
Ask HN: What Are You Reading? - omosubi
I haven&#x27;t seen one of these in a while so I figured I&#x27;d ask - what are you reading and what do you recommend?
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paoheu
Don’t have time to read but certainly will bookmark this page and forget about
it

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anotherevan
Currently:

Through a Camel's Eye by Dorothy Johnston although admit I'm having trouble
getting into it. Will give it another 50 pages before I decide.

And today started listening to Dune Messiah on audiobook. I loved the first
book which I've reread many times, but didn't enjoy the following books at all
when I read them years and years ago. Decided to give them another try.

Recommend:

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North for beautiful prose,
charming writing and an inventive story. Her first and best book under that
pseudonym.

Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard and The Moons of Barsk by Lawrence M. Schoen
for making me care about anthropomorphic elephants.

Children of Time and Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky for almost making
me care about non-anthropomorphic spiders.

I Am Not a Serial Killer and sequels by Dan Wells for tricking me into reading
a horror novel when I at first thought it was a thriller, but really enjoying
it anyway.

The Lost Man by Jane Harper for being similar but so far a lot better than
Through a Camel's Eye.

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mindcrime
The full list:

[https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/33942804-phillip-
rhode...](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/33942804-phillip-
rhodes?shelf=currently-reading)

To narrow it down a bit... I just read _Start at the End_ , and that motivated
me to finally pick up _Human Universals_ (which I originally discovered via a
talk from Alan Kay). So I'm reading _Human Universals_ now, and then intend to
re-read _Start at the End_ again after that. I sort of feel like there's a
connection between the content of these two that I want to explore.

Beyond that, picking my way through the various items on that Goodreads list.
Some are getting more attention than others, and some are only still on my
"currently reading" shelf because I've been to lazy to take them off, despite
that title having been "stalled out" for years.

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vo2maxer
During the past six months I have been challenged intellectually and
aesthetically by these works:

Paideia: The Ideals of Greek Culture, vol 1-3, by Werner Jaeger

Diary by Witold Gombrowicz

Computer Science: An Interdisciplinary Approach by Sedgewick

2666 by Roberto Bolaño

The Linux Programming Interface by Michael Kerrisk

Tomie: No Use Escaping by Junji Ito

L’homme aux cercles by Fred Vargas

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces by Arpaci-Dusseau

I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong.

The Weird by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

The Federalist Papers, ed. by Kesler

The Anti-Federalist Papers, ed. by Ketcham

Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann, new translation by John Woods

Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman

Loren Eiseley in the Library of America Edition

Tu rostro mañana by Javier Marías

The Complete Essays by Michel De Montaigne, translation by Screech

Earning The Rockies by Kaplan

Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert

Nature Stories by Jules Renard

Mac y su contratiempo by Enrique Vila-Matas

Olinger Stories by John Updike

Greek Science in Antiquity by Marshall Clagett

At The Existentialist Cafe by Sarah Bakewell

100 Diagrams That Changed The World by Scott Christianson

Heart of Europe: A History of the Holy Roman Empire by Peter Wilson

Alec "The Years Have Pants" by Eddie Campbell

Landmarks by Robert Macfarlane

~~~
copperx
That's a great list, and thank you for including works in Spanish. Do you have
more recommendations? I've been neglecting my Spanish reading and losing it
little by little.

~~~
vo2maxer
Yes, here are some I’ve read in the last year:

Bartleby y compañía by Enrique Vila-Matas, on why writers give up or why they
may be reluctant to write. It’s a mixture of fiction and biography, hard to
tell which but fun searching for authors who may not exist.

Las Constelaciones Oscuras by Pola Oloixarac. I think many in HN would like
her work, this novel in particular.

El Ejército Iluminado by David Toscana.

Primavera con una esquina rota by Mario Benedetti

La Casa Verde by Mario Varga Llosa

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cocoa19
1\. Wealth of Nations. finished book #1, and now taking a break since it's
tough to read it, but very rewarding to do it.

2\. Crafting Interpreters. Would recommend this to people curious about
compilers/Interpreters over the dragon book. Much much easier to read.

------
augustinel
Diamond Age - Neal Stephenson: I assume a HN classic. Good read nonetheless.
Crazy imaginative. Prior experience with Stephenson is limited to Snowcrash,
which I found to be quite good as well.

Benjamin Franklin - Walter Isaacson: Biographies are immensely underrated. A
good biography has had the effect of raising my own aspirations by orders of
magnitude. Not sure what it is exactly about them. Being reminded that
accomplished figures were humans first and foremost is always good. Either
way, struck by the practicality of the man -- something I'm looking to emulate
in my own life.

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davidjnelson
“Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill” by Matthieu
Ricard

Phenomenal book by a molecular biologist turned monk who talks about happiness
being a skill that can be developed through practice. Powerful, well grounded
in science, one of those books that can shift your worldview in a supremely
positive way.

[https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Guide-Developing-Lifes-
Impo...](https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Guide-Developing-Lifes-
Important/dp/0316167258)

------
ivanmaeder
Right now: "Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction"
(Judith Grisel)

Recommend. Addict turned neuroscientist who doesn't hold back, so a good mix
of gritty details—

> After I got sober, it took me a little over a year to go a single day
> without wishing for a drink, but it was more than nine years before my
> craving to get high abated.

—and science.

Before that: "Educated: A Memoir" (Tara Westover)

Recommend. A good break from typical non-fiction books: easy to read,
sometimes thrilling, and emotional.

Before that: "The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America" (Margaret
Pugh O'Mara)

Don't recommend. I really wanted to like this book, and I believe some of the
themes are important and aren't often discussed. E.g., the support the Valley
received from politicians, the lobby groups, the size of military spending
back in the day…

It's possible my expectations were in the wrong place—I wanted to be inspired
like with "The Idea Factory" (Jon Gertner), "The Soul of a New Machine" (Tracy
Kidder), "Dealers of Lightning" (Michael A Hiltzik), etc.

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canada_dry
Permanent Record by Edward Snowden.

I've followed his wild ride since the beginning and have always had mixed
opinions about his motives, but this book is as craftily written as it is
interesting/informative.

He quite purposefully and methodically shares many personal anecdotes and
intimate details of his life that put a very human face onto his story.
Whoever helped craft and edit this book (with Snowden) deserves much credit -
if not second billing.

A worthy read as it fills in many of the missing details of when and how.

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jkepler
How to Hide an Empire: a short history of the greater United States. It
includes an excellent discussion of how technological advancements in the 20th
century (such as synthetic rubber, airplanes, and radio) changed the physical
structure of empires, with the result of the US empire existing primarily in
bases scattered around the world rather than the large swaths of conquered
territories that had traditionally characterized empires.

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boboTea
Why We Sleep [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-
sleep](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34466963-why-we-sleep)

Firelfy Lane
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1472878.Firefly_Lane](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1472878.Firefly_Lane)

~~~
dandruffhead
Why We Sleep is really good. It really changed my view on sleep.

~~~
boboTea
Thanks yes! Also changed my view about coffee

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prabhupant
Just finished reading "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and
started "Guns, germs and steel"

~~~
ivanmaeder
Adding the Taleb book to my list.

I recently read "The Black Swan" which I thought was an important read in
spite of how unlikeable I find the author, how long the book is, and how
tangled up the ideas are. It felt like a bit of a crazy rant, but worthwhile.

Thanks!

~~~
mindcrime
Funny, that jibes with my perception of Taleb as well. He seems a bit smug,
and I'm not sure if I'd like him or not if we met in person, but his books
still seem valuable and worth reading. I would say that I'm better off for
having read both _The Black Swan_ and _Fooled by Randomness_. Still waiting to
get around to reading _Anti-Fragile_ , but it's definitely on the list.

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tomjen3
A stitch in Time.

It is a book about how we got to wear the clothing we are wearing, essentially
a book about the history of fashion over the last 2000 years.

For a guy who owns 20ish pairs of black t-shirts you might not think I cared
about fashion, but it is really the history of the ordinary person, politics
and technological change.

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vmurthy
Sapiens (re-read) :) It's one of those books that gives you a different
perspective every time you read it

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vira28
Atomic Habits - Certainly, I am building some of the habits which I wanted to
create for a while.

[https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-
Break/dp/0...](https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-
Break/dp/0735211299)

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Insanity
Recently read "Quiet" by Susan Cain, about introverts and extroverts. Highly
recommended :)

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nicolashahn
Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of Attention Deficit Disorder by
Gabor Mate.

~~~
algaeontoast
Any big take away from this book so far? I was diagnosed with ADD in my early
twenties, been trying to learn as much as I can.

~~~
nicolashahn
I'm only a third of the way into it, but so far it's been about how ADD
generally appears in a child as a response to a parent's heightened stress
levels over a prolonged period of time. He shows a few examples that parallel
what I remember from my childhood, so I'm interested in seeing where it goes
from here. All "origins" and no "healing" yet though, which is what I'm
primarily interested in. It's too early to say if I'd recommend it but it's
promising so far.

~~~
algaeontoast
Thanks!

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dandruffhead
Punished by Rewards
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/541132.Punished_by_Rewar...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/541132.Punished_by_Rewards)

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srijanshetty
Never split the difference by Chris Voss - so many practical tips to ensure
that you get the better side of a bargain.

Mythos by Stephen Fry - an irreverent take on Greek mythology which is fun and
entertaining.

------
Maxtylor
"Brave New World " Aldous Leonard Huxley

This book is a wonderful book that anticipates the present future.

Not all of this book foretells, but I am reading it because I want to be able
to have such foresight.

~~~
goose847
I just started this yesterday! Thoroughly enjoying it. Another great one is
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. It's main idea is that we decided to destroy
all possibility of disagreement to make us all more comfortable by banning and
burning books. Really takes you to the discussions of censorship taking place
today! Highly recommended.

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andredublin
Software Estimation Crazy Rich Asians Practical TLA+ IoT Foundations

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dsaavy
The Book by Alan Watts. It metaphorically and literally puts a lot of thoughts
I’ve had into words while also pushing the limits of my own perspective and
philosophical thought.

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banjo_milkman
My struggle book 6 by Karl Ove Knausgaard. Good, though I think I preferred
the earlier books. It's still very compelling, but a little too much Hitler in
this one

Underland: A Deep Time Journey by Robert Macfarlane. Poetic landscape history,
reminiscent of Sebald. Good stuff.

Click here to kill everybody by Bruce Schneier. Scary.

Machines like me by Ian McEwan. First McEwan I read for a while but I liked it
more than I expected. I thought the AI bits were quite good.

The deep history of ourselves : the four-billion-year story of how we got
conscious brains by Joseph LeDoux. Bit disappointed in this one, it seemed
like there should have been a better story here.

The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life: David Quammen.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New
Frontier of Power by Shoshana Zuboff. Makes CS careers look less appealing.

------
gerpsh
I’m getting into Gary Shteyngart. Just read Lake Success and now reading Super
Sad True Love Story. Both sort of dark and really funny.

~~~
dsaavy
Oh man, Super Sad True Love Story had me seeing its storylines surface in
American culture for months. Even new news I’m like; “this is just how it
happened in the book!” Great read and great author.

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kpwags
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 by Sir Max Hastings

Great account of the history of the conflict in Vietnam up to and including
the Vietnam War

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2snakes
The complete harvard classics (eireann press) - found this beauty for 1 dollar
on Kindle.

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skytreader
Lately, I've had this fascination/idea of reading about world history (or at
least _major_ events in world history) through the history of seemingly-
mundane, everyday objects. The search for literature in this vein has been
predictably difficult but I've been fortunate to come across two great books
of this theme.

The first is _A History of the World in 12 Maps_ by Jerry Brotton. The main
idea of the book is somewhat like a visual variant of the Sapir-Whorf
Hypothesis: that our maps shape our perception of the world and, in turn, our
place in it. I actually tried going into this book with a skeptical mind. I
first took on the premise that you _can 't_ say much about world history by
just looking at maps; maybe the crudeness of various Mappaemundi make them
unsuitable for educated speculation. I am pleased to say that, by the end of
the book, my premise has been completely obliterated.

HN Readers might find the final chapter particularly interesting. It reads on
Google Maps and demonstrates that even today in an age of satellite imagery, a
map can't claim complete objectivity.

(I'd like to note that in a couple of instances, Brotton gets some technical
details wrong. There is an especially glaring one in the Google Maps chapter
the hunt for which is left as an exercise to the reader. It does not really
affect his main arguments and I really enjoyed the book despite these errors
that bite at my attention to detail.)

The next one is _Library: An Unquiet History_ by Matthew Battles. This is
lighter in content than _12 Maps_ and deals mostly with obscure figures (in
_world_ history) and yet has emerged influential to the modern-day library.
The big thing that piqued my interest in this book is the part about Nazi
Germany. I know, I know, any discussion can be maneuvered towards Hitler and
especially one about censorship. But Battles shows how libraries are, more
than anything, social institutions; how even in a bleak time and place such as
Nazi-occupied Europe, make-do libraries can support a community.

He also touches on the other side of the coin. We are used to thinking of
libraries as benevolent institutions of knowledge but we rarely think of them
as ideological apparatuses to _curtail_ knowledge. Highly recommended even for
non-bibliophiles. At least, enjoy entertaining stories behind libraries even
if you don't get a grand takeaway lesson from it all.

(Edited for formatting.)

~~~
vmurthy
Quite possibly related to the first book you mentioned :

“Prisoners of Geography: 10 maps to tell you everything you need to know about
World politics ”

I’ve only read a couple of chapters but it’s best read along with a physical
map :)

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25135194](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25135194)

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aditchandra
Tools for Conviviality - Ivan Illich; The Dark Forest - Liu Cixin

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pixelperfect
_The Demon in the Machine_ by Paul Davies (would recommend)

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thetrost
Just finished "Coders" (Clive Thompson)

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v0tary
Fishbowl by Bradley Somer. Clever book imo.

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laksmanv
Indistractible by Nir Eyal.

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panjaro
Shoe Dog: Phil Knight

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endemic
Hackers by Steven Levy.

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kevinjuliansyah
Who am i

