
Ask HN: What should I read this summer? - nahcub
I&#x27;m looking to compile a reading list for this summer, and I&#x27;m sure other HNers would love to have a list of suggestions from the community.<p>I&#x27;ll read just about anything, so what are some of  your favorite books, both fiction and nonfiction?
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dirktheman
I'm re-reading all the classics they made you read in high school. Melville,
Darwin, Machiavelli, Kafka, Camus, Kant, you name it. At the time, I didn't
realize why they were so highly regarded. Now that my mind matured somewhat
I'm beginning to see.

A good example of this is The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. I read it a good
20 years ago as part of an English literature assignment. It wasn't too hard
to read, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I re-read it last year,
and was blown away, not only because I read a lot more on the Great
Depression/Dust Bowl period, but also because of the writing style of
Steinbeck. Hemingway: the same. The tone, the rhythm, the choice of words...
pure art. Like this gem from The Great Gatsby (it's about turning 30):
"Thirty: the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men
to know, a thinning brief-case of enthousiasm, thinning hair". One sentence,
perfectly describing the anxiety of turning 30... I could go on forever, but
all I want to say is: don't forget the classics!

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a3n
If you skim this, you'll find decent lists amidst the false positives:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=read#!/story/forever/0/read](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=read#!/story/forever/0/read)

Or this:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=books#!/story/forever/0/books](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=books#!/story/forever/0/books)

Or this:

[https://hn.algolia.com/?q=papers#!/story/forever/0/papers](https://hn.algolia.com/?q=papers#!/story/forever/0/papers)

Or this:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=books%20...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=books%20lists&go=Go)

My specific response to a similar query:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7620928](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7620928)

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lawncheer
I am not a Steven King fan really, have only seen 1 or 2 of his movies, and
never read anything by him; but I randomly picked up 11/22/63: A Novel, and
read through it in 2 days, it was awesome.

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determinant
I like Nate Silver's book, "The Signal and the Noise." If you read it, you
shouldn't focus on the scenarios he describes specifically. You should try to
take his mindset, walk away from the book, and try to decode the signal from
the noise everywhere.

It's a helpful book, perhaps maybe even more so than your typical self-help
book. I would have liked for such a book to have existed when I was a
teenager.

~~~
karangoeluw
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Signal-Noise-Many-
Predictions/dp/1...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Signal-Noise-Many-
Predictions/dp/159420411X)

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pearjuice
The Harry Poter novels. Sometimes underrated, but those works are serious
pieces of literature. You will learn a lot about story integrity and using
your fantasy to accomplish anything your mind implies is possible.

Not only will you see a slight fathom of the concepts behind a successful
chain of best-selling books, you will also have a great narrative of things
which are in no way possible yet seem so extremely likely to exist.

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tjr
Some books I've read recently that I enjoyed:

 _Mindstorms_ and _The Children 's Machine_ by Seymour Papert

 _Privacy on the Line_ by Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau

 _Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea_ by Barbara Demick

 _Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men_ by Donald McCaig

 _How Children Learn the Meanings of Words_ by Paul Bloom

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rjf1990
Books that have really inspired me/changed my perspective:

Good to Great, by Jim Collins (and all his other books)

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh

Peak, by Chip Conley

As far as books I find entertaining and stimulating, but not necessarily
actionable, anything by Michael Lewis or Malcolm Gladwell.

