
Ask HN: Which book have you read, but do not recommend? - m0ck
We have regular threads about the best books, but I&#x27;m interested in books that disappointed you, despite being famous&#x2F;often talked about.
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Jdam
Getting things done: Too obvious and no groundbreaking new insight at this
point in life

Zen and the art or motorcycle maintenance: That was just plain boring. I felt
like falling asleep on 400 pages

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jurgenwerk
I got stuck with Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance as well. I bought
the book because I heard people praising it, but to me it was just a struggle
to read. Didn't manage to finish it.

~~~
sidmitra
I did find it boring and repetitive about it's hierarchy of Quality at top.
But you could try an audiobook version of it, which helped me finish it and
did glean something from it. I'd never have been able to with finish an actual
paper version.

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phaus
Four Hour Work Week. Guy spends endless amounts of time bragging about his
life and how any time he tries anything for the first time ever he's magically
the best in the world at it.

It reads like one of those late-nite TV ads they used to have for get rich
quick scams.

~~~
sidmitra
I've had the same opinion of him as a snake-oil salesman. Most of his stuff is
over-exaggerated. For Chess he says start at the end game and master that
first like that's all there is to it. Whereas most people would recommend a
multitude of things like do puzzles, read a good book and actually play a lot
more classical games etc. Your biggest problem starting out is actually
controlling your blunders. For swimming he recommends total immersion
swimming, which if found slightly better, but you have to actually do a lot
more research and find out a lot more by yourself and also there's differences
between salt-water(sea) and freshwater(lakes/rivers). But i still found Terry
Laughlin technique to be a good way to start and have some concrete goals to
practice, but without a coach i still feel stuck and haven't got my breathing
technique down for long swims.

For language he gives you like 6 sentences to learn about grammar to get
familiar with sentence framing and frequency lists and that's that.

What i did find him good for was finding people, books and experts to use as a
starting point for my own research. I did find Tools of Titan more
interesting, but i still think it qualifies as productivity porn. I barely
remember one single thing that i've imbibed into my daily life that i already
didn't come across from trial and error.

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auganov
Deep Work by Cal Newport - just a mashup of random cliches. Felt like I got
duped into reading one of these "ebooks" by Internet Marketing types.

Utopia Is Creepy by Nicholas Carr - this one I haven't read. Probably the only
non-fiction book I couldn't bring myself to finish. Super chaotic, I don't
know about the other 2/3, but it seemed to literally be random blog posts
compiled into a book. And given the book's premise, it just felt too
hypocritical.

~~~
bryan11
I'm reading Deep Work by Cal Newport now and am finding it to be quite useful
and have valuable perspectives

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romanhn
The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. Why think ahead, plan and make an effort to
attain a goal when you can just go with the flow, really really believe and
want, and let the universe take care of the rest. Then the author takes this
"moral" and beats you over the head with it over and over again. Can't think
of another book that left such a lasting negative impression on me.

~~~
Jugurtha
I have always thought Coelho's books sucked but never had the chutzpah to read
any. I remember a girl talking to me about the Alchemist and trying to
convince me it didn't suck and that I had to read it to form an opinion. I
went and described the book to her and she said "So you've read it!" and I
said "No, that's my point."

Coelho's books are like pornography. It may give a glimpse to febrile
teenagers into the world of sex, but easily mislead these teenagers into
thinking: "So I guess this _is_ what sex is like in real life". They may spend
a lifetime stuck on that kind of content. Think of all the readers we have
lost to that shitty style. It's fascinating, but you could say: " _Where does
the sun go when it sets and what does it owe to the wolves? No one knows, but
the wolves howl in the dark and, my friend Karkadan, the moon notices._ " and
stick a Paulo Coelho to it and nobody will be the wiser.

The guy ships product, though.

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montrose
Sapiens. Someone gave it to me as a gift. I opened it at random and the first
thing I read was the old chestnut about agriculture being a bad deal, because
hunter-gatherers have an easy life.

~~~
babygoat
That doesn’t count has having read it. That book was incredible, by the way.

~~~
montrose
It certainly was.

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mtmail
"The Procrastination Equation: How to Stop Putting Things Off and Start
Getting Stuff Done" [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9514605-the-
procrastinat...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9514605-the-
procrastination-equation)

It motivated me to get things done ... right in the middle of the book and I
never finished it. That was years ago.

~~~
is_true
So you don't recommend it or I'm missing something?

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aosaigh
Ready Player One. Pages of atrocious dialog and a complete nostalgia fetish
that got in the way of some otherwise interesting ideas.

~~~
majortennis
I really enjoyed it, because of my age i only got half the references but
enjoyed looking them up. Going to check out the movie this week. but i
wouldn't recommend it to someone who doesn't like video games.

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stormcode
The Checklist Manifesto. I had hoped it was going to be... I dunno, a guide to
making better checklists and getting stuff done. It was however just a very
long love letter to checklists, and why they are great, through a bunch of
real world examples dealing with doctors and airline pilots. Didn't walk away
with anything actionable.

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joshux
"Obstacle is the Way": Basically a collection of motivational stories that
pretends to be related to stoicism.

A better books is: "A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy"

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JJseiko
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin To Munger, by Peter Bevelin - was just plain bad.
I remember thinking that it doesnt relly deserve to be called a book.

