
Ask HN: Great books you read in 2009? - ryanwaggoner
I got a Kindle halfway through 2009 and I've been reading a lot more but I'm always on the lookout for great books. I'd love to hear about what books others in the HN community enjoyed during the last year and would recommend. I'm primarily looking for non-programming books, but if anything really blew you away, I'd love to hear about it.<p>Here are a few of my favorites:<p><i>Note: I'm not trying to start a flamewar, as I didn't agree with all the books below, just that I found them interesting and they inspired further research and exploration on my part.</i><p><i>The Family</i>, by Jeff Sharlet - Fascinating overview of the intersection between American fundamentalist Christianity and conservative ideology and how they gave birth to the "Religious Right".<p><i>The Fountainhead</i>, by Ayn Rand - Philosophical novel that uses architecture as a metaphor to introduce the tenants of Objectivism.<p><i>His Majesty's Dragon</i>, by Naomi Novik - Alternate-history fantasy set in the Napoleanic Wars. The entire series was very enjoyable, and I don't usually enjoy fantasy.<p><i>The Omnivore's Dilemma</i>, by Michael Pollen - Overview of our food, how it is grown, and the things we should know about it. I found it very persuasive without being preachy and it completely revolutionized the way I eat and view food in general.
======
coderholic
I finally finished "Godel, Escher, Bach" in 2009, after starting and giving up
on it a few times previously. A great book, but it does require a lot of time
and some serious thinking with a pencil and pad to do some working out (or at
least it did for me).

The best book I read in 2009 (and possibly ever!) was "Fooled By Randomness" -
a fantastic book that I can't recommend enough. I also read the sequel, "Black
Swans", that was interesting but not in the same league.

"Made to stick" was also a great book, with lots of great marketing advice
that is simple to follow.

~~~
rmorrison
I agree that Fooled By Randomness was a good read, but since then Taleb has
become too wrapped up in self-aggrandizement, and he now thinks way to highly
of himself and his abilities.

He lost me when he started writing articles like Ten Principles for a Black
Swan-Proof World (<http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/tenprinciples.pdf>).
Isn't the point about Black Swans that they're impossible to protect against?

~~~
tokenadult
_Isn't the point about Black Swans that they're impossible to protect
against?_

No, actually. The point about Black Swans is that they are impossible to
predict. But one can plan to avoid the severe CONSEQUENCES of unpredictable
events. The illustration that Taleb gave in a conference talk video once
posted to HN was that a resident of Florida doesn't know when the next
hurricane will come, but can build a house that is more resistant to hurricane
damage than the typical house. Similarly, some investment strategies can be
genuinely hedged against rare events that will happen at unknown times, while
other investment strategies expose the investor to debts greater than the
original investment.

------
dschobel
_The Bet_ by Anton Chekhov

You can read it here: <http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-
stories/UBooks/Bet.shtml>

It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. It's so fantastically misanthropic, I
cannot recommend it enough.

The prisoner's polemic against society at the end is just legendary.

------
herdrick
Judea Pearl's _Probabilistic Reasoning in Intelligent Systems: Networks of
Plausible Inference_. I'm not finished with it yet, though. (It might be
superceded by his _Causality_ which I'd also like to read.) It's provided some
"aha", scales falling from eyes moments. I'd guess it's the most important
book - for me - I've read in years, perhaps ever. Highly recommended (with the
caveat about his other book perhaps being better).

~~~
Eliezer
Seconded _hard_.

If you have to read only one of these, read _Probabilistic Reasoning in
Intelligent Systems_.

------
paulgb
The best book I read in 2009 was _The Selfish Gene_ by Richard Dawkins. It's
surprisingly accessible (I've never taken a biology class), and talks a lot
about evolutionary game theory which I found fascinating.

Some other books I read last year:

 _How the Mind Works_ by Steven Pinker. It was a great book, Pinker's writing
is accessible and entertaining. Much more so than _On Intelligence_ by Jeff
Hawkins.

 _More with Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight_ by Paul
Ciotti. I really enjoyed this one, it was the story of the first team to cross
the English channel with human-powered flight.

 _What the Dog Saw_ by Malcolm Gladwell. I liked this one better than
Gladwell's other books. There is less theorizing and arguing a point and more
telling stories, which is what Gladwell excels at.

 _The Mind's I_ by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett. If you are patient
with what is sometimes (in my humble opinion) pointlessly arguing semantics,
some of the sections are interesting.

~~~
nimrody
If you liked "The Selfish Gene" you might also consider reading Kevin Davies'
_Cracking the Genome_. The book describes the race to sequencing the full
human genome and the implications of that research. Fascinating.

Made me wish I had taken biology...

~~~
paulgb
Thanks, I've added it to my list. I feel the same way about wishing I had
taken biology. At least there's always books.

------
daeken
The Machinery of Freedom (David Friedman) -- Great book on a potential
anarcho-capitalist society and how we could push the US government in that
direction.

The Game (Neil Strauss) -- See nopassrecover's response; he explained it well.

Little Brother (Cory Doctorow) -- A fantastic novel about freedom and
technology.

Makers (Cory Doctorow) -- A great novel about people who create, whether
technology or business models. Perhaps the best book I read this year.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (Cory Doctorow) -- The story of a man
working in Disney World, which is now part of the Bitchun Society (a post-
scarcity, post-death society). A story of love, betrayal, and death; how can
you go wrong? Worth it for the concept of Whuffie (you'll need to read it to
really get it) alone.

Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson) -- The evolution of a society towards post-
scarcity, written around the story of a young girl's growth into an adult.
Best post-cyberpunk book written thus far, IMO.

~~~
chasingsparks
I'm a huge Stephenson fan, but I felt let down by the Diamond Age's ending. It
felt like it was missing 30 pages.

~~~
Xichekolas
None of Stephenson's books really have much of an ending (or in some cases
much of a coherent plot)... the closest I can think of (in the way of endings)
is Snow Crash.

But he writes with wonderful detail and humor, and seems really great at
writing believable near-term futures, which I imagine are much harder than
writing about the distant future (where everything can be fantastical).

------
RevRal
A bunch of books by _Kahlil Gibran_. Read _The Prophet_ twice.

 _One Hundred Years Of Solitude_ by _Gabriel Garcia Marquez_

 _Love In The Time Of Cholera_ by _Gabriel Garcia Marquez_

 _The Problem Of Pain_ by _C S Lewis_

 _Disgrace_ by _J M Coetzee_

 _The Road_ by _Cormac McCarthy_

 _Blood Meridian_ by _Cormac McCarthy_

 _The Piano Teacher_ by _Elfriede Jelinek_

 _On Writing_ by _Stephen King_

 _Atonement_ by _Ian McEwan_

 _Dictionary Of The Khazars_ by _Milorad Pavic_

 _Candide_ by _Voltaire_

 _The Labyrinth Of Solitude | Life And Thought In Mexico_ by _Ocavio Paz_

I finished that last one today. Read this:

All men, at some moment in their lives, feel themselves to be alone. And they
are. To live is to be separated from what we were in order to approach what we
are going to be in the mysterious future. Solitude is the profoundest fact of
the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only
one who seeks out another. His nature -- if that word can be used in reference
to man, who has "invented" himself by saying "No" to nature -- consists in his
longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for
communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of
another, that is, of his solitude.

I recommend this old book.

------
streblo
I just finished reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. It's really
long and a little digressive (1079 pages, took me 3 months to finish), but was
one of the most entertaining and brilliant books I've ever read. I highly
recommend it.

------
frankus
_Good Calories, Bad Calories_ by Gary Taubes. He starts with a takedown of the
dietary fat-heart disease hypothesis, moves on to the dietary fat-obesity
link. Finally he makes a convincing argument that neither eating less nor
exercising more are good ways to lose weight.

~~~
sabat
"... and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself
killed on the next zebra crossing."

~~~
pizza
Would it really matter? I mean, you could still detect the contrast between
the two and walk safely across.

------
jamiequint
Liar's Poker - Michael Lewis [http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Poker-Rising-
Through-Wreckage/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Liars-Poker-Rising-Through-
Wreckage/dp/0140143459/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262387407&sr=1-1)

In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan [http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-
Eaters-Manifesto/dp/01431...](http://www.amazon.com/Defense-Food-Eaters-
Manifesto/dp/0143114964/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262387387&sr=1-1)

When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management - Roger
Lowenstein [http://www.amazon.com/When-Genius-Failed-Long-Term-
Managemen...](http://www.amazon.com/When-Genius-Failed-Long-Term-
Management/dp/0375758259)

------
zaidf
Game Theory At Work [http://www.amazon.com/Game-Theory-Work-Outmaneuver-
Competiti...](http://www.amazon.com/Game-Theory-Work-Outmaneuver-
Competition/dp/0071400206/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262387005&sr=1-1)

PayPal Wars [http://www.amazon.com/PayPal-Wars-Battles-Media-
Planet/dp/09...](http://www.amazon.com/PayPal-Wars-Battles-Media-
Planet/dp/0977898431/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262386990&sr=1-1)

Stealing MySpace [http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-MySpace-Control-Popular-
Websi...](http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-MySpace-Control-Popular-
Website/dp/1400066948)

Predictably Irrational [http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Hidden-
Forces-D...](http://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Hidden-Forces-
Decisions/dp/006135323X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262387095&sr=1-1)

------
xorphy
I basically discovered Vernor Vinge.

 _A Fire Upon the Deep_ , by Vernor Vinge

 _A Deepness in the Sky_ , by Vernor Vinge

 _The Peace War_ , by Vernor Vinge

 _Marooned in Realtime_ , by Vernor Vinge

 _Hyperion_ , by Dan Simmons

 _Mrs. Perkins's Electric Quilt_ , a fun book about some math and physics
problems

~~~
billswift
_The Peace War_ and _Marooned in Realtime_ are also in a one volume _Across
Realtime_ , which also includes his entertaining novella _The Ungoverned_
which introduces some of the characters, including W W Brierson (sp?) of
_Marooned_.

------
chasingsparks
_Death of a Salesman._ This is yet another book that you are forced to read
prematurely in middle or high school. At the time, it was a frustrating
exercise; upon rereading it at age 25, I thought it was fantastic.

I also enjoyed _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time_. It was
very creative.

Sadly, I had no books that yielded a personal intellectual epoch this year.

------
nopassrecover
Some books that stood out this year (many not for their intended reasons)

The 4 Hour Work Week (Tim Ferriss) \- In parts entertaining, interesting,
self-promoting, educational, inspirational, attractive and undesirable.
Definitely worth the read and a great call to action. Will make you consider
what you want and how you can achieve it.

The Game (Neil Strauss) \- Truly interesting story and an interesting view on
human dynamics and hacking one of the more important systems (dating). A great
view on what is most important - ends or means. Will make you consider how
people work, what motivates them and whether success cures emptiness.

Losing my Virginity (Richard Branson) \- The awesome and entertaining story of
Virgin with lots of great advice and startup David vs Goliath inspiration.
Will make you consider what determination and the little guy can achieve.

Business Stripped Bare (Richard Branson) \- Branson's more focused take on
business advice and patches on bits of the Virgin story since the first book.
Will make you consider the power of being genuine and growing a company with
people treated as smart humans.

On Writing (Stephen King) \- Most inspirational and compelling book on writing
I've read. Half writing advice half King biography all awesome. Will make you
consider becoming a novelist.

Coders at Work (Peter Siebel) \- Haven't finished yet but great interviews of
leading coders. I didn't enjoy Founders at Work (personally found it a bit
indirect/not deep enough) but in Coders at Work you really feel the connection
between interviewer and interviewee while at the same time getting a lot of
incidental startup advice as these coders have all had decent roles to play in
Silicon Valley etc. history. Will make you consider if you're actually a
better coder than you thought.

Think and Grow Rich (Napoleon Hill) \- Reads a bit like a bad Internet ad at
times but that's because they stole that technique from here. This book
summarizes the techniques that lead to success based on numerous interviews of
most of the greatest leaders of the early 20th century. Pretty good bits in
here and again inspiration fuel. Will make you consider how you can take
charge of your self and your life.

Letters From a Stoic (Seneca) \- Decent musings on living life and mastering
oneself. As relevant today as 2 thousand years ago. Will make you consider how
you can master your self and what you will let affect you.

Here Comes Everybody (Clay Shirky) \- The best book on online community I've
read. Shirky makes you want to make a difference and communicates his
enthusiasm for the power of the masses with ease. Will make you consider how
to enable communities to achieve unthought of goals.

------
sivers
(The links here bring you to my notes from each book, and the ISBN number for
each so you can find it easily at your favorite library/store/whatever.)

How We Decide - by Jonah Lehrer: Brilliant book with one clear message: our
emotional brain is faster and usually smarter than our logical brain. Our
emotions are trained by years of logic and experience, retaining it all for
real wisdom. Many decisions are better made by going with the gut feeling.
Gets a little too technical with deep brain/neuro/cortex talk, but brings it
back to usable points. <http://sivers.org/book/HowWeDecide>

The Investor's Manifesto - by William J. Bernstein: Absolutely my favorite
author and advisor on the subject of investing. Anyone with any money to
invest (or already invested) please read this book. Such clear thinking, using
only facts, and using numbers not guesses. Modern portfolio theory: use
passive indexes of the entire market, no speculation, no stock picking, and
avoid the entire fee-sucking financial industry.
<http://sivers.org/book/InvestorsManifesto>

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives - by David Eagleman: Fiction. Awesomely
creative think-piece of 40 different short stories of what happens when you
die. To be clear: the author is not pretending this is fact! The framework is
inspiring for anyone: coming up with 40 different answers to any one question.
<http://sivers.org/book/Sum>

The Talent Code - by Daniel Coyle: A great book showing that deep practice -
(struggling in certain targeted ways - operating at the edges of your ability,
where you make mistakes - experiences where you're forced to slow down, make
errors, and correct them) - is what really makes you improve at anything.
<http://sivers.org/book/TalentCode>

Influence - by Robert Cialdini: Classic book on the psychology of persuasion.
I read it 15 years ago, thought about it ever since, and re-read it now. How
to get a 700% improvement in volunteers. How to sell more by doubling your
prices. How to make people feel they made a choice, when really you made it
for them. <http://sivers.org/book/Influence>

The Time Paradox - by Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd: See my in-depth article
about this book at <http://sivers.org/time>
<http://sivers.org/book/TimeParadox>

------
ardell
Atlas Shrugged - finally got around to reading it after dozens of
recommendations from good friends. Shocking how relevant and prophetic it is,
especially with respect to the events of 2009.

~~~
jberryman
*eye roll

~~~
rinich
It's the reaction everybody has with Rand. To be completely fair to her, she
introduces a lot of people to ideas they haven't grappled with before. I'm
still glad I read her, even if, three years after, I disagree with all but a
strand of her ideas.

I doubt it's worth having another HN debate about Rand, though. We've
thoroughly exhausted that discussion.

~~~
jimmyjim
I would be interested in reading up on those. Could you perhaps give a link? I
tried googling, but I didn't get very interesting results. Maybe you can think
of a few memorable discussions that?

~~~
rinich
Two memorable discussions here in which I played a seminal part:

<http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=359551>

The link died, but it was a comparison between Rand and Gladwell, and provoked
a lot of interesting conversation/drama. That's pretty old; I was actually
still arguing in _favor_ of Rand.

<http://news.ycombinator.net/item?id=499109>

This one has some of the most elegant denunciations: This was one of the few
arguments that wasn't overridden by one side or another.

But if you want a really terrific online discussion, I'm going to abandon ship
and give you a link to MetaFilter instead, which starts with a series of
critical articles and leads on to one of the most lucid, multifaceted
discussions of Rand's many flaws I've ever seen. This was the discussion that
severed the last of my connections to Rand and her philosophy.

[http://www.metafilter.com/86325/She-screamed-You-have-
reject...](http://www.metafilter.com/86325/She-screamed-You-have-rejected-me-
You-have-dared-to-reject-me-Me-your-highest-value)

rdtsc's link is thorough, but dry reading. I found it harder to digest than
the community conversations.

~~~
CamperBob
_But if you want a really terrific online discussion, I'm going to abandon
ship and give you a link to MetaFilter instead, which starts with a series of
critical articles and leads on to one of the most lucid, multifaceted
discussions of Rand's many flaws I've ever seen._

I'm not defending Rand, but is it really intellectually honest to judge her
stated principles by her behavior, as most of her critics do? Many of the most
influential philosophers in all schools of thought have proven to be either
hypocritical or downright nuts.

It's easy to attack someone as flawed as Rand, and it's even easier to attack
strawmen fashioned from bits and pieces of her work. Neither of these facts
tell you anything about the quality or relevance of her overall message.

~~~
rinich
Actually, the linked discussion mentions that also. When discussing such an
inherently flawed philosophy, it's important to really think about the origins
of Rand's thoughts. Why did she think the way she did? Who inspired her?
Objectivism is not a stand-alone philosophy.

In particular, the talk about her and the mass murderer horrified me. When her
ideal of humanity cut a young girl to pieces, you have to wonder if the
sadomasochism in her philosophy was more a personal kink than it was some step
of logic.

------
vira
American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai
Bird and Martin Sherwin.

\- Captivating and well researched. This book not only captures the life of a
genius, but also exposes the politics and propaganda of WWII, the Cold War and
nuclear proliferation (which were conveniently omitted from my government-set
high school curriculum), as well as raising issue of morality and the ethical
responsibilities of scientists. Interested in start-ups? They don't come
bigger than the Manhattan Project. Most of the guys in Los Alamos at the time
were in their 20s.

Two books by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and
For The Good of the Cause.

\- Both are brilliant. Solzenitsyn's language is powerful and descriptive yet
simple and concise. Since reading his books, I consciously look at the entropy
of other writers.

Ambedkar and Buddhism by Sangarakshita

\- An interesting account of the life of a great man, who's philosophy should
be read by anyone who hails from the Indian sub-continent.

A Fraction of The Whole by Steve Toltz.

\- A book lover's book, Toltz's novel made me laugh out loud at numerous
times. A fun read, made better by the fact that he's Aussie.

------
sidsavara
I just finished a _ton_ of great books, some that immediately come to mind:

The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris - Really made me think about life and
the work I do

Tribes by Seth Godin - Love this book.

The Dip by Seth Godin - read it before, reread it again this year

Personal Development for Smart People by Steve Pavlina - really had to
struggle to get past the beginning, was fantastic once I did

Find Your Great Work by Michael Bungary Stanier - I liked this one a lot,
motivational

The Power of Less by Leo Babauta - no surprises here, I enjoyed the book, it
reads like you would expect it to. Some new insights that aren't on the blog

Superfreakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Dubner

Blink, The Tipping Point and Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (I liked The Tipping
Point the best out of those 3)

Free by...Chris Anderson (?) I forget. Very interesting.

Team Up by Pete Mockaitis - Great read about accountability groups, subset of
a mastermind group IMO.

Collapse by Jared Diamond - Very interesting looks at patterns in
civilizations. Some people I spoke to get bored after a few examples, it is a
little repetitive but I enjoy the parallels

My old faves are of course Gettings Things Done, 7 Habits, Greatest Salesman
in The World, and How to Win Friends and Influence People.

More details here: [http://sidsavara.com/personal-development/best-personal-
deve...](http://sidsavara.com/personal-development/best-personal-development-
books-reading-list)

I regularly (and will be posting a bunch in the next couple weeks) post
reviews of books I read here: <http://sidsavara.com/product-reviews>

------
ErrantX
Risk, the science of politics and fear by Dan Gardner (absolutely fantastic
book, I already mentioned it on here earlier in the year).

The Game (again). I read this regularly to remind me of a few things - it's
the book that originally got me fascinated in human interaction.

Nemesis (Richard Mullers theory) after a recommendation on HN.

A couple of Obama's books (seemed logical to read up on him)- dreams of my
Father I especially liked.

Snowball (though still chugging through that).

In Search of Schrodinger's Cat - a book all about the evolution of quantum
theory (and one that gives me my favourite quote of the year: _In 1905
Einstein actually published 5 times. The fifth being his PHD dissertation; yes
those three individually genius works, which shook the very foundations of
physics, were published my a man called Mr Einstein._ Despite the artistic
license I still love it as a quote :))

------
tokenadult
My favorite read in early 2009 was What Intelligence Tests Miss: The
Psychology of Rational Thought by Keith Stanovich

[http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Tests-Miss-
Psycholog...](http://www.amazon.com/What-Intelligence-Tests-Miss-
Psychology/dp/030012385X/)

which is full of helpful information on developing the kind of cognition
missed by IQ tests that constitutes rationality, very important information
for parents, educators, and business leaders.

2009, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th
anniversary of the publication of his book On the Origin of Species, has been
a banner year for new books on evolutionary biology. Some of my favorites
include

Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne

[http://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-
Coyne/dp/0670...](http://www.amazon.com/Why-Evolution-True-Jerry-
Coyne/dp/0670020532/)

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins

[http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-
Evolution...](http://www.amazon.com/Greatest-Show-Earth-Evidence-
Evolution/dp/1416594787/)

and

Evolution: The First Four Billion Years edited by Michael Ruse and Joseph
Travis.

[http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-First-Four-Billion-
Years/dp/...](http://www.amazon.com/Evolution-First-Four-Billion-
Years/dp/067403175X/)

All are full of up to date information about biology, which, as Thedosius
Dobzhansky said, only makes sense in the light of evolution.

SuperFreakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

[http://www.amazon.com/SuperFreakonomics-Cooling-Patriotic-
Pr...](http://www.amazon.com/SuperFreakonomics-Cooling-Patriotic-Prostitutes-
Insurance/dp/0060889578)

is enjoyable and thought-provoking, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, for all
the usual reasons applying to collaborations by those two authors.

------
bayareaguy
Although actually released in late 2008, my favorite book for 2009 was Neal
Stephenson's _Anathem_.

------
jseliger
I like that you ask for "Great books you read in 2009," as opposed to great
books published in 2009, as so many newspapers do. The question as you
formulate it will probably lead to more of the same books popping up over and
over again, but that's probably okay.

I actually wrote about the topic here: [http://jseliger.com/2009/12/27/the-
years-best-in-reading-not...](http://jseliger.com/2009/12/27/the-years-best-
in-reading-not-in-publishing) . Of the books on the list, I'd say that Daniel
Gilbert's _Stumbling on Happiness_ and Lev Grossman's _The Magicians_ were my
favorite. Both might not qualify as "great," but they both moved me and made
me think, which few books accomplish.

~~~
sivers
Hell yeah: Stumbling on Happiness is one of my favorite books I've ever read
in my life. It profoundly changed the way I look at the world, and how I make
decisions about what to do. I really like your essay about it! As you say: it
"ought to be required reading for those who are alive"

[http://jseliger.com/2009/04/23/stumbling-on-
happiness-—-dani...](http://jseliger.com/2009/04/23/stumbling-on-
happiness-—-daniel-gilbert/)

------
StrawberryFrog
_introduce the tenants of Objectivism_

How much rent do they pay? And what kind of landlady is Ms Rand.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Touché.

------
rnicholson
Finally got around to reading 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?' Blew me
away. So much better than the film adaptation.

~~~
forsaken
I think that the screensaver adaption is just right, though :)

~~~
algorias
Most definitely.

<http://community.electricsheep.org/>

------
blahblahblah
_Revelation Space_ , by Alastair Reynolds - Quirky sci-fi novel with a
xenoarchaeology angle

 _Hunters of Dune_ , by Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson - I'm not
recommending this one on the basis of the writing. I'd recommend it only to
those who read all of Frank Herbert's original Dune series and have been
hanging in suspense ever since because the cliffhanger ending of Chapterhouse
Dune was never resolved due to Frank's untimely death. They based the book on
Frank's outline, but it clearly would have been a better book if it had been
written by Frank. Nonetheless, it is satisfying to resolve the unanswered
questions: Who the heck are these Honored Matres and what were they running
away from?

 _Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings_, by Jorges Luis Borges - This
is kind of a quirky collection of short stories that are all mindbenders of
one variety or another. The best description I can give of Borges is that
reading him is kind of like solving puzzles.

 _Across the Nightingale Floor: Tales of the Otori_ , by Lain Hearn -
Historical fiction set in feudal Japan with lords and their retainers,
assassins, etc.

 _The Lost Symbol_ , by Dan Brown - If you liked The Da Vinci Code or Angels &
Demons, you'll probably like this one as well. While Dan Brown will probably
never write anything that matches the utter genius of Umberto Eco's
_Foucault's Pendulum_ , he is entertaining in his own way and worth a read.

~~~
Tichy
The Lost Symbol sucked - I was entertained by Vinci Code and Illuminati, even
though some of the riddles seemed chilidish. But Lost Symbol adds an
unnecessary esoteric, New Age angle ("Twitter is god"), and the riddles have
become too ridiculous. One of them is turning some letters on their head to
make them readable. Another thing were "magic squares" - so I guess because
they have "magic" in the name they have to be something deep and
conspirational...

------
NathanKP
My favorite book of 2009 was The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki:

[http://experimentgarden.blogspot.com/2009/12/critical-
analys...](http://experimentgarden.blogspot.com/2009/12/critical-analysis-
wisdom-of-crowds-by.html)

The book shows how groups can work together to do great things. It also shows
why some groups fail miserably. Overall I found it very helpful and
enlightening in that it helped my understanding of group dynamics and how to
take advantage of the full power of groups.

------
Wump
_The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time._ by Mark Haddon
([http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-
Time/dp/140...](http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-
Time/dp/1400032717/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262422668&sr=8-1)) -
engaging story written from the point of view of an austistic teenager. One of
my favorite characters in any book I've ever read.

 _Crashing Through_ by Robert Kurson
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812973682/ref=ox_ya_oh_pro...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812973682/ref=ox_ya_oh_product))
- inspiring story of sight restoration to a lifelong blind man. Fascinating
exploration on vision, learning, and a lot of other stuff we take for granted.

 _The Tao of Pooh_ by Benjamin Hoff
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140067477/ref=ox_ya_oh_pro...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140067477/ref=ox_ya_oh_product))
- Taoism and Winnie the Pooh. 'nuff said.

 _Life Entrepreneurs_ by Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787988626/ref=ox_ya_oh_pro...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787988626/ref=ox_ya_oh_product))
- applying and expanding the principles of entrepreneurship to your life as a
whole, not just your business.

 _Revolutionary Road_ by Richard Yates
([http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307454622/ref=ox_ya_oh_pro...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307454622/ref=ox_ya_oh_product))
- I thought the movie was great, and this book is great too, in a different
way. The writing is clean and evocative, the dialogue is provoking and
realistic. I'm a fan of Richard Yates after reading this book.

------
teeja
Charles Stross, 'Accelerando'

Stephenson, 'Anathem' (first 150 pages slow)

~~~
murrayb
Re Anathem first 150 pages- if the story had stayed in the Concents then the
level of detail may have been justified, but in the end I was annoyed that he
spent so long creating the Concents just to throw them away. Editor fail.

------
brown9-2
Non-fiction:

 _Coders at Work_ by Peter Siebel and _Founders at Work_ by Jessica Livingston
- I loved reading about the founder's stories and first-hand perspectives of
notable programmers.

 _The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work_ by Alain de Botton - really interesting
perspective on "work" and various types of careers and people that find
happiness in them/work itself.

 _Superfreakonomics_ by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner - even if you don't
agree with their arguments or think that the authors are all fluff, I think
that their writing style is exceptionally clear and easy to understand.

 _The Black Swan_ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - some really interesting ideas and
analysis, although the book could have been 1/2 as short

Fiction:

 _Anathem_ by Neal Stephenson - starts out slow but after the first 200 pages
it became a really great story that I couldn't put down.

 _Life of Pi_ by Yann Martel - loved the main story of the book, the
controversial ending didn't bother me too much because I don't feel like it
takes away from the story at all.

 _The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo_ and _The Girl Who Played With Fire_ by
Stieg Larsson - cheap fun and suspenseful

 _The Road_ by Cormac McCarthy - I don't think much needs to be said about
this book

 _White Tiger_ by Aravind Adiga - extremely interesting and gripping novel
about a side of the world most of us Westerners never see

 _Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy_ by Douglas Adams - finally read this
classic. I read the "Ultimate Edition" which contains all 5 of Adams' novel,
loved the first one but the story felt like it started to putter out by the
third.

~~~
drewolson
I have to second The Road. Any book that I finish in a single sitting has a
special quality. I would say it is my favorite book of the past 5 years and in
my top 10 of all time.

------
roundsquare
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" - Robert
M. Prisig

I wouldn't say I agree with all of it, but its a great read nonetheless.

~~~
julius_geezer
Definitely a great read. By the way, if you find Pirsig on the sophists
interesting, you might look up Lev Shestov, _Potestas Clavium_.

------
diego
Recently I've been reading books about different facets of human nature. Some
of my favorites:

\- Spent, by Geoffrey Miller (evolutionary psychology, sex, consumerism)

\- Gang Leader for a Day, by Sudhir Venkatesh

\- Predictably Irrational, by Dan Ariely

Here's a short blog post about these books and a few others.

[http://ogeid.com/weblog/2010/01/some-books-about-human-
natur...](http://ogeid.com/weblog/2010/01/some-books-about-human-nature/)

------
adamhowell
The War of Art (again) - I reread this book at least once a year. IMHO one of
the best books ever written on the creative process, no matter what you're
creating.

In Defense of Food - Best criticism of the problems with reductionist
"nutrition-ism" I've read.

They Made America - Good, quick history of some of America's most
revolutionary inventors, businessmen and women.

------
yurifury
_Sperm Wars_ \- A fascinating evolutionary biology book focusing on sperm
competition.

 _Caesar_ by Christian Meier - Got totally hooked on this, wonderful read.

 _Happy Hour is for Amateurs_ \- Novel by web author Philalawyer. Drugs,
Alcohol and the Lawyering profession, written in a gonzo-style.

 _War of Art_

------
julius_geezer
Some on this list are great, some just good:

_The Critique of Pure Reason_--got about halfway through 30 years ago, set it
aside, picked it up again. Probably shorter than <i>The Fountainhead</i> but
takes a long time to read.

_The Vindication of Tradition_, Jaroslav Pelikan, theology, very short quick
read.

_Netherland_ by Joseph O'Neill, via the neighborhood book club. Interesting
picture of New York, thin characterization.

_The Library at Night_, Alberto Manguel, actually a gift to my wife from a
friend of hers. Good browsing book.

_Untimely Thoughts_ by Nietzche. Probably not a great place to start Nietzche,
but at least the first essay is interesting.

_The Spectator Bird_, Wallace Stegner. Good novel, though maybe not my
favorite Stegner.

_Germany 1866-1945_ by Gordon Craig. Long, very readable.

------
andrewcooke
is fiction ok? i live in chile and stumbled across bolano's books
(particularly the savage detectives and 2666) in spanish just as they became
popular in english in the usa (2666 was released in translation).

savage detectives is a funny account of adolescent "poets" in mexico; 2666 is
a much darker, somewhat rambling tome that addresses "evil". they're very
different, but both great books.

for non-fiction the book i've used most this year is an old classic - harbison
& steele's "c a reference manual". it's invaluable (if you're writing c). i
don't know how people can prefer kernighan & ritchie...

~~~
tjr
I think that K&R works better as a tutorial, as an introduction to C
programming. Once you're generally comfortable with C, Steele's book is a much
better reference.

------
namin
The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Green -- vulgarizes relativity and quantum
theories and touches upon string theory, emphasizing the consequences of those
theories on the properties of space and time.

------
adam-_-
Flat Earth News - Nick Davies: An interesting discussion about falsehood and
PR in newspapers and the media generally.

Hackers & Painters - Paul Graham: Read it this year and enjoyed it a lot.

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts: Awe inspiring "true" story about a convict
who escaped to India. Really made me want to take a trip to India. Perhaps not
the highest quality prose but a gripping story never-the-less.

A Simple Act of Violence - R J Ellory: I'm reading this right now and it's the
first book in a while that has really grabbed me. Well written crime/thriller
type book.

------
boundlessdreamz
1\. Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts): So good that mom stayed up until 3AM to
finish it.

2\. Mistborn trilogy (brandon sanderson): Gripping storytelling and by far one
of the best fantasy books i've ever read.

3\. Millennium trilogy (steig larsson): Hard to slot this book. On its face it
is a thriller but the book is merely the medium through which the author
lashes out against crimes toward women and corruption.In 2008, he was the
second-best selling author in the world

4\. American Shaolin (Matthew Polly): An exciting read but still do not know
what is fact and what is fiction. .

------
bearwithclaws
I actually just written a post about it: <http://bearwithclaws.com/the-best-
books-ive-read-in-2009>

------
pingswept
_Zeitoun_ by Dave Eggers. A sad story about a guy named Zeitoun in New Orleans
during Hurricane Katrina.

 _Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places_ by Paul Collier.
Someone smart thinks about how to move failed states toward democracy in such
a way that it sticks.

 _Dreams from My Father_ by Barack Obama. A good memoir, but particularly
interesting because he wrote it before he was famous.

 _Cliff Walk_ by Don Snyder. An English professor gets fired and becomes a
carpenter. Great if academia irritates you.

------
nailer
Anyone read 'Crush It'? Gary Vee seems like a scamster to me, but it seems
really popular in the wider tech community right now. I'd trust HN better than
my Twitter contacts...

~~~
Hates_
Yes and I thought it was great. It only takes a few hours to get through which
is a big bonus. My co-worker was a big "anti-veynerchucker", thinking he was
all talk with no real message. But he had a read of it on my Kindle and is now
a complete convert. He ended up dragging me to a talk by Gary and starting his
own video blog too.

------
wushupork
I got a Kindle as a gift too and I love it as well. I highly recommend you
play with it or at least borrow someone's (if they'll let you) if you doubt
you'll like it.

"Inside Steve's Brain" - Great book on the history of Apple, and the inner
workings of the company and the philosophy.

"Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi on the importance of networking and
building relationships.

"Trade-Off, Why Some Things Catch On, and Others Don't"

"The Pixar Touch" Great history of Pixar and how they came about.

"Call me Ted" - Ted Turner's autobiography

"How the Mighty Fall" Jim Collins

------
safetytrick
Thomas Hardy's Jude The Obscure, absolutely brilliant. Its littered with
literary goto statements, referencing every imaginable literary text. Its
really pretty cool, Its hard to follow along with, and harder to catch all of
the references but the norton edition fills half of each page with footnotes.
I really liked this book.
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039397278X?tag=safet-20>

------
julius_geezer
Four I had forgotten:

_Warrenpoint_ by Denis Donoghue. Memoirs of youth, beautifully written.

_The Great Melody: A Thematic Biography of Edmund Burke_ by Conor Cruise
O'Brien.

_Autobiographies_ by W. B. Yeats. This was I think the first time reading it
through, though 25 years ago I read a fair bit in a housemate's copy. There
are sentences that you will want to reread to see how he does it. And in the
art of payback, Yeats on George Moore makes Hemingway on
Fitzgerald/Ford/Stein/etc look amateurish.

_The Italians_ by Luigi Barzini.

------
rjett
I'm a fan of reading biographies and Open, Andre Agassi's biography, was a
very intriguing, enjoyable, and surprisingly well-written book.

The only other book I read this past year that stood out to me was GK
Chesterton's The Man Who was Thursday. I thought this was a very well written
allegorical spy novel that had some very quippy dialogue.

Next on my reading list I would like to read some Vladimir Nabokov since I've
never read any of his work. Has anyone else here read any of his books?

~~~
tokenadult
_Next on my reading list I would like to read some Vladimir Nabokov since I've
never read any of his work. Has anyone else here read any of his books?_

I read a lot of Nabokov beginning in high school and continuing into my
university studies (when I was initially a Russian language major). Nabokov is
very interesting to read. I like Speak, Memory

[http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Memory-Everymans-Library-
Cloth/d...](http://www.amazon.com/Speak-Memory-Everymans-Library-
Cloth/dp/0375405534/)

and his essays on literary criticism (which I'm not turning up just now as I
do an Amazon search, but which you should be able to find in a library). I'm
not such a big fan of his most famous novel, Lolita. I read it once and have
never reread it.

------
joe_bleau
Influence, Predictably Irrational, Fooled by Randomness, The Blank Slate,
House of Cards, and Planar Microwave Engineering come to mind.

------
Asa-Nisse
Recommendations:

\- Collapse by Jared Diamond,
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_%28book%29> about how we over-exploit
our planet.

\- The Lucifer Principle by Howard Bloom, psychological and cultural
explanations of how humans react to "memes" amongst other gems of knowledge.

\- The Eschaton series by Charles Stross (sci-fi).

------
nathanmarz
"Maverick" by Ricardo Semler - This book is about the company Semco in Brazil
and challenges everything you think you know about business. Semler advocates
radical ideas like public self-set salaries and workplace democracy. I don't
necessarily agree with everything in the book, but the ideas sure are
interesting.

------
jdlegg
"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy "What to
Listen For in Music" by Aaron Copland

------
rms
Two of my favorite books that are freely available online, both in the genre
of post-singularity utopian science fiction:

<http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/>

<http://craphound.com/down/download.php>

------
jeffreyg
Capitalism and Freedom - Milton Friedman

------
johnl
For non technical easy reads you might try:

River of America Books (History of specific Rivers)------ American Trails
Series (History of specific Trails)------ Great Game - Peter Hopkirk------
Black Lamb & Gray Falcon - Rebecca West - About Yugoslavia---- Lyndon Johnson
- Robert Caro - (3 books)

------
jakarta
Too Big to Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin - a great blow by blow account of the
financial crisis shortly after the fall of Bear Stearns. A really amazing look
at how decisions are made under extraordinary pressure. It is fast paced and
reads almost like a movie.

~~~
rogupta
I second that - 2/3 through and have a hard time putting it down. It's written
in a way that outsiders can understand the hour-by-hour details of the crisis.
While some of his opinions are clear, it seems mostly objective.

------
DTrejo
_Born to Run_

A book which touches on how we evolved to be super distance runners and
"persistence" hunters.

------
jsz0
Maybe not as high brow as some of the other suggestions here but I really
enjoyed Stephen King's Under The Dome. It's basically a story of small town
political corruption and the human tendency to be easily exploited by
dictatorial types in a crisis.

------
ALee
I made a google spreadsheet for those who didn't want to sort through the
list:

[http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tmL5TmhKKDQahw1tPQcrk...](http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tmL5TmhKKDQahw1tPQcrk-w&output=html)

------
paraschopra
Guns, Germs and Steel - still reading it but one of the best I 've read so
far..

~~~
drtse4
After that you should read "Collapse", it's even better than Guns,Germs and
steel imo.

~~~
olifante
no it's not. It's a good read, but not as seminal or breath taking as Guns,
Germs and Steel, a true modern classic.

------
knv
_Anathem,_ by Neal Stephenson

 _Consider Phlebas,_ by Iain M. Banks

 _Selfish Gene,_ by Richard Dawkins

 _Business Stripped Bare,_ by Richard Branson

 _Programming Collective Intelligence,_ by Toby Segaran

 _Zen and Art of Motorcycle Maintenance,_ by Robert Pirsig

~~~
drtse4
+1 for Selfish Gene, read a few years ago.

------
murrayb
Interesting/Recommended: The Snowball, Alice Schroeder

Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts

The Art of Happiness, HH Dalai Lama

Getting Things Done (I know I'm late to the party...)

Shop Class as Soulcraft, Matthew Crawford (I heard about that one here, thank-
you HN)

On Writing, Stephen King

------
anatoly
I got myself a Sony Reader mid-2009 and started reading about twice more than
I had been before. 2009 was also the first year in which I wasn't too lazy to
document which books I read (I'm really glad I wasn't). Here're some of the
favourites this year:

Classics:

Kafka's _The Process_ and _America_ \- both stunning novels that deserve to be
read as much as his most famous, _The Castle_.

Jan Potocki, _The Manuscript Found in Saragossa_ \- a trippy collection of
tales organised in multiple nested frames.

Scott Fitzgerald, _The Great Gatsby_.

Leo Tolstoy, _Anna Karenina_. Still as breathtaking as I'd remembered it from
the previous reading five years ago.

Science Fiction:

Gene Wolfe, _The Book of the New Sun_. Wolfe, whom I hadn't read before, turns
out to be in a class of his own. It's literary SF, overwhelmingly masterful
and beautiful in its prose and characters, yet it could give any hardcore SF
novel a run in terms of its ideas. It demands and richly rewards a close
reading. I'll be reading more Wolfe in 2010.

Ted Chiang, collected stories. Chiang writes only stories, and has written
just a few of them, but nearly every one is a gem. Read _Understand_ on the
web (<http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/under.htm>) to see if you like his
style - I do.

Vernor Vinge, _A Deepness in the Sky_ , _The Peace War_ , _Marooned in
Realtime_. All great novels, but start from _A Fire Upon the Deep_ (I read
that in 2008) if you haven't read Vinge before, it's the best introduction.

Greg Egan, _Diaspora_ , _Quarantine_ , _Distress_. Egan is the best hardcore
SF author out there. _Diaspora_ is a fascinating take on shared simulated
reality that's very different from the usual fare. _Quarantine_ will appeal to
your inner quantum mechanical geek.

Contemporary fiction:

Pynchon, _V_. Pynchon is the best novelist we've got. I recommend _The Crying
of the Lot 49_ as the best Pynchon to start from; _V_ is more difficult and
much longer, but rewards the patience. I still can't get over the fact that
Pynchon wrote and published this novel when he was 26.

Orhan Pamuk, _The Black Book_.

Annie Proulx, _Fine Just The Way It Is_. A new collection of stories from the
best writer about rural America out there. Three are extraordinary, two so-so,
the rest very good.

Non-fiction:

W. Sidney Allen, _Vox Graeca_ and _Vox Latina_. If you want to know how
ancient Greek and Latin sounded, these are the books to read.

Elizabeth Lloyd. _The Case Of The Female Orgasm_. An interesting study into
how available evolutionary explanations of female orgasm fail in various ways.
This is a book about evolutionary biology and its methodological soundness as
much as it is about explaining female orgasm.

Computer-related:

Peter Seibel, _Coders at Work_. A fantastic collection of interview with great
programmers. The one 2009 book no hacker should be without.

 _Squeak by Example_. Does a great job of explaining Smalltalk in general and
Squeak in particular.

~~~
yr
I'm amazed at the number of books you read in one year. Where do you get all
the time ?

~~~
anatoly
I read a lot in high school and college. After that, I continued to think of
myself as reading a lot, but the reality slowly diverged from the self-image.
A few years ago, I noticed the gap and decided to fix it. I realized that
while I absolutely loved reading, and never needed to convince myself to read,
the time I had to devote to it just kinda slipped through the cracks here and
there.

What fixed it for me was promising myself I'd try to read at least 40 pages a
day. The number itself isn't very important, but it roughly translates to one
book a week. Books can be thicker and thinner of course; I don't consciously
try to finish one every week, but I do consciously try to read 40 pages a day
- and more than that is even better. It seemed like a tacky thing to do at
first; if I love reading, would I really need to try and force myself to? But
the point of the resolution is not to force yourself, it's to keep reading in
the list of desired activities as you go through the day. It works to keep the
thought closer to the foreground, as a kind of a mental hack. The other part
of this "method", and it's absolutely essential, is not to "punish" yourself
by assigning yourself the double dose if you fail to read at all one day.
Keeping an account of "debts" this way is too forced and quickly leads to
abandoning the whole idea. If I read just a little or not at all one day, for
whatever reason, I just try to read 40 pages the next day.

Results: I read about 50 books in 2008 (didn't keep tabs). In 2009, I got a
Sony Reader in May and switched to reading books mostly on the device. I read
a bit over 80 books in 2009, and will probably read about a hundred this year.
The time to do is mostly the time I would waste here and there on the net
relatively meaninglessly (like checking my email, Google Reader, HN and reddit
twice as often or something; with reading many books, I'm still able to do all
that, and write a high-traffic blog, and work full-time). I also try to find
little chunks of time here and there: I read in a cafe, in the lavatory,
sometimes at lunch. I carry my ebook reader with me nearly all the time, and
if someone's late to a meeting at work and everybody's waiting, I read for a
few minutes; and so on.

TL;DR: Nah, just read it all :)

------
DanielBMarkham
Finally got around to reading some Tolstoy -- Anna Karenina.

It was terrific. Great book!

------
gcheong
Not a 2009 book but my first book of 2010: _Drive_ by Daniel H. Pink. A book
about the science of motivation that I found so engaging that I read it in one
day.

------
Xichekolas
Programming in Haskell by Graham Hutton

A.I. A Modern Approach (ch 13-16) by Russell and Norvig

A Tunnel In The Sky by Robert Heinlein

The Revelation Space series (3 of the 5 books) by Alistair Reynolds

Eon/Eternity (both by Greg Bear)

------
pizza
The Game (Neil Strauss), hands down. Not so much that I found it useful but
rather that it was very interesting to watch a guy hack society and
attraction.

------
reg4c
Harmony Silk Factory - Tash Aw

Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdi

Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway

~~~
andrewcooke
have you read midnight's children? if so, how does satanic verses compare to
that? i thought _children_ was wonderful, but everything i've read since by
rushdie has been a disappointment (often flat our boring). i often wonder if i
give him another chance and take on satanic verses....

~~~
CamperBob
Both _Grimus_ and _Midnight's Children_ are great. _The Satanic Verses_ is
worth a read but not before the first two IMO.

------
hajrice
"Great Gatsby" by F.S.Fitzgerald. Really awesome book.

------
namin
Vehicles by Valentino Braitenberg -- a study of theoretical robots whose
behavior is interpreted as more and more biologically plausible.

------
namin
The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris -- a zoological study of homo sapiens. A
classic nicely supplemented by Our Inner Ape by Frans der Waal.

~~~
blahblahblah
_The Human Animal_ is another fantastic book by the same author. Morris really
has a fascinating perspective on human behavior and its biological origins.

------
graywh
Haven't quite finished it yet, but Robin Buss' modern, unabridged translation
of Alexander Dumas' _The Count of Monte Cristo_.

------
mike463
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell - page turner

------
alttab
How to win friends and influence people.

------
acj
_The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_

 _Economics in One Lesson_ , by Henry Hazlitt.

 _The Baroque Cycle_ , by Neal Stephenson.

~~~
ArturSoler
I second "Economics in One Lesson" recommendation. Economics explained in an
understandable way for non-economists.

------
quizbiz
Started and finished Super Freakonomics on a flight just recently. I enjoyed
it a lot.

------
omnipath
The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons. I love basketball. And Bill Simmons.

------
epi0Bauqu
Black Hole War

------
rsaarelm
Fiction, mostly.

 _Declare_ , by Tim Powers. Cold war espionage with black magic.
Entertainingly bleak, and probably did a lot more weirdness with real history
than I knew how to appreciate.

 _Producing Open Source Software_ (<http://producingoss.com/>), by Karl Fogel.
A very thorough look into all sorts of practical matters in running a large
open source software project.

The _Engines of Light_ trilogy by Ken MacLeod. Entertaining, though a bit
erratic. Makes a bunch of Forteana fit in a hard SF framework. Also the second
MacLeod book I've read that has a weird pixie dust immortality treatment that
seems incongruous with the rest of the technology level.

 _Matter_ by Iain M. Banks. Culture again after _Algebraist_. Still good.

 _The Dark Side of the Sun_ by Terry Pratchett. Finally got around to reading
this one. Was surprisingly fresh. It would have been interesting to see
Pratchett write more science fiction after this and _Strata_ around 30 years
ago.

 _The City and the Stars_ by Arthur C. Clarke. Another old SF book. This one
wasn't very fresh, seemed like two or three different novels stapled together,
with bits and pieces that might work pretty well if it weren't for the other
bits and pieces.

 _Crooked Little Vein_ by Warren Ellis. Not a lot of surprises, if you know
what Warren Ellis tends to write. Basically a road trip novel through various
degeneracies in America. Fun, but tends to go for gross-out warrenellisisms in
favor of overall coherence.

 _Neuropath_ by Scott Bakker. A technothriller about all sorts of fun things
you can do by directly rewiring peoples' brains with near-future neurosurgery.
Bakker's chilly philosophical outlook doesn't pack quite the same punch in an
already mostly rationalistic setting as it did in the _Prince of Nothing_
fantasy books. Sticks with a single not particularly unsympathetic viewpoint
character and therefore avoids the problem in Prince of Nothing where you'd
often end up in the head of someone you really don't want to be anywhere near.

 _The Tao is Silent_ by Raymond Smullyan. Smullyan writes various essays
inspired by Taoism. Quality varies, but Smullyan is generally fun to read.

 _On SF_ by Thomas Disch. Beautifully acerbic essays by someone who takes
science fiction literature seriously and doesn't let it off easy. And just
plain likes to insult people. Representative, though noticeably dated sample:
<http://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/9780472068968-1.pdf>

_Denner's Wreck_ by Lawrence Watt-Evans. Watt-Evans has an specific style of
writing from what follows from the setting and premises rather than going for
the most dramatically obvious plot. The results are hit-and-miss with his
fantasy novels I've read, but work a lot better here, where the legends of a
bronze-age civilization end up emerging from a science fiction setting. Watt-
Evans' narrative style supports the plot where the traditional stories end up
not really being what they seem to be.

 _The Official Book of Ultima_ by Shay Addams. It tells how Richard Garriott's
obsession with programming in high school lead to the Ultima game series,
which were one of the most notable computer games in the 80s and became the
flagship product of Garriott's Origin Systems company. Also documents how the
games grew from Ultima I being programmed by Garriot alone learning as he went
along into Ultima VI developed by a large team. There is much detail about
Ultima VI, which was being developed as the book was written. Much of it also
conflicts with the game that ended up being released, and I ended up wondering
whether this was about the game changing during production or just Addams
getting his facts wrong.

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Daniel_Newby
_Redliners_ by David Drake. Burned out soldiers are sent to baby-sit a
planetary colonization. Fortunately for the story it turns out to be a planet
full of monsters. Baen Free Library.

 _Accelerando_ , _Iron Sunrise_ , and _Singularity Sky_ by Charles Stross.
Singularity stories.

 _House of Leaves_ by Mark Danielewski. Supernatural meta-fiction with half
the story in the footnotes. Reminiscent of the movie _Donnie Darko_.

 _Crooked Little Vein_ by Warren Ellis. Private eye gets retained by the White
House to track down the _other_ U.S. Constitution. To quote William Gibson,
"Stop It. You're frightening me."

 _Hurry Down Sunshine_ by Michael Greenberg. Story of his teenage daughter's
descent into manic psychosis.

 _A Hat Full of Sky_ and _Wintersmith_ by Terry Pratchett. Kids' stories, so
they have wall-to-wall story, unlike some of his more situational adult books.

James H. Schmitz science fiction stories. Available from the Baen Free Library
of digital books.

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zackattack
Gangleader for a Day - Sudhir Venkatesh's illuminating story about the housing
projects, crack gangs and community dynamics of south side chicago in the
'90s.

Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely explains a lot of the idiosyncracies in
everyday human behavior

Thoughts Without a Thinker - Mark Epstein's enjoyable tale about buddhism and
psychotherapy

Worst:

SuperFreakonomics - Superficial, poorly written, overly patriotic cocktail
party factoids

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ecq
Great books i read in 2009

-The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort - hilarious

-Inside Steve's Brain

-Paypal Wars - old book but still very informative and relevant

-Viral Loop by Adam L. Penenberg

