Ask HN: What are the best books you've read that few others have? - chrisherd
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le-mark
Non fiction and IT related:

Algorithmics The spirit of computing: this is a really great exploration of
'algorithmic' thinking, accessible to anyone:

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2378136.Algorithmics](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2378136.Algorithmics)

Soul of a new machine: the book won the pulitzer, it's about now defunct Data
General and implementing a new machine in the early 80's:

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7090.The_Soul_of_a_New_Ma...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7090.The_Soul_of_a_New_Machine)

Fiction:

Marooned in Realtime: Vernor Vinge on a group of people who missed the
singularity, and try to understand what happened. A damn good detective story
too:

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167847.Marooned_in_Realti...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/167847.Marooned_in_Realtime)

------
phlipski
Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things

Very thought provoking look at recycling and design for eventual recycling.

------
ccmonnett
It might not be read much only because it was recently released but Homo Deus
by Yuval Harari is off the chain.

This dude can explain grand ideas encompassing human civilization in
(relatively) simple, brief, and entertaining language and I can't get enough
of it. I think Homo Deus's forward focus will appeal to the HN crowd more than
his more famous Sapiens.

~~~
briga
I felt like Homo Deus was largely a retread of Sapiens. Some of his
speculations about the various forms of humanism that have arisen in the 20th
century were interesting, but for most of the book it felt like he was
treading very familiar ground. It seemed like Harari was in a rush to release
another book after the runaway success of Sapiens, and because of that he
didn't take his time writing it. Sapiens was very concise and felt like the
product of years of careful thought. Homo Deus felt like it was rushed in
comparison. Still a good read, don't get me wrong.

For a similar type of book I would recommend Howard Bloom's Lucifer Principle
and Global Brain. They both take a similarly broad scientific perspective on
human history and behavior, and both are fun reads.

------
FiatLuxDave
I love the idea of looking for overlooked gems. Here are a few of mine:

Infinite in All Directions, Freeman Dyson : just a book of his thoughts, but I
really appreciated his perspective on respect between religion/spirituality
and science.

Ignition! An informal history of liquid rocket propellants, J.D. Clark : I
picked up a copy of this in a roadside bookstore on a lark. Entertaining tales
of people blowing themselves up in the name of science.

Apollo 11 Press kit : My grandmother was a journalist for Florida Today during
the space race, and she gave me her copy. It is amazing to see how much detail
was provided. I don't know if our modern press ever gets press kits like
these, but it was not dumbed-down much at all, which was very nice to see.

The Adventures of Samurai Cat, Mark Rogers : Silly fun. Kind of like if Bored
of the Rings had been written by Jerry Bruckheimer and Spider Jerusalem.

Into the cool, Sagan and Schnieder : about complexity and thermodynamics.
Written for a layperson, I still learned a lot from it.

Order out of Chaos, Prigogine and Stengers : More thermo, also written for lay
audience, also learned a lot from it.

Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions, L. Artsimovich : Of all the plasma physics
books I have read (many) this is the one I remember most. Rather out-of-date
now, it contains loads of information about the early Soviet fusion program,
with pictures and discussion of now-forgotten experiments.

------
nayuki
Understanding good idioms in Java, instead of learning from scattered pieces
of folk knowledge:

* [http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/effectivejava-136174....](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/effectivejava-136174.html)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1vQf4qyMXg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1vQf4qyMXg) (a talk by the author)

Corner cases in the Java programming language:

* [http://www.javapuzzlers.com/](http://www.javapuzzlers.com/)

* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbp-3BJWsU8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbp-3BJWsU8) (a talk by the author)

~~~
fizwhiz
Not sure if trolling or serious...

------
AnimalMuppet
He Is There And He Is Not Silent, by Francis Schaeffer. A very deep
philosophical argument for the existence of God. (By "deep", I don't mean a
bunch of mumbo-jumbo. I mean connecting first principles to concrete
conclusions in a very direct way.)

------
fadolf
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa

The Story is breathtaking and the teachings are divine. It currently has the
potential to change my life, i even marked some sentences and put tapes to
important pages that concern my life.

~~~
old_chap
Good book. You might also like the manga 'Vagabond' which is loosely based on
Eiji's work.

~~~
fadolf
thanks for the tip

------
briga
In Search of Lost Time. It's definitely famous and well-known, but I think
it's far more talked about than actually read. Proust is a philosopher and
psychologist more than a novelist, and large chunks of the book are basically
just philosophical essays, but its still probably the greatest novel I've
read. I think it's one of the greatest achievement of the human mind to date
and it has more to say about the human experience than anything since, as far
as I can tell.

------
cromd
I really enjoyed "Software and Mind", which I first read about on HN, though
the discussion was short and people didn't seem to like the author's angle
much. It's largely about how "mechanistic theories of software" hold us back,
how programmers aren't getting to exercise their brains, and how most people
are giving more and more control of their life up to others in order to avoid
having to program. Avoiding programming becomes more of a goal than expanding
the mind.

The author is very passionate about all this - and I think most people would
find the intensity off-putting. He manages to fill ~800 pages. I am not sure I
agree with everything. While it resonated strongly, I'm also not that bummed
out about the ability to launch a website from scratch in 5 minutes. But, in
much the same way I feel about the writing of Nassim Taleb, despite having
many statements that are incendiary and possibly wrong, it approaches a topic
from an angle that you probably haven't been getting elsewhere.

I immediately thought of this book when I read the question because I've never
met anyone who has read it or who has any interest in reading it after hearing
about it.

------
emhac
[http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/the-mind/history-of-
thinki...](http://www.erasmatazz.com/library/the-mind/history-of-
thinking/index.html)

History of thinking is the book which Sapiens / Homo Deus would like to be. I
think it is one of the best complete arguments on the nature of our
relationship to computers.

------
Top19
"Mathematics: From the Birth of Numbers".

If you've ever read "Code" by Charles Petzold, it's as illuminating as that
was.

Also a little bit tragic, makes you realize there is a lot of fun and beauty
and even social history in math. I didn't realize there is also a lot of
complaints in how math is taught, and that the arithmetic we all learn is
considered the most boring part.

------
clock_tower
Rory Stewart, _The Prince of the Marshes_. It's about general dysfunction in
the early Iraq War, but it's also about the meaning of life. Perhaps it's just
how Stewart writes? (His _The Places In Between_ is also well worth reading,
but is much better known.)

Tony Horwitz, all works -- especially _Baghdad Without a Map_ (which will
leave you with a much healthier view of the modern Middle East) and
_Confederates in the Attic_ (a dress-rehearsal for the Age of Trump?).

Pearl Buck, _Sons_. (Best to read _The Good Earth_ first, but you've probably
already read it.) I doubt it's a very accurate depiction of China, and the
characters' morality is hair-raising (while the narrator is so far off the
deep end that he/she is impossible to take seriously); but it's a memorable
adventure story firmly grounded in the plausible, and it dramatizes some
important lessons about the dangers that can afflict families and middle age.

------
tixocloud
Human Revolution

[http://www.joseitoda.org/religious/hr.html](http://www.joseitoda.org/religious/hr.html)

Romance of the Three Kingdoms

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_of_the_Three_Kingdoms)

~~~
ai_ia
You practice Nicherin Buddhism? If so can you give your experience?

~~~
tixocloud
Sure! What would you like to know?

------
dirtyaura
Robert Kalpan: The Ends of the Earth: A Journey to the Frontiers of Anarchy

It's a part travel book, a part geopolitical analysis. In the hindsight,
Kaplan was probably wrong on many things, and his views were US and West
centric, but personally it was inspiring read, a travel book that was much
more than a travel book.

~~~
clock_tower
Not a bad idea -- I've only read his book on the formerly-Ottoman world
(_Eastward to Tartary_, I think), but this sounds worth looking up.

Have you come across Tony Horwitz? He's goofier than Kaplan, but his writing
scratches the same itch.

------
thorin
I always really enjoyed Travels by Michael Crichton. Considering how popular
he is I've never spoken to anyone else who's read it. It gave me a lot to
think about in my early 20s.

I also enjoyed Jonathon Livingston Seagull, which seems to have fallen out of
favour recently.

~~~
Top19
I love Michael Crichton and I've never read this book. Why did you suggest it?

~~~
thorin
I wouldn't find out too much about it before you read it but it's an
autobiography covering his medical school days, travelling and inner travels.
It's entertaining and thought provoking.

------
SirLJ
More Money Than God - very inspirational and a glimpse into some of the best
minds on the planet...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_Money_Than_God)

------
gdulli
Old Masters and Young Geniuses: The Two Life Cycles of Artistic Creativity (by
David Galenson)

Influential to someone whose practices and path to success in engineering
doesn't follow the normal pattern but is still valid. (At least it was
influential to me.)

~~~
ChicagoBoy11
I took his class in college and it is one of the few decisions I completely
regret in life.

The point he makes in the book is in fact very interesting (essentially, the
lifepaths of creative individuals fall into two discernible categories:
innovators, whose main contributions are early in the career and slowly fade,
and those who slowly master a craft, whose most noteworthy contributions come
later in life), and the techniques he marshals to study it in different
context noteworthy, but it would have made for a great two week class.
Instead, Galenson spent the entire time basically assigning everything he ever
wrote -- which made the same point over, and over, and over again -- and
constantly berated students who tried to respectfully dialogue with him.

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack your post, but every mention I see of him just
elicits this visceral reaction in me and I just needed to get it off my chest.

------
cm2012
Being Direct by Lester Wunderman. Best book on direct marketing in the world
IMO. I currently do high level marketing consulting, would not have happened
without thia book. Way better than Ogilvy on Advertising.

------
kevstev
Racing the Beam: [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-
beam](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/racing-beam)

Its about how hard it was to program the Atari 2600 and the clever tricks
required to get the most out of the machine. One of my favorite anecdotes was
that in I believe Yars revenge, one of the sound effects was produce by
reusing a section of code as sound data because it sounded good enough.

------
jriot
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. Chinese Science Fiction, really different
perspective of hard questions particularly from a Western perspective.

~~~
elyrly
Wonderful series

------
jotjotzzz
I'm sure a lot of people have read it, but it's the best book for me. The Tao
Te Ching (I have the Stephen Mitchell translation).

------
jboggan
"Modern Times" and "The Birth of the Modern" by Paul Johnson which cover world
history from 1919-1989 and 1815-1830 respectively. Amazing histories written
in a breadth and exploratory depth that illuminate so much of the past and
make the present more understandable.

------
thecupisblue
Hagakure and Mishima, at least that's the direct translation of the ex-yu
title. The book is amazing, dragging you into a world of proper spiritual and
personal behavior worthy of a samurai. Read it as a kid and it had a great
influence on shaping me as a person.

------
tomdre
A Treatise on Painting by Leonardo Da Vinci
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Urbinas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codex_Urbinas)

------
Gustomaximus
'In search of stupidity'. Talks about tech companies that boom then flop.
Overarching lesson seemed to be don't get arrogant and stop listening to your
customers.

------
noir_lord
Noir by KW Jeter

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noir_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noir_\(novel\))

My username isn't a co-incidence.

------
nategri
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy. Jam packed with ideas crucial to the next
100-150 years. I reference these the way more insufferable people reference
Ayn Rand.

------
Powerofmene
If you like history, I would highly recommend:

Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson.

Probably one of the best books about the Civil War that has been written.

------
Bakary
Roma Æterna - Robert Silverberg

The Happiness Hypothesis - Jonathan Haidt

Alamut - Vladimir Bartol

Non Stop - Brian Aldiss

A fortune teller told me - Tiziano Terzani

------
timclark
Adrift on the Sea of Rains by Ian Sales

A Dream of Wessex by Christopher Priest

------
schrectacular
Quantum Psychology by Robert Anton Wilson

Zima Blue by Alastair Reynolds

------
ciocan42
Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam - Sapiens / Homo Deus

------
fadolf
I am so thankful for this Thread tbh :3

------
perseusprime11
Pale Blue Dot by Sagan

------
observation
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

It's hard to describe. Rather, the story is easy to describe: it concerns the
travel of a man from a future age. Nothing is what it seems.

There was a moment when I realized "Oh shit. This is real." The book may be
fiction but almost nothing about it is fake. The Big Questions, in History, in
Philosophy, in Politics, in Theology, in Technological Progress, in
interpreting reality, it's all there.

Most non-fiction work of fiction I've ever read, and the best one, above
Tolkien, above the Bible, it towers above all texts I have read.

It will take multiple reads to understand what it is saying, different parts
will appeal to you each time.

In terms of the people you know: imagine that Stewart Brand, Peter Thiel and
Christopher Nolan somehow had a lovechild - it would be The Book of the New
Sun.

~~~
solipsism
"Nothing is that it seems" typically makes for a horrible experience, for me
at least. Can you explain it any better than that?

~~~
observation
Typically I'd agree. I don't mean the text has no answers or is subjective -
the text does contain the answers to nearly every puzzling thing within it, if
you can see it. Wolfe is an engineer and the pieces fit together. Neil Gaiman
has a nice essay on how to read it properly (Gene Wolfe is the favorite author
of many famous authors you've heard of):

[https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm](https://www.sfsite.com/fsf/2007/gwng0704.htm)

The main character is an unreliable narrator.

However consider all the veils that would have to be cast aside to understand
reality:

1\. The narrator could be lying to you. 2\. The narrator could not understand
what is truly happening. 3\. The narrator may have mental models which are not
accurate. 4\. The narrator may be passing on inaccurate information or lies.
5\. The narrator may be using words in a way that you think you understand,
but do not. 6\. The narrator may be expecting you to implicitly understand
something that you do not e.g. we make certain assumptions about information
because the Internet now exists, something similar exists in the world of the
New Sun. 7\. The narrator may be using the language of metaphor to describe
something that is quite real but not what we think it is. 8\. The narrator may
not be one person. This won't make sense until you read the book. 9\. The
narrator could be telling you the truth, but you merely do not understand what
he is really saying. 10\. The narrator may not be lying at all, merely leaving
out information that makes him look bad.

I could go on for many more points. I found thinking of Vernadsky's theories
useful while reading it. If reading Gene Wolfe does not fire up your neurons,
nothing will.

Again: the answers are in the text, it is not subjective in my experience, but
you're going to have to think real hard _on many different levels_. Your
understanding of the New Sun's world will be in flux for the duration of the
book. Gene Wolfe gives you the answer, but he gives it once so you have to pay
close attention. If something puzzles you, tuck it away and keep reading.

~~~
gasbag
That's a good list. I'm curious about what you're referring to in 6. The only
thing I can think of is beneath Nessus, but I can't for the life of me recall
how it plays into what Severian writes (or perhaps rather what he doesn't).
It's been a few long years since I was last there though.

~~~
observation
I'm rereading now and have spotted a third example: <spoiler alert>

Severian describes how Master Gurloes is an educated man and that he talks to
other people/beings through something like a radio network at the top of the
Tower.

It was phrased like this:

"He was the only one of our guild - Master Palaemon not excepted - who was
unafraid of the energies there and the unseen mouths who spoke sometimes to
human beings and sometimes to other mouths in other towers and keeps."

