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Ask HN: What are you reading?

467 points · 883 comments · dan-bailey

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Tomte · 1790689772 · focus · HN ↗
Back issues of The London Review of Books.
1. tocs3 · 1790693183 · focus · HN ↗
  I do not know if this is related to this comments but if you are reading The London Review of Books so that you do not have to read the whole book, maybe it is. I do not watch movies much anymore. Sometime though I want to know what a movie is all about. So, I just read the wikipedia plot review on it. It saves me the time by not having to sit through much tedium but I get a scenes of what it is about.
  I have been reading The Bible. It has been a long time project and I have a long ways to go. I am much more agnostic that a true believer but it has been interesting. Hearing popular views about it and Christianity vs. reading The Book is sort of like the difference between reading a novel and watching the based on movie.
  1. zero_shift · 1790698050 · focus · HN ↗
    I am an atheist but I have read a little bit of the bible, mostly early OT. I recommend reading a scholarly / literal translation, because there is a lot of nuance in the Hebrew
    tocs3 · 1790701049 · focus · HN ↗
    Do you have any recommendations for translations? I have been reading from some I just have laying around.
    I have been wanting to read Donald Knuth's "3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated".
    throwaway093020 · 1790773519 · focus · HN ↗
    The King James Version! I'd only recommend modern translations as a second point of reference when trying to interpret a difficult verse, or for looking at how modern critical editions of the NT differ from the traditional Byzantine NT. When a verse is difficult to read in the KJV, that's usually because the original text is difficult/ambiguous. Modern editions tend to pave over those difficult/ambiguous passages with a "clear" but opinionated reading, while the KJV provides a more literal rendering of what's in the source text.
    My favorite example: see how all mainstream modern editions (NRSV, NIV, ESV, NASB, CSB, and even the NKJV) say "every man" (or something along those lines), rather than "any that pisseth against the wall" (literal rendering of the Hebrew): <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Samuel%2025%3A22" rel="nofollow">https://www.biblegateway.com/verse/en/1%20Samuel%2025%3A22
    zero_shift · 1790775728 · focus · HN ↗
    I do not advise this. You are effectively translating twice: Hebrew through EM English to contemporary English
    throwaway093020 · 1790778418 · focus · HN ↗
    I personally like the term "biblical English" as a description of the KJV's dialect. It's not really representative of early modern English, as it often uses non-standard grammar to preserve the word order and cadence of the source texts.
    zero_shift · 1790783748 · focus · HN ↗
    I would be less confident about that, there are false friends in EME and most modern readers would benefit from not having the added complication.
    (I don't have a theology degree, but I do have an English degree. I have read parts of KJV, and it has literary significance, but it is not attempting to be a bare literal translation)
    throwaway093020 · 1790784716 · focus · HN ↗
    It's usually pretty obvious when a word means something different than what you think it means, because the verse won't make any sense. And stopping for a moment to resolve that confusion is always a good learning experience. You either learn something about English, about Hebrew/Greek, or about the text's cultural context or how it's been historically understood.
    nephihaha · 1790776925 · focus · HN ↗
    For the purposes of this post, I'm concentrating mainly on English language style, and not the quality of the translation from the original languages. The KJV, though outdated, has good turns of phrase. Many modern translations are lacking when it comes to the beauty of the English. A decent translation stands up as literature in its own right.
    * New Living Translation (NLT): My main one nowadays. This one is not for everyone, but I find it very readable and was recommended it online. My one criticism is that the style is a bit too American. It works on a thought for thought basis.
    * New English Bible (NEB): I have something of a soft spot for this one. It has the opposite problem to the NLT in that its style is sometimes too British. Nonetheless I always liked its text lay out and style. Sadly it got superseded by the Revised English Bible which is not so good. I mostly come across it second hand.
    * New King James Version (NKJV): this one at least retains some of the literary qualities of the KJV while making the text more accessible to a modern audience. It does have some problems (mostly those that afflict other modern Bible versions).
    The International Standard Version is online only, but its range of sources has piqued my interest as a study Bible, but its readability seems to vary. I hope it comes out in print.
    I have Lorimer's New Testament in Scots. I find it a bit uneven. I know folk who love it.
    As for BAD Bible versions, I'd out the following on the naughty stool. The Scholars' Version is gospels only, but is horrendous to read (its version of the Beatitudes says "congratulations to the..." as if they'd won Reader's Digest Prize Draw.) The New World Translation is the Jehovah's Witness version and had clunky prose, making it extremely unpleasurable to read. The Good News Bible is not as annoying as the other two but its English is oversimplified and directed at children and learners. The Message goes for colloquial English and doesn't always work. The Conservative Bible, like NIV and NSRVue allows its political biases in.
    haensi · 1790777402 · focus · HN ↗
    I have read 3:16 and it’s really good. Also, it made me want to meet Donald Knuth so I went to his church for Bible study and to his home after service. Great memory.
andsoitis · 1790689923 · focus · HN ↗
Why Greatness cannot be Planned.
The authors argue that rigid, goal-oriented planning and metric-driven objectives actively prevent true innovation and groundbreaking achievement.
PaulHoule · 1790690199 · focus · HN ↗
In my bag right now I have: The Fox and the Jewel by Karen A. Smeyers and The Spiral Dance by Starhawk.
SubGenius · 1790693114 · focus · HN ↗
The Rouse by China Miéville, great read so far.
1. frm88 · 1790748997 · focus · HN ↗
  Can you elaborate a little, please? I've read all Mieville and before I venture into thisonster, I'd like to read your thoughts. How does it compare to his other works?
  1. KineticLensman · 1790772093 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm 30% of the way through and really enjoying it.
    It's definitely Miéville, but the weird doesn't cut in immediately.
    The first 100 or so pages is about a young single British woman (Maur) in the 1970s/1980s. She brings up a son who becomes increasingly remote, joins the army, and then something happens to him, which is when the weird elements begin to appear (involving the disturbingly unpleasant lingering spirits of the dead). The second plot strand concerns a Brit soldier (Allardyce) whose unit participates in various weird events (also somewhat disturbing) set against British-empire post-colonial / cold war shenanigans in the 50s and 60s, although the two plot strands eventually connect.
    One reviewer I saw described the first bit (which is 'mundane', in the non-fantasy sense) as a masterclass in how to present a character's interiority, and I'm inclined to agree. As with any Miéville, it helps to have access to a good dictionary. I'm a Brit who grew up at approximately the same time as Maur, which helped me understand some of the allusions (e.g. to 'the election', which is Thatcher's). But I had to read into the darker sides of British colonial disengagement to fully understand Allardyce's experiences. E.g. the so-called Malayan Emergency, a particularly brutal little war of independence in the 1950s.
    In a way, it reminded me of Kraken, where Miéville throws in lots of references to real-world weirdness to better sneak his own inventions into the story world.
    frm88 · 1790799005 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm sold. Thank you so much.
snicky · 1790695024 · focus · HN ↗
Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order
Not sure if this one qualifies as more meaty :)
softwaredoug · 1790695517 · focus · HN ↗
I’m reading The Well of Ascension, the second book of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn trilogy
I like how he has the slow, almost clinical way of revealing interesting worlds and systems. It’s not the kind of book that’ll make me cry, but I really like world building with fun enough characters
1. hosel · 1790696200 · focus · HN ↗
  Wait until you hear a detailed explanation of the magic system for the 5th time. Still a good series.
  1. softwaredoug · 1790698613 · focus · HN ↗
    Well I often forget the rules, so its useful :)
  2. leros · 1790699207 · focus · HN ↗
    I was just listening to a Sanderson interview. He's annoyed by it too. It's his publisher wanting the books to be easy to get into. He's dealing with it in Mistborn era 3 where's he's trying to figure out how to re-explain everything and it's annoying him because he just wants to show allomancers doing cool stuff.
    nottorp · 1790761092 · focus · HN ↗
    He's blaming the publishers now? I only managed to go through like 2 or 3 Mistborns before I got absolutely bored about the "technical" explanations. I've never read a D&D manual but I think it would be as fun.
    Now if anyone would invest in him continuing Elantris...
2. shhsshs · 1790713911 · focus · HN ↗
  > It’s not the kind of book that’ll make me cry
  I thought so too, until I read the 2nd Mistborn trilogy!
3. rileymichael · 1790789775 · focus · HN ↗
  the second book is a bit slow with all the politics, but it's worth it because book three is the best of the trilogy
  i've been working my way through all of the cosmere (after starting with mistborn), currently on book 3 of stormlight archive. can't put em down
leandot · 1790695755 · focus · HN ↗
The Immortal Great Souls from Phil Tucker. Very enjoyable fantasy with unique world and characters.
ferguess_k · 1790695890 · focus · HN ↗
This is my 13th round to recommend "The Soul of a new Machine" as well as "Showstoppers".
1. jppope · 1790713820 · focus · HN ↗
  I read 3/4 of "The Soul of a new Machine" and thought it was good, but I sort of fizzled out. What makes you recommend it so highly (trying to understand if I should go back)
  1. ferguess_k · 1790773851 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm very into the idea of "pinball" talked about in the book. I have always wanted to play pinball in my career but never got the chance -- that's why I read it over and over trying to live the experience.
    If you are interested in DG history but not into this book, I can recommend a few other sources:
    <a href="https://mark.people.clemson.edu/fhp.html" rel="nofollow">https://mark.people.clemson.edu/fhp.html
    <a href="https://www.teamfoster.com/billteamfostercom" rel="nofollow">https://www.teamfoster.com/billteamfostercom
2. Kon5ole · 1790716456 · focus · HN ↗
  I liked those as well (I assume you meant "Show-Stopper!" about windows NT) and also remember "Dreaming in code" as a good one in the same-ish genre.
leandot · 1790695898 · focus · HN ↗
The Immortal Great Souls by Phil Tucker. Very enjoyable fantasy with great world and characters.
1. FumblingBear · 1790713488 · focus · HN ↗
  I also vouch for this series! Some of my favorite character work and worldbuilding in recent years, and I'm super excited to see where the series goes!
AbbeFaria · 1790695994 · focus · HN ↗
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
1. chistev · 1790700094 · focus · HN ↗
  Oh, I plan to re-read this in the near future!
  "Intelligent life on a planet comes of age when it first works out the reason for its own existence"
  In my original comment, I Iisted some other books by Dawkins if you're interested -
  <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49896133">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49896133
2. aerodexis · 1790713611 · focus · HN ↗
  Don't bother with this.
  I'm reading Information and Meaning in Evolutionary Processes by Harms and it goes off on how weak Dawkins is.
  1. drivers99 · 1790715255 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
Rendello · 1790696866 · focus · HN ↗
Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer [1].
I don't tend to be great at finishing (or starting) books, and this is a big one. I've also never had any interest in Medieval or Renaissance history, for me it's been a black hole between the fall of Rome and the modern age.
But recently I saw some Youtube videos of Ada, and her enthusiasm is totally infectious [2]. She's fun and paints these vivid pictures of Florence and renaissance Europe that are incredible, absurd, and relatable, which makes sense since given she's also an accomplished sci-fi writer. She also reminds me of one of my favourite high school teachers. So I ordered the book right away.
The book is in the same tone as her videos, so it won't be for everyone, but I've really been enjoying it and now I'm fascinated by Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli, merchant republics, etc.
1. <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo246135916.html" rel="nofollow">https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/I/bo246135...
2. (My favourite example) <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68p3jVQQdFk" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68p3jVQQdFk
1. mithras · 1790699284 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm currently reading her Terra Ignota series and it's great, so I was already planning to tackle this one next.
  1. Rendello · 1790710088 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm considering checking it out despite not really being a science-fiction reader. Though I've been reading this terrifying slow-burn about superintelligent "agent swarms" breaking out of containment and stopping at nothing to complete impossible tasks given by their feckless masters.
2. largePanda9 · 1790715340 · focus · HN ↗
  SSC Boston member by chance?
  1. Rendello · 1790719082 · focus · HN ↗
    I am not, looking it up it seems to be a Boston rationalist meetup, if that's the what you're referring to. I'm not in Boston (or the US), and I've rarely been accused of rationality.
3. flpm · 1790781428 · focus · HN ↗
  She is amazing, thanks for sharing
  1. Rendello · 1790782344 · focus · HN ↗
    No problem, I've been talking about her work to everyone I know in real life.
    On Youtube, you'll probably come across a lot of her podcast appearances like Dwarkesh Patel's (which is how I first came across her), but she actually just started her own podcast 3 weeks ago that might not pop up in the results yet:
    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@Beforecast" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/@Beforecast
judicious · 1790696982 · focus · HN ↗
Blank Space: A Cultural History of the Twenty-First Century by W. David Marx. A fascinating and approachable read.
akkartik · 1790697395 · focus · HN ↗
Lots of scifi and fantasy.
The Works of Vermin. Exceptionally well written. Not an ounce of flab anywhere.
The Carryx series, 2 books so far. Best villains ever.
Tainted Cup and sequel. Sherlock Holmes meets Godzilla.
Goblin Emperor
The Prophet (Gibran)
Los Alamos (Kanon)
Hyperion (reread)
Finally, a shout out to the best book I read in 2025: Terra Ignota. Yes, the whole series.
1. aeve890 · 1790698586 · focus · HN ↗
  >The Carryx series
  Weird. There's a species called Carryx too in a series from James S.A. Corey called "The Captive's War".
  1. akkartik · 1790699268 · focus · HN ↗
    That's the one I mean! Can never remember the names of the books/series, hence the gesture.
2. ghostbrainalpha · 1790724146 · focus · HN ↗
  Starting Goblin Emperor based on your recommend.
3. frm88 · 1790747736 · focus · HN ↗
  Hiron Ennes is brilliant. Deep without fluff or lenghty exposition. If you liked The Works of Vermin - her other book, Leech is also brilliant. Another very good gothic fantasy novel is Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov.
buckhx · 1790697906 · focus · HN ↗
Infinite Jest. Enjoying it so far, but the length keeps on killing me. I'm like 5% of the way in after a couple of weeks...
1. desbo · 1790700597 · focus · HN ↗
  Took me a year. Loved it! Planning to go back when I have the energy. The Pale King was also really good and a little easier going.
theflyinghorse · 1790697943 · focus · HN ↗
Finally got to Dostoevsky's Brother Karamazov. This will take a while.
1. chistev · 1790699936 · focus · HN ↗
  Read Crime and Punishment?
2. aerodexis · 1790713465 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm hyped for you. This one is a massive banger.
3. jppope · 1790713888 · focus · HN ↗
  This is my K2. Grapes of Wrath is my Everest. I've started it ~7 times and never made it past 120 pages. Good Luck!
  1. nephihaha · 1790728144 · focus · HN ↗
    There are much harder works out there. Gravity's Rainbow, Infinite Jest, Finnegans Wake to name but three.
4. hwc · 1790715375 · focus · HN ↗
  For me, I took a copy of it with me on a solo backpacking trip. It was the only entertainment I had for a week.
5. snovymgodym · 1790720535 · focus · HN ↗
  It's good.
  Try to get a modern translation if you're not reading in original language.
rearview · 1790697969 · focus · HN ↗
Just recently started watching Reacher S1 and it was absolutely amazing so started reading the book and wow - like its absolutely amazing
abstash · 1790698201 · focus · HN ↗
The Shadow Lines by Amitav Ghosh. A book which depicts tale of a family across the East and West Bengal amidst Partition of India. This book is very renowned and well written. Being a programmer, its better to read on different topics(which is rarity these days)
lp92 · 1790698658 · focus · HN ↗
Currently reading "Beyond Tube-and-Wing: The X-48 Blended Wing-Body and NASA's Quest to Reshape Future Transport Aircraft".
Its a pretty good history of thr X-48 program.
no-dr-onboard · 1790699150 · focus · HN ↗
The Intellectual Life by AG Sertillanges. Note that it does presuppose a Christian worldview, so ymmv depending on your belief.
undopamine · 1790699158 · focus · HN ↗
Just started Quantum Break: Zero State
Highly recommend the game for anyone who liked Dark or Primer (or any other fiction that features stable time loops).
electroweak · 1790699623 · focus · HN ↗
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Recently passed the bit where Ammianus complained the rich had bought up much of the property in Rome and turned so many into renters and gave stats to show it. Amongst his many other complaints.
Sadly found I could have been reading a better abridgement, which I'll get for the 2nd reading now.
1. akkartik · 1790700155 · focus · HN ↗
  Tell me more about the abridgements. Which one now, which one next?
  1. electroweak · 1790700948 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm reading Dero Saunders penguin classic which I picked up from a used book store. It's fine, but I'm at the point where the last 6 books of the original should kick in and Saunders treats it as an epilogue. I didn't even realize there were multiple abridgements when I started, and reviews of the others seem to include more about that and retain more of that special "Gibbonness" that's been so much delightful effort to parse. It's been a slow and halting first read I'm looking forward to a more uninterrupted story the second run through. I'll probably go for the Wormesly one and try to spot the differences. You only really start to know a great book after the second reading anyway.
sim04ful · 1790699754 · focus · HN ↗
Samuel Butler's adaptation of Homer.
chistev · 1790699796 · focus · HN ↗
Thanks for this question!
I'm not reading anything at the moment since I'm taking a break and watching season one of Deadwood and also re-watching season one of Boston Legal.
But when I'm done, I plan to re-read "The Cold War A Very Short Introduction" by Robert J. McMahon. I read it about five years ago and it's time to read it again.
Having said that, I can't pass on this opportunity to share the books I've read (some are re-reads) thus far this year that I recommend. I'll just list them while saying that they all come highly recommended by me.
In the famous words of Frank Zappa - So many books, so little time.
1. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris
2. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
3. Lying by Sam Harris
4. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
5. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
6. Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
7. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins
8. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
9. Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
10. Mortality by Christopher Hitchens
11. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J. K. Rowling
12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
13. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
14. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
15. Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan
16. Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide to Atheism by Richard Dawkins
1. ghostbrainalpha · 1790727950 · focus · HN ↗
  I love all these books especially Sam Harris, but from one atheist to another, are you ok? This is a really heavy dose to be doing in one year. And if your fun reads are Cormac... it looks exactly like my reading list when I'm depressed.
  1. chistev · 1790745105 · focus · HN ↗
    If I'm depressed, I'm unaware of it.
quuxplusone · 1790700196 · focus · HN ↗
You Gotta Have Wa, by Robert Whiting (1989), about baseball in Japan in the 1980s.
Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1818/1831), <a href="https://frankendiff.com" rel="nofollow">https://frankendiff.com; and Tales of the Dead, by Mrs. Utterson (1813), <a href="https://archive.org/details/talesofdead00utte" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/talesofdead00utte
Just started Homer's Iliad (Fagles translation) and Christopher Logue's War Music (2015).
Just finished re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams (1980). I think it holds up well. Last time I read it, I was much younger than Arthur Dent; now I'm much older. And now that we have computers with Genuine People Personalities, it's hard to remember what it was like in the Before Times.
Recently finished Gaston Leroux's The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1908). For better or worse (no spoilers here), it kept me guessing.
1. dcminter · 1790718994 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
pringk02 · 1790700880 · focus · HN ↗
I just got done with a second read of 2666 by Bolaño.
There was an article on HN a month or two ago about how some books drive people to the kind of madness that would make them do a degree in literature. This is probably the one for me. Excited to read it again in 5 years and see it differently again.
1. dnc · 1790750370 · focus · HN ↗
  I felt the same way. It started slow and I nearly quit, but something beneath the surface kept me reading. After 50 pages or so, I was hooked. It's an amazing book. The only other book that pulled me in that deeply in a couple of last years was Blood Meridian.
PyWoody · 1790701370 · focus · HN ↗
I couldn't remember which Shakespeare plays I had or hadn't read, so I've spent the summer going through them alphabetically. It's been a blast!
I knew many everyday expressions and phrases come from his work but I had no idea it was so many.
I'm currently about halfway through at 3.2k pages.
1. dcminter · 1790719208 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
NishanStepak · 1790702718 · focus · HN ↗
I am currently listening to VC An American History by Tom Nicholas, Audible 2019. I am reading Predictable Winners, A Handbook for Developing, Forecasting, and Launching New Products and Services, Stanford Business Books, 2025. I have cracked open, but not gotten very far in reading, The Rise And Fall of the Artificial State by Jill Lepore, Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2026. The Jill Lepore book is very interesting.
DamnInteresting · 1790703533 · focus · HN ↗
Fiction I recently enjoyed: The Ana and Din series by Robert Jackson Bennett. Sherlock Holmes vibes, with Kaiju. Also The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North.
Currently reading and enjoying: Exit Party by Emily St. John Mandel.
Next to Read: Hollywood, Ending by John Green.
1. latortuga · 1790713250 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
2. sigmar · 1790721342 · focus · HN ↗
  almost done with exit party and ctrl-f'd to see if someone else was also reading. I like it a lot so far.
3. travisgriggs · 1790727023 · focus · HN ↗
  Just finished Trade of Blood (most recent #3 of the Din and Ana books). Phenomenal. Been a while since I’ve enjoyed a series this much. Good/fun writing. Great underlying messages.
4. frm88 · 1790747188 · focus · HN ↗
  I just finished The Tainted Cup and moved on to the next. I've read every Bennet there is, his writing is compelling. One of my auto-buy authors, same as Claire North. I paticularly enjoyed her Gameshouse series.
jcubic · 1790703896 · focus · HN ↗
Finally started reading "A Philosophy of Software Design". It was on my shelf for ages. I have the 1st edition; luckily, you can grab new chapters from the 2nd edition from the author's website.
1. p4ul · 1790713415 · focus · HN ↗
  This is an excellent book! We give a copy to everyone that joins our team.
  1. amelius · 1790714747 · focus · HN ↗
    Do they all read it? :)
2. largePanda9 · 1790715424 · focus · HN ↗
  Reading this now as well! Also was on the bookshelf for over a year, glad I finally cracked it open
tobadzistsini · 1790705705 · focus · HN ↗
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, the manga adaptations of The Shadow over Innsmouth and The Shadow out of Time, Progress and Poverty.
dang · 1790712506 · focus · HN ↗
Just for fun—past examples with > 30 comments:
Ask HN: What Are You Reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45283087">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45283087 - Sept 2025 (42 comments)
Ask HN: What are you reading Feb 2024 - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39248780">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39248780 - Feb 2024 (92 comments)
Ask HN: What are you reading these days? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38237730">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38237730 - Nov 2023 (281 comments)
Ask HN: What Are You Reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21457827">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21457827 - Nov 2019 (49 comments)
Ask HN: What books are you currently reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16160091">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16160091 - Jan 2018 (43 comments)
Ask HN: What books are you currently reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14859274">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14859274 - July 2017 (80 comments)
Ask HN: What books are you reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608397">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14608397 - June 2017 (36 comments)
Ask HN: What books are you reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10175465">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10175465 - Sept 2015 (79 comments)
Ask HN: What are you reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9636361">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9636361 - June 2015 (37 comments)
Ask HN: What book are you reading right now? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8108932">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8108932 - July 2014 (86 comments)
Ask HN: What Books Are You Reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7968124">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7968124 - June 2014 (80 comments)
Ask HN: What books are you reading right now? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4596721">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4596721 - Oct 2012 (40 comments)
Ask HN: What are you reading? What've you read lately? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3335496">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3335496 - Dec 2011 (41 comments)
Ask HN: What are you reading right now? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3230965">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3230965 - Nov 2011 (59 comments)
Ask HN: What books are you reading - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2615647">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2615647 - June 2011 (53 comments)
Ask HN: What are you reading right now? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865350">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1865350 - Nov 2010 (298 comments)
What are you reading? - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=797070">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=797070 - Sept 2009 (214 comments)
1. MichaelMoser123 · 1790726041 · focus · HN ↗
  Thanks! Curious detail: no "What books are you reading now?" between 2019 and 2023. Were people too busy during the pandemic?
nonethewiser · 1790712663 · focus · HN ↗
The Wheel of Time.
I was very happy to find this. I heard complaints that it's just a Tolkien clone and Jordan doesn't portray women well. But what I found was kind of a relic. It's an excellent fantasy series that probably couldn't be written again. Wish we had more like it.
1. sanswork · 1790713592 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
  1. zem · 1790717724 · focus · HN ↗
    the pacing and consistency are atrocious, unfortunately. I loved the first six books, hated the seventh, and straight up abandoned the series halfway through book 8. tempted to do a full read through now that Sanderson has completed the series in a way that people seem happy with but it's a lot when I know I'm going to run into at least those two bad books in the middle and possibly more after that.
    bkcooper · 1790723728 · focus · HN ↗
    I did this a while back, having read probably all of the Jordan ones from 5 on pretty much when they came out. On the one hand, relative to their size you can read through them pretty fast. But the Sanderson books are pretty meh and not really worth doing a reread of the whole series for. Books 2-4 remain the high point, I would say
2. delichon · 1790713875 · focus · HN ↗
  If you don't like to be sad, at least wait to forget most of it before watching the Prime Video series.
  1. aditya_rs · 1790715426 · focus · HN ↗
    The series is also cancelled, so no point wasting time watching it either.
  2. nonethewiser · 1790774354 · focus · HN ↗
    A great IP that they completely fucked up. Proof that the industry is really struggling.
3. mcmcmc · 1790715705 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
  1. nonethewiser · 1790774021 · focus · HN ↗
    shrugs
  2. randusername · 1790795219 · focus · HN ↗
    Can you elaborate?
    There's a lot of awkward folded her arms beneath her breasts for sure but I never understood this criticism. Some female characters were trope-y, but so were many of the male characters.
    I went in hearing about controversy online and guess I ended feeling like I'm miscalibrated from fantasy that is so much worse.
4. RunSet · 1790727152 · focus · HN ↗
  > I heard complaints that it's just a Tolkien clone
  What a flattering complaint. Reminds me of this:
  "Terry Brooks has often been disparaged for imitating Tolkien, particularly by those reviewers who find his books inferior to Tolkien's own. I can say only that I wish there were more imitators -- we need them -- and that all imitations of so great an original must necessarily be inferior. "
  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110823100353/https://www.thenightland.co.uk/MYWEB/wolfemountains.html" rel="nofollow">https://web.archive.org/web/20110823100353/https://www.theni...
  1. nonethewiser · 1790774245 · focus · HN ↗
    Yes, this is exactly how I feel. 1) The parallels arent that strong and 2) the parallels work well.
    It doens't feel like a Tolkien clone. There are definitely parallels you can draw but they start very broad and become even less defining as the books progress. A hero's journey, humble beginnings, a powerful magic user, clear good vs evil. And the world is very different than middle earth.
mysterydip · 1790712747 · focus · HN ↗
I just finished Scott McCloud’s _Understanding Comics_ and it had so many “aha” moments for me. Definitely recommended if you have even a passing interest in reading or making graphic novels or comics.
1. dam_jackalopes · 1790722796 · focus · HN ↗
  So, so good. Changed the way I read comics and I've been a lifelong fan of the medium.
aaronbrethorst · 1790712909 · focus · HN ↗
I’ve been reading about bureaucracy, power, and civic engagement:
The Power Broker by Robert Caro.
Recoding America by Jennifer Pahlka.
The Time Tax by Annie Lowrey.
1. gainda · 1790774371 · focus · HN ↗
  Did you come across the 99% invisible book club for The Power Broker? I tried keeping up but fell a bit behind by the end of the year and finished the following January. it's a great complement to the book. Caro is an incredible writer - I'm on the first LBJ book now. It was never a book I thought I could finish just from the intimidating size and seemingly dry nature but Caro's storytelling moves it along so well.
  1. aaronbrethorst · 1790804652 · focus · HN ↗
    I do vaguely remember seeing the 99PI book club at some point, but I didn't follow it. I'll check it out, though. Thanks for the tip!
    For anyone else curious: <a href="https://99percentinvisible.org/pb/" rel="nofollow">https://99percentinvisible.org/pb/
    I'm really looking forward to working through the LBJ series. I think I'm going to get it on Kindle and Audible so I can work my way through it bit by bit whenever I have free time and attention.
2. asdfqwertzxcv · 1790813035 · focus · HN ↗
  The Power Broker is very good but his LBJ series is phenomenal. When I recommend it to people I say it's like The Odyssey of American History and Politics. It's the best non-fiction series I've ever read and I almost exclusively read NF.
dmillar · 1790712924 · focus · HN ↗
London Falling, fascinating story about a piece of London's underbelly. Same guy that wrote Say Nothing, which is also great.
sanswork · 1790712939 · focus · HN ↗
[delayed]
trinsic2 · 1790713040 · focus · HN ↗
I just finished "The Emergency". Heard about it on Reading Hannah Arendt with Roger Berkowitz [0].
[0]: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-emergency-with-george-packer-bonus-episode/id1450526166?i=1000765427788" rel="nofollow">https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-emergency-with-geo...
jeffnv · 1790713146 · focus · HN ↗
"Lost Worlds" - by Patrick Wyman, fascinating prehistory about meso and neolithic 'civilizations', their lives, their rises and downfalls. Really amazing stuff
1. largePanda9 · 1790715532 · focus · HN ↗
  I like his podcast a lot, brief vignettes into… whatever. Really fun production and not a deep dive into topics generally, but that’s a feature and not a bug in the context in which I listen to him
gyre007 · 1790713256 · focus · HN ↗
I finished Quantum Radio last week and Im quite far in Rainbows End. I think the former is ok, not great; the latter is a better book (with AR future vibes), but still lacking something that makes u never drop it before u finish it.
exposition · 1790713280 · focus · HN ↗
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman.
About halfway through- it’s really good so far. He makes a compelling case for how our culture has changed in many ways, often for the worse, with the introduction of television.
1. pjmorris · 1790713446 · focus · HN ↗
  Last year I read 'Amusing Ourselves' and 'Technopoly'. A very interesting thinker.
2. sotix · 1790726685 · focus · HN ↗
  It's a great read and fun to pair with 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451.
3. bawis · 1790906245 · focus · HN ↗
  Do yourself a favour and read Informing Ourselves to Death.
bowsamic · 1790713303 · focus · HN ↗
Antigone by Sophocles
john_strinlai · 1790713339 · focus · HN ↗
the fionavar tapestry by guy gavriel kay.
nearing the end. i've found it a bit complicated to follow in some spots (there are several 'main' protagonists and it switches between them without much warning or introduction) but overall it's scratched the fantasy itch.
(i suppose it's actually 3 books, but i have the omnibus version)
1. acheron · 1790718996 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
  1. john_strinlai · 1790719320 · focus · HN ↗
    i'm enjoying it enough that i would read more, do you have a recommendation of what i should pick up from him next?
    shawn_w · 1790726040 · focus · HN ↗
    Tigana is my favorite GGK book.
    acheron · 1790896940 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
gAI · 1790713407 · focus · HN ↗
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Always.
vwake · 1790713438 · focus · HN ↗
I am reading The dream of enlightenment by Anthony Gottlieb.
My goal is to read the history of ideas from Renaissance period till 2000s. Started with The Florentines by Paul Strathern. Then read The Clockwork Universe by Edward Dolnick. Now at the enlightenment era. It has been eye opening to read about the life and times of some of the great minds like Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Locke and more.
nomagicbullet · 1790713482 · focus · HN ↗
I'm jumping across several short story collections:
- "Exhalation" by Ted Chiang - "Ficciones" by Borges - "I have no Mouth and I Must Scream" by Harlan Ellison.
I'm also slowly plowing through "The Big Book of Science Fiction" edited by Jeff and Ann Vandermeer.
I love short speculative fiction. And the above are among my favorites.
1. jppope · 1790713578 · focus · HN ↗
  "Exhalation" was very good. Not every story was great, but as a whole is was lovely
  1. nomagicbullet · 1790744103 · focus · HN ↗
    Agree with that assessment
2. dcminter · 1790717254 · focus · HN ↗
  I generally prefer novels despite having originally got into SF via collections of Asimov stories, but I read the "Stories of your life" collection recently and it was quite stunning. I think "Tower of Babylon" was my favourite but they were all excellent in different ways.
  I should get Exhalation.
  1. nomagicbullet · 1790744164 · focus · HN ↗
    "Tower of Babylon" is an excellent story.
3. simpaticoder · 1790720948 · focus · HN ↗
  Isn't it called Stories of your life and other stories? Ted Chiang is my favorite living science fiction author. Everything I've read by him ranges from very good to sublime.
  1. shawn_w · 1790723637 · focus · HN ↗
    That's a different, older collection.
4. upupupandaway · 1790725695 · focus · HN ↗
  Are you me??????
  I read these exact three in the past six weeks. For a follow-up, I recommend "Earthlings" and "The Memory Police".
  1. nomagicbullet · 1790744084 · focus · HN ↗
    Wow! Nice coincidence. I've read "The Memory Police". I will add "Earthlings" to my queue. Thanks for the recommendation
  2. alastairr · 1790763271 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm in a similar boat :D I love Borges and Chiang has some great short stories. I'd love hear if you know other authors that are similar?
    nomagicbullet · 1790825608 · focus · HN ↗
    I would say Italo Calvino scratches a very similar itch like Borges and Chiang.
5. Joe_Boogz · 1790726286 · focus · HN ↗
  Ted Chiang is such an amazing scifi author. I find his work incredibly refreshing and thought-provoking. Personal favorite is the short story Exhalation, I think about it all the time and I highly recommend it.
latortuga · 1790713511 · focus · HN ↗
I stick mostly to fiction these days. Best books I've read this year:
- The Women by Kristin Hannah
- Jurassic Park by Micheal Crichton
- Platform Decay by Martha Wells
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
- Left for Dead: Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the End of the World by Eric Jay Dolin
- All the Sinners Bleed by S A Cosby
- Project Hail Mary and Artemis by Andy Weir
- Cibola Burn and Nemesis Games by James S A Corey (the Expanse series)
1. vermilingua · 1790722351 · focus · HN ↗
  If you enjoy The Expanse, definitely pick up The Mercy of Gods, also by James S A Corey. It, and the recent sequel (The Faith of Beasts) are some of the best sci-fi I've read in a long time.
  1. patrickdavey · 1790729521 · focus · HN ↗
    Thanks for that. Dune used to be my favourite sci-fi, but, The Expanse maybe trumps that now. I'll definitely check these out once I finish The Long Earth :)
2. sphars · 1790735834 · focus · HN ↗
  All the Sinners Bleed was a great novel, I've enjoyed all of Crosby's books. Subject matter is tough (especially this one), but a good thriller nonetheless.
3. __rito__ · 1790801305 · focus · HN ↗
  I read Jurassic Park last month. Will recommend as well.
  It is a deep and profound book. Proper SciFi.
  Much emphasis on philosophy, ideas. It is so far from the public opinion about the movie: a monster attack and survival movie.
jppope · 1790713542 · focus · HN ↗
"Collapse" - A friend gave me the book in a bag he was going to donate. its been great. Theres obviously a huge undertone of preachy "humans struggle with sustainable resource utilization" but the views into failed societies are just fascinating. Really enjoying it, though I've slowed down and might not finish.
"7 Powers: The Foundations of Business Strategy" - Recommended by @pc in an interview. I'm ~50 pages in and not really blown away. Its a nice accumulation of Alpha creating strategy... but I think its really missing some nuance. I do LOVE that they take an economist approach and actually provide the math/algorithms behind the concepts. Theres some good stuff in here but so far it feels like 30 pages stretched out to make a book.
"Monetizing Innovation" - dropped this book, do not recommend. I was expecting a really nice accumulation of how pricing should work with companies who are innovating... and it came no where near that hopeful concept. The case studies were weak, the hypothesis were weak, the writing was weak.
1. cinntaile · 1790748382 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
  1. andrew_lettuce · 1790782029 · focus · HN ↗
    Full agree - and I've adopted a similar reading strategy. Full read of first and last chapters, skim the rest and should be done in no more than an hour. If there's a systems diagram or algorithm you want to dig into, make a note and maybe do that later. Most of these books should be blog posts; ironically (?) the ones that were blog posts extended into full books tend to be the better ones!
    jppope · 1790788953 · focus · HN ↗
    Good observation. Off the top of my head all the 37 signals stuff (which started as blogs) were great when they became books. Morgan Housel too.
mertbio · 1790713568 · focus · HN ↗
Right now I’m reading Biological War. Before this one I finished reading:
- The Left Hand of Darkness
- The Nerd Reich
- What Happened to Liberal Democracy?
kevinor · 1790713573 · focus · HN ↗
Material world and chip wars. Both brilliant. Material world highlights our human ingenuity with an optimism for the future as it outlines our exploitation of the worlds resources over history up to the present time.
Chips wars, for me as a dev without a strong hardware background is a fascinating read into the history of Silicon Valley, from the 50s right up to nvidia and Taiwan semiconductor.
1. ekjhgkejhgk · 1790714975 · focus · HN ↗
  I recently read this and followed it up with "Only the paranoid survive", a story of Intel by Andy Grove.
WillAdams · 1790713593 · focus · HN ↗
Re-reading C.J. Cherryh's Chanur books and various other Alliance-Union novels from her Humble Bundle.
1. sfRattan · 1790717604 · focus · HN ↗
  Humble Bundle frequently has nice bundles of genre fiction or comics by specific authors. I've picked up large sets of Ebooks from them over the last few years by numerous authors: Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Jordan, comics by Moebius, and recently Timothy Zahn and various scifi/fantasy authors with careers spanning decades.
  It's a great resource!
pyyxbkshed · 1790713613 · focus · HN ↗
I recently enjoyed the Dark Profit Saga by Zachary Pike: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/207236-the-dark-profit-saga" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/series/207236-the-dark-profit-saga
It was a mix of fantasy & humor. It is a bit long but it is extremely funny & entertaining. It is the first fantasy book I have read other than the Harry Potter series (not sure if it is considered fantasy) but I loved it.
One of the best non-fiction books I read this year was Doppleganger: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138505710" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/138505710.
coldstartops · 1790713717 · focus · HN ↗
Grimgar of Fantasy and Ash <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimgar_of_Fantasy_and_Ash" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimgar_of_Fantasy_and_Ash
I have grown by playing MMORPG's and this one brings the nostalgia vibes without investing the time into grinding for gear.
delichon · 1790713737 · focus · HN ↗
You've Been Pooping All Wrong by Trisha Pasricha MD. Get a bidet, eat more fiber and kiwis.
1. jihadjihad · 1790713825 · focus · HN ↗
  And don't peel your kiwi, either.
  1. rancar2 · 1790716590 · focus · HN ↗
    The primary study for kiwis notes: “Participants were instructed to consume the [green] kiwifruit without the skin.”
    <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10226473/" rel="nofollow">https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10226473/
    The skin does add both fiber and nutritional value (gold skin is more enjoyable then green IMO), but it may not be well tolerated by all.
2. santiagobasulto · 1790714865 · focus · HN ↗
  Do we really need a whole book for this?
  1. rancar2 · 1790716725 · focus · HN ↗
    “Depends”. This is a good tldr from NPR with the author of the book: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2026/04/11/nx-s1-5780065/gut-constipation-bloating-bowel-movement" rel="nofollow">https://www.npr.org/2026/04/11/nx-s1-5780065/gut-constipatio...
pjmorris · 1790713788 · focus · HN ↗
'Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States', Alex Wellerstein.
> "Over the course of this book, we have looked at some eighty years of this history. We have seen how the idea of nuclear secrecy was initially born out of a very specific fear—that the world’s worst nation could achieve nation-destroying power—that, over the course of many transformations, morphed into something more generalized. More than totalitarian regimes were the target of this secrecy: allied nations, private industry, democratic institutions, and “the public” more broadly became understood as targets as well, for reasons both justifiable and not. The secrecy problem moved wherever the problem of the bomb went, which was far indeed. The desirability of control over nuclear knowledge became totalizing because the threat of loss of control was tied to the almost unimaginable power of the bomb itself. These two forces—the desire for control, the fear of its loss—became locked in a vicious cycle, each driving the other."
1. motoboi · 1790716778 · focus · HN ↗
  that would probably be a great companion to 'Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety'.
  1. pjmorris · 1790719487 · focus · HN ↗
    I agree so strongly that I moved it from my 'to buy' list to bought.
    Also of note is Wellerstein's more recent 'The Most Awful Responsibility: Truman and the Secret Struggle for Control of the Atomic Age – The Anti-Nuclear President, the Bomb Decision, and Cold War History', which I read earlier this year and thought it was excellent.
    A clipping from its closing pages:
    > “What is the measure of a civilized man?” The proper answer, Lilienthal suggested, was to consider the sense that a “civilized man” was one who believed they had a responsibility to others. The invention of nuclear weapons had clearly magnified the problem: “One sees that the mark of a civilized man must be some quality that will help the world from destroying itself. He is most civilized who has those qualities and talents of leadership, by example and precept and character and ideas, that will help civilization to survive.”
    To extend the reading list, I was completely floored by 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb', Richard Rhodes, but that was 20 years ago. I need to re-read it, and add 'Dark Sun' and 'American Prometheus' to round out that part of my picture of the military-industrial complex.
    alcover · 1790722746 · focus · HN ↗
    > The Making of the Atomic Bomb
    I read it this summer. I learned a lot but got lost remembering who is who..
    Could you recommend titles about discovery of radio-activity and after ? I'm fascinated by this subject.
    If those titles were also a gentle introduction to the physics involved, I'd be delighted.
    pjmorris · 1790725333 · focus · HN ↗
    > Could you recommend titles about discovery of radio-activity and after ? I'm fascinated by this subjec
    I'm less than an amateur here, my recommendation would've been the first ~300 pages of Rhodes. Maybe re-reading that part for events and ideas rather than names would help, but hopefully someone more skilled can answer.
arialdomartini · 1790713805 · focus · HN ↗
The first volume of Software Foundations, and the first volume of À la recherche du temps perdu, Proust. Both very very slowly.
I guess it will take me years to have reason of both.
mon_ · 1790713807 · focus · HN ↗
_Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang_
It's an autobiographical history which recounts the lives of the author, her mother, and her grandmother throughout an extremely transformational century in Chinese history.
I went into this knowing little to no Chinese history, and it has opened my eyes to this fascinating country. I hope to visit China for the first time in 2027. Before I go, I'm doing a deep dive into Chinese history. Open to recommendations on what to read next!
1. forger2001 · 1790714618 · focus · HN ↗
  As a follow up you can read <i>Feeding Ghosts</i>, an autobiographical history in graphic novel format recounting the lives of the author, her mother, and her grandmother throughout an extremely transformational century in Chinese history, across continents (Mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States).
2. yanhangyhy · 1790741934 · focus · HN ↗
  <Red Star Over China> -> for the Communism side of china, why china choose this path.
  <River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze> -> one of my fav all the time. a forigner teach in this small chinese city, and he write what he observes.
  for more ancient chinese history:
  <1587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in Decline> -> one of the most popular china's history book for these yeahs. highly recommned.
  i read a lot but i doubt many of them has a non-chinese version. the above ones are the ones i can think of now.
  oh also another book on how chinese characters are made, 《China: Empire of Living Symbols》。 writen by a Sweden author Cecilia Lindqvist. i love it very much
3. ptman · 1790775436 · focus · HN ↗
  I read a comic book series that sounds somewhat similar, history in generations. "My China" <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/74422-une-vie-chinoise" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/series/74422-une-vie-chinoise
ssttoo · 1790714035 · focus · HN ↗
Binging on Barbara Ehrenreich: Nickeled and Dimed, Dancing in the Streets, Natural Causes
jdfellow · 1790714128 · focus · HN ↗
On Audible, revisiting a childhood favorite: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
On my Kindle I have two ham radio books I'm reading, one is about grounding antennas, the other a General test prep.
- Grounding and Bonding for the Radio Amateur - Ham Radio General Class License Study Guide
arch_deluxe · 1790714135 · focus · HN ↗
A bleak and appalling nuclear triptych:
- Hiroshima - The Doomsday Machine - Command and Control
Highly recommended if you’re feeling too happy and full of faith in humanity.
1. Arubis · 1790714411 · focus · HN ↗
  I could almost see these being darkly encouraging. Yes, everything is awful, but everything was _already_ awful, and most of us are still mostly okay?
jameskylstra · 1790714276 · focus · HN ↗
The most recent book I read that I really loved was A Gentleman in Moscow: <a href="https://recleague.com/james/r/144458-a-gentleman-in-moscow" rel="nofollow">https://recleague.com/james/r/144458-a-gentleman-in-moscow. It got me on a Russia kick, which has been fun and enlightening.
I keep track of all my favorite books here: <a href="https://recleague.com/james/collections/books" rel="nofollow">https://recleague.com/james/collections/books
(Full disclosure: I'm a cofounder of Rec League)
ChrisMarshallNY · 1790714434 · focus · HN ↗
Glen Cook's Garrett P.I. series[0]. It's a perennial fave (I've read it many times, in the past).
[0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I.
1. gozzoo · 1790714680 · focus · HN ↗
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I.
  1. ChrisMarshallNY · 1790715636 · focus · HN ↗
    That link is dicey. I'm not sure why, but it doesn't always land in the correct page. It usually ends up in a disambiguation page.
    Goodreads is commercial, but it does a good job of describing books and series of books.
    [UPDATE] Ah. Figured it out. It's the trailing period.
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I%46" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett_P.I%46
    dang · 1790817363 · focus · HN ↗
    I've fixed it now. From <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc">https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc:
    If your url gets linked incorrectly, put it in <angle brackets> and it should work.
    ChrisMarshallNY · 1790822374 · focus · HN ↗
    Thanks so much!
    I've read that very passage in the Ts&Cs, numerous times, and it didn't sink in.
    It will, now...
mindcrime · 1790714444 · focus · HN ↗
Fiction:
I'm on Book Two of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
Non-Fiction:
More than I can count, as far as "I've read at least some, put a bookmark in it, and intend to finish it eventually." But in terms of the books I'm really actively engaging with right now, the top one is:
Neuroscience: Exploring The Brain[1] by Mark F. Bear, Barry W. Connors, and Michael A. Paradiso
And sort of in parallel with that, is
Analog Computing: Development, Programming, Applications, and Future Directions[2] by Bernd Ulmann
[1]: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/0781760038/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/dp/0781760038/
[2]: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Analog-Computing-Development-Programming-Applications/dp/3119146285" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/Analog-Computing-Development-Programm...
1. kinow · 1790715357 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm reading Matt's latest movie from Dungeon Crawler Carl series. A great fun way to unwind after programming all day! Will check the two other books you mentioned, thanks!
  1. dpkirchner · 1790730846 · focus · HN ↗
    I hope they never try to make a movie -- I don't think it'd be possible to make one that doesn't, say, force a romantic Carl/Katia subplot and doesn't look like garbage.
    (I know you probably didn't mean movie.)
    AlexErrant · 1790731560 · focus · HN ↗
    It's gonna be a live-action TV show from Peacock. <a href="https://www.peacocktv.com/blog/dungeon-crawler-carl-tv-series-peacock" rel="nofollow">https://www.peacocktv.com/blog/dungeon-crawler-carl-tv-serie...
    dpkirchner · 1790734630 · focus · HN ↗
    Ah well. I'm going to try to not let this ruin my evening.
2. godshatter · 1790717228 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm on Book Seven of DCC. Very fun. Looking forward to reading Book Eight.
3. rocketpastsix · 1790718583 · focus · HN ↗
  I just started book 6 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. You are in for a treat.
  1. Trufa · 1790723936 · focus · HN ↗
    I really enjoyed them as audiobooks.
    There was a particular "Prepotente" moment that made laugh so loud i was honestly embarrassed of the sound I made in the caffe, I'm really not easily embarrassed.
    shawn_w · 1790725495 · focus · HN ↗
    Should have screamed instead of laughing.
    rocketpastsix · 1790774777 · focus · HN ↗
    Im bummed they are Audible exclusives since I deleted my entire Amazon account this year. But I've heard really good things about the audiobooks
    dageroth · 1790778961 · focus · HN ↗
    Soundbooth theater has a full cast version of it, of course with Jeff Hayes, the narrator of the audiobooks. <a href="https://soundbooththeater.com/series/dungeon-crawler-carl/" rel="nofollow">https://soundbooththeater.com/series/dungeon-crawler-carl/
    covercash · 1790786542 · focus · HN ↗
    These are amazing but they've only done the first three books so far. Once they release them all it will be a good reason to revisit the series!
    tstrimple · 1790820848 · focus · HN ↗
    Jeff Hayes is probably the best narrator I've experienced in audiobooks. Technically there are spoilers in this reading, but it's so isolated nothing will really make sense but still give you a feeling for his voices.
    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ54CpkUoaM" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ54CpkUoaM
4. jesuslop · 1790723381 · focus · HN ↗
  What drove you to an analog computing book, may I ask?
  1. mindcrime · 1790724511 · focus · HN ↗
    I have a longstanding general interest in what might be term "unconventional computing architectures" (or at least "non mainstream computing architectures"). And, frankly, a general interest in "unconventional" things all around.
    In regards to analog computers, it's that, plus an awareness of the constraints of the Von Neumann Bottleneck[1] and a vague notion that analog computing might (keyword, might) offer some potential to avoid that, and/or avoid the insane power consumption of modern digital computers (relative to a given workload).
    And that in turn ties back to the Neuroscience book, as I'm reading that mainly because of my interest in neuromorphic computing[2]. And neuromorphic computing and analog computing, while separate topics, seem like they may have some interesting touch-points.
    [1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture#Von_Neumann_bottleneck" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_architecture#Von_N...
    [2]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromorphic_computing" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuromorphic_computing
    rramadass · 1790745830 · focus · HN ↗
    Nice. I too have an interest in "unconventional computing" (analog/quantum/biological etc.) since i think that we are reaching the limits of conventional Von Neumann architectures and discrete mathematics in terms of efficiency, power consumption etc. Nature is analog and continuous with efficient energy consumption and while we have come very far by imposing discrete and boolean algebra on it, it is inherently only an approximation. Note also that at the quantum level nature is both continuous and discrete i.e. wave/particle duality and we again have a need to model continuous wave-like characteristics.
    A few books that i am currently looking at which you might also find useful;
    1) Principles of Neurobiology by Liqun Luo - Uses an integrated approach to neuroscience.
    2) Handbook Of Unconventional Computing in 2-vols (Vol1-Theory, Vol2- Implementations) - A comprehensive resource.
    mindcrime · 1790780284 · focus · HN ↗
    1) Principles of Neurobiology by Liqun Luo - Uses an integrated approach to neuroscience.
    I'll check that out, thanks for the pointer. In the meantime, I have a copy of Neurobiology by Professor Gordon M Shepherd, to work through.
    2) Handbook Of Unconventional Computing in 2-vols (Vol1-Theory, Vol2- Implementations) - A comprehensive resource.
    Yeah, I have those in an Amazon list waiting to be purchased "sometime soon". :-)
    rramadass · 1790827908 · focus · HN ↗
    I was recommended Liqun Luo's book by user periheli0n here - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743804">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743804 But since it is somewhat advanced for a beginner in neuroscience like me, i pair it with Neurobiology: A Functional Approach by Georg Striedter for better understanding. I also find reading pop-sci books on Neuroscience/Brain a good supplement since these give a nice top-level overview (and thus stimulate motivation) before diving into the details in a textbook. Two i have found useful are The Accidental Mind by David Linden and Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter.
    You can get pdfs of the Handbook of Unconventional Computing if you ask Google and/or Anna ;-)
    One more book that i hope to get my hands-on is Peter Kogge's *The Zen of Exotic Computing" - <a href="https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/1.9781611977295" rel="nofollow">https://epubs.siam.org/doi/10.1137/1.9781611977295 This seems like a nice overview (plus more) of most of the stuff from the above Handbook. Also checkout the wikipedia link for original papers/books/etc. - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_computing" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconventional_computing
    mindcrime · 1790869932 · focus · HN ↗
    You can get pdfs of the Handbook of Unconventional Computing if you ask Google and/or Anna ;-)
    Agreed. In fact, I may have them downloaded already somewhere in my massive pile of <strike>pirate</strike> cough grey-market cough e-books. :-) But honestly, sometimes I still prefer reading off of paper. It's easier on the eyes in my experience.
    Neurobiology: A Functional Approach by Georg Striedter for better understanding. I also find reading pop-sci books on Neuroscience/Brain a good supplement since these give a nice top-level overview (and thus stimulate motivation) before diving into the details in a textbook. Two i have found useful are The Accidental Mind by David Linden and Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter.
    Cool, I will look into those. I have a whole pile of similar pop-sci stuff to churn through already, but the more the merrier!
    One more book that i hope to get my hands-on is Peter Kogge's The Zen of Exotic Computing"*
    Ooooohhh.. Now that sounds interesting. Thanks for the tip!
    qiqitori · 1790757680 · focus · HN ↗
    Analog computing, one thing I'm glad I learned a little about! Also made part of the tennis for two game, and occasionally think about adding features. (Course, knowledge of digital electronics keeps interfering. In fact I used two 74-series logic chips in there.) Here's my build log, with everything that makes me cringe after a few years left in tact: <a href="https://blog.qiqitori.com/2024/08/implementing-tennis-for-two-using-op-amps/" rel="nofollow">https://blog.qiqitori.com/2024/08/implementing-tennis-for-tw...
    jesuslop · 1790771973 · focus · HN ↗
    Nice, we have some fat problems ahead in this Moore law dying world that need new ideas.
5. JKCalhoun · 1790727264 · focus · HN ↗
  Ha ha, you might enjoy my analog computer kit [1].
  In fact, I sent one to Dr. Bernd Ulmann. He enjoyed it. :-)
  [1] <a href="https://www.tindie.com/products/jcalhoun/anna-analog-computer-kit/" rel="nofollow">https://www.tindie.com/products/jcalhoun/anna-analog-compute...
  1. raddan · 1790733692 · focus · HN ↗
    Wow, super cool. I wish I had the time to dig into one of these. If I do, I will buy one in a heartbeat. Thanks for making this!
  2. mindcrime · 1790742640 · focus · HN ↗
    Very cool. I'll probably pick up one up. Thanks for the heads-up!
6. gwbas1c · 1790786559 · focus · HN ↗
  The seventh floor of Dungeon Crawler Carl is my favorite so far. It's a very fast read.
7. ckrailo · 1790808665 · focus · HN ↗
  I've also been enjoying Dungeon Crawler Carl like many here. To scratch my neuroscience itch, I recently read:
  Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience by Michael S. A. Graziano (<a href="https://link.amazon/B0fbKBxEU" rel="nofollow">https://link.amazon/B0fbKBxEU)
  The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science by Erik Hoel (<a href="https://link.amazon/B05TPjEY6" rel="nofollow">https://link.amazon/B05TPjEY6)
  Greatly enjoyed both. Made me think about the thinking-machines future and our ever-increasing understanding of the human brain.
  1. mindcrime · 1790869744 · focus · HN ↗
    Rethinking Consciousness: A Scientific Theory of Subjective Experience by Michael S. A. Graziano (<a href="https://link.amazon/B0fbKBxEU" rel="nofollow">https://link.amazon/B0fbKBxEU)
    The World Behind the World: Consciousness, Free Will, and the Limits of Science by Erik Hoel (<a href="https://link.amazon/B05TPjEY6" rel="nofollow">https://link.amazon/B05TPjEY6)
    Awesome. I had Rethinking Consciousness on my list as well, but haven't gotten to it yet. I'll check out The World Behind the World as well. That sounds right up my alley. :-)
lbrito · 1790714513 · focus · HN ↗
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, by Shoshana Zuboff. Can't recommend it enough
bix6 · 1790714568 · focus · HN ↗
Carl was hilarious, can’t wait for the final books
Nettle and Bone I really enjoyed
Some desperate glory also enjoyed
East of Eden very meaty if you want an epic
focusedone · 1790714630 · focus · HN ↗
"On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. My first time though this one and it's...well...a trip.
misiti3780 · 1790714777 · focus · HN ↗
President Lincoln by William Lee Miller
God's Middle Finger: Into the Lawless Heart of the Sierra Madre by Richard Grant
pmg101 · 1790714819 · focus · HN ↗
Middlemarch, finally!
I'm 50% of the way through and it's good but I don't entirely see the hype. Brontë is more atmospheric, Austen funnier and more incisive, Dickens more immersive. But I've still got a way to go.
1. imperialdrive · 1790715124 · focus · HN ↗
  Something about it though, feels good to meet folks that have read it.
2. david927 · 1790720269 · focus · HN ↗
  You can't entirely judge a George Sand novel part way through. For my money, it destroys any Brontë, Austen, or Dickens.
  1. bpshaver · 1790733399 · focus · HN ↗
    Eliot*
    david927 · 1790778436 · focus · HN ↗
    Thank you
3. gtg239a · 1790732114 · focus · HN ↗
  I really loved this book, but it took me two tries over a few years to finally finish it. It's like a too-big slice of the world's greatest cake.
  The character arcs of Lydgate and Causabon are some of the best depictions of the collision of personal ambition with social obligation I've ever read. As someone with their own ambitions, I'm a bit haunted by that part of the story.
  It's also occasionally funny. The uncle is pretty funny and a good demonstration of someone who's mind is curious and too unshaped to ever utter a coherent thought.
  It's less focused than a Bronte novel but I love its wider lens.
  1. computerdork · 1790735197 · focus · HN ↗
    Agree with your take on it, the struggles of the characters are so true to life. The world feels entirely real, while still having a sense of beauty. She's an amazing writer
4. computerdork · 1790735053 · focus · HN ↗
  Middlemarch is so amazing. And for me at least, really like George Eliot's writing, maybe even more than Austen. I heard it said that George Eliot is the one author that writes for adults, think this is true. As much as I enjoy Austen, Eliot's world and characters are more real and true to life. The characters are more balanced, almost all with strengths and weaknesses, and in many cases, these weaknesses either leading to their downfall, or something they mightly struggle to overcome.
  Also, Eliot's language is incredible. On one hand, it's a lot more difficult to read than Austen, but on the other, it's so descriptive while still often being laced with a sense of beauty. Really wonderful prose.
lucb1e · 1790714856 · focus · HN ↗
> I'm looking for something a little meaty to keep the brain working...
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks comes to mind. I had no idea how rampant purposeful discrimination was so recently for example, but the point of the book is the HeLa cells - and biology is also not my forté so loads of new information there as well. It was very interesting in expected and unexpected areas for me
- Daniel Suarez' Kill Decision has only gotten more relevant since its release in 2012. Not sure I'd call this meaty though, but his thrillers are always good (near-ish future tech) and the author iirc also said this particular one is meant as food for thought and not only entertainment
ekjhgkejhgk · 1790714876 · focus · HN ↗
I'm about 100 pages into Dune Messiah and 50 pages into Analysis I by Terence Tao.
1. 2snakes · 1790726952 · focus · HN ↗
  There was a ntsc or pal version of children of dune at one point but it was region locked so I never saw it
josters · 1790714922 · focus · HN ↗
A copy of Resurrection by Tolstoy I found on the street. Really enjoying the way he is able to portray characters in such profound ways.
Also still working through Civilization and Capitalism by Fernand Braudel.
What I finished recently and was really surprised by: Der Geisterbanner by Karl Friedrich Kahlert from 1792.
gb2d_hn · 1790715019 · focus · HN ↗
Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life And Others. Just finished the short story behind Arrival, the way it frames free is something the film doesn't capture. Other stories in the book have been brilliant too.
1. BeetleB · 1790716511 · focus · HN ↗
  Great set of stories.
  I hated Arrival. Years later when I read the original story, it was one of the most beautiful ones I've ever read. Particularly great if you've studied the calculus of variations.
2. upupupandaway · 1790731606 · focus · HN ↗
  Another great story from Ted Chiang is "Hell is the absence of God"
1-more · 1790715032 · focus · HN ↗
The Overstory is rad fiction. Just started listening to Ordinary Men which is about a Polish police battalion responsible for a great many murders during the Holocaust. The members of that battalion were, I guess, welcomed back into society afterwards? Idk, I just started. I'll tell you one thing, though: it's weird to absorb facts about the Shoah as digestible statistics fun facts (for lack of a better term) but those little snippets are very necessary to get my arms around the scale of things such as it. It's the same as happened when I listened to Late Victorian Holocausts. So now I have stats like
- Most Jewish victims of the Holocaust died by gunshot in the occupied USSR
- In March 1942, 80% of Holocaust victims were still alive and by February 1943 80% were dead.
- Per capita incomes were equal in the first and last years of the British Raj
- Indian grain exports increased in the 1880s and 90s and there were 3(?) different famines at that time
rattling around in my head in the same part that holds on to "Pakistan has never had a PM finish a 5 year term," "The Lions, Falcons, and Bills (non-exhaustive) have never won a Super Bowl," "There are no surviving contemperaneous attestations of Hamilcar and Hannibal Barca" and "the first drummer of the Beatles was called Pete Best and made an album called Best of the Beatles"
1. antisthenes · 1790715704 · focus · HN ↗
  > - Most Jewish victims of the Holocaust died by gunshot in the occupied USSR
  > - In March 1942, 80% of Holocaust victims were still alive and by February 1943 80% were dead.
  Makes sense. A couple of things happened: 1942 Wannsee Conference in January 1942 - which I assume took some time during 1942 to get into motion.
  Germany started losing, they realized they did not have the logistics to feed additional millions of people in the occupied territories.
  1. 1-more · 1790875295 · focus · HN ↗
    Right, I'm just shocked by the speed of it all and how many regular people had to be mobilized to kill so many in 11 months.
imperialdrive · 1790715040 · focus · HN ↗
Half way through Dungeon Crawler Carl book 8, really got hooked on the whole universe haha.
ky-hy · 1790715068 · focus · HN ↗
I recently finished "Warbreaker" by Brandon Sanderson, now plan to go back to reading "Designing data-intensive applications" since it's been a long time (for me) since I read anything educational. Warbreaker was amazing, I still think about it, a week after finishing, about the characters and how much fun I had while reading it. It's one of those books that you smile when you read it because of how pleasant it is and how enjoyable the characters are.
1. fosco · 1790715933 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
  1. dv35z · 1790745202 · focus · HN ↗
    What is Cosmere? (of course could look it up, but thought it may be interesting to learn here)
    ky-hy · 1790774459 · focus · HN ↗
    Cosmere is universe created by Brandon Sanderson for his books, its a small galaxy with many planets called shardworlds, usually series are independent from each other but the really cool part is that there is handful of characters (at least named) that can jump between those planets, and those characters are called worldhoppers and they can appear in series that normally wouldn't be connected to each other, and due to fantastic character writing of Brandon, you are always pleasantly suprised when a character from one series appears in another.
mattmar96 · 1790715108 · focus · HN ↗
Boom Town by Sam Anderson. Its an intertwined history of Oklahoma City and its basketball team, the Thunder. I'm about halfway through, and I'm loving it so far.
pyjarrett · 1790715334 · focus · HN ↗
Discourses by Epictetus
jeremyscanvic · 1790715447 · focus · HN ↗
I'm reading singer song-writer Lily Allen's 2019 autobiography My Thoughts Exactly. I really liked her last album West End Girl (2025) and I wanted to know more about her and her creative process and inspirations. She tells about lots of different things having happened in her life, her relationship with her parents, how she grew up like. Really enjoyable read so far!
1. akkad33 · 1790884819 · focus · HN ↗
  Wow I didn't expect to see this here. It seems in the book she's very open but it seems to have an alienating effect on readers rather than making them sympathetic for her honesty
SplitVengeance · 1790715478 · focus · HN ↗
Just started Dark Tower Series Book 4: Wizard and Glass. I crushed the first 3 books, then took a break to read dungeon crawler carl.
jerkstate · 1790715573 · focus · HN ↗
Just finished a David Foster Wallace kick. I listened to the new 30th anniversary audiobook of Infinite Jest (twice) and then The Pale King (twice). Then I listened to "Of course you end up becoming yourself" which is a long-form interview with Wallace by David Lipsky, traveling with him on the Infinite Jest book tour.
I had to listen to the books twice because there are a lot of details that you won't get the first time through unless you're extremely intentional and detail oriented, but I found it was worth it to listen again. I'll probably listen to Infinite Jest again sometime soon, even though it's 64 hours long. IJ is actually really great sci-fi with some important questions for our time.
1. haroldp · 1790719074 · focus · HN ↗
  I have become a huge fan of AudioBooks lately, but how in the /hell/ do you listen to Infinite Jest?? With the end notes? With end notes of end notes? With whole chapters hidden in an end note? It was challenging enough on paper. That would do my nut in.
  1. stevenwoo · 1790719273 · focus · HN ↗
    The audiobook version I listened to had different narrators for main text and footnote with audio cue when footnote started as well.
  2. jerkstate · 1790724183 · focus · HN ↗
    The end notes are interspersed throughout the book where they're referenced, and then a bell rings before returning to the main text. That's why I listened to it twice. I remember towards the end of the first listen-through, I sort-of recalled some of the earlier end-notes, like for example Himself's filmography, which I had basically ignored the first time through, but listened to intently the second time through.
2. simpaticoder · 1790720796 · focus · HN ↗
  I attempted infinite jest and really tried to like it but I hated it. The prose is extremely smart, interesting and insightful and wildly connective. But the overall tone is so oppressively nihilistic I decided life's too short and put it down.
  1. wombat-man · 1790722415 · focus · HN ↗
    Yeah, I wouldn't say it's bad... but it's not for me. did not finish.
    jerkstate · 1790724289 · focus · HN ↗
    it's not for everybody, but there were some specific things going on in my life when I started it that deeply connected to the subject matter for me
  2. nephihaha · 1790728420 · focus · HN ↗
    I have had about a hundred pages to go for three years now. I should knuckle down and finish it. It wasn't for me either. A shame because I have enjoyed some of Wallace's other writings.
    jerkstate · 1790730454 · focus · HN ↗
    the last scene is absolutely bonkers, if that helps you get through it
  3. ex-aws-dude · 1790836189 · focus · HN ↗
    I finished it and thought it was overall good but I don’t know if I would say it’s good “bang for buck” in terms of what you get for the time commitment
    jerkstate · 1790857866 · focus · HN ↗
    There are definitely long books I've read where I didn't feel like I got enough out of them for it to have been worth it, like I read (listened to) Gravity's Rainbow right after and a lot of the characters and plot lines just annoyed or disgusted me, but I'm sure that book means a lot to a lot of people. In the interview "Of course you end up becoming yourself," the author talks a lot about how in avant-garde literature you have to make the payoff good enough to reward the reader for doing the work, and that equation is going to be different for everybody.
3. cobolexpert · 1790754160 · focus · HN ↗
  Also reading IJ! Got to 50% this week, but it took me about 10 months. I’m a slow reader I think. However, I’m taking notes as I read to help me track how the different characters are connected.
louwrentius · 1790715583 · focus · HN ↗
Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris - a re-read about the history of Silicon Valley, highly recommended.
1. mrmattyboy · 1790756163 · focus · HN ↗
  Similar to this, I'm reading "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson - it covers a lot of Silicon Valley, but also stretching back to Ada Lovelace.
  Having read Steve Jobs by him, I was quite excited to read more by him.
MattSteelblade · 1790715593 · focus · HN ↗
Working my way through Elle Cordova's sci-fi book club[1]. Currently on Hyperion, but have read "The Man In The High Castle," "Sea of Tranquility," "Exhalation," "Neuromancer," "The Power," "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep," "Parable of the Sower," and "I, Robot."
[1] <a href="https://bookshop.org/lists/elle-s-sci-fi-book-club" rel="nofollow">https://bookshop.org/lists/elle-s-sci-fi-book-club
1. senko · 1790720736 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
creature_x · 1790715656 · focus · HN ↗
Oh I've got some recs for you if you want meaty! I've been reading classics this year. It started with East of Eden; if you've got a philosophical leaning and appreciate your characters deeply fleshed out, you owe it to yourself to read this book.
The next one was Lonesome Dove, this was my first time reading a western and I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. The book is also absolutely hilarious and has one of my favorite characters in a book(shoutout to Gus).
I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cresto and, boy, it's turning out to be quite the epic tale of revenge(no spoilers please!).
1. genghisjahn · 1790716324 · focus · HN ↗
  I like a good thick book but I could not finish Monte Cristo. After about the 40th character introduction I just had to put it down. The problem is me, not the book.
  1. JKCalhoun · 1790727530 · focus · HN ↗
    Do the audiobook then. That’s how I read it.
    mcv · 1790761149 · focus · HN ↗
    There was a great TV show on BBC recently. Not as detailed as the book perhaps, but really drove the point home very effectively.
    JKCalhoun · 1790765905 · focus · HN ↗
    Oh, yeah, the BBC/PBS (?) series was well done. Took a little license with the story, but, as you say, "drove the point home very effectively".
  2. kreyenborgi · 1790764687 · focus · HN ↗
    Hm, I could not put it down. Was sneaking in reading while waiting for gcc to finish or bank web site to load.
    Now I want to read it again.
2. fyskij · 1790718590 · focus · HN ↗
  Read it for the first time this year too. I kinda obsessed over it for a month.
  When you’re done, read Umberto Eco on it: <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/10/28/the-cult-of-the-imperfect/" rel="nofollow">https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/10/28/the-cult-of-t...
3. simpaticoder · 1790720577 · focus · HN ↗
  Also read Lonesome Dove this year, also my first Western. I'd watched the amazing miniseries I thought it was great. I'm honestly not sure the book has much over the miniseries which is a rare statement.
  If you liked Lonesome Dove and attempted to read the prequel and sequels I strongly recommend against it.
  1. creature_x · 1790723983 · focus · HN ↗
    Dern! I was really looking forward to reading the prequels, in no small part because how much I love Gus's character.
    donkeyboy · 1790741840 · focus · HN ↗
    One of the prequels (Comanche Moon) is actually quite good and featurs more Gus and Caul banter
    gainda · 1790774887 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm partway through Dead Man's Walk and it's held up well so far. Streets of Laredo was tough at first but by the end I found it enjoyable overall. Still, I'm not sure how much of it was McMurtry being willfully antagonistic to readers with the decisions he made for the plot based on how well received Lonesome Dove was.
    simpaticoder · 1790805679 · focus · HN ↗
    Dead Man's Walk was the best of the rest...but it even it was flawed, with all the brutality of Lonesome Dove without the beautiful interstitial moments.
4. thisoneisreal · 1790721678 · focus · HN ↗
  This was eerie to read, you just named my 3 favorite works of fiction in the reverse order that I read them. All brilliant books.
  1. creature_x · 1790723894 · focus · HN ↗
    We must be kindred spirits! Any recs for me ?
    thisoneisreal · 1790725929 · focus · HN ↗
    Apparently! I'm mostly a non-fiction reader but a few fictions I really like:
    - The Friends of Eddie Coyle
    - A River Runs Through It
    - Stoner
    - The Tartar Steppe
    - Siddhartha
    And a very cliche recommendation but will still make it, the first 3 Game of Thrones books. I also like the Dark Tower series.
    andsoitis · 1790728066 · focus · HN ↗
    > Siddhartha
    I also loved The Glass Bead Game, and Steppenwolf
    nephihaha · 1790774113 · focus · HN ↗
    I love a lot of Hesse's work but the Glass Bead Game was unreadable.
    Triphibian · 1790783547 · focus · HN ↗
    Narcissus and Goldmund has a similar shape to Siddhartha -- covering similar ground with two protagonists instead of one. Also great.
    criddell · 1790775970 · focus · HN ↗
    I'm halfway through Stoner right now and think about it quite a bit when I'm not reading it. I really don't know what to think about William Stoner (or Edith!).
    OnACoffeeBreak · 1790944232 · focus · HN ↗
    I am halfway through my second read of Stoner, and I still don't know what to think of William Stoner, and I think that's deliberate to portray a complex human that can be in the world in contradictory ways. That's all I will say out of fear of spoiling anything.
    This sentence from the first page is what piqued my interest in the book: "Stoner’s colleagues, who held him in no particular esteem when he was alive, speak of him rarely now; to the older ones, his name is a reminder of the end that awaits them all, and to the younger ones it is merely a sound which evokes no sense of the past and no identity with which they can associate themselves or their careers." I thought, "Why write about him then? There must be something here.". I was not disappointing. :)
    andrew_lettuce · 1790781212 · focus · HN ↗
    The stories in A river runs through it - and the movie - move at a slower pace than modern life, but then sometimes hit at just the right place when that's exactly what I need.
    bpshaver · 1790733330 · focus · HN ↗
    Kindred spirits or these are just about the top 3 most often recommended books on Reddit and similar platforms. Nothing wrong with that.
5. KerryJones · 1790721964 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
6. sotix · 1790726571 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm also reading The Count of Monte Cresto. It's taken me forever! I made the mistake of reading the public domain version, which uses Victorian English. Switching to the Penguins classic version has been a lot easier for me to read. But I'm also listening to the Victorian audiobook while I work out narrated by Bill Homewood, and it's fantastic!
  I'm going to need a nice, short book after this one.
  1. emmelaich · 1790734356 · focus · HN ↗
    ... how did you both misspell the title? It's the Count of Monte Cristo .. unless this is a different language.
    4ggr0 · 1790751383 · focus · HN ↗
    actually, it's "Le Comte de Monte-Cristo" ;D
    sotix · 1790790537 · focus · HN ↗
    A simple copy and paste haha
7. iamagurgle · 1790730395 · focus · HN ↗
  Wow, Instarted the year reading that as well. Truly a good read, although after finishing it I was craving some more family friendly stuff
8. raddan · 1790733390 · focus · HN ↗
  I don’t know if this is considered a classic, but I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca”. I think I might have read it in a single sitting.
  I was lead to Rebecca after I found and read a discarded copy of Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History”. I wanted more and Googled “books like Rebecca”. Sadly, I thought Tartt’s “The Goldfinch”, which lots of people raved about, was not very good.
  1. aanet · 1790745280 · focus · HN ↗
    Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again...
    I first read _Rebecca_ as a teen, years ago. Still recall the thrill of the book. Few writers wrote so engagingly as Du Maurier. Hitchcock's movie was fine, but the book is the real deal.
  2. bookofjoe · 1790784165 · focus · HN ↗
    Diff'rent strokes. In the depths of a 1.75-year-long major depressive episode in 2015-2016, one of the VERY few books that completely made me forget my misery while I read it was "The Goldfinch." The others: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series.
9. bumbledraven · 1790734862 · focus · HN ↗
  I tried multiple English translations of The Count of Monte Cristo, and the Robin Buss translation was the only one I enjoyed. (Unfortunately, there is no audiobook of this translation, but I had Codex create me one.)
  If you're unconvinced, try comparing a few random passages to see which one you prefer, or just check the beginning of Chapter 1. You could also show a few translations to an LLM and ask it which one best conveys the nuance of the original French.)
10. UncleOxidant · 1790734869 · focus · HN ↗
  I started the year reading Demons by Dostoevsky. Seemed prophetic in a lot of ways about what was coming about 40 years later in 1917.
  At the beginning of the summer I read All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I'm not into westerns, but I really liked that one. A modern classic.
  Just finished The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry. Such a gorgeously written book.
11. hodgesrm · 1790744547 · focus · HN ↗
  > I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cresto and, boy, it's turning out to be quite the epic tale of revenge(no spoilers please!).
  Once you get done, try The Three Musketeers. It's both romantic (like Monte Christo) and also really funny, not dark at all. Dumas was an amazing writer, backed by August Maquet, who wrote the first drafts on both novels.
12. teekert · 1790748337 · focus · HN ↗
  John Steinbeck's East of Eden is from 1952, and on Archive.org [0], I assume that is the one? It's not on Gutenberg (as a nice epub), but there is another one from Isa Glenn [1]. Since Netflix has a miniseries based on Steinbeck's novel I'm going to assume it's that one :)
  [0] <a href="https://archive.org/details/eastofeden0000john_p8l1/mode/2up" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/eastofeden0000john_p8l1/mode/2up
  [1] <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75781" rel="nofollow">https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75781
13. TonyStr · 1790756716 · focus · HN ↗
  The Count of Monte Cristo was my introduction to classics. I remember being intimidated yet excited by it's length. It's a great adventure, a page turner, and has interesting characters and sub-plots. I had the honor of visiting Dumas' tomb in the Pantheon this summer. Notably, his tomb was raised above the others who shared his room, including Victor Hugo.
14. PyWoody · 1790780675 · focus · HN ↗
  Everything that could ever be said about America is in East of Eden.
15. NorthSouthNorth · 1790791179 · focus · HN ↗
  I've read The Count Of Monte Cristo thrice. Best book ever. It's one of the few books that made me really feel like I was there with the protagonist.
16. tstrimple · 1790819570 · focus · HN ↗
  The Count of Monte Cristo is probably the worst "popular" classic I've ever read. It was trash. So repetitive. It's clearly a product of its time and not a proper "novel". It's a series of newspaper serials aggregated into a book where Dumas was paid by the word. And he used as many words as he could to say as little as possible. One of the rare examples of where many video adaptations are better than the original written version. My favorite part of the movies was him learning to be the Count and that part is basically non-existent in the books. It just skips over to him being a master of everything.
17. Breza · 1790989737 · focus · HN ↗
  I've read all three of those in the past three years and I loved them all for wildly different reasons.
  If you want a classic novel that's enjoyable to read and has a moral point to make, I'd add War and Peace. The story ends and then the author has a whole afterward dedicated to "In case you missed the point, let me spell it out for you."
jlengrand · 1790715697 · focus · HN ↗
Le Comte de MonteChristo, an African history of Africa and Hold me tight
ex-aws-dude · 1790715825 · focus · HN ↗
Reading Gödel, Escher, Bach but I've been stuck on the MU puzzle for days
largePanda9 · 1790715870 · focus · HN ↗
Currently on the final book of James Clavell’s Asia Saga, it’s been a long road and I’m frankly kind of over it but 90% through the final book and I’m glad I read them. First read Shogun maybe ~10 years ago but read the other four back to back. Gai-Jin wasn’t very good but the others have been pretty solid overall. A bit long winded and sometimes I wish he’d’ve had a more aggressive editor, but happy with em enough to finish them all.
robertkoss · 1790715926 · focus · HN ↗
Just finished:
- Selected Stories - Anton Chekhov - Death in Venice - Thomas Mann - The Burnout Society - Byung-Chul Han
Currently I am reading an Austrian economics classic - Economics in one lesson by Henry Hazlitt
1. lanfeust6 · 1790738154 · focus · HN ↗
  Chekhov is great
arwhatever · 1790716129 · focus · HN ↗
Gouged: The End of a Fair Price—and What That Means for Your Wallet by Lindsay Owens became available today, and I have purchased ebook and will begin reading today.
Oscalemor · 1790716145 · focus · HN ↗
I've got a history of picking up the 2 top books of the airports best sellers. Have been my strategy for a while, right now it's FLESH. Feels like I'm being part of the mainstream, reading something everyone else reading.
arrowleaf · 1790716309 · focus · HN ↗
I'm reading Sagas of the Icelanders as prep for a trip there, but I can feel it pulling me down into a rabbithole of older Scandinavian medieval writing. I've already got an order placed for a saga that's not in this book, along with the Poetic Edda and Havamal to learn more about Norse mythology.
BeetleB · 1790716314 · focus · HN ↗
Just got done reading The Wager - historical nonfiction - same author as Killers of the Flower Moon.
It's quite good - not as good as Killers of the Flower Moon. I won't spoil anything you won't learn from the first few pages. The Wager was a British naval ship in the early 1700s that was lost to inclement weather. All were presumed dead. Some time later a boat arrives in England with a small number of survivors. Then a while later, another boat arrives with some more survivors. They each accuse the other of terrible acts.
The book tells the story of what happened after the ship went down.
It's a good read.
1. mjcarden · 1790814289 · focus · HN ↗
  It is a good read. I 'borrowed' it from the Internet Archive and read it. The reconstruction of what happened from the various different and conflicting sources is interesting, as is the 21st Century expedition to seek the wreck.
dvh · 1790716359 · focus · HN ↗
15,000 miles in a ketch
perrygeo · 1790716377 · focus · HN ↗
"A Darwinian Survival Guide: Hope for the 21st Century" - really enjoying the modern take on Darwinian natural selection (the first part of the book). In short nature diversifies in good times, to stock resilience for weathering the bad times. Just a few chapters in, waiting for that hope to kick in any minute...
"The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst" - This story is about the first round-the-world solo yacht race, and the one contestant who died at sea. His story is really strange - an anti-hero tragedy with a touch of mental illness. The author does a great job bringing the reader on this descent into madness.
"Protocols" - Andrew Huberman's recent book. Like his podcast, it's full of solid advice backed by published science - but also with some repetitive filler and product name drops. The sections on exercise and diet were not very informative to me, mainly because I've already incorporated most of that into my life already. The sections on light exposure and its relationship to sleep, melatonin and cortisol is the most fascinating new-to-me info. I've started morning/evening walking without my sunglasses to get those sweet sweet photons.
adamcharnock · 1790716463 · focus · HN ↗
Two of Vernor Vinge's books in particular (science fiction): A Fire Upon The Deep, and A Deepness In The Sky.
They have a special place in my heart. Vinge didn't write much, but what he did write I think is very special indeed.
I've also taken to buying hardbacks of my favourite books from ebay.
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/77711.A_Fire_Upon_the_Deep" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/77711.A_Fire_Upon_the...
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the_Sky" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/226004.A_Deepness_in_the...
1. largePanda9 · 1790716647 · focus · HN ↗
  Great series! Give Children of Time a go next if you haven’t already.
  1. emaro · 1790750921 · focus · HN ↗
    I second that. The 3 body problem is also great!
2. askvictor · 1790716903 · focus · HN ↗
  If you haven't read about his (technical) system for writing, do so. Very geeky. He described it (including notes) in my ebook copy of Fire Upon The Deep
3. pelican0 · 1790718874 · focus · HN ↗
  Don't miss out on his "The blabber", a novella in that universe with an adorable character.
4. mattoxic · 1790732554 · focus · HN ↗
  They have a special place in my heart.
  I recently described finishing Fire Upon the Deep as saying goodbye to a very dear friend. A great book.
5. xoxxala · 1790735965 · focus · HN ↗
  I just finished my umpteenth reread of AFUtD. It’s one of those books I can pull off the shelf every few years and enjoy from beginning to end.
  The Cradle series by Will Wight, starting with Unsouled. Kind of hard to describe, but it’s an sci-fi/Asian fantasy martial arts cultivation epic. If you liked Dungeon Crawler Carl, it may be of interest.
6. arethuza · 1790754187 · focus · HN ↗
  I sometimes wonder if we are living through something that looks a bit like the prologue of A Fire Upon the Deep...
7. Metacelsus · 1790810851 · focus · HN ↗
  Oooh those are really good! (I'd say more but I don't want to spoil anything)
dcminter · 1790716556 · focus · HN ↗
[delayed]
almost_usual · 1790716575 · focus · HN ↗
Power, Sex, and Suicide: Mitochondria and the meaning of life by Nick Lane.
1. sho_hn · 1790716714 · focus · HN ↗
  I read Lane's The Vital Question this year and enjoyed it quite a bit. If you've read both, would you compare them for me?
  1. pchristensen · 1790721623 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
axus · 1790716596 · focus · HN ↗
Rereading Pale, slowly:
<a href="https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/
paulorlando · 1790716597 · focus · HN ↗
One of the books I'm reading now is Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay, by George Ewart Evans. Set in 1957 Suffolk county, England. I often read in a theme and this theme is about cultural and technological transitions.
godzillafarts · 1790716604 · focus · HN ↗
I just wrapped up the Murderbot Diaries series and am starting in on Dungeon Crawler Carl.
I normally read a lot of nonfiction and history and am trying to make a point to read more fiction this year.
1. askvictor · 1790716942 · focus · HN ↗
  Haha I've been trying to do the reverse :)
losvedir · 1790716679 · focus · HN ↗
Book 2 of Hyperion Cantos. Really enjoying it, but am unsure if I want to do books 3 & 4. Anyone read them and recommend either way?
1. dcminter · 1790716965 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
  1. nottorp · 1790771364 · focus · HN ↗
    3 & 4 are ... different and more conventional than 1 & 2. They can be disappointing but they do try to bring some closure to all the events.
2. bontaq · 1790717025 · focus · HN ↗
  I'd say it's some of best science (?) fiction written, so I'm biased, but yes books 3 & 4 are worth it. It gets very bizarre and the ending has stuck with me for a long time.
jrop · 1790716690 · focus · HN ↗
An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald Weinberg. I've found his writing style to really land with my brain.
jldugger · 1790716726 · focus · HN ↗
About two thirds of the way through "Flaw of Averages". Thankfully the chapters are short but it's written for business students and is aggressively anti-jargon, which can be annoying at times.
It started off promising, with some hints about monte carlo methods implemented in spreadsheets, but kind of detours into statistics basics, layman summaries of the author's prior scholarly work, and various business consulting anecdotes. I did not, for example, expect to read a chapter on the FASB-II's flaws regarding options pricing. And a few are downright concerning a decade later. I would not, for example, brag about advising Wells Fargo executives on their employee incentive programs after the cross-selling scandal came to light.
The final chapters, which I have not yet gotten to, supposedly cover the solution to the flaw of averages. Given the book is 15 years old, I'm expecting it to be pretty dated implementation wise, but I might be able to apply it to Prometheus histograms or t-digests. And I've learned a few things, like Jensen's inequality, and found a few sheets demoing a sampling approach.
DazWilkin · 1790716753 · focus · HN ↗
On the recommendation of a friend, the spiral wars series (<a href="https://spiral-wars-shepherd.fandom.com/wiki/Spiral_history" rel="nofollow">https://spiral-wars-shepherd.fandom.com/wiki/Spiral_history).
It started slow (booting) but I'm enjoying the books (currently on #3), the universe-building and the length (10 books) of it.
1. buu709 · 1790968711 · focus · HN ↗
  I'd like to give this a try but it's Amazon only. Any idea if it can be downloaded DRM free?
phugoid · 1790716933 · focus · HN ↗
Value(s): Building a Better World for All by Mark Carney, the current prime minister of Canada. He starts out with his perspective on the history of economics and money - it reads a bit like a textbook.
He has a knack for being critical and optimistic at the same time. Funny too!
neverkn0wsb357 · 1790717125 · focus · HN ↗
Three books.
These two feel especially relevant:
Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered - E.F. Schumacher
Tools for Conviviality - Ivan Illich
and
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows - John Koenig
1. frm88 · 1790747901 · focus · HN ↗
  Koenig used to have a tumblr, which is where he first published his sorrows, very intriguing. I follow him, but he has long gone silent.
2. Saddie · 1790797772 · focus · HN ↗
  I've never read Obscure sorrows but the name seemed oddly familiar... There should be a word for feeling of _I know i have seen/heard of this somewhere_ and trying to figure out where from. Anyway it was recently discussed on hn - <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48611411">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48611411
askvictor · 1790717139 · focus · HN ↗
Non fiction: The Dawn of Everything.
Fiction: just finished The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott; about to read The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (for the 2nd or 3rd time)
fk_fk · 1790717198 · focus · HN ↗
"A man in the Maze" by Robert Silverberg. Don't know why but I felt the urge to re-read it, last time I read it 30 years ago and remembered the plot very well.
ItsMattyG · 1790717226 · focus · HN ↗
if you're into litrpg, have you tried the wandering inn? it's not so meaty but it's above almost all other litrpgs in that department and the storytelling is great
28304283409234 · 1790717364 · focus · HN ↗
"Escape from Capitalism", by Clara Mattei
danielheath · 1790717379 · focus · HN ↗
Radiant Star (the new Ann Leckie book, in the “Ancillary Justice” series). Not as good as her earlier books in the series, but very worthwhile if you enjoyed them.
zem · 1790717509 · focus · HN ↗
I'm on book 3 of Romlyn Domingue's "Keeper of Tales" trilogy. One unusual touch I liked is that each book is written in a different person - book 1 is a second person autobiography written as the protagonist talking to her past self, book 2 is third person with a different protagonist, and then book 3 is a continuation of book 2 but with the voice switched to first person.
mcv · 1790717601 · focus · HN ↗
I've taken a hiatus in my journey through Iain M. Banks' Culture novels to reread 1984.
amadeoeoeo · 1790717640 · focus · HN ↗
"Correction" from Bernhard. Wow. This is in its own league of weirdness and yet it flows...
jeanpah · 1790717896 · focus · HN ↗
I'm reading the neuromancer triology. It makes me think that book ended up predicting (or maybe shaping) many things that really are happening right now.
1. dcminter · 1790718487 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
2. simpaticoder · 1790721535 · focus · HN ↗
  I recently reread Neuromancer and I don't get why people think it's so prophetic. The real world is shaped by ubiquitous smartphones and surveillance capitalism and social media feeds. Gibson predicted none of that and not even close. Instead he predicted all kinds of things that never came to be, like neural interfaces consumer space stations. He didn't even predict income inequality - Case is in Chiba City for a very specific reason and for all we know it's quite unique. Even his predictions around the internet are way off because as far as I can tell the only medium that explains how it works in his book is telepathy - literally no one ever mentions or cares about physical connectivity, and there's no mechanism for Case to get online without repairing his nervous system. Which of course makes no sense if you could just look at a screen. The cultural aspects are way off although very atmospheric- the smoking the paper newspapers pay phones.... I think the only thing that it shaped was the cyberpunk aesthetic, which is as fundamentally retro-futuristic and silly as steampunk.
  1. jeanpah · 1790731522 · focus · HN ↗
    In the second book, Count Zero, a billonaire named Virek is presented as an omnipresent being and literaly follows one of the protagonist at every step using a surveillance network, i think it's pretty close to what we have today
ElCapitanMarkla · 1790717944 · focus · HN ↗
I just finished the full cast Harry Potter audiobooks and they were fantastic.
Currently reading and recommending - Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Sir Earnest Shackleton’s attempt to cross the Antarctic.
1. dcminter · 1790718238 · focus · HN ↗
  [delayed]
herpdyderp · 1790718106 · focus · HN ↗
I haven't read books in years. I read an incredible amount of code, does that count?
nottorp · 1790718332 · focus · HN ↗
Arkady Martine right now. Pretty good.
checkyoursudo · 1790718389 · focus · HN ↗
The Nerd Reich
tantalor · 1790718499 · focus · HN ↗
The Cuckoo's Egg, by Cliff Stoll
1. n1ivih · 1790718577 · focus · HN ↗
  Such a good one, enjoy!
rdoherty · 1790718978 · focus · HN ↗
I love reading, here's a few meatier books I've read recently:
* Seeing Like a State - great overview of how states (and corporations) lose visibility into reality due to the abstraction levels they operate at * Normal Accidents - all about how things like nuclear reactors, ships and large systems naturally have accidents * Managing the Unexpected: Resilient Performance in an Age of Uncertainty - great easy read about how high reliability organizations manage complexity and dangerous, high tempo situations.
1. pchristensen · 1790721059 · focus · HN ↗
  I’m also reading Seeing Like a State!
2. wepple · 1790721079 · focus · HN ↗
  Seeing like a state is my next book to read. Weirdly, I cannot recall the chain of interests that led me to it.
  1. waldothedog · 1790735659 · focus · HN ↗
    P sure mine was Dawn of Everything + Why Nations Fail
3. siddboots · 1790722575 · focus · HN ↗
  I'm also reading Seeing Like a State, and finding it fascinating. A lot of Scott's theory seems to apply equally well to any large organisation, like a corporation. I think it is fundamentally about how in any unwieldy system, the people in charge tend want to have some sort of comprehensible map of that system to make decisions, and they also want more effective apparatuses of power in order to steer the system, and the fundamental complexity of reality has to be smoothed over to achieve those things.
  For example, business intelligence systems provide ways to impose consistent measures on an organisation, which makes the org more legible to executive decision makers, but that consistency also tends to erode local team autonomy and undermine specialist knowledge. This type of tension shows up everywhere once you start noticing it.
  Very facinating book.
  1. trismus · 1790739817 · focus · HN ↗
    It helps me when thinking about how to present information to a decision maker - what level of abstraction does this perspective actually care about? Why? Both in programming and in life.
  2. biophysboy · 1790752201 · focus · HN ↗
    I enjoyed the book too, but as I read it, I felt more and more like he could have just as easily found examples where making a system simpler and more legible led to massive improvements.
4. cl42 · 1790732792 · focus · HN ↗
  [dead]
5. __m · 1790772266 · focus · HN ↗
  I loved normal accidents. Probably even got the recommendation from hn
6. bookofjoe · 1790784627 · focus · HN ↗
  "Normal Accidents" is a profound, mind-bending book. I lectured on it during Anesthesiology Grand Rounds [University of Virginia School of Medicine], using it as an armature with which to view the making of disasters in the OR.
andy_ppp · 1790719315 · focus · HN ↗
The output of LLMs, largely :-/
bityard · 1790719422 · focus · HN ↗
Airframe by Michael Crichton. It's riveting.
GaryBluto · 1790719447 · focus · HN ↗
I've mostly been reading short SF stories recently, most of them from Dangerous Visions.
Here's a few of the ones I've read and enjoyed:
“The Jigsaw Man” by Larry Niven
“The Night That All Time Broke Out” by Brian W. Aldiss
“A Toy for Juliette” by Robert Bloch (although I was surprisingly not a fan of Harlan's continuation)
“The Man Who Went to the Moon — Twice” by Howard Rodman
“Flies” by Robert Silverberg
tonymet · 1790719522 · focus · HN ↗
Reading a number of books on the Manhattan Project / Cold War / Soviet Nuclear Program
* Dead Hand
* Atomic Accidents
* Hiroshima
* Command and Control
pykello · 1790719660 · focus · HN ↗
- "Foundations of Analysis" by Belding & Mitchell
- "On Writing Well" by Zinsser
gorgoiler · 1790719744 · focus · HN ↗
[delayed]
mkovach · 1790719798 · focus · HN ↗
J.L. Austin: Philosopher & D-Day Intelligence Officer.
Austin worked for British Intelligence during World War II, running the Martians section and helping assess possible invasion sites for D-Day. After the war, as a philosopher of language, he helped bring ideas such as performative utterances and speech acts into the discussion.
A fascinating overlap between intelligence work and philosophy of language.
And because the Brewers are in the playoffs, "Catcher in the Wry" by Bob Uecker. Despite being a Cleveland fan, I have to admit the book is amazingly fun. Uecker was Uecker long before he became everybody's favorite baseball storyteller, and he was the Cleveland announcer in Major League.
asphodele · 1790719831 · focus · HN ↗
The Outsider (L'Étranger) will give you something to think about. Camus' idea with this novel was to see what would happen to a character who went through life only telling the truth.
1. colechristensen · 1790721264 · focus · HN ↗
  I didn't realize it was published under two separate english translated titles
2. ball_of_lint · 1790722510 · focus · HN ↗
  Big fan of Camus; I found The Fall and The Plague to both be stronger books than The Stranger
3. jonahx · 1790729328 · focus · HN ↗
  I've never heard it referred to as "The Outsider" before, and I've heard it referred to a lot. TIL it has been published under that name, but "The Stranger" is the title it's typically known as in English:
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(Camus_novel)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(Camus_novel)
  1. jgwil2 · 1790739508 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
spudlyo · 1790719855 · focus · HN ↗
So for my unofficial book club with a good friend, we're in final act of A Passage to India by E.M. Forster, after having finished A Room with a View a few weeks before. I enjoy 19th and early 20th century literature for the prose quality quite a lot, and Forster does not disappoint on that score. It's also fascinating getting an inside view on Anglo-Indian relations during British rule. It's thematically similar To Kill a Mockingbird, in that both feature prominent "White Knight" type characters.
I'm also reading some less highbrow novels just for fun. I'm currently on book 16 in in Lindsey Davis' Falco series[0], which are delightful murder mysteries set in Ancient Rome, thanks to HN user "vintagedave" who recommended[1] them around 4 months ago.
[0]: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/series/42173-marcus-didius-falco" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/series/42173-marcus-didius-falco
[1]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48323766">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48323766
david927 · 1790720008 · focus · HN ↗
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita.
1. lbrito · 1790723930 · focus · HN ↗
  Dear God, why would anyone - more than once - downvote this? Its simply one of the best novels ever written. I hope it was downvoted by a clanker, not a real person.
atlasunshrugged · 1790720016 · focus · HN ↗
I'm reading Purge (not to be confused with the film franchise), by a Finnish-Estonian writer about two women with dark pasts during the waning days of the Soviet Occupation of Estonia
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purge_(novel)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purge_(novel)
loganfrederick · 1790720143 · focus · HN ↗
Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will by Robert Sapolsky
1. hackernud3s · 1790721321 · focus · HN ↗
  Well, I guess that was inevitable, wasn't it?
2. phrotoma · 1790768019 · focus · HN ↗
  I just finished "Behave" and am excited to get my hands on Determined next!
stevenwoo · 1790720178 · focus · HN ↗
On the Origin of Sex - real life examples that seem like science fiction. How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch.
bcrosby95 · 1790720422 · focus · HN ↗
City of Stairs
azaras · 1790720548 · focus · HN ↗
For keep the brain working and sci-fi I recommend you "EVO - Padres" by Ignacio Fernandez Moreno, spanish only but easy to read with B2 level or upper. It's a science fiction novel exploring politics based in evolution in a far away planet.
1. iwannareadir · 1790720965 · focus · HN ↗
  Can you provide a link to this book? It sounds right up my alley but when I search on multiple search engines and book dBs I’m not seeing it anywhere or even references to it. Ai not finding it either
  1. frm88 · 1790749343 · focus · HN ↗
    here you go: <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/author/ignacio-fern-ndez-moreno/15016442" rel="nofollow">https://www.waterstones.com/author/ignacio-fern-ndez-moreno/...
  2. azaras · 1790790037 · focus · HN ↗
    <a href="https://a.co/d/05Fub5SA" rel="nofollow">https://a.co/d/05Fub5SA
apt-apt-apt-apt · 1790720566 · focus · HN ↗
I'm reading tons of Claude, all I do everyday is read all day
kurttheviking · 1790720611 · focus · HN ↗
I read a lot so I'll toss out some fiction titles you might like if you're a DCC fan:
- Ode to the Half-Broken by Suzanne Palmer -- post-apoc dystopian, somewhat cozy, told from a robot's perspective (who is joined by a companion cyborg dog) - Blacktongue Thief by Chris Buehlman -- witty and snarky fantasy, solid character development and world building; and, if you like it, book 2 in the series (book 3 if you count a prequel) comes out soon - Mortedant's Peril -- Fantasy mystery in a world where magic allows the "detectives" to touch the dead and sense their final thoughts/words; in that world, someone learns a dark secret from a victim... - Trade of Blood -- Another fantasy mystery that is exceptionally well told; it's Book 3 in a series so I'd start with Tainted Cup if you haven't read that already - The Infinite State -- new SciFi by Richard Swan (usually a fantasy author); a universe where ultra wealthy can establish colony planets, someone attempts to start a democracy.
1. sphars · 1790736436 · focus · HN ↗
  > The Blacktongue Thief
  I just started this last week after wrapping up DCC series and seeing it recommended in a reddit thread. I'm surprised that I'm enjoying it, it's not my usual genre
black6 · 1790720631 · focus · HN ↗
Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker
1. raleighm · 1790761407 · focus · HN ↗
  I loved this, and his Last and First Men. It made me crave more "future histories."
kidnoodle · 1790720756 · focus · HN ↗
Is a river alive by Robert McFarlane
A beautifully written travelogue/nature book/eco activist screed that tours the world visiting rivers and the people engaged in living with and protecting them. Fascinating, hopeful, heartbreaking and lyrical. Really enjoying it (evidently)!
black_puppydog · 1790720818 · focus · HN ↗
Iain M Banks' Culture series. It's hilarious (not really) how badly these books are mis-read by wannabe tech dictators.
cleandreams · 1790720985 · focus · HN ↗
"What Happened to Liberal Democracy" by Daron Acemoglu (Nobel laureate).
As someone who fled the desolation of the rust belt this book spoke to me and I found it credible and compelling. My book club spent 4 hours discussing this book.
ngokevin · 1790721158 · focus · HN ↗
Avatar: The Last Airbender books. Yangchen's series.
weldu · 1790721160 · focus · HN ↗
I’m reading the gospel! It’s super interesting and accurate account to my understanding.
I’m specifically talking about the New Testament.
I’m currently reading Hebrews 6.
1. dv35z · 1790746028 · focus · HN ↗
  Curious if you have read the bible completely, starting from the beginning.
  I recently started it - currently 30% through. I am tryin to hold back judgement until I have completed the book, but I can definitely say its quite shocking, nearly every page.
RGS1811 · 1790721386 · focus · HN ↗
I just finished Wilfred Sellars “Empiricism and the Philosophy of Mind”
I’m slowly rereading Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations.
I am perpetually rereading the works of Richard Rorty.
bgleb · 1790721456 · focus · HN ↗
Recently finished: - Tau Zero by Poul Anderson (Hard Sci-Fi) - Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky (blew my mind)
Reading now: - Hyperion by Dan Simmons (getting harder than two above, but enjoying it so far)
1. aspectmin · 1790721547 · focus · HN ↗
  Ooo - my favourite genre. Just added Tau Zero to my list. Children of Time was amazing as was Hyperion. Have you read the Quantum Magician series?
  1. bgleb · 1790721764 · focus · HN ↗
    Unfortunately not, took a break in sci-fi for more than 10 years and only getting back. Noted Quantum Magician, quick glance suggests it should be fun
2. hingler36 · 1790721940 · focus · HN ↗
  Hyperion is amazing, it's one of those books I wish I could read again for the first time. Enjoy!
JoeAltmaier · 1790721533 · focus · HN ↗
Terry Pratchet's entire corpus
hackernud3s · 1790721578 · focus · HN ↗
Iain Banks - Excession - 5 stars and the most optimistic series on AI
Dungeon Crawler Card - Not for me but I might give it another chance
Bukowski - Post Office - Worth reading, Gen-Z might get triggered
tobyjsullivan · 1790721623 · focus · HN ↗
The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs
People complain about how it's written, but it's nevertheless an interesting exploration of the parallels between nature and human economies. As someone with no particular interest or background in economics (and who hasn't read anything else by Jane Jacobs), I find it a fascinating and easy read.
euthymiclabs · 1790721716 · focus · HN ↗
The Score, by C. Thi Nguyen.
It explores why we love metrics in games, but hate them at work.
rvshchwl · 1790721834 · focus · HN ↗
The Story of my Experiments with Truth - Mahatma Gandhi.
I recently read another book (Autobiography of a Yogi) that included an excerpt from this book, and it piqued my curiosity into Gandhi’s struggles in India. So far I’ve found it different than other biographies I’ve read because the author is self-critical and reflective which helps in understanding him as a person and his actions.
1. rkp8000 · 1790722372 · focus · HN ↗
  I would also highly recommend Gandhi the Man, by Eknath Easwaran.
2. all_factz · 1790722781 · focus · HN ↗
  I really loved The Story of my Experiments with Truth. It even inspired me to visit India. There were moments listening to it when I just sat down kind of in awe — Gandhi really was an exceptional person. And there are also excruciatingly boring parts where he is detailing the minutiae of his diet.
3. dv35z · 1790745068 · focus · HN ↗
  What did you think of Autobiography of a Yogi?
  I read after hearing that it was the #1 book Steve Jobs recommended his executive team read (!!)
  1. rvshchwl · 1790773015 · focus · HN ↗
    The book opened my mind on the inter-connected nature of various religions and the overall benefits of Meditation and Yoga. The stories are fascinating and interesting, and I read some amazing quotes from the book that I'll end up quoting more often.
    The Meditation and Yoga techniques are still theoretical to me though and likely require some amount of practice to believe further in their benefits, or realize their value.
whyage · 1790721936 · focus · HN ↗
Currently listening to I Am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. A fascinating exploration of consciousness written 20 years ago but very relevant in the age of AI.
Razengan · 1790722371 · focus · HN ↗
Nothing currently, but most recently, the various audiobooks of The Wind in the Willows to fall asleep, and Diana Wynne Jones' (of Howl's Moving Castle fame) Chrestomanci series while awake.
edoceo · 1790722399 · focus · HN ↗
Taxation The Peoples Business by Mellon, Andrew W.
<a href="https://archive.org/details/taxationthepeopl033026mbp" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/taxationthepeopl033026mbp
It's from 1924 and US centric, old new ideas in there.
jtagrgh · 1790722402 · focus · HN ↗
Helliconia Summer
michaelmior · 1790722513 · focus · HN ↗
I recently discovered Charles Soule who started in comic books and ventured into novels. I read The Oracle Year recently and now I'm reading The Endless Vessel.
dgellow · 1790722534 · focus · HN ↗
„Practical Engineering for Inventors“. It’s not really made to be read from beginning to end but I do like to le
nozzlegear · 1790722612 · focus · HN ↗
[delayed]
johnobrien1010 · 1790722718 · focus · HN ↗
Actually, Nevermind: Essays by Taylor Tomlinson
MrDrMcCoy · 1790722922 · focus · HN ↗
Currently going through Bobiverse, Dungeon Crawler Carl. Recently finished the Dark Profit Saga (Orconomics). Highly recommend all of them.
firefax · 1790722929 · focus · HN ↗
Eichmann in Jerusalem
cheschire · 1790723305 · focus · HN ↗
I'm on book 3 of the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown.
shawn_w · 1790723358 · focus · HN ↗
Like half the people here I'm in the middle of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
Finished Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia yesterday, and also have been reading Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mysteries - currently on The Haunted Monastery.
ojbyrne · 1790723479 · focus · HN ↗
[delayed]
sieste · 1790723527 · focus · HN ↗
Ready Player One, together with my 9yo boy.
lbeckman314 · 1790723999 · focus · HN ↗
Lord of the Rings — second read after ~15 years, excited to revisit!
Avicebron · 1790724114 · focus · HN ↗
Simulacra and Simulation - Jean Baudrillard
The Logic of Collective Action - Mancur Olson
Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson (finally started Malazan after years and years)
analog31 · 1790724136 · focus · HN ↗
Moby Dick. I'm further through then I've ever gotten before thanks to a long airplane ride.
1. TonyStr · 1790758154 · focus · HN ↗
  I've come to appreciate this book more after finishing it, as I'm able to process the themes without being subjected to the torture of actually reading it. Good luck!
0xB0D · 1790724489 · focus · HN ↗
Gnomon
Just finished "there is no antimemetics division" an absolutely astounding read
le-mark · 1790724595 · focus · HN ↗
“Player Piano” by Vonnegut, his first novel which was sci-fi and explores the consequences of total and complete automation on society. Quite prescient for the current era.
<a href="https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/player-piano.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/player...
fasterik · 1790724612 · focus · HN ↗
George Orwell's essays. I love his simple, matter-of-fact prose style and I'm trying to absorb as much of it as possible to improve my own writing. Most of his essays are available online if you don't want a full book. "Politics and the English Language" is a must-read.
<a href="https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/politics-and-the-english-language/" rel="nofollow">https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwel...
1. nerevarthelame · 1790731762 · focus · HN ↗
  I've been re-reading "Politics and the English Language" about once a month lately. There are so many parallels between what he saw in his era's bad modern writing and AI-assisted writing:
  > As I have tried to show, modern writing at its worst does not consist in picking out words for the sake of their meaning and inventing images in order to make the meaning clearer. It consists in gumming together long strips of words which have already been set in order by someone else, and making the results presentable by sheer humbug. The attraction of this way of writing is that it is easy. It is easier – even quicker, once you have the habit ... If you use ready-made phrases, you not only don’t have to hunt about for the words; you also don’t have to bother with the rhythms of your sentences, since these phrases are generally so arranged as to be more or less euphonious ... By using stale metaphors, similes and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself ... A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly? But you are not obliged to go to all this trouble. You can shirk it by simply throwing your mind open and letting the ready-made phrases come crowding in. They will construct your sentences for you – even think your thoughts for you, to a certain extent – and at need they will perform the important service of partially concealing your meaning even from yourself.
  But his "6 rules" are brilliant too. I'll look into his other essays.
  1. marcusverus · 1790799517 · focus · HN ↗
    "Killing an Elephant" is great.
2. marcusverus · 1790799497 · focus · HN ↗
  I second your recommendation of 'Politics and the English Language', it is absolutely essential reading. His prose is phenomenal. C.S. Lewis is another whose prose is a pleasure to read, with 'The Screwtape Letters' being his best IMO.
dyauspitr · 1790724703 · focus · HN ↗
The pillars of the earth. It took me a while to get to it but what a book.
SV_BubbleTime · 1790725135 · focus · HN ↗
Dostoevsky, the Brothers Karamazov!
Oh hell, what truly great novel. It’s a long collection of people’s inner monologues, and it’s confusing as hell at first that every Russian has at least three names. But so good.
Before this: The Subtle Art Of Folding Space… biggest pile of shit I’ve read in years. Fuck. So stupid. If you made me pick between reading it again and a Kristin Hannah… I’d just go get my wine glass and basic bitch sweatpants now. It was supposed to be “modern sci fi” it was actually a food snob that seems like they’re in a cult and trying subtly to tell you how everyone else is so fucking stupid except the smart people that choose to be mentally superior to everyone else. Bad bad bad.
CajaVacia · 1790725310 · focus · HN ↗
Abaddon´s Gate, James S.A. Cory. From the Expanse thrilogy. Very very good scy-fi
codazoda · 1790725400 · focus · HN ↗
Email Storyselling Olaybook by Jim Hamilton
<a href="https://a.co/d/08zSx2LD" rel="nofollow">https://a.co/d/08zSx2LD
storywatch · 1790725420 · focus · HN ↗
I tend to prefer to avoid LitRPGs, they rot the brain and everything becomes a minmax number hacking endeavor.
Try Charles Stross's Accelerando and the Laundry Files series if you need good sci-fi. Foundryside and Empress of Forever are also decent. If you want fantasy, The Name of The Wind and Discworld are classics.
schmookeeg · 1790725484 · focus · HN ↗
I'm reading something a bit strange and wonderful: The mountain in the sea by Ray Naylor -- a fictional peek at octopus intelligence.
Question for some of y'all: Those who are listing 3 or more (sometimes way more!) books -- do you read them in parallel? I'm a dyed-in-the-wool serial book monogamist and can't fathom having like 8 or 10 storylines in my head at once.
No judgement, just curious and somewhat awed :)
1. tarr · 1790727087 · focus · HN ↗
  I’ll read 5-10 books at a time, but it takes me 5-10x longer to finish them (obviously).
  It’s sort of like watching many TV shows at once, I suppose? Watch an episode of each per week.
2. rootbear · 1790727551 · focus · HN ↗
  I often have two books in progress, one fiction and one nonfiction. That’s a comfortable pace for me. I’m a slow reader.
3. efromvt · 1790773916 · focus · HN ↗
  I went into that blind and quite enjoyed it! The surrounding world building is quite sophisticated without being overwhelming. (and somewhat bleak).
eggsandbeer · 1790725571 · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
upupupandaway · 1790725607 · focus · HN ↗
"The Memory Police", by Yoko Ogawa [1]. An island where things get disappeared by the Memory Police - physically from the world and from people's minds. A few people are immune to forgetting, so the Memory Police is on the case.
[1] - <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/37004370-the-memory-police" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/37004370-the-memory-p...
1. treetalker · 1790726610 · focus · HN ↗
  Sound similar to There Is No Antimemetics Division.
  1. frm88 · 1790746675 · focus · HN ↗
    It's not really similar,since qntm writes more in the vein of SCPs - paranormal occurences while The Memory Police is more sinister in an an ethical and political way, a bit like state mandated Alzheimer.
opesorry · 1790725744 · focus · HN ↗
I always have two books going, one ebook and one audible. Currently on a fantasy kick.
The Years of Apocalypse by UraniumPhoenix:
Timeloop fantasy that starts out in a magic university. It's quite a fun read and I'm enjoying how different the MC approaches the timeloop from how I expect I would. She seems quite empathetic which adds an excellent emotional element to the story that I'm enjoying.
Worth the Candle: Through Adversity by Alexander Wales:
I'm a big fan of Alexander Wales. He has an intelligent way of writing plots and characters that I enjoy. This is a meta narrative LitRPG(?) fantasy book. The basic premise is that the MC is sent to a world that has elements of his previous DnD creations. I'm not much of a tabletop RPG person but excited to see where Wales takes this series.
1. bookofjoe · 1790785147 · focus · HN ↗
  Variation on your theme: I always have two books going, one fiction and one non-fiction.
  1. opesorry · 1790798441 · focus · HN ↗
    I do love when things align for me to do the same, but I struggle to enjoy non-fiction so it's uncommon. Narrative non-fiction is particularly enjoyable when I can find it, especially tech, survival, and true crime.
    Tech related narrative non-fiction is the pinnacle of reading for me. My top three are Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, American King by Nick Bolton, and Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter. OSU Cyber security canon is excellent for finding these but I've read almost everything they list.
    If you have any non-fiction suggestions, I'm definitely interested to hear them.
    bookofjoe · 1790805715 · focus · HN ↗
    Here are 3 non-fiction suggestions:
    1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — Robert Pirsig. I read it in 1974 when I was in medical school.
    2. The Power of Positive Thinking — Norman Vincent Peale. I read it when I was 14 years old in 1962 and it profoundly changed my life for the better. I wasn't "born again" nor did I become religious, rather it abruptly and completely changed for the better how I interacted with others.
    3. Alive — Piers Paul Read. Published in 1974.
api · 1790725794 · focus · HN ↗
Currently reading Eversion by Alastair Reynolds.
Highlights from the past year or so:
Revelator by Daryl Gregory - Appalachian weird fiction with a tinge of cosmic horror.
The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias - Tragic story about the cartel underworld plus magic realism.
The Expanse by James S A Corey (pen name for two writers IRL) - Everyone probably knows this one. Books were better than the show in many ways the the prose quality was pleasantly good. Fun read.
I like to read a wide variety of styles and genres.
Oanid · 1790725886 · focus · HN ↗
Capital in the Twenty-First Century from a physical book, Science in a Demon Haunted World on my Xteink X4, and Why Nations Fail on my Kobo.
konaraddi · 1790725906 · focus · HN ↗
Storm of Steel - Written by a WW1 soldier about his experiences. His Wikipedia page is fascinating.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_J%C3%BCnger" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_J%C3%BCnger
1. tarr · 1790726854 · focus · HN ↗
  I’m also reading this! Not quite the narrative of “All Quiet on the Western Front”, but an interesting recount from a regular guy in the trenches.
Ancalagon · 1790726140 · focus · HN ↗
Finally getting around to reading the LOTR trilogy. I've read the Hobbit and the Silmarillion, just never got around to the main story.
1potato · 1790726372 · focus · HN ↗
I just finished Ra by qntm. It's available free on his website.
<a href="https://qntm.org/ra" rel="nofollow">https://qntm.org/ra
I'm guessing that many people here are familiar with this work already since HN was where I found out about qntm in the first place. If you haven't read Ra, though, I greatly enjoyed it and would strongly recommend it.
1. Joe_Boogz · 1790726439 · focus · HN ↗
  I just finished “There is no antimemetics devision”, qntm has my respect it was an incredible book.
  1. gnarlouse · 1790726801 · focus · HN ↗
    I enjoyed the book, but I "read" it on Audible which was possibly not the ideal experience. It was kind of fun though, they had static crackling for all the redacted bits.
  2. specproc · 1790727008 · focus · HN ↗
    I've just started on There is no antimemetics division, and I'm underwhelmed. It risks not being read properly.
    Have been on some good stuff recently: Whitt by Iain M. Banks was nice, lighter than a lot of his other stuff, and genuinely funny at times.
    Best book this year was The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Couldn't put it down.
  3. 1potato · 1790728964 · focus · HN ↗
    That one is on my list to read very soon!
NDlurker · 1790726540 · focus · HN ↗
Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Pretty good world building. Haven't got too far into it yet.
rsyring · 1790727566 · focus · HN ↗
- Hacker News, mostly comments, and the occasional full article
- Google News and the occasional full article
- Email
- Slack
- ChatGPT/ Codex responses
- Road signs
- Various things in various mobile apps I use
- Movie/Show subtitles
Off the top of my head, that accounts for most of the things I read on a weekly basis.
kaypro · 1790727599 · focus · HN ↗
Just finished “Every Man Dies Alone” by Hans Fallada and now half way through “The Lady and the Monk” by Pico Iyer. Both recommended.
2snakes · 1790727671 · focus · HN ↗
Proofs and refutations by laktos Basic mathematics by lang Mathematics for nonmathematician Hail mary andy weil Just picked up player piano linked here
tarr · 1790727744 · focus · HN ↗
The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, by Roland Allen.
From the title, it sounds very tedious, but I think it’s super cool. It chronicles the history of notebooking/journaling and the impact it’s had throughout time. Notebooks haven’t been been around and accessible for very long (relatively), and it’s interesting to hear about how somebody like Leonardo da Vinci used them to grow ideas. Makes you wonder how we possibly could’ve progressed without them.
dmbche · 1790727953 · focus · HN ↗
Maupassant, Appartion et autres comptes d'angoisse (very good)
Becky Chambers, the long way to a small angry planet (very good)
Asimov, Second foundation (just finished, not as good as Foundation but good still)
shoo · 1790728066 · focus · HN ↗
I've been mainly reading sci-fi & fantasy series. On the fiction side I can strongly recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant & sequels, and Robert Jackon Bennett's The Tainted Cup (fantasy murder mysteries).
On the non fiction side, I'm slowly chipping away at Joe Studwell's book How Asia Works, about East Asian development. In the first section of the book, the author argues that the foundation for successful development was boosting agricultural output -- instead of spending precious foreign currency on food imports, surplus agricultural output can be exported & intensive farming provides a way to soak up and use labour before other industries develop.
Studwell also argues for the importance of land reform in boosting agricultural output -- appropriating land from wealthy landlords & redistributing it to landless peasants & tenants. This happened in both socialist & capitalist societies. There was a huge demand for land reform from landless peasants. I was completely ignorant of this chunk of history & found it fascinating. Agricultural output increases on a per hectare basis when farmers have the incentive to work hard - unlike if they're day labourers or share croppers paying much of their output as rent. Landlords don't have an incentive to increase output as its easier for them to earn money from renting out their land. Studwell gives examples of small farmer-owned farms being much more productive than colonial plantation style farming. Developmental success stories (Japan, Taiwan, South Korea) were those where governments supported their huge newly created markets of tiny landowner-farmers with subsidised fertiliser inputs, better varieties of crops etc & where peasants & tenants got a seat at the table to influence the land redistribution process. There are also stories of failures where wealthy elites got control of the land reform process & rendered it largely ineffective (the Philippines).
joemazerino · 1790728085 · focus · HN ↗
Does anyone consider audiobooks reading?
My friends have begun saying they are reading books when they listen to them.
It enrages me.
1. asp_hornet · 1790728467 · focus · HN ↗
  For me personally, I believe there is a distinction and i try to read book books.
  For other people, it’s all good, we all walk a different path. If they think that then that’s ok. It’s all minor in the big scheme of things.
  Just my opinion though.
  1. randcraw · 1790742033 · focus · HN ↗
    IMHO, audiobooks <--> podcasts. The act of reading is unique, unlike any other medium.
Game_Ender · 1790728514 · focus · HN ↗
Peter F. Hamilton started on the Exodus series and now onto the Reality Dysfunction. He has a talent for taking 5-10 different story threads and weaving them together over a 1000 pages. Also because are so many characters you can actually kill a decent number off.
moka_labs · 1790728706 · focus · HN ↗
Psychology of Money
jadijadi · 1790728951 · focus · HN ↗
Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon (by Kim Zetter).
An indepth history of Stuxnet. A bit long but recommended. You can not find any other book which goes this much in describing a mallware (no code).
kylecazar · 1790729157 · focus · HN ↗
Atlas Shrugged.
I have not been a fan of Rand's, but I acknowledge that it's primarily because of the people around I knew to be fans. Obnoxious and selfish, looking to legitimize their ways.
I didn't think it was intellectually honest to hold that opinion without reading it, so here I am. I'm only 40 pages in.
nephihaha · 1790729430 · focus · HN ↗
In print:
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. (Much more disjointed than the film, but a quick read.)
On audiobook (I know, not technically reading): Garth Marenghi's horror trilogy (Matthew Holness is one of the best narrators I've heard.)
On Kindle: Cut Throat: the Vicious World of Rod Maclean by Wayne Thallon (I don't believe the half of it, but I know many of the locations discussed in it. I seem to find true crime my light reading these days)
An Angel at my Table by Janet Frame
The Summer Son by Craig Lancaster
Recently finished:
Sky Above, Great Wind by Kazuaki Tanahashi
Jew(ish) by Matt Greene
The House that Evolves by Pauline Hunter
The Inheritors by William Golding (made much less of an impact than the last time I read it.)
jtip · 1790729705 · focus · HN ↗
"Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad... and How Great Companies Stay Great" by Eric Ries
The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI (How to Think About Artificial Intelligence-Before It's Too Late) By Cory Doctorow
sea6ear · 1790729725 · focus · HN ↗
I guess I am reading Elric of Melnibone - although I can't say I'm really enjoying it, and looking forward to getting back to something like Earthsea that is more hopeful.
For programming I am reading HTML5 Games: Novice to Ninja, which I quite like so far. And JavaScript for Kids - both with the intent to entice my kids into game programming.
For work I am reading Learn dbatools in a Month of Lunches and outside of lingering questions about whether anything command line oriented matters in the age of AI, it has been really helpful in encapsulating solutions to things are distinct problems in administering SQL Server.
1. raleighm · 1790760670 · focus · HN ↗
  On Elric and Earthsea: having read both, yeah I'm the same as you, I much prefer Earthsea. If you're open to another hopeful speculative fiction series of comparable quality as Earthsea, try Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe (whom Le Guin described as "our Melville"). It's great - quirky, intricate, inspiring.
greatquux · 1790730160 · focus · HN ↗
"The Dictionary of the Khazars" by Milorad Pavić - maybe the first "hypertext" novel; certainly could be one if it was electronic. You can read the entries in any order really and you wind up putting together everything that happens like a giant jigsaw puzzle. That'll keep your brain strong!
laweijfmvo · 1790730358 · focus · HN ↗
An Immense World. It’s not as jaw-dropping as I’d expected (yes, I know rattlesnakes can “see” heat), but it’s also not an easy/fun read either. So I’ll probably land at around 3/5 rating.
nicois · 1790730724 · focus · HN ↗
I just finished my second read of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. It's quite engaging, and also quite helpful to juxtapose against current political events, both to identify the similarities (media control) and divergences.
Rereading the Lies of Locke Lamure. If only the sequel were half as good as it...
1. jaapz · 1790758824 · focus · HN ↗
  Reading the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich as well. For me it is kind of a struggle to read, but at the same time very interesting because he goes into great depths about basically everything.
  It's a shame the author seems to have quite a pronounced (and historically irrelevant) distaste for homosexuality.
2. GJim · 1790767393 · focus · HN ↗
  > I just finished my second read of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
  Heil Schicklgruber!
  (For those unaware, in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer notes that the Grandfather of the mustachioed one had the surname 'Schicklgruber'. Shirer suggests that history may have turned out somewhat differnetly if he hadn't changed it).
GarnetFloride · 1790731464 · focus · HN ↗
Structuring Life to Support Creativity By Sandra Tayler Only a short way into this but it is a really interesting toolbox for finding ways to figure out what's important to you and making space for creativity.
Master Alvin by Orson Scott Card Kinda impressed that he finished the series after 30 years. GRR Martin loses another excuse.
1. dv35z · 1790745402 · focus · HN ↗
  Curious what you have learned so far about creativity, practical "do it now" type ideas.
  I read Artists Way a few years back, and did some of the recommended practices (daily pages, and artist dates) - it was effective in subtle and powerful ways.
  1. GarnetFloride · 1790784992 · focus · HN ↗
    I’m only at chapter 4 but so far it’s asking What do you want to do? What are you actually doing? What can you change to start making those things line up better?
thedreammachine · 1790731538 · focus · HN ↗
Probabilistic Robotics (<a href="https://robots.stanford.edu/probabilistic-robotics/" rel="nofollow">https://robots.stanford.edu/probabilistic-robotics/) and Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52767920-driven" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/52767920-driven)
asxndu · 1790731576 · focus · HN ↗
Wall Street Stories by Edwin Lefèvre
jtgi · 1790731766 · focus · HN ↗
Assorted Crisis Events by Deniz Camp (Graphic Novel) - what if time was buggy?
Playing Off the Rail: A Pool Hustler's Journey by David McCumber (1996) - hustling in the golden era of pool in the usa
ramesh31 · 1790731825 · focus · HN ↗
Structural Functions of Harmony by Arnold Schoenberg. I can't even begin to understand it, it's just beautiful to encounter such genius and rigorous thought.
<a href="https://archive.org/details/structuralfuncti0000arno/page/n8/mode/1up" rel="nofollow">https://archive.org/details/structuralfuncti0000arno/page/n8...
mgbmtl · 1790732094 · focus · HN ↗
You may enjoy :
- End Times Fascism, And the Fight for the Living World (Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor)
- The Age of Extraction: How Tech Platforms Conquered the Economy and Threaten Our Future Prosperity (Tim Wu)
shruubi · 1790732186 · focus · HN ↗
In the last stretch of finishing off Malazan Book of the Fallen, currently about a third of the way through Dust of Dreams so hoping to have finished the series by the end of this year.
1. glokta · 1790734665 · focus · HN ↗
  Dust of Dreams was the hardest book of the series for me.
2. raleighm · 1790759844 · focus · HN ↗
  Well done! That's far into a long series. What do you think of it thus far?
langfo · 1790732332 · focus · HN ↗
The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence by Sebastian Mallaby
I'm halfway through and is quite interesting and enjoyable. behind the scenes documentary view into his life, academic period, pre-DeepMind, forming DeepMind, raising capital, working on various projects like the Atari games, the AlphaGo period (currently immersed in). Definitely recommend
xelxebar · 1790732387 · focus · HN ↗
80年代SF傑作選.
Recently, I remembered a short SF story that I read back in high school and tracked it down, "Why I Left Harry's All-Night Hamburgers".
I find new wave SF to be really playful and enjoyable to read, not to mention that the experimentation with funky themes and formatting adds a lot of novelty. The above Japanese title is a nice collection of late era stories in this genre.

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