
Ask HN: Books you read in 2017? - rwieruch
I&#x27;d like to know which books HN read in 2017. Which of these would you recommend? Which of these surprised you, because they are not the usual suspects.
======
fgandiya
This year I read:

1\. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story
of the First Computer - A steampunk graphic novel about Ada Lovelace and
Charlie Babbage. Fun story with loads of research to back it up. Got even
better when I got to go the UK and explore the places they worked at in their
livetimes

2\. The Hardware Hacker - A compilation of storis by bunnie focused on the
hardware/maker(ish) ecosystem. Also discusses the Chinese manufacturing
ecosystem and answers questions that most people have about it.

3\. Technically Wrong - A book about how tech can sometimes leave lots of
people behind for one reason or another and how we can fix them. A very quick
read.

4\. The Masters of Doom - The story of id Software, the company which spawned
an entire genre with games like Doom and Wolfenstwein in its early days.

5\. Blood, Sweat and Pixels - The book looks into how video games are made and
the many challenges along the way. Focuses on ten games from solo all the way
to AAA titles. Really good if you want to know why video games turn out the
way they do. After reading this, you'll double take whenever you hear of a
delayed game, cancelled project, E3 demos and buggy releases. It also has some
uplifting moments.

6\. My textbooks :).

Hopefully I can also read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Deep Work and
CODE.

~~~
csnewb
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck is a cringy read, I couldn't get past the
first chapter. Deep Work as a whole can be summarized in a sentence. My
interpretation is: put away distractions and focus on getting things done.
There's other advice there but none of it is anything you haven't heard of
before. CODE is great on the other hand. Just skip the nonsense self-help
stuff.

~~~
harigov
I agree with your assessment about "Deep Work" but I still recommend folks to
read it, just to reiterate what you probably already know. I think it helps us
remind ourselves to focus on our life, when there are so many distractions.

------
hukola
1\. How to Win Friends and Influence People - I recommend because I apply
every day at work and reap the results as well, somebody should have
recommended this book to me ten years ago;

2\. Children of Time - a science fiction book that I enjoyed, I notice that
fiction, in general, helps me deal with stressful work, as I disconnect easier
and put myself in an imaginary world while reading;

3\. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - this isn't a book you read cover to
cover, I catch myself thinking long even after reading a single sentence;

1) and 3) I've come across on HN, but 2) was the unexpected random hit.

~~~
blueside
I'm sure I have an unpopular opinion on this, I have read How To Win Friends
And Influence People a few times and I can't get over the fact that the skills
taught feel very disingenuous and superficial. "act interested, use the
person's name, etc". It's extremely cringe inducing when you see somebody
blatantly using the tactics.

If there's a reason that everyone should read this book, it's more so that
they are aware of these tactics.

~~~
noobhacker
It's not disingenuous or superficial if you exercise the advice earnestly. For
example, don't just "act interested", but "be interested" in what the other
person has to say.

I assure you that doing so is both extremely difficult (because we're
selfishly interested in ourselves most of the time) and kind (because the
other person rarely receives such selfless attention.)

It's only cringe inducing if someone is using these tactics without actually
being interested in others. Carnegie definitely does not advocate for being
such a person.

------
SJMosley
Recommendations:

1) Einsteins Dreams - This book is a quick read, but shows a bunch of
different perceptions of time. Fantastic.

2) Rock warriors way - Even if you aren't a climber, I feel like this book has
a lot of great lessons about committing without fear. Much more accessible as
a climber though.

3) Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art - Quick read, I learned a lot about
storytelling in general.

4) Agnotology: The Making and Unmaking of Ignorance - This is a series of
essays and the first few were great views into companies creating ignorance in
the 50's around smoking and link to cancer. Gets a little dense after a while.

Full list: [https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/18975415-samuel-
mosley...](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/18975415-samuel-
mosley?shelf=read-2017)

------
mswen
My daughter just had her first novels (a young adult trilogy) published a few
weeks ago. Even though it is not really my genre I read it and enjoyed it. Of
course I am biased....

Dysfunctional Series: Books 1-3 (Origins, Dark Imagination, A Mighty Long
Fall)

By McKenzie Rae

[https://www.amazon.com/Dysfunctional-Books-Origins-
Imaginati...](https://www.amazon.com/Dysfunctional-Books-Origins-Imagination-
Mighty-
ebook/dp/B077SSXMSL/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513697212&sr=8-1&keywords=McKenzie+rae)

~~~
strictnein
Congrats to her!

~~~
mswen
Thank you. If you don't mind I will brag on her a bit.

Kenzi started writing fiction pretty seriously at about 14 years of age. So
while 24 seems young to be a published author she has put in a decade of
sustained effort honing her craft. She has completed something like 8 full
length novels plus several others in various stages.

She seems to have found her daily writing pace and can write 2 or maybe 3
novels a year while working a full-time job.

She got her degree in Technical and Scientific Communication and works as a
software and hardware tester along with doing some documentation for a health
sensor company.

In the spring of 2018 her day job moves away, and she doesn't intend to move
with it... so she will be looking for a new day job unless commercial success
is surprisingly fast on the novelist front.

~~~
j_s
This seems soon. If appropriate you may want to share a general region in case
anyone here will be able to help out, unless she is specifically targeting
remote work opportunities (which would also be worth sharing).

~~~
mswen
Yes it is a bit soon, on the other hand it feels like it is good to get the
word out there when you know that a change is coming.

She is located in Minneapolis MN. She would be happy with remote work.

She is smart, productive and reliable but not particularly ambitious with
regard to the day job. Seems happy to take on the entry level grunt work
including auditing telcom vendor bills, remotely updating router firmware and
running test cycles, testing custom software portals, document/write test
plans, update and clean up system documentation and whatever else the
engineers don't want to do that isn't too technical.

------
robin_reala
Fiction? I started contributing to
[https://standardebooks.org/](https://standardebooks.org/) and discovered
Gogol’s Dead Souls and Strindberg’s The Red Room in the process as new
favourite classics.

~~~
jotjotzzz
Thanks for this link. Didn't even know something like this exist :).

------
atulatul
Update: added a few lines about the books than just a name listing

From the ones I read in 2017, I would highly recommend (non-IT):

1\. The hidden life of trees- Peter Wohlleben Why forest trees are different
than the ones you plant, how the communicate, how they care for their friends
when they are not well, how mother trees protect their young ones by not
letting them grow too fast, the fungi network, etc. The book is very easy to
read- there is no scientific terminology overload. Things are told very
simply. Not restricted to students of the subject. Learned something
interesting every couple of pages. Another aspect is that the love shows. It
is very clear that the author is in love with the subject. The author manages
a wild forest in Germany and talks mainly about trees in terms of beeches,
firs, oaks, etc. The author is politely insistent that we should protect the
natural wild forests and let them be.

2\. Why the allies won- Richard Overy Probably the best book I read on WW2. So
many more factors went into winning the war than actual fight. Probably
appealed to my analytical mind.

3\. India After Gandhi- Ramachandra Guha As the author says history ends for
many Indians with freedom. Very good chronicles. Started appreciating Nehru
more.

4\. Re-read Gone With The Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Godfather and a few
P.G Wodehouse- all of which I like.

Currently, halfway through Stephen Fry's Mythos which seems good enough to
recommend. I am pretty new to the Greek Mythology and he is a good story
teller. Don't have much to compare it with, though.

Also, by choice, I read quite a few books in rural Marathi(an Indian regional
language) and was surprised how good the story telling was. Also noticed that
I had gone quite far from my mother tongue but was happy to see how easy it
was to go back.

Please answer my similar question
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15960188](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15960188)

------
kiddico
I finally got around to reading Dune. I burned though it pretty quickly and
loved it. For some reason I can't get into the other books in the series. For
now they mock me from their spot on my bookshelf...

~~~
jasonkester
It's still openly debated, but the generally accepted Best Order to read the
Dune Novels is as follows:

Dune, followed by a 1-5 year pause, followed by Dune. Repeat until death.

You may, if you wish, throw in the first hundred pages of a different Dune
novel every ten years or so, just to remind you of the correct sequence.

~~~
Scalestein
Oh man, I feel like Dune Messiah (dune 2) is such a fantastic compliment to
the original. It is about half the length and has such a different tone that
makes the original even better.

~~~
dorian-graph
I finished Dune about 2 months ago, and I'm currently a quarter through Dune
Messiah. It so far is a great compliment and progression, and I constantly
fight the desire to look up what happens because I want to know now.

~~~
cesidio
I had the same feeling with The Hunger Games. The first one is amazing, the
second starts to be repetitive. Didn't manage to get to the third one.

------
fragmede
These are all hard sci-fi, and much like Dark Mirror, given today's troubles,
it's simultaneously entertaining while being intellectually stimulating, but
in a way that feels relevant, even if not immediately actionable.

The first is what got me hooked, and back into reading.

The Wages of Humanity, is a short story by Liu Cixin. The short story used to
be available by itself on Amazon, but now it's been disappeared[1]. It can be
found as the last story in The Wandering Earth: Classic Science Fiction
Collection.[2]

An assassin is being offered exorbitant sum to kill the three poorest people
for some reason, and the book explores why, to a thrilling conclusion.

Since I found it as a stand alone story I cannot comment on the rest of the
books in that collection. From there I read into The Three Body Problem[3],
and Dark Forest by Liu Cixin; first two books of the Remembrance of Earth's
Past trilogy. The only reason I don't mention I have not (yet) finished
reading the third book.

[1] This link now returns a 404:
[https://amazon.com/dp/B00CSW0UZI](https://amazon.com/dp/B00CSW0UZI) but it's
what the URL my Kindle points to. Search does not find the stand alone
edition.

[2] [https://amazon.com/dp/B00CXUKNA2](https://amazon.com/dp/B00CXUKNA2)

[3] [https://amazon.com/dp/B00IQO403K](https://amazon.com/dp/B00IQO403K)

------
sitajay
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, it's a memoir of a neurologist who
comes across lung cancer himself and how his life changes from being a doctor
to the patient. I recently finished reading it and let me tell you, I had to
pause every other page to reflect upon those words as they were surreal.

------
IneffablePigeon
Best book I read this year hands down was The Righteous Mind: Why good people
are divided by politics and religion, by Jonathan Haidt.

It's a really lucid and eye opening introduction to moral psychology, and as a
left-leaning person politically has made me understand my right-leaning
friends more than anything else. Truly enlightening.

------
jonvillage
This year I've read:

Maxims - Epictetus

The road to serfdom - Friedrich Hayek

De officiis - Cicero

De divinatione - Cicero

Lives of eminent philosophers - Diogenes Laertius

Confessions - Al ghazali

Illiad - Homer

Odyssey - Homer

Influence - Robert Cialdini

Guns, Germs and steel - Jared Diamond

Poor Charlie's Almanack - Charlie Munger - 2nd reading

Andrew Carnegie's Biography - Joseph Frazier

Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb - 2nd reading

Bed of Procrustes - Nassim Taleb

Never Split the Difference - Christopher Voss

The intelligent investor - Benjamin Graham

Autobiography - Benjamin Franklin

I always remember this quote:

"In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn't read all the time --
none, zero." Charlie Munger

------
wink
1\. Off to Be the Wizard (Scott Meyer) - Very good.

2\. Ready Player One (Ernest Cline) - I liked it although it's kinda
ridiculous and one-sided.

3\. The Bloodline Feud (Charles Stross) - Actually part 1&2 of a series.
Really need to continue, very good. I'd say this was not "oh I know what will
happen next" which is kinda rare.

4\. The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman) - It's ok, but not as good as I had
hoped.

5\. Coraline (Neil Gaiman) - It's a children's book, and very short, but I
liked it a lot.

6\. Accelerated C++ (Koening/Moo) - Not finished, I was under the impression
it's "C++ for programmers well-versed in other languages" and for that it's a
bit slow-starting, but not bad I guess

I really need to read more. :|

------
kirubakaran
Here is my list:
[https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/](https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/)

My 2017 favorites:

scifi: [https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/columbus-
day/](https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/columbus-day/)

nonfic: [https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/data-science-from-
scratch/](https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/data-science-from-scratch/)

fiction: [https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/everyone-
burns/](https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/everyone-burns/)

~~~
anotherevan
Hi Kirubakaran,

I'm going to give Columbus Day a try.

What software do you use for your bookshelf? It does a good job.

I've been tracking my reading habits via Goodreads for a few years too,
although I just post a summary at the end of the year.

[https://www.michevan.id.au/tag/books/](https://www.michevan.id.au/tag/books/)

~~~
kirubakaran
Hi Evan, thanks! :-)

I use Hugo [1]. Like you, I too track my books on Goodreads. So I wrote a
simple Python script to add an org file to Hugo, for each book. It is an easy
set up. Please send me an email (in my profile) if you're interested and I'll
share the script with you.

I strongly recommend the audiobook version of Columbus Day, if you can do
that.

[1] [https://gohugo.io/](https://gohugo.io/)

------
peelle
This year I read 31 books. Only 8 were non-fiction. I'm hoping to finish
another 2 before the year ends.

My top 3 were.

1\. The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. This series did a good job of
balancing big and little picture, while givings us a neat form of magic to
learn about.

2\. Stock Market Cash Flow from the RDPD series. In 2016 I had read several
books on fundamental(or value) investing, and this book helped me bust out of
the thinking that, that style is the only way to look at, and earn in the
stock market.

3\. Snow Crash. This book was just fun. The characters were enjoyable to
watch, and there was some clever stuff in this book.

------
calebm
* The Unconsoled (Kazuo Ishiguro)

* Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro)

* Influx (Daniel Suarex)

* Sputnik Sweetheart (Haruki Murakami)

* Apex (Ramez Naam)

* One Second After (William R. Forstchen)

* Anna Karanina (Leo Tolstoy)

* Neuromancer (William Gibson)

* A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway)

* Crux (Ramez Naam)

* A Moveable Feast (Ernest Hemingway)

* Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World (Haruki Murakami)

~~~
adamheins
To continue the Ishiguro and Hemingway theme, two of the books I enjoyed most
this year were The Buried Giant (Ishiguro) and The Old Man and the Sea
(Hemingway).

~~~
atulatul
Short stories from Nocturnes are good as well.

------
rprameshwor
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer

If you like reading adventurous books, i'd recommend it. This one is about the
Mt. Everest expedition of a group of people and the disaster that fell upon
them.

You're Surely Joking Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman

This one is collection of events in the life of Feynman. He's mostly known for
being a scientist, but he's equally talented in few other areas as well. An
interesting and fun book.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell

Recommended if you are into psychology and knowing how our thoughts and
actions are affected by our subconscious.

~~~
kej
The sequel to _Surely You 're Joking Mr. Feynman_, titled _What Do_ You _Care
What Other People Think?_ is also really good, and includes his account of
investigating the Challenger disaster which is worth the read just for that
chapter.

------
BlackjackCF
1\. Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical
Problem - I've been on a giant math books kick. I really enjoyed Simon Singh's
other book, The Code Book, so this one is awesome.

2\. The Code Book - If you're really into the history of cryptography, this
book is for you.

3\. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Not a really a revelatory book by
any sorts. But a fun read.

4\. The Handmaid's Tale - Revisiting this since the TV series came out and I
really felt like getting traumatized all over again.

~~~
edanm
"I've been on a giant math books kick"

Any other math books recommendations?

~~~
BlackjackCF
Yup! Making my way through Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea right now.
It's a little more "pop math" than Fermat's Enigma or The Code Book.

I also have The Man Who Loved Only Numbers and Elliptic Tales on my to-read
list once I wrap up Zero.

~~~
edanm
Awesome! I'll check them out. (Read The Man Who Loved Only Numbers already,
it's great).

If you're looking for something else, "Journey Through Genius" is absolutely
the best semi-pop-science Math book. It's premise is that it goes through
about 10 of the most interesting proofs in mathematics, giving their history
and context, then the actual proof.

It does what few other "pop" books attempt - it actually gives the real proof,
taking you through all the steps. If you work it, you come away actually
knowing how to prove the various things there. More interestingly, it gives
the original historic proof, which is not what you always encounter. It even
tends to explain the problems with the original proof, if any. And since it
gives the history, you learn a lot.

It's by far my favorite non-textbook math book, and I can't recommend it more
highly if you're into that sort of thing.

~~~
BlackjackCF
This sounds right up my alley. Thanks!

------
strictnein
Sorry, this got a little longer than I meant it to be

\- Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed - It's over 20 years
old now but still really good, especially if you're into planes like the U-2,
F-117, and SR-71

If you're wanting a deeper understanding of the other side of the war on
terror, I'd recommend the following:

\- I Was Told to Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad

\- Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea

\- The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State

\- After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam

\- The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda

If you're wanting a dive into Russia:

\- The Invention of Russia: From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War

\- The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia's Digital Dictators and the New
Online Revolutionaries

\- Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New
Russia

If you're wanting true Spy stuff:

\- The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal

\- The Spy's Son: The True Story of the Highest-Ranking CIA Officer Ever
Convicted of Espionage and the Son He Trained to Spy for Russia

\- Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-
Qaeda (the author is a little full of himself, but still, it's interesting)

------
atreg_ir
Two of the most interesting books I've read this year are:

1\. Man's search for meaning, by Viktor Frankl. He was an Austrian
psychiatrist who founded Logotherapy as a form of analysing one's life with
the idea of finding meaning or living a purposeful life. According to Frankl,
such a life would mean doing important/meaningful work, enjoying nature in all
it's beauty, loving and taking care of another person and being courageous
when going through hard times. These are things that I personally consider
part of the common sense package I had built-in when I was born, so this book
kind of talks to my soul. I would recommend it to anyone who is highly self-
reflective.

2\. Stumbling on happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. This was an interesting read
and the different studies described in the book made me think how would I
react in a similar situation and I realised funny things about how memory
works and how does our brain imagine future events.

------
briga
A few of the best were:

What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly. A really profound and interesting look
into what technology is. Technology evolves through the same sort of Darwinian
process that life evolves. Technology is in some sense alive, and Kelly's
perspective on it is wonderfully refreshing. I also read his book Out of
Control, which is fantastic.

Sapiens by Yuval Harari. Enough people are talking about this one that I don't
have to say much, suffice it to say it's a fascinating look into human history
a la Guns, Germs, and Steel.

The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom. If you're a fan of Harari you'll love
this one. It's an alternative scientific look at evil, and how evil appears to
be encoded into our species.

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku. Kaku is an amazing popular science writer bar none
and this is his exploration of modern physics and string theory. The most
concise and understandable explanation of modern physics I've read, which is
part for the course with Kaku.

Red Queen by Matt Ridley. A fascinating look at sex, and why the human sex
drive, and therefore human nature, is the way it is.

------
rlease
The full list:
[https://gitlab.com/rlease/Books](https://gitlab.com/rlease/Books)

My list lines up with a lot of books that people have recommended here, so
I'll try to add a few favorites that haven't been mentioned so far.

Fiction:

1\. Ubik - I read a bunch of Philip K. Dick this year, but this was my
favorite. It's delightfully mind bending and left me thinking about it long
after the book was done.

2\. All the Pretty Horses - Beautifully written. McCarthy has an uncanny
ability to paint with words.

3\. Cannery Row - Short, witty, and full of interesting characters.

Nonfiction:

1\. The Idea Factory - A dive into how Bell Labs became such an innovation
powerhouse and gives a rounded picture of the figureheads that brought it so
much fame.

2\. Moonwalking with Einstein - A fun read about a journalist who took
researching a memory competition a bit too seriously.

3\. Countdown to Zero Day - A fascinating look at the development and
deployment of Stuxnet -- the virus built to set Iran's nuclear program back.

~~~
demygale
If you liked The Idea Factory, you should read Kitten Clone. Kind of a dark
sequel.

~~~
rlease
Interesting, thanks for the recommendation!

------
billbrown
Here's quite a few, but they might be of interest to others.

1\. You Have the Right to Remain Innocent: great advice that I had never seen
anywhere else (except his video that started the whole thing).

2\. The Vital Question: good overview of origin of life research.

3\. Fragment: hard science fiction (is that the term?) that delved into
evolution and dovetailed with some of the reading I had been doing around that
subject.

4\. The Science of Navigation: delved into the wonder of current navigational
technology and how we got to here.

5\. The Lost City of the Monkey God: bought on a lark, made me realize that
archaeology can still find new things nowadays.

6\. Island of the Lost: historical account of two shipwrecks on the same
island at the same time that knew nothing of each other.

7\. Protecting the Gift: another eye-opener about being more aware of the ways
people _can_ prey on children.

8\. Wondrous Contrivances: how people reacted to new techologies in the past.

9\. Rig Ship for Ultra Quiet: submariner's account of life during a Cold War
operation.

------
anotherevan
The Aeon 14 novels following Tanis Richards[1] have been a consistently good
read. The Intrepid Saga and The Orion War series. Haven't ventured into the
other offshoots as yet.

The Dome Trilogy[2] was also pretty good, as are the Rho Agenda
series[3][4][5].

And if you prefer horror to sci-fi, the I Am Not a Serial Killer series[6] was
very good overall, although I thought it lost some steam in the last two
books.

And finally, The Rosie Project[7] was so completely charming I ended up
reading it straight through in one night.

[1]
[https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6426890.M_D_Cooper](https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6426890.M_D_Cooper)

[2] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25501349-unexpected-
rain](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25501349-unexpected-rain)

[3] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/61746-the-rho-
agenda](https://www.goodreads.com/series/61746-the-rho-agenda)

[4] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/142618-the-rho-agenda-
incep...](https://www.goodreads.com/series/142618-the-rho-agenda-inception)

[5] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/175066-rho-agenda-
assimilat...](https://www.goodreads.com/series/175066-rho-agenda-assimilation)

[6] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/49883-john-
cleaver](https://www.goodreads.com/series/49883-john-cleaver)

[7] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18015965-the-rosie-
proje...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18015965-the-rosie-project)

------
baud147258
The archipelago of another life from Andreï Makine. I don't think it's already
translated in English, but since his other books has been translated, I think
this one will be too.

Les chemin noirs by Sylvain Tesson. I don't think it will be translated in
English but I enjoyed it a lot (and half of my family too). Sylvain Tesson is
a traveller, he has walked across a lot of countries (mostly Russia and Asia).
After a bad fall (multiple broken bones, head trauma) he decided to walk
across France along the so-called 'empty diagonal' from South-East to North-
East, recounting a solitary walk on forgotten/rarely-used trails (the so-
called 'chemins noirs' or black trails), talking about places mostly abandoned
by the current society. He'll also talk about the people he's meeting along
the way and the friends that accompanied him along the way.

------
egonschiele
My target this year was one book every other day, same as last year. Goodreads
has my ratings
[https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8007012-aditya-y?shelf...](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8007012-aditya-y?shelf=2017)

------
jrowley
1\. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the
World Has Never Seen

It's a fun read, and got me inspired to run my first ultra marathon.

2\. Alone on the Wall

Inspiring stories about this amazing rock climber Alex Honnold, as told by
himself and one other experienced climber. You get a little insight into what
makes him tick.

------
jamestimmins
Recommend:

1) The Power Broker - About Robert Moses, the most powerful city planner in
New York from the 1930s to the 1960s. Great if you're interested in city
planning, how people gain and exercise power, and the real politik of
government.

2) The Jungle - Remembered as an exposé of meatpacking, but really more than
that. Phenomenal story about early 20th immigrants to Chicago trying to take
part in the American Dream but struggling to survive. Surprisingly relevant
today.

3) The Big Con - Fascinating look at con artists in the first half of the 20th
century.

------
adjkant
At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails

It's an amazing book on philosophy, history, and much more. It felt very
relevant to current times. The philosophers in question lived around and
through WWII and it examines how their ideas came about before and after as
well.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25658482-at-the-
existent...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25658482-at-the-
existentialist-caf)

------
matchmike1313
1\. 10% Happier

2\. Traction

3\. Unshakable

4\. Shoe Dog (This has been my favorite book thus far of 2017, I did not think
it would of left such a lasting impression on me about life and success and
business)

5\. Start with Why

6\. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*uck

------
013
Fahrenheit 451

Animal Farm

The Gene: An Intimate History

The Martian

Currently reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. I would recommend all
these books, if you're interested in the subjects they are written about.

------
Tehchops
Currently reading: Hyperion.

* Peak: Secretes From the New Science of Expertise

* The Hard Thing About Hard Things

* American Gods

* The Dark Tower

* Children of Time

* Sapiens

* The Lies of Locke Lamora: Gentleman Bastards #1

* Red Seas Under Red Skies: Gentleman Bastards #2

* Dark Matter

* The Dark Tower #1

* Guns of The Dawn

* The Hunter Killers

* Snow Crash

------
kmeyerto
Reinventing Dell. How a company with an entrepreneurial spirit that allowed it
to innovate then collapsed in on itself like a dying star.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27410889-reinventing-
del...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27410889-reinventing-dell)

------
alexwilde
1\. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

2\. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character)

3\. The Loyal: The Story of Atwood and the Second Civil War (disclosure - my
father wrote this book)

4\. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

5\. Grit

I thoroughly enjoyed all of these. It was interesting to see how Grit and The
Power of Habit played off each other.

~~~
atulatul
Would you care to add a few lines about Sapiens? Plan to read it. But only
tentatively.

~~~
alexwilde
Sapiens opened my eyes to social constructs and human behavior and forced me
to think about the vast timeline of humanity and how small our time is within
it. Personally it provoked a re-visit to the philosophical questioning of
life.

~~~
atulatul
Thanks.

------
bernardino
1\. The Tolkien Reader by J.R.R. Tolkien - If you are into trolls living under
a bridge, and more.

2\. Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fiction and Illusions by Neil Gaiman - If you are
into a young knight with a cool horse looking for a holy grail but to only
find out an elderly woman bought it from a thrift store, and more.

------
tranvu
\- The Road to Character (David Brooks)

\- Code (Charles Petzold)

\- Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual (John Z. Sonmez)

\- Zero Bugs and Program Faster (Kate Thompson)

\- Daemon (Daniel Suarez)

\- Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions (Brian
Christian)

\- How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships
(Leil Lowndes)

------
rwieruch
Pretty popular and not a niche book, but I enjoyed Give and Take by Adam Grant
very much [0].

\- [0] [https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-give-and-
take/](https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-give-and-take/)

------
vo1d
\- The Innovator's Dilemma by Clay Christensen

\- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

\- A Briefer History of Time by Stephen Hawking

\- The Lean Startup by Eric Ries

\- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson

\- The Industries of the Future by Alec Ross

\- Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

\- Start with No by Jim Camp

\- How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

\- The Everything Store by Brad Stone

\- The Inevitable by Kevin Kelly

------
nkzednan
Top books that I read this past year:

\- Hillbilly Elegy By JD Vance

\- Golden Son by Pierce Brown (second book in a trilogy) liked the whole
trilogy

\- Rosie Project/Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

\- Graceling by Kristin Cashore

\- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

------
maephisto
Worth mentioning: 1\. Ready Player One 2\. On The Road (re-read)

------
ryanolsonx
I would recommend Red Rising. A very good read!

~~~
jamesrcole
I hadn't heard of this, and for anyone else wondering, it's a sci-fi novel

[https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Pierce-
Brown/dp/034553980X](https://www.amazon.com/Red-Rising-Pierce-
Brown/dp/034553980X)

------
nickjj
A couple of books I've read can be found at
[https://www.theceolibrary.com/nick-
janetakis-2771.html](https://www.theceolibrary.com/nick-janetakis-2771.html).

They are mainly focused on communication and getting better at selling
yourself and your code. There's also a couple mixed in that will help improve
other non-technical skills which in turn amplify your existing coding skills.

------
rch
India: A Million Mutinies Now - V.S. Naipaul

Recommended by a friend who works on mobility policy in India.

~~~
atulatul
Yes. It is a good one.

For me India: A Wounded Civilization by Naipaul was even better.

It is also from his India trilogy. I have read it a couple of times and even
today I read a few pages. Highly recommended if you are open minded. A few
people to whom I recommended it were quite offended. I guess that is because
Naipaul has sharp eyes and blunt way of putting his observations.

------
legohead
* Currently reading: Edgedancer

* Flowers for Algernon

* Going Rogue: Spells, Swords, & Stealth

* Split the Party: Spells, Swords, & Stealth

* NPCs

* Children of Time

* Death's End

* The Shining

* IT

* All 7+1 books of The Dark Tower

------
frlnBorg
The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov was definitely my favorite.

------
tboyd47
1\. Selected Essays of Warren Buffett

2\. First, Break all the Rules

3\. Between the World and Me

------
1undo
My general rule is: if the book is in Barnes & Nobles its not worth reading.
If you want true enlightening from reading branch out from what everyone else
reads. The best books I have ever read in my life didn't even get published.
Check out Thomas Hardy: The Poor Man and the Lady. Which was rejected my 5
publishers

~~~
cafard
I haven't walked into a Barnes & Noble in a while, for the one that used to be
in walking distance is closed. But I would be very surprised if I couldn't
walk into the nearest B&N and find forty pounds of books that a) are worth
reading and b) that I haven't read.

