

Ask HN: What do you read? - ianthiel

I've recently gotten back into reading and I'm curious to hear what HN recommends.<p>I'm also working on a small side project that helps connect tech/startuppeople/nerds with books they'll love, and getting a gauge of what HN reads would be rather awesome.<p>What do you consider "essential reading" in the following categories:<p>Sci Fi
Fantasy
Classics
Contemporary
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yason
Sorry, I can't answer you per se. But I have to explain something.

I don't read fiction anymore except for one particular author. I used to (and
_lots_ of it when I was young!) but for some reason that I still haven't
figured out why I stopped getting anything from fiction. I just did and I
really don't miss any of it.

I do read non-fiction.

I have a few topics ongoing at a time that I explore. The topics might last
for months or years until I eventually branch into something else, often semi-
related. The books describing these real world things or explaining new views
or ideas or angles are, to me, so endlessly fascinating that I find myself
totally immersed in these subjects that I haven't even considered borrowing or
buying fiction anytime soon.

I just sometimes wonder if I'm the only one like this.

~~~
ianthiel
I would specify that I only read science fiction, and occasionally fiction
that most would classify as "classics". Beyond that, I don't read any fiction.

Exploring one particular topic with a series of books sounds rather
interesting to be honest. I think on HN in particular it wouldn't surprise me
to find that most people are reading more non-fiction than fiction.

Can you give an example of a topic and some related books that you enjoyed?

~~~
yason
In the recent year or two I've been reading dozens of books about urban
planning, suburbia, traditional neighbourhoods, modern neighbourhoods, traffic
planning, pedestrian planning, cityscape and from there I'm slowly moving now
especially to the roots of modernism and its various derivatives in
architecture and city planning.

There are lots of books about the former, with a huge number of various
angles. Dom Nozzi has a couple of books with critical analysis on traffic
planning and suburbia; well, he's not against all that per se, he just
carefully points out the planning patterns that do _not_ work for humane
living. Then everybody probably knows Kunstler who has been a vocal author on
the subject for years; I can recommend his TedTalk[1] to sum up many of his
books. On the contrary, a delightful book about the appeal and history of the
British suburbia by Paul Barker is the book 'The Freedoms of Suburbia', to be
enjoyed slowly over the cup of hot tea.

[1]
[http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_subu...](http://www.ted.com/talks/james_howard_kunstler_dissects_suburbia.html)

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Luyt
In the classics category, I'm re-reading (for the tenth time or so) the
memoires of Giacomo Casanova, "L'Histoire de ma vie" ("The History of my
Life"), 12 volumes or so, in Dutch translation. Fascinating stuff and a
interesting insight in the 18th century.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casanova>

~~~
Mz
Thank you for the link. I envy you your reading material.

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pemulis
I'm on a David Foster Wallace kick right now: Working through The Pale King,
his collected essays and his short stories. Already read Infinite Jest. It's
hard to say what qualifies as "essential reading" when it's impossible for a
human being to read even one tenth of the great, all-time classic books. There
just isn't enough time. My advice would be to read at least a few books that
have reputations for being difficult. _War and Peace_ , _Gravity's Rainbow_ ,
_In Search of Lost Time_ , _Ulysses_ , etc. (The reason I'm only listing near-
undisputed classics here is because these books _are_ difficult, and in some
cases very, very long [looking at you, Proust], and the assurance that it is
all worth it helps you keep going when your brain hurts.) These books survived
despite their difficulty because reading them is a mind-expanding, sometimes
life-changing experience. Reading shouldn't be essentially passive.

~~~
shii
There's a forum[1] that got started last night for reading Infinite Jest at a
leisurely pace (75 pgs/wk) over the summer and discussing it weekly starting
Juneish by anons in /lit/ on 4chan, if you're at all interested.

[1]: <http://www.litinfinitejest.org/forums/>

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brudgers
I recently have been reading Hugo Award Novels and recommend Roger Zelazny's
_This Immortal_ which is good enough to have shared the award with _Dune_ in
1965. _Lord of Light_ is also a great read and won a Hugo in 1968. Clifford
Simak's _Way Station_ , Phillip K. Dick's _Man in the High Castle_ , and
Walter Miller's _Canticle for Leibowitz_ are other great Hugo novels from the
early 1960's that tend to be overshadowed by more famous authors from that
period such as Heinlein (not that I wouldn't recommend _The Moon is a Harsh
Mistress_ if you haven't read it).

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Luyt
In the Scifi category, I'd recommend "The Languages of Pao" [1] by Jack Vance,
which is inspired by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis [2]. I've re-read it five
times now, which means this book deserves the space it occupies in my
bookshelf. Books that are only worth to be read once, you might as well throw
away.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Languages_of_Pao> [2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir%E2%80%93Whorf_hypothesis>

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m0nastic
I'm not sure about "essential reading", but I like most anything besides
Science Fiction or Fantasy (probably the opposite of most folks here)

Some of my top choices would be:

Anything by Bulgakov (Heart of a Dog and Master and Margerita are both pretty
widely available in English)

Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

Burmese Days by George Orwell

Cakes and Ale by Somerset Maugham

Color of Summer by Reinaldo Arenas

Williwaw by Gore Vidal

The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

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jeffool
Hey good luck with your project.

Personally I'd love a good place to get recommendations on contemporary
fiction. Good Reads just has a "ask for recommendations" section which I can
do myself with friends, y'know?

That said, I recommend Arthur Nersesian. And I've been re-reading the old
Fletch series lately. Man those were fun.

Also, I'm squarely in the aforementioned "nerd" demo.

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latch
I read a ton since getting a Kindle (and dumping my TV). Almost purely sci-fi.

Finished the Culture series, Hyperios Cantos, Ilium/Olympos, Book of the New
sun. Gonna re-read the original 6 dune books at some point. Anything by Paolo
Bacigalupi (up and coming) or Larry Niven.

~~~
ianthiel
Seconding the dumping of the TV. I've heard nothing but good things about the
Culture series so that's something I'll have to get to soon. And I can never
recommend the original 6 dune books enough, simply legendary.

~~~
latch
I'm just curious, why you wouldn't upvote me? (I don't mind, I'm just
genuinely curious). It is possible you did upvote me and someone else
downvoted..so apologies ahead of time if my assumptions are wrong.

Culture was meh...By the 2nd or 3rd book you realize that the Culture is so
powerful that nothing presents a risk. It's like Superman without Kryptonite
(or his lack of pragmatism). Aside from the first book, Consider Phlebas,
Excession was probably the best - largely because it focused on ships rather
than people. Just my $0.02 of course.

~~~
ianthiel
I upvoted you, not sure why someone would downvote though.

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ordinary
I can recommend <http://www.authorslawyer.com/savage/reviews/032s1.shtml>

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revorad
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

