Ask HN: What was the latest book you read?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=715074

by rokhayakebe • 17 years ago

13 45 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Ask HN: What was the latest book you read?

The last book I "seriously" read was The world is Flat.

ErrantX2• 17 years ago

Mind Magic (by Marc Lemezma) - Im trying to improve my mentalism skills (and though that book is really basic it is a good refresher on ideas).

Last serious book was a 620 page tome entitled "Writing Security Tools and Exploits". A book with potentially the largest "great title" to "boring content" ratio ever :( (stuck at it though in principle :P)

yan2• 17 years ago

Check out "The Art of Software Security Assessment" if you're into that.

ErrantX2• 17 years ago

cheers, added to my reading list :) (I might have read it - not sure)

yan2• 17 years ago

"A People's History of the United Sates" by Howard Zinn. A decent history book, not exactly uplifting.

Reading currently: "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York" by Robert Caro. Absolutely loving it.

That, and my usual climbing books.

scott_s• 17 years ago

Current: The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

Last: The World Without Us by Alan Weisman.

The best recent: Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamon.

michaelfairley• 17 years ago

Last: I am a Strange Loop

Current: Neuromancer

deutronium• 17 years ago

The Revenge of Gaia - James Lovelock

TallGuyShort• 17 years ago

Last: Hacker's Handbook 3.0 by Dr. K (waste of time)

Current: Last Light by Andy McNab (awesome)

mgrouchy• 17 years ago

I am currently reading "beautiful code" by Greg Wilson, Andy Oram(and all the contributors)

BrentRitterbeck• 17 years ago

The last book I finished was Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship.

I am currently perusing numerous books for summer research.

ddemchuk• 17 years ago

Just finished "Anthem" by Ayn Rand (it's like 100 pages so it only took a few hours)

Started "The American Political Tradition" by Richard Hofstadter, pretty engaging history of our major politicians and founding fathers...

fogus• 17 years ago

last book: The Dark Tower II

currently: The T Programming Language

warfangle• 17 years ago

Previous: Anathem

Current: Programming in Scala

jacquesm• 17 years ago

The big switch

before that

Accelerando

rokhayakebe• 17 years ago

I started to read it but I lost interest quickly.

spk• 17 years ago

I've almost finished Accelerando. I can't remember which was the previous one..

HalcyonMuse• 17 years ago

Cat's Cradle, by Vonnegut.

TrevorJ• 17 years ago

"The Screwtape Letters", by C.S. Lewis

In the middle of "Roughing It" by Mark Twain now.

johng• 17 years ago

Just got done reading 'the fountainhead' by ayn rand.

keefe• 17 years ago

Last serious book : http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Cryptography-Practice-Hewlett-P...

Last fun book : http://www.amazon.com/Woken-Furies-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/...

I can't resist the body swapping stuff ever since reading Lord of Light as a kid

domodomo• 17 years ago

Last book: 1984 Current book: Master & Commander

kes• 17 years ago

"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by David Eggers. Ironic title, thoughtful and enjoyable book. Suggested.

blazamos• 17 years ago

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (excellent; recently saw Food, Inc. as well)

The Next 100 Years by George Friedman (amusing; was given to me as a gag gift)

Currently reading: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

stepherm• 17 years ago

Last: What is a Designer: Things, Places, Messages by Potter.

Current: Flow: The psychology of optimal experience by Csikszentmihalyi

Evgeny• 17 years ago

Last fiction - The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross

Before that - The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (recommended to all fantasy fans)

Last technical - AntiPatterns: Refactoring Software, Architectures, and Projects in Crisis

sharpn• 17 years ago

'Create Your Own Economy' by Tyler Cowen - a good read.

sgoraya• 17 years ago

Current:

Ghandi and Churchill by Arthur Herman

Last:

The Odyssey by Homer

A bull in China by Jim Rogers

jake_morrison• 17 years ago

Halting State, by Charles Stross, great for computer geeks

oz• 17 years ago

The Road To Gandolfo by Robert Ludlum

burke• 17 years ago

Current: Zen and the Brain

Previous: Gödel, Escher, Bach (still working on that one, actually)

silvio• 17 years ago

I read Multireal, which is the follow up to Infoquake. They deal with a startup producing software that runs inside people, executed by tiny nanobots. The books explore startup culture.

lacker• 17 years ago

Last: The C Programming Language - Kernighan & Ritchie

Current: The Effective Executive - Peter Drucker

christofd• 17 years ago

Last: Create your own Economy, by Tyler Cowen

Current: Real World Haskell

miditim• 17 years ago

Musicophilia (too much psychiatry, not enuf music)

b4 that

Anathem (will read again after a few years)

b4 that

Halting State (cool)

il• 17 years ago

Robert Greene- 48 Laws of Power

nopassrecover2• 17 years ago

Last: Crossing the Chasm Current: Managing Humans

nopassrecover2• 17 years ago

This is a great source of stuff for:

function get_smarter():

   1. Am I smart enough yet?  (default answer:   of course not!)
   2. If yes, go make a grillion dollars, or go fishing, or something. (Note: this statement is unreachable).
   3. Otherwise:
         1. Do various important things, until I have some free time.
         2. Pick a book from my book list and read it.
         3. If I've read it already, check all the references at the end, and add the ones that look good to my book list.
         4. get_smarter()

"If your book list is empty, add Gödel, Escher, Bach to it before calling the function for the first time. And with that, I'm off to go finish the book!"

http://steve.yegge.googlepages.com/godel-escher-blog

firefoxman1• 17 years ago

Getting Real by 37 signals.

safetytrick• 17 years ago

In the middle of GEB,

dpnewman• 17 years ago

'The Double' by José Saramago

fiaz• 17 years ago

King Warrior Magician Lover by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette

http://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscover...

phugoid• 17 years ago

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, in one sitting.

fburnaby• 17 years ago

Freedom Evolves - Dan Dennett

secret• 17 years ago

Just finished: Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama

balding_n_tired• 17 years ago

Finished: _Germany 1866-1945_ by Gordon Craig. Various others in parallel.