
Ask HN: What books are you reading? - curiousgal
I thought it was time for a usual book check-up. I am currently reading The Insect Farm. What about you?
======
jasonkester
Seul sur Mars (The Martian, in French)

It is really boosting my understanding of the French language, and giving me
more confidence to speak it.

It's a simple story that's easy to follow, especially having read the book in
English and seen the film a couple times. And really, how lost can you get? If
you can't follow a paragraph or to, chances are he'll still be stuck on Mars
for a while and you won't have missed much.

It's written in an informal, conversational style, using language that real
people might use. I find myself reading a phrase that translates back to a
saying I've used in English. Ah, looks like they use that in French too. I'll
add it to the repertoire.

I can pick it up after a while off and quickly get back in to it without
explanation. Hmm... this looks like the part where the guy is stuck on mars...

And as a bonus, it's kinda hard work to read in a foreign language, so if I
pick it up in bed it's guaranteed to put me to sleep inside of half an hour.

Highly recommended.

~~~
Jugurtha
Congrats on the effort. I started learning English when I became interested in
Neuro-Linguistic Programming a decade ago: there were no resources in French
and the discipline was started by two Americans. I read a ton of books out
loud just to hit the muscles used in English (not quite the same as French. My
mouth hurt).

Here's a great resource from the University of Québec:
[http://classiques.uqac.ca/](http://classiques.uqac.ca/)

It has a _lot_ of books categorized (see thumbnails) in many areas (classics,
natural sciences, etc). From Freud, Adler, Smith, to Descartes. Enjoy!

------
Jtsummers
_Specifying Systems_ ,
[http://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/book.html](http://lamport.azurewebsites.net/tla/book.html)

 _Engineering a Safer World_ , [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-
safer-world](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/engineering-safer-world)

 _Software Specification Methods_ , [https://www.amazon.com/Software-
Specification-Methods-Henri-...](https://www.amazon.com/Software-
Specification-Methods-Henri-Habrias/dp/1905209347) (also available through
Safari Books Online, at least at my office)

Read most of the third one this week, a useful comparison of the various
approaches. My objective is to understand how to better produce formal (or
more formal) specifications. Either for whole systems or just for significant
or critical portions of them.

------
prthkms
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
([https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-
Motivate...](https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-
Motivates/dp/1594484805))

Throws out a new perspective on what motivates people.

------
DanBC
I'm looking for _good_ books (fact or fiction) about vikings for young
children - under 8.

 _Pirate Diary - The Journal of Jake Carpenter_ by Richard Platt, illustrated
by Chris Riddel. (I think this is good. The illustration is very good (and it
won a Greenaway medal for the illustration).

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirate-Diary-Journal-Jake-
Carpenter...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pirate-Diary-Journal-Jake-
Carpenter/dp/0744583322/)

A _Flat Stanley_ collection. (I don't think it's much good. My son enjoys it
though.)

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-Stanley-Collection-Jeff-
Brown/...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-Stanley-Collection-Jeff-
Brown/dp/1405266589/)

And I'm about to start re-reading everything by Fred Vargas.

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-
Vargas/e/B001I9OXT6/ref=sr_ntt...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fred-
Vargas/e/B001I9OXT6/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1498329157&sr=8-1)

------
comsci-bro
The PhD Grind: [http://pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir/pguo-PhD-
grind.pdf](http://pgbovine.net/PhD-memoir/pguo-PhD-grind.pdf)

It is a wonderfully written memoir that perfectly details the grad school
experience and also includes some helpful notes from the author. I'll be
graduating next year (bachelor's in CS), and my dad asked me if I wanted to
enter grad school. The book sure did add some fuel to the fire.

------
thakobyan
Currently I'm listening to "Personal MBA" audiobook and loving it so far. I'm
not the biggest fan of business books but decided to give this one a try to
learn a bit more about marketing and sales.

Here are the books I've read and want to read:
[https://booknshelf.com/@tigran/shelves](https://booknshelf.com/@tigran/shelves)

------
pedrodelfino
I am reading "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success", from the Stanford's
Professor Carol Dweck. I really wish I had read that 10 years ago... By that
time the book wasn't published but some part of the science behind it was
already available. I am almost finishing it and it is probably the best of the
12 books I have read so far this year.

------
bcbrown
Mind And Nature - A Necessary Unity, by Gregory Bateson, and I Am A Strange
Loop, by Douglas Hofstadter. They're a great combination, as they're both
attempts to define the concept of "mind" through patterns. Bateson is one of
the early thinkers in the field of Cybernetics, which I've been meaning to
learn more about.

Here's my (unfinished) reviews of the books I've read so far this year:
[https://github.com/bcbrown/bookreviews/tree/master/2017](https://github.com/bcbrown/bookreviews/tree/master/2017).
At the end of the year I'll flesh them out a little more.

~~~
mabub24
A previous post on the HN front page on human behaviour lead me to recommend
this book, and I think you'd be interested in it as well. (I swear I'm not a
shill.)

It's called "Human Nature: The Categorical Framework" by P.M.S. Hacker. The
chapter of direct interest to you is called "The Mind".
[https://www.amazon.com/Human-Nature-Categorial-Framework-
Hac...](https://www.amazon.com/Human-Nature-Categorial-Framework-
Hacker/dp/1444332481/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1444332481&pd_rd_r=TKX5RASJ63XYHS9H1K7D&pd_rd_w=lz7UT&pd_rd_wg=vLoFR&psc=1&refRID=TKX5RASJ63XYHS9H1K7D)

Hacker is a philosopher of language and of mind, and he is a very clear
writer. He works in a similar method to Wittgenstein and is a scathing critic
of the tendency for many (particularly in cognitive neuroscience) to remain in
a Cartesian dualist mindset that is, really, 17th-century metaphysics and
nonsense. His point on 'the mind' is that it is not an entity. That doesn't
mean it is nothing, but that means it is not something. It is a faculty, a
conceptual shorthand for our rational powers, or, as Aristotle describes the
"psuchē", "the actuality of a body that has life". We alone as persons can do
the things that can be attributed to a rational mind.

Reading him is like spring cleaning your mind of nonsense.

(He also has some hilarious criticisms of Chomsky and his treatment of
language in the book, and its sequel.)

~~~
bcbrown
That looks right up my alley, I've added it to my reading list.

------
tjalfi
Technical:

Domain Modeling Made Functional by Scott Wlaschin

Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software by Eric
Evans

Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer by Sandi Metz

Fiction:

Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer - I saw this
mentioned in a HN comment[0].

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

[0]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14530693](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14530693)

Edited to fix formatting and add a missing book.

------
JSeymourATL
_Raising the Bar: Integrity and Passion in Life and Business: The Story of
Clif Bar & Co._

Just started this book last night. The story begins as the Founder of Clif Bar
walks away from selling his company and a $40M personal pay-out. Big idea so
far, your business is an ultimate form of self-expression. >
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29691.Raising_the_Bar](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29691.Raising_the_Bar)

------
mars4rp
Black Swan, was way better than my expectation! I especially love silent
evidence, if you are following HN and are not billionaire read it!

~~~
vshan
Check out his next book, Anti-fragile as well. Builds on a lot of ideas of
Black Swan.

~~~
mars4rp
will do, thanks a lot.

------
astrodev
Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads - world history from an Asiacentric
perspective.

Harold Coyle, Team Yankee - WW3 in Europe in the 1980s from the perspective of
a tank company commander. Poorly written, in my opinion, but the accurate (or
so I hope) descriptions of the military tactics and equipment almost make up
for it.

James Gleick, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood - excellent book
about the history of information.

------
fosco
Some brain junk food, I am very much enjoying thus far.

[https://www.amazon.com/Fear-Index-Robert-
Harris/dp/030794811...](https://www.amazon.com/Fear-Index-Robert-
Harris/dp/0307948110)

------
SirLJ
I am about to start to re read again Master and Margarita, but will try to
read the original, even tough my high school Russian is a bit rusty it is
always better if you can try to read the original imho

------
b_emery
The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the
Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

It's a history of where all this - startup culture, silicon valley, computers,
internet, hackers - came from. Should be essential reading for anyone working
in IT.

------
thisone
Listening to The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb and wondering how I missed this
when it was new.

Reading The Evermen Saga by James Maxwell.

No self help or technical books for me, just pure fantasy.

------
wu-ikkyu
Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental
Health Movement.

Highly recommended for anyone interested in an "outside the box" perspective
on mental health and society at large.

------
gubsz
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

It goes into detail about the Mount Everest disaster in the 90s.

------
rasmus1610
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

Difficult topic but great writing so far. Especially if you like books by Atul
Gawande

------
delgadillojuanm
I’m reading the “Deep Learning” book written by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio,
and Aaron Courville. Also "Intercom on staring up"

------
miguelrochefort
"Getting Things Done" by David Allen

~~~
wreath
Ironically, I never finished that book hehe

------
bhchance
Essential Scrum

Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture

Growing Object Oriented Software, Guided By Tests

------
house9-2
Stephen King

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three

Wanted to read the first one before the movie came out, now I am hooked...

------
jetti
WiX Cookbook and WiX 3.6: A Developer's Guide to Windows Installer XML

------
alltakendamned
Windows Internals 7th Ed.

Seveneves, Neal Stephenson

Astrophysics for people in a hurry, Neil De Grasse Tyson

------
SirLJ
Right now I am reading again "More Money Than God"

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

------
elyrly
Just finished The cartel today, next Algorithms to live by

------
partisan
Tragedy and Hope by Quigley.

------
stevekemp
The Chronicles of Amber, again.

------
sidcool
Essential AngularJS

