey, Hugh.: Wool (and the entire Silo saga, very good read); Sanderson, Brandon: Mistborn: The Final Empire and the sequels (Sanderson is a genius when it comes to creating consistent universes); Phillips, Richard: The second ship (trilogy, contemporary argumented with alien technology); Corey, James S. A.: Leviathan Awakes (expanse series)

k__• 13 years ago

Rework and Art/Fear were the best books I read this year.

d_theorist2• 13 years ago

I read a lot, but I don’t always choose what’s on the bestseller list.

Wait. Is he saying that sometimes he does choose what's on the bestseller list?

onebaddude4• 13 years ago

"Is he saying that sometimes he does choose what's on the bestseller list?"

Is that a problem for you? Does it make your hipster friends angry?

Let's see what I read from the bestseller's list this year, off the top of my head: Quiet, Thinking Fast and Slow, Devil in the White City, Steve Jobs, and yes, 1 or 2 of the Game of Thrones books. I also read The Corrections, which wasn't on the best-seller list this year, but was definitely hyped in its day (Oprah Book Club! How mainstream!)

In fact, I make an effort to read the bestsellers lists for ideas. It makes me more well-read, not less.

d_theorist2• 13 years ago

Ha. I was making as joke that Bill is so powerful that he can choose what goes on the bestseller lists (sometimes).

gadders• 13 years ago

I'd just like to add my annual joke that Gates really should get an Amazon affilliate account or he's never going to make any money.

nekopa2• 13 years ago

I think it would be interesting to see if he did get an affiliate account, and specified all of the aff money would be donated to a charity, how much cash would it raise? A nice way to siphon Amazon's profits into charity...

gwern• 13 years ago

What profits?

smartial_arts• 13 years ago

1. Chaos: Making a New Science [ http://amzn.to/1fbmC73 ] still makes an awesome read despite its age.

2. Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers [ http://amzn.to/1kFszdH ] - great book on stress and its effects by Robert Sapolsky (have you seen his lectures on behavioural biology? Fascinating stuff, even if you always thought 'meh, biology' - the guy is an amazing lecturer)

ganessh• 13 years ago

"Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman"

amerika_blog2• 13 years ago

These are coffee table books about interesting/ironic details of our world, not any actual reshaping. I used to read such books in the pursuit of being an "intellectual," then picked up Marcus Aurelius and realized how puerile all the coffee-table folderol really is.

minutetominute• 13 years ago

Too many people would rather not deal with the difficulties of reading foundational works. The task of reading coffee-table folderol is much easier than having to actually rethink what you know when you read works that have stood the test of time. I, too, am guilty of having read too many coffee-table books and have only really started to learn now that I avoid those books. Picking up a kindle and a tablet have especially helped in my newfound pursuit of knowledge because, ironically, the most valuable books/articles/essays tend to be freely available online.

amerika_blog2• 13 years ago

The truth is often hidden in plain sight simply because most will never go looking for it.

dharmach• 13 years ago

Being a fan of some Russian authors like Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Gorky and others, reading their books I got a glimpse of the Russian culture and society of that era. Would somebody suggest me similar type of authors from past English era?

incision• 13 years ago

Shame this thread is dominated by that single sentence on nonfiction.

Some books I enjoyed this year:

* The Player of Games - http://amzn.com/0316005401

* A Guide to Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - http://amzn.com/B0040JHNQG

* The Emperors Handbook - http://amzn.com/0743233832

* The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future - http://amzn.com/0393088693

* Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work - http://amzn.com/B009JU6UPG

* Chaos: Making a New Science - http://amzn.com/0143113453

* Made in the USA: The Rise and Retreat of American Manufacturing - http://amzn.com/0262019388

EnderMB• 13 years ago

I think the top comment sums up a lot of criticisms about Hacker News quite well.

On subject, I really enjoyed The Emperor's Handbook, and would definitely recommend it.

vram22• 13 years ago

The Navigator - by Morris West. Not new. Has a good story along with a few implied lessons about handling yourself and others. Set in the context of a sea voyage from Hawaii, to find a remote, uncharted island where ancient Polynesian navigators go to die. Is a bit like "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Swiss Family Robinson", after they find the island, with some masala (to use an Indian term) thrown in :-)

Masala:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_(film_genre)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56966.The_Navigator

http://www.amazon.com/The-Navigator-Morris-L-West/dp/0688030...

DonGateley2• 13 years ago

If you want to completely lose your place in an HN thread, make a comment. I hate that.

The Best Books I Read in 2013

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