
Ask HN: What books are you reading? - noobie
I am starting <i>I Am a Strange Loop</i> by Douglas Hofstadter, hoping it will help me rediscover the concepts of <i>Godel, Escher, Bach</i> .<p>You?
======
scott_s
"Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol", which I talked about in a thread
recently:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10146846](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10146846)

Before that, it was "Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II". I
decided to read it because I saw a kinda not great movie about the period
immediately after surrender, and I realized it was something I knew almost
nothing about. It's good, but relatively academic; I cared about how the
Japanese publishing industry and their literature changed over the time
period, but not _that_ much. It is worth it, though, as I knew very little
about Japan in this period. Something that drives this home is that for Japan,
"the war" for the Japanese people essentially lasted from 1931 (when Japan
invaded Manchuria) to 1952 (when the US occupation of Japan ended) - I had
never thought of it that way before.

------
quaffapint
The Martian - Andy Weir

I'm not an avid reader, but the way this book was written (mostly journal
style) and the humor just pulled me in. Glad I'm almost done reading it before
the movie comes out and spoils anything.

------
11thEarlOfMar
None, I am sad and ashamed to say. I have read one book in the last 20 years.
Before we had kids I read a lot, mainly fantasy. After the kids were born,
well, your time is really not your own until they are finished with high
school and on their own.

That time is coming up pretty soon for me... in a couple more years. So I'll
watch this thread closely and pick out my 'updated' reading list.

------
robinwarren
Just finished Guns, Germs and Steel by Jarod Diamond. A bit longer than it
needed to be for my purposes but he covers the material in some depth, I'd
definitely recommend it.

Prior to that I'd read Psycho Vertical by Andy Kirk Patrick which I would very
strongly recommend, I don't think you need to be into climbing to enjoy it.

I think I'm about to start reading What the doormouse said by John Markoff or
finish reading Technical revolutions and financial capital by Carlota Perez. I
think I'll leave the latter and restart it when I've more brain time to spend
on it.

------
Finbarr
Currently reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality
([http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)). It's an alternate Harry Potter story
where Harry is a genius scientist and rationalist. Hilarious and well worth a
read.

~~~
scott_s
The author, Eliezer Yudkowsky, sometimes posts here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Eliezer](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=Eliezer)

------
jlhonora
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. Really enjoying it. Interesting how certain times
can shape the perspective of the roles of society, companies and government.

Before that I read the entire Game of Thrones series. Not really worth the
time invested if you ask me, but it was fun nonetheless. Might be one of those
few books where watching their TV version is more enjoyable (disclosure:
haven't watched the series).

On the technical side, I'm trying to read Google's papers once in a while.
Good mixture of theoretical background with practical approaches.

~~~
blaedj
Just finished atlas shrugged. It got a little long, but for the 1st 80% of it
I was pretty engrossed by the plot line, themes and all aside. I enjoyed it

------
jccalhoun
_Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire_ by Wallace and
Erickson - because it came out in 1993 it is interesting to read what they saw
as the MS empire back then. I am taking a while to read it because every time
they mention a name I have to go look that person up online to see what has
happen in the 20+ years since the book came out. It is very interesting to see
who has went on to notoriety and who has been forgotten. For example, they
devote 2 pages to this guy named Gabe Newell...

------
misiti3780
El Narco: [http://www.amazon.com/El-Narco-Mexicos-Criminal-
Insurgency/d...](http://www.amazon.com/El-Narco-Mexicos-Criminal-
Insurgency/dp/1608194019)

Mastering BitCoin:
[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032281.do)

------
joepvd
Bill Bryson - A short history of nearly everything

Excellent popular science intro to, well, nearly everything.

Daniel Kahneman - Thinking, fast and slow

Absolute recommendation. Is changing my perspective on myself and the world
with every chapter.

~~~
scott_s
I _adore_ "A Short History of Nearly Everything". I have re-read it more times
than I can count, by just picking it up, flipping to a random page, and
reading from there. All of his books are good, but that book has a special
appeal for anyone who appreciates science.

------
captn3m0
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking [0]. This is
surprisingly full of citations and references.

Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb [1]. Stock fantasy at its best.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke [2]. Been stuck at halfway for too
long, it gets boring in places.

[0]: [http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-
Talking/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-
Talking/dp/0307352153/)

[1]: [http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Quest-Farseer-Trilogy-
Book/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Assassins-Quest-Farseer-Trilogy-
Book/dp/0553565699)

[2]: [http://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-Rama-Arthur-C-Clarke-
ebook/...](http://www.amazon.com/Rendezvous-Rama-Arthur-C-Clarke-
ebook/dp/B00AHIP8ZM)

------
hyperion2010
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs. I need to implement a
superset of lisp so I figured why not go to the basics. It has been a very fun
read so far. Was particularly happy to see the chapter that starts with a
quote from On Human Understanding.

------
analog31
Godel, Escher, Bach was one of the things that inspired me to study math in
college. These days I'm just trying to do more reading and less mindless web
surfing, to see if it helps me think better. Right now: Sherlock Holmes.

------
ommunist
The Ego Tunnel by Thomas Metzinger, contains a revelatory research upon nature
of human consciousness, makes me question about what existing AIs do wrong,
and what is exactly the human intellect, feeling and emotion.

~~~
mrj
Oops sorry for the mistaken down vote!

------
acrooks
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

------
jmduke
I just finished up _Modern Romance_ by Aziz Ansari -- which, while not
groundbreaking, was supremely interesting and readable. If you like Aziz's
standup, it's basically him playing sociologist for 200 pages.

Right now I'm going back and forth between _Black Hat Python_ (because I owe
it to myself to at least learn a little bit of this stuff) and _What We Talk
About When We Talk About Love_ by Carver. Two totally separate ends of the
spectrum, but they're both great.

------
riffraff
"REAMDE: A novel" by Neal Stephenson, which I am not enjoying much, to be
honest :)

~~~
blumkvist
I did not enjoy it either. Actually I ditched it about 2/3rds of the way when
I realized it will never get better.

~~~
scott_s
I unofficially abandoned "Quicksilver" about halfway through. I thought I was
the only geek who wasn't enamored with his writing.

~~~
riffraff
I liked "snow crash" and "the diamond age", but found "cryptonomicon" hard to
get through, even though it's super popular among geeks. I think even if I
ever get to the end of this one, I won't be reading anything from him for a
while though.

~~~
DanBC
Zodiac is pretty good. Interface is fun.

I found Reamde frustrating: there were a bunch of different good interesting
ideas and plots and they just get dropped to pick up something else, and I
wasn't at all interested in the something else.

------
paulojreis
"A People's History of the United States" by Howard Zinn.

Very "propagandistic" and politically charged, but that's something the author
promptly assumes. Quite interesting (especially for an european) in the way it
explains the origins of the american ethos ("land of the free") and how said
ethos can be interpreted as a subversive political tactic to further the
interests of a selected few.

~~~
a3n
Exposing myths is generally received as subversive.

~~~
paulojreis
I meant the "ethos"; the author goes a long way in exploring how the "freedom"
and national pride ideals were a nice fit - and argument - to promote politics
such as war efforts (and the associated "big spendings" which converged to the
same pockets).

------
wicker
I've just discovered Greg Egan, so I've read Diaspora, Quarantine, and I just
finished Distress. I'm working on Axiomatic, which is a collection of his
short stories. His characters are a little flat and his endings feel a little
odd, but I love the worldbuilding and the ideas.

I'm having trouble finding other people who've read him and want to talk about
his books, though.

------
Praxilla
Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson

and Halloween,

An anthology of ten stories with a supernatural element that originally
appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.

------
babl-yc
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi

It discusses what happened in the 2012 Benghazi attack from the perspective of
the CIA contractors who were there.

------
useles-anguish
A People's History of the United States and A Twist of the Wrist II (no - it's
not what you think :-)

------
crazypyro
Finally bought Pragmatic Programmer and Code Complete so I'm perusing through
those in between my school work/reading.

Also got Rapid Development for 5 dollars, but haven't started on that. Haven't
really read any software engineering books like these before, but enjoying
them so far.

------
JoeAcchino
I'm reading _How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the
Story of My Life_ by Scott Adams and I'm about to start _The Power of Habit_
by Charles Duhigg.

I'm also reading again _Comme un roman_ by Danil Pennac, a beautiful essay
about the joys of reading.

------
nirkalimi
Stuff Matters - Mark Miodownik

This is a really casual Material Science book. It's sub-title is "Exploring
the marvelous materials that shape our man-made world." I am about a quarter
of the way through and am really enjoying it. I really knew nothing about
materials, this book served as a fun/interesting introduction to modern
materials. The first chapter (my favorite thus far) was about metals. It goes
into how different types of alloys are created and into sword making; what
makes a good blade vs a brittle blade that will fall apart in combat(hint: it
has to do with the amount of carbon in the blade. Too much and it is brittle.
You want about 1% in the entire blade.)

------
eivarv
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Picked this up after recently finishing The Selfish Gene, as I remembered what
a thrilling read Crime and Punishment was.

Dostoyevsky is funny, thought-provoking and anxiety-inducing as ever. Unlike
some other authors, he rarely makes characters whose viewpoints he disagrees
with into cheap caricatures with bad arguments. He is intellectually honest
and provides unprecedented (at least for its time) psychological insight into
his complex characters.

I have always been sad to finish Dostoyevsky's books, but as the Penguin
Classics version is around 1000 pages long, it will hopefully take a bit
longer this time around.

------
mindcrime
It's a long list, because I'm guilty of interleaving my reading of dozens (or
more) of books at at time. My Goodreads "currently reading" shelf has about 25
books in it. :-(

But of the ones I'm really actively reading _right now_ , and plan to finish
soon:

1\. _Surfaces and Essences: Analogy As The Fuel And Fire Of Thinking_ \-
Douglas Hofstader and Emmanuel Sander

2\. _The Gathering Storm_ \- Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson

3\. _The Balanced Scorecard_ \- David P. Norton and Robert S. Kaplan

Also, books that I don't really think of in terms of "reading" so much as
"working through":

4\. _Learning R_ \- Richard Cotton

5\. _Practical Common Lisp_ \- Peter Seibel

------
mtalantikite
Just finished the recent Ta-Nehisi Coates "Between the World and Me" and Toni
Morrison's "Sula". Currently, I'm nearly finished with "The Feast of the Goat"
by Mario Vargas Llosa.

~~~
jmduke
How did you like _Between the World and Me_? I haven't read it yet, but it's
on my list and I really enjoy TNC's writing.

------
hokkos
Permutation City by Greg Egan

A 1994 science fiction novel that explores many concepts, including quantum
ontology, via various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated
reality.

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

I was impressed that the book begin with a description of the concept of Fovea
Rendering that is all the rage now with Virtual Reality.

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

------
asib
Eric Clapton: The Autobiography.

I'm a huge Clapton fan so I'm finding it a really interesting read. He talks a
lot about people who influenced/inspired him so it's also given me a wealth of
new listening material.

------
Traut
Finished «The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the
World Economy Bigger» by Marc Levinson and started Think Complexity By Allen
B. Downey (O'Reilly series)

------
5555624
I just finished "In Search of Stupidity: Over Twenty Years of High Tech
Marketing Disasters" by Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman. An interesting look at the
marketing mistakes of the early hardware and software companies.

I just started "Slipping The Cable" by Bill Schweigart, a novel about a Coast
Guard junior office running afoul of his CO. The author's up coming book is
set in the neighborhood where I grew up, so I thought I'd read his first
novel.

------
JSeymourATL
Nearly finished reading The Sticking Point Solution: 9 Ways to Move Your
Business from Stagnation to Stunning Growth In Tough Economic Times, by Jay
Abrahams.

An unusually thought provoking read for a business book, highly recommended.
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6515635-the-sticking-
poin...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6515635-the-sticking-point-
solution)

------
chrisduesing
Generative Art, a Practical Guide Using Processing by Matt Pearson, and
Learning Three.js, The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL by Jos Dirksen

------
bookmarkacc
Saltwater Buddha- Great book which teaches some buddhist concepts through the
lens of a young surfers comig of age story. Really good stuff

------
netcraft
I am finishing up the _magic 2.0_ series (fun, fantasy, goes well with RPO and
the like) and about to start _Dune_ next I think.

------
giaour
I'm reading A Game of Thrones because I realized the only books I'd read in
years were technical. It's a nice break.

------
sshine
Just finished:

— Roadside Picnic, by the Strugatsky brothers. The very thematic Soviet sci-fi
behind STALKER.

— The Cyberiad, by Stanislaw Lem. A brilliant collection of short stories on
language, philosophy, futurism.

Currently:

— Nexus, by Ramez Naam (book 1 of 3). Nanobots meet augmented reality,
transhumanism. Good.

— Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut. Hilarious stuff.

— Poe's collected works.

Next:

— The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu. I have my hopes high.

------
pavlov
_Aniara_ by Harry Martinson, an epic scifi poem (perhaps the only example of
that genre?) written in 1956.

------
waterlesscloud
Re-reading Steel Beach by John Varley. A sort of post-singularity romp from
1992.

Politics And The Occult, by Gary Lachman. Much what it sounds like, a history
of occult movements in politics.

The Lunar Men, by Jenny Uglow. Non-fiction about the Lunar Society, a science
club in 18th century England.

------
drallison
Machines of Loving Grace by John Markoff.

The cover says the book is a "sweeping history of the complicated and evolving
relationships between humans and computer" and it is just that. A literate and
thoughtful history with an eye towards the future.

------
deskamess
In between books right now, but...

Next one:

Genocide of One - Takano

Previous three:

Malice - Keigo Higashino

The Devotion of Suspect X - Keigo Higashino

Salvation of A Saint - Keigo Higashino

------
rajeshmr
I dont wish to interrupt the discussion, but am genuinely curious as to how
you make time for reading ? Do you read as a daily ritual ? or do you block
time for reading ? Weekends maybe ?

How do you fit reading while running a family ?

~~~
blumkvist
Both. Reading in bed gives me an hour or so. Weekends give me ~10 hours or so.
Holidays give me a ton of time. Then there are audiobooks and commute.

~~~
rajeshmr
If you are a family man then I assume weekends take their own turns..!
Unplanned shoppings, outings, guests etc..

Sometimes i feel a sabbatical would be ideal.. But then very few companies are
open to the concept!

------
dbwest
David Mitchell's first book. Was also reading 'Knockemstiff' but I decided 3/4
of the way through that I should read something less bleak.+1 for everything
@sshine mentioned.

------
malux85
Godel, Escher and Bach

The elements of statistical learning

The murders of the Rue Morge (Poe stories mix)

------
tsax
Anathem by Neal Stephenson

------
iliaznk
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

------
jensnockert
Romance of the Three Kingdoms, not sure why, but I have this tingling feeling
that it holds some hints and tidbits about Chinese culture and history.

------
thenomad
_The Art Of Asking_ by Amanda Palmer.

More autobiography and less advice than I was expecting, but very interesting,
and extremely engaging.

------
kabouseng
The witcher series, done with 4 of the 7 books.

------
urxvt
The Death of the West, by Patrick J. Buchanan. Looking at the Western Europe I
thought that it is the time for such books.

------
smartial_arts
Just finished, in the following order:

\- Blindsight

\- Echopraxia

\- Colonel

by Peter Watts. Though I should've read the 'Colonel' before 'Echopraxia' in
the hindsight.

------
bradleyland
G.K Chesterton, All Things Considered

Light, but full of pragmatism.

------
simplegeek
"Kafka on the shore" by Haruki Murakami.

------
pgathogo
Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins, awesome stuff

------
rffn
Sevenenves - Neal Stephenson

------
ariamokr
Armada

------
blumkvist
Tai-Pan by James Clavell (of Shogun fame).

It's about the founding of Hong Kong after the first Opium War. History,
Morale, Politics, Ambition, Money, Power and Love viewed through 2 different
cultures. I discovered it after listening to Shogun (I read it a few years
back) and was happy as a little kid when I discovered there are more books to
read. It does not disappoint so far.

~~~
scott_s
"King Rat" is on my stack. I read "Shogun", and I'm curious about "King Rat"
because he _was_ a Japanese POW, and "King Rat" is his first novel, and that's
what it's about.

~~~
a3n
I read both in the 70s, in the Navy. They're both fascinating. You get to do a
lot of reading on a deployed ship.

King Rat was a pretty good movie too.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Rat_%28film%29](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Rat_%28film%29)

------
PersonalDay
Profiles of the Future by Arthur C Clarke. 3º Any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic.

