
Ask HN: What Books Are You Reading? - KhalilK
Just finished <i>Gödel, Escher, Bach</i> by <i>Douglas R. Hofstadter</i>.<p>You?
======
egypturnash
I just devoured _Blindsight_ by Peter Watts[1]. It's a fascinating bit of SF
that explores some really fascinating ideas about how consciousness works.

I've also been dipping into _Daily Rituals: How Artists Work_ [2]. Lots of
brief summaries of how various famous creators have broken up their workday;
it both inspires me to get off my ass, and makes me feel better about the days
when absolutely nothing happens.

Oh, and I've been slowly picking at _Thee Psychick Bible_ [3], a collection of
the majgickal documents of Genesis P-Orridge. Not sure it's really got any
ideas I haven't seen in my other mystical readings. But there sure is a lot of
it.

1:
[http://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm](http://rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm)
2:
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009Y4I4OM/ref=oh_aui_d_det...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009Y4I4OM/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o02_?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
3: [http://www.amazon.com/THEE-PSYCHICK-BIBLE-Apocryphal-
Scriptu...](http://www.amazon.com/THEE-PSYCHICK-BIBLE-Apocryphal-
Scriptures/dp/1932595902)

------
saboot
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Col. Chris Hadfield

Hadfield's description of the massive preparation that astronauts must go
through to be cleared for space flight really shows how seemingly
insurmountable tasks can be accomplished by determined individuals. I think
it's valuable to understand that becoming an astronaut (or any other high
skill profession) isn't through some magic process but is the result of years
of keeping your nose to the grindstone.

It's full of many pragmatic life lessons (visualize failure, aim to be a zero)
that are contrary to what many 'life gurus' espouse. A wonderful sigh of
realism.

------
jonah
I'm in the middle of Assembling California by John McPhee. It's a richly
written exploration of where the land that is now California came from and how
it got here. It examines the geologic history of the state as well as the
discovery of plate tectonics and more recent California history such as the
Gold Rush.

It's the last in a series exploring the geologic history the country along
Interstate 80.

------
ggreer
I just started _When the Air Hits Your Brain: Tales from Neurosurgery_ [1].
The author is a neurosurgeon and an excellent writer.

The last book I read was Abdel Haleem's translation of the Qur'an[2]. For an
ancient religious text, it's rather short. Total reading time was maybe 16
hours over the course of a week. I'm not religious, but it was interesting to
get a better idea of what Muslims believe and why. That said, the whole thing
reads like a 7th-century version of Time Cube. I came away with the impression
that the author was a schizophrenic who knew of parts of the Bible.

The most useful book I've recently read is Steve Blank's _Four Steps to the
Epiphany_ [3]. It's a more structured version of a lot of the stuff I learned
in YC.

My favorite books of the past year are _Confessions of a Yakuza_ [4] and
_Infidel_ [5]. The subjects of each book are as different as can be, but their
stories are quite captivating. Both survived immense suffering and managed to
thrive afterwards. Reading those books reminded me of how lucky I am and how
insignificant my problems are.

1\. [http://www.amazon.com/When-Air-Hits-Your-Brain-
ebook/dp/B006...](http://www.amazon.com/When-Air-Hits-Your-Brain-
ebook/dp/B006WOFB5C/)

2\. [http://www.amazon.com/Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics-
ebook/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Quran-Oxford-Worlds-Classics-
ebook/dp/B001ODEPPI/)

3\. [http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank-
ebook/...](http://www.amazon.com/Four-Steps-Epiphany-Steve-Blank-
ebook/dp/B00FLZKNUQ/)

4\. [http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Yakuza-Junichi-Saga-
ebook/...](http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Yakuza-Junichi-Saga-
ebook/dp/B003YL3PPY)

5\. [http://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali-
ebook/dp/B000N...](http://www.amazon.com/Infidel-Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali-
ebook/dp/B000NY12CI/)

~~~
hackerboos
The Qur'an translation you've mentioned is the best one I've found.

------
minikomi
Just got a major literary hangover from finishing
[http://parahumans.wordpress.com/](http://parahumans.wordpress.com/) .. not
really a book, more an online series. Be warned - it is long, addictive (and
sometimes a grind/confusing/difficult to suspend belief [only occasionally
though]), but the world building & range of characters is astounding.

Thinking about doing a mind flush with either a short Kurt Vongegut or Terry
Pratchett then on to tackle The Origin of Wealth, by Eric Beinhocker

------
dedalus
>You?

Just finished reading Straight Dope Tells All
([http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35107.The_Straight_Dope_T...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35107.The_Straight_Dope_Tells_All))
and Mahabharata Vol 5 ([http://www.amazon.com/Mahabharata-Vol-5-Bibek-Debroy-
ebook/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Mahabharata-Vol-5-Bibek-Debroy-
ebook/dp/B008G2DUGK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404173364&sr=8-1&keywords=mahabharata+vol+5))

------
gadders
In other words "please tell us the names of books that you're not ashamed for
people to know that you are reading".

Is anyone here reading some absolute trash like Dan Brown, or do we only read
"good" books?

I'll start. I've just read "Full Assault Mode" by Dalton Fury. The action is
good, but the account of hacking a nuclear power station using iPhones is
completely risible.

I'm now reading I, Claudius which is a lot better.

~~~
will_work4tears
I just finished Alan Dean Foster's "Taken" Trilogy and really enjoyed it. It's
probably "not as bad" as Dan Brown (opinion only, possibly), but it's what
most here would just classify as escapist trash.

Also Scott Meyer released a sequel to his "Off to be the Wizard" book (Spell
or Highwater) and I finished reading it soon after the Taken trilogy. It's a
great series too.

I bought the "Everything is Bullshit" book and I'm on a plane tomorrow, so
I'll probably finish it during the flight.

~~~
gadders
Yeah, I shouldn't have said bad, maybe "non high-brow" or something.

I also just worked my way through all the Cato and Macro Simon Scarrow books.

------
markbao
I'm currently reading _This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant
Theories of How the World Works_ , a regretfully titled yet excellent book.
[0]

Edge.org, in its annual question to prominent scientists and 'thought
leaders', asked them "What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful
explanation?" My favorite ones so far include the many offshoots of natural
selection and evolution, plus all of the stuff about the brain.

I recently finished _The Cold War: A New History_ , a great primer to how we
got to the geopolitical situation we are in now (at least the major
western/eastern powers), and _A Short History of Nearly Everything_ , which
was an awesome birds-eye view of modern science. ★★★★☆ to both.

My next book is going to be about AI; let me know if you have any
recommendations. (I'm not sure I'm ready for _GEB_.)

[0]
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062230174/](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062230174/)

------
jaymon
I started The Martian by Andy Weir about 3 days ago and I'm really enjoying
it. It's a really entertaining book that I highly recommend!

Last week I finished The Paradox of Choice and Zero Day. I enjoyed both of
them, although I don't think I'll be reading any of the sequels to Zero Day.

Before that I went through The Maze Runner trilogy, those were entertaining
reads.

Some other books I've read recently that I can remember off the top of my head
are the Divergent series of books (eh), How Will You Measure Your Life by
Clayton Christensen (great read), Ready Player One (loved, loved, loved this
book), Starters (didn't bother reading any more in the series) and Moon
walking With Einstein (I enjoyed it).

~~~
schoen
Just read _The Martian_ recently. It was recommended to me as extremely
detail-oriented.

It is extremely detail-oriented. :-)

Fun and engrossing if you like super-hard science fiction. (I sure seemed to,
although I glossed over a few of the details in the middle.)

I was going to say that Kerbal Space Program fans would probably like it, but
actually now I really want to say that NetHack fans would probably like it.
(What is the effect of breaking a +6 wand of oxygen scrubbing? What happens if
you dip a cursed ring of radiothermal generation into a blessed potion of
liquid nitrogen? How much nutrition can you get from a partly eaten food
ration?)

~~~
jaymon
I've added it to my list of books to inspire my kids. So if they ever come to
me and say, "Dad, what is chemistry good for?" I can just give them The
Martian and say, "read this and you'll know"

~~~
schoen
Calculating limiting reagents as if your life depended on it!

------
schoen
Currently reading _Spoken Here: Travels Among Threatened Languages_ by Mark
Abley and _The Most Human Human: What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us About
Being Alive_ by Brian Christian. Just finished _No Place to Hide_ by Glenn
Greenwald, _My Real Children_ by Jo Walton, _The Martian_ by Andy Weir, and
_Toki Pona: The Language of Good_ by Sonja Lang (the official reference to her
conlang, which I had already studied extensively from online references).

Waiting for new chapters in the serial _Ra_ by Sam Hughes. Possibly about to
read _Engineering a Safer World_ by Nancy Leveson.

------
incision
* Computer Organization and Architecture [1]

* Algorithms [2]

* The 50th Law [3]

* Applied Predictive Modeling [4]

When I get a breather from school...

* Cibola Burn [5]

1: [http://amzn.com/013293633X](http://amzn.com/013293633X) ; 2:
[http://amzn.com/032157351X](http://amzn.com/032157351X) ; 3:
[http://amzn.com/006177460X](http://amzn.com/006177460X) ; 4:
[http://amzn.com/1461468485](http://amzn.com/1461468485) ; 5:
[http://amzn.com/031621762X](http://amzn.com/031621762X)

------
russgray
I caved and started reading A Song Of Ice And Fire after Game of Thrones S4
finished broadcasting. First book was good, and I'm just starting the second.
I've also been binging on cheap self-published horror and apocalypse ebook
collections from Amazon (just can't resist those 99p anthologies), and my
ongoing 'serious' book is Work by Studs Terkel. Like a couple of other books
mentioned in this thread, this is a real eye-opener that reminds me how lucky
I am.

------
loumf
About to start _A Theory of Fun for Game Design_.

[http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-
Koster/dp/1449...](http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Game-Design-Raph-
Koster/dp/1449363210)

I have no interest in making games, but this comes highly recommended to
understand applied intrinsic motivation (which I am very interested in).
Grabbed it from the worrydream book list.

[http://worrydream.com/#!/Links](http://worrydream.com/#!/Links)

------
neoterics
Just started Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach. Pretty
entertaining so far.

Apparently when you're eating, your experience of flavor is about 80 percent
olfactory!

------
chewxy
Just finished Zero to One a few days ago. It's pretty much Peter Thiel's talks
summarized into one book. Not really an 'action' book, more of a "here's what
a different view of the startup world is like" (not that it's really different
from my personal views)

Also, here's a list of books I read and recommend in 2014:
[http://blog.chewxy.com/books/](http://blog.chewxy.com/books/)

------
globalgoat
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas - I discovered this via my
volunteering with @codeclub teaching primary school children to program using
scratch

------
adambware
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind — Shunryu Suzuki [1]

Body by Science — Doug McGuff, MD and John Little [2]

1\. [http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-
Suzuki/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Mind-Beginners-Shunryu-
Suzuki/dp/1590308492)

2\. [http://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-
Trainin...](http://www.amazon.com/Body-Science-Research-Strength-
Training/dp/0071597174)

------
rustyfe
I just finished reading The Signal and The Noise by Nate Silver. It was an
interesting read, but it felt a bit shallow in it's analysis.

I was feeling the need for some fiction, so I picked up Vladimir Nabokov's
translation of Eugene Onegin by Aleksandr Pushkin. Not sure what to think
about it yet, but it's interesting reading Nabokov's analysis and seeing into
his mindset a little. Sheds some light on his work as well.

~~~
akg_67
Coincidently, I just finished reading The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver
too. I found it interesting and not too technical. It covered lot of ground.

Now, I am reading Innumeracy by John Allen Paulos. It is more in depth and
technical than Nate's.

~~~
rustyfe
I will take a look at Innumerancy. A more technical exploration of the same
topic sounds right up my alley. Thanks!

------
thisrod
Half way through _Don Dunstan: Intimacy and Liberty_. It's about the things
that people didn't explain to their kids when I was growing up in Adelaide. It
might provide some relief for those disillusioned by current American
politics.

I'm working through _Calculus on Manifolds_. Partly as mathematical weight
training, partly because the aspect of quantum field theory that trips me up
is usually the field bit.

------
mohene1
The Adventures of Sayf Ben Dhi Yazan - ancient Syrian mystical tale of a man
on a mission to capture a magical book. Many parallels to the Legend of Zelda.
The poetic form isn't preserved in the English translation.

Great Museum Homes of the Western United States - The great houses of the
Western US, who built them, how the owners got their fortune, details into
their businesses, etc

------
personjerry
"48 Laws of Power" and "No More Mr Nice Guy".

Laws of Power: Not for everyone but the book is damn useful if you're
ambitious and can translate examples and vague concepts into your own
situations in life.

No More Mr Nice Guy: Not very far into it but it's almost cathartic if it
applies to you and I feel like its a huge step in social/emotional development
for me.

~~~
xpop2027
I've read No More Mr Nice Guy and helped me big time with my emotional
development as well.

------
JSeymourATL
Pitch Anything!>
[http://pitchanything.com/book/](http://pitchanything.com/book/)

 _BOOM_ Big Idea to share with you. No matter your functional role, there's
solid research here on how people receive and respond to information. This is
one of the best books on sales presentation and positioning I've read in ages.

------
sir-pinecone
Just finished Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins. It was quite
the eye opener.

Now I'm on Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Very funny book so
far. The main character, Ignatius, is such a piece of work. I was slightly
annoyed at first, but he's so odd and unique that it kept me captivated. Now
everything is just really funny.

~~~
will_work4tears
Confederacy of Dunces was a very good read. I recommend this to all of my
friends, but few ever bother. I'm not entirely sure why they are so put off.

------
hooda
I am reading 'Autobiography of a Yogi'. While reading Steve Jobs biography I
got to know that he had read this book many times.
[http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Complete-Edition-
Paramah...](http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Complete-Edition-Paramahansa-
Yogananda/dp/0876120796)

------
eliben
I just finished "Mastery: The Keys to Success and Long-Term Fulfillment" by
George Leonard.

It approaches the topic of attaining mastery from the angle of Aikido, but I
found it strongly resembling my feelings in the programming domain. I'm still
pondering it, and will likely re-read it soon (it's a very short book).

------
timw0j
I've been working on the Wheel of Time series for a while now. I just got
through book 11, which means I'm out of the books that Robert Jordan wrote and
into the home stretch of books that were finished by Brandon Sanderson.

Overall, the series has been good, if not a little long-winded and a bit
repetitive at times.

------
swah
The Art of Thinking Clearly, Write Portable Code by Brian Hook, Thomas Mann's
The magic mountain, The mythical man month, Intellectuals by Paul Johnson and
Hegemony and Socialist Strategy, by Ernesto Laclau are on my table right now.

But I don't think reading many books in parallel is a good strategy...

~~~
a_bonobo
>But I don't think reading many books in parallel is a good strategy...

I think if you got a system, it works - for example, I usually read one non-
fiction and one fiction book at a time, possibly with a book of short stories.
As long as I don't neglect any of the books for so long that I forget what
they're about, and when the switches between books are in logical locations
like at the end of a chapter and not in the middle of the text, it works out
for me [1]. For that e-readers are good - they let you easily switch between
books.

[1] It has failed exactly once, when I didn't open a book for a few months and
had to re-start from the beginning

------
malokai
I also started Gödel, Escher, Bach. Have yet to finish the preface.

Discover Meteor: a book for the Meteorjs framework. Good book if you want to
learn the framework.

I read a lot of fiction I guess. Now I am reading American Gods, and before
that, Dune. Before Dune I read the 2 released books of The Kingkiller
Chronicle.

------
hemaljshah
Just finished "Contagious: Why Things Catch On" which is great for
understanding the triggers you can build into your product to build an inbound
gravitational pull for potential and current customers.

Now I'm about to tackle "Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love"

------
fursund
Creativity Inc by Ed Catmull (Pixar-fame) and The Atlantis Gene by A.G. Riddle
(sci-fi'ish)

~~~
jaymon
Did you like The Atlantis Gene? I've almost pulled the trigger at Amazon a
couple times but the reviews seem hit or miss and my reading list is already
so long.

~~~
will_work4tears
I enjoyed it. I also finished the other two books in the series which ties it
all together. I can see where the reviews would be very binary though. It
brings up some possibly controversial scenarios which requires some suspension
of disbelief. It's almost Fantasy more than Science Fiction in that regard.

------
imranq
Just finished Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman, which I liked a lot and now
finishing "Eight Engineering Stories" by Bill Hammack...both of which are
really good at explaining complex physical / engineering concepts in a simple
way

------
fataliss
If you are looking for some good SF read I can't recommend "Dune" enough, this
thing is a masterpiece. As far as right now goes, I just started "The girl
with the Dragon Tattoo", too early to give an opinion.

~~~
will_work4tears
Dune is great, but don't stop there. Read the rest of the series (I don't care
for any of his Son's books though, so not going to recommend those, but there
are those that like em).

------
shanacarp
Saving the Season By Kevin West. Yes it is a cookbook, but it has some
fabulous essays about everything from fruit, vegetables, history of
preserving, all sorts of things.

Plus the recipes look crazy amazing. I rarely say that.

------
jesuslop
Finished 'House of Leaves' 2 months ago (Danielewski), a fantasy/terror thing,
and he is in the same league with Lovecraft. The postmodern apparatus is more
nice than silly.

------
eliben
GEB is a good book to finish, congrats. Unless you're exceptionally brilliant
and got it all on the first read, plan to read it at least once more though.
But let it sink first :)

~~~
KhalilK
I felt overwhelmed by the metaphorical meanings!!

Definitely going to let it sink in first before taking another plunge as well
;)

------
ctchocula
Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Daniel
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends and Influence
People

------
dsr_
I'm about to read /The Rhesus Chart/ by cstross. If you aren't up to date,
don't start there, start with /The Atrocity Archives/.

------
lemma
Just finished "The Second Machine Age",not bad for a quick read and some
framing of tech trends, but definitely not very technical/thorough.

------
jmeekr
Just finished "Railtown: The Fight for the Los Angeles Metro Rail"... and I
now know why rail has had such a bastardized upbringing in LA.

------
darushimo
Experience Design: A Framework for Integrating Brand, Experience, and Value by
the founders of Method, an Experience Design firm in NYC, SF...

pretty great so far

------
jordsmi
Current recently finished/upcoming list: four hour workweek, getting results
the agile way, rich dad poor dad, the talent code

------
hkmurakami
_Kafka on the Shore_ by Haruki Murakami (no relation to author :p) and _For
Whom the Bell Tools_ by Ernest Hemingway.

(On a fiction binge)

------
m3mnoch
i just finished listening to brandon sanderson's "words of radiance" as read
to me by my digital personal assistant during my work commutes. in the ivona
amy voice, of course as she's pretty good with crazy names like "urithiru".

moving on to his "warbreaker" now. apparently, they're all tied together in an
uber-epic.

------
imdhmd
Chaos: Making a new science, James Gleick

------
matdes
Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty Learn You a Haskell A Wizard of
Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin

~~~
Kroem3r
The Great Tranformation by Karl Polanyi, wikibooks.org/wiki/An_Awk_Primer, and
just finished Anne of Green Gables

------
deepakkapoor
Reading Simpsons and their mathematical secrets this week. The book is both
entertaining and informative.

------
theshadowmonkey
I just started reading * Shambala - The Sacred Path of the Warrior * The
PayPal Wars * Founders at Work

------
ioseph
Just finished The Glasshouse by Charles Stross, really great sci-fi

Now reading Neil Young's autobiography

------
mazsa
Montesquieu: Considerations on the Causes of The Greatness of the Romans and
Their Decline

------
amyunus
REMOTE. A very intriguing book I have ever read. By Jason Fried and David HH.

------
RodericDay
Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party

------
relaunched
Iron Druid Chronicles - Shattered Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!

------
sandipagr
Halfway into _The Brothers Karamazov_ by _Fyodor Dostoyevsky_

------
jsnk
"Zero to One" by Peter Thiel and Blake Masters

------
andreasvc
The better angels of our nature - Steven Pinker.

------
cnaut
Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

------
lily2014
Gone with the wimd Pride and prejudice

------
n0rm
No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald

------
keehun
Moby Dick... About time.

------
zura
Hotel by Arthur Hailey.

------
contextual
Is God a Vegetarian? Christianity, Vegetarianism, and Animal Rights by Richard
Young[1].

Behold, it was _very_ good[2].

[1] [http://www.amazon.com/Is-God-Vegetarian-Christianity-
Vegetar...](http://www.amazon.com/Is-God-Vegetarian-Christianity-
Vegetarianism/dp/0812693930)

[2] Gen 1:31

