
Ask HN: What are your recommended reads that are available for free? - Esox
I recently stumbled across a link in another thread to &quot;Economics in One Lesson&quot; and thought it was incredibly interesting.
https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mises.org&#x2F;sites&#x2F;default&#x2F;files&#x2F;Economics%20in%20One%20Lesson_2.pdf<p>What are some other interesting reads—whether PDF, website, doc, etc—that are freely available?<p>One of my favorites that I find thought-provoking is the &quot;Procedural Content Generation in Games&quot; book (http:&#x2F;&#x2F;pcgbook.com&#x2F;).
======
okal
I built [http://hackershelf.com](http://hackershelf.com) just for this. It's a
crowdsourced listing of legally free books on just about any topic.

~~~
anthony_romeo
I love this. I'll be signing up.

Just one thing, browsing by topic doesn't seem to have any sort of rhyme or
reason in its ordering aside from some vague first-letter ordering. For
example, there are numerous "I" categories, with one "I" for "interactive" and
another one for "Interactive". One grouping of "I"'s includes tags "ios",
"iOS", and "ip", but the next "I" grouping below just contains "IP"

Edit: I see the ordering issue now. There's a list of topics. The list is
printed out in alphabetical order. But for some reason when the first letter
of a topic changes between capital letter and a lowercase letter, a new letter
grouping is created. Probably it's creating a new category whenever the first
character changes, but it did not take into account capital and lowercase
characters being different.

~~~
okal
Thank you. I'm not actively maintaining it anymore, TBH, but I've been getting
bug reports/feature requests lately [meaning actual people still use it] so it
might be time to reconsider that stance.

~~~
mkaziz
It sounds like if you open source the code, you could get some pull requests
pretty easily.

------
anthony_romeo
Just a bit of caution. The Ludwig von Mises Institute is a group devoted to
specifically advocating one branch of economics, Austrian Economics. Part of
this branch is staunch Libertarianism, but they don't believe in several
aspects which are typical in mainstream economic branches, such as using
statistical modeling and mathematics to draw conclusions about economic status
or action.

I'm not here to debate the merits of the Austrian branch compared to other
branches. I just think that it's important to have a general and unbiased
understanding of the other branches of economics before reading a text which
is effectively a criticism of those branches and an advocacy for one specific
branch.

~~~
mindcrime
_but they don 't believe in several aspects which are typical in mainstream
economic branches, such as using statistical modeling and mathematics to draw
conclusions about economic status or action_

To be fair, that doesn't mean they are wrong. Certainly we've seen plenty of
cases where people built incredibly complex, elegant and expressive models of
economic systems, which turned out to be completely broken.

That said, I know of at least some Austrian economists who think the Austrian
school should make some effort to better ground their ideas with mathematical
formulations, but I haven't followed things closely enough to know if much, or
any, work has actually been done in that regard.

~~~
anthony_romeo
Oh, I completely agree. It's important to be critical. This is why there are
several branches of economics. It's just that if someone unfamiliar with the
field wanted to know about economics in general, I wouldn't have them first
read _Das Kapital_ or start by showing them papers from the Heritage
Foundation or CATO. This sort of reading comes later. Build a foundation first
before building a house.

------
nilkn
I love "Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces":

[http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/](http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi/OSTEP/)

Really useful book and really accessible (both because it's available for free
and also because it's written with a lot of skill and friendliness towards the
reader).

I recommend it in particular to those who for whatever reason never took an
operating systems class (e.g., you were self-taught or didn't major in CS).
This book will really demystify a lot of stuff for you without overwhelming
you at the same time.

~~~
gshrikant
I second this recommendation. Not being a CS major I didn't take an OS course
so I worked through the first part of the OSTEP book and found it to be very
well-written and much less intimidating.

I haven't finished reading it entirely yet and didn't do any of the labs but I
liked the big picture approach it took to OS design.

------
cp9
Sicp is available for free

[https://sicpebook.wordpress.com/ebook/](https://sicpebook.wordpress.com/ebook/)

~~~
rifung
Wow I had no idea you could get this for free! Thank you!

~~~
wfn
Just to be clear, the official publisher page for SICP includes (and in fact)
hosts the contents of it:
[https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/](https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/) (includes
links to programming assignments etc.)

------
benev
Warning: Shameless self promotion.

LinuxVoice magazine is available for free nine months after publication. The
issues can be found here: [http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-
issues/](http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/)

Quite a bit of our content is about programming and tech in general, so you
may find something you like even if you're not a Linux user.

~~~
cooper12
Wow, CC BY-SA (Share-alike) and not CC BY-NC-SA (Non Commercial) like I
expected. I commend you guys for believing in your publishing model and vision
by taking that risk.

------
jsingleton
A few of these are already posted (or will be) but here you go:

\- [https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/](https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/)

\- [http://www.withouthotair.com/](http://www.withouthotair.com/)

\- [http://www.harriman-
house.com/book/view/1057/business/dave-c...](http://www.harriman-
house.com/book/view/1057/business/dave-coplin/the-rise-of-the-humans/)

\- [http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)

\- [http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-
issues/](http://www.linuxvoice.com/creative-commons-issues/)

~~~
fortytw2
Adding to the suggestion of HPMOR, Worm
([https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/1-1/))
is excellent and well worth a read.

------
markoleary
... and when you've done educating yourself for the day, relax with a superb
novel, licensed under CC:
[http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm](http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm)

------
acjohnson55
Javascript Allongé is one of my favorite programming books ever:
[https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read](https://leanpub.com/javascript-
allonge/read). I think it's a great book even if you don't program Javascript,
because the way Braithwaite talks about programming language techniques is so
interesting. I had been programming Javascript for a long time before I read
this back, and afterward, it changed my whole point of view on how it could be
used.

~~~
mmorris
Actually, the original version of this book is no longer for sale. The link
for the updated free version is here:
[https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read](https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix/read)

Or, if you want to buy it in other formats, here:
[https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix](https://leanpub.com/javascriptallongesix)

~~~
acjohnson55
Ah, thanks, wasn't aware of the update!

------
AndrewOMartin
Some classic poems, they're short, but you'll find yourself rereading the ones
that really engage you occasionally throughout your life. Here's some I found
to be immediately accessible, to get you going.

Poe's Raven -
[http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713](http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178713)
Dulce et Decorum Est -
[http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html](http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html)
The Charge of the Light Brigade - [http://poetry.eserver.org/light-
brigade.html](http://poetry.eserver.org/light-brigade.html)

~~~
mindcrime
It's funny, I never cared much for poetry until I started listening to Iron
Maiden and found out that "The Trooper" is based on "The Charge of the Light
Brigade", as well as "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" being based on a Samuel
Taylor Coleridge work.

Now I enjoy reading both Coleridge and Tennyson quite a lot (as well as a few
other poets, although it will never be my primary interest).

And people used to say that heavy metal was bad for kids... feh.

~~~
tjradcliffe
In the other direction, I never understood rap until I studied Anglo-Saxon
poetry. It has the same muscular rhythms and concern for status and manliness.
I'd love to see a rapper do Beowulf!

~~~
kwhitefoot
Not rap but take a look at Marillion's Grendel on Youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4Wl8gupD8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4Wl8gupD8).

------
mangeletti
Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (754pp) -
[http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf](http://www.ibiblio.org/ml/libri/s/SmithA_WealthNations_p.pdf)

The Condensed Wealth of Nations (86pp) -
[http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/resources/conde...](http://www.adamsmith.org/sites/default/files/resources/condensed-
WoN.pdf)

~~~
snksnk
Some related readings:

Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) -
[http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMSCover.html](http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smMSCover.html)

Adam Smith's Lectures on Justice, Police, Revenue and Arms (1763) -
[http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2621](http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2621)
(warning: long page)

Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) -
[http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1365](http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/1365)
(warning: long page)

Francis Hutcheson's An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and
Virtue (1726) - [http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry-
into-...](http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hutcheson-an-inquiry-into-the-
original-of-our-ideas-of-beauty-and-virtue-1726-2004) (warning: long page)

------
icbat
[http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/](http://gameprogrammingpatterns.com/)

An example-driven guide to design patterns used in Games. Some overlap in to
more general design patterns, but it provides especially tangible examples for
those, too.

------
lovelearning
"Introduction to Statistical Learning" ([http://www-
bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/](http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~gareth/ISL/)) gives an
excellent foundation for all machine learning approaches.

~~~
weavie
The accompanying videos are also well worth it :
[http://www.r-bloggers.com/in-depth-introduction-to-
machine-l...](http://www.r-bloggers.com/in-depth-introduction-to-machine-
learning-in-15-hours-of-expert-videos/)

~~~
lovelearning
Hey, thanks for that! Added to my watch list.

------
hanief
Eloquent JavaScript. A delightful introduction to JavaScript and programming
in general. [http://eloquentjavascript.net](http://eloquentjavascript.net)

------
ebbv
Mises.org is a Libertarian propaganda site. That PDF hardly contains
everything you need to know about Economics, unless you only want to learn a
bunch of Libertarian talking points.

------
notJim
Marx's Capital is available here:
[https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/](https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1867-c1/),
and there's a great free/open course to help you get through it here:
[http://davidharvey.org/reading-capital/](http://davidharvey.org/reading-
capital/).

It's a fairly hard read, but I've gotten through the first few chapters so far
and found it very insightful.

------
gandalfu
"The Macroscope" by Joël de Rosnay, a book on the systems approach

[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/macrbook.html](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/macrbook.html)

This book is an excellent, easy to read introduction to cybernetics and
systems thinking, with applications to living organisms, the economy and the
world as a whole. The main theme is that the complex systems which govern our
life should be looked at as a whole, rather than be taken apart into their
constituents. The different systems, processes and mechanisms are beautifully
illustrated with examples and pictures.

Although the text is over 20 years old, this visionary document is still
highly relevant to our present situation and state of knowledge.

It is particularly recommended to people who wish to get an understanding of
the basic concepts and applications of systems theory and cybernetics.

~~~
MistahKoala
Thanks for this - wasn't expecting to see a systems book pop up in this
thread!

------
iheredia
The Nature of Code is one of my favorites free reads
[http://natureofcode.com/book/](http://natureofcode.com/book/) It addresses
topics from physics and math, and how to apply them to your code to make it
more _natural_

------
giacomoharp
Oldie but goodie. A contrarian view of business from a prototypical hacker,
Don Lancaster. I re-read this every few years to regain perspective.

The Incredible Secret Money Machine
[http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf](http://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/ismm.pdf)
more of Don: [http://tinaja.com/](http://tinaja.com/)

    
    
       -G

------
porsager
If you're already at Mises.org you should read

Ethics of liberty [http://anarcho-capitalist.org/wp-
content/pdfs/Rothbard%20%28...](http://anarcho-capitalist.org/wp-
content/pdfs/Rothbard%20%28Murray%29%20-%20The%20Ethics%20of%20Liberty.pdf)

For a new liberty
[https://mises.org/sites/default/files/For%20a%20New%20Libert...](https://mises.org/sites/default/files/For%20a%20New%20Liberty%20The%20Libertarian%20Manifesto_3.pdf)

If those are to your liking they contain some great reading lists. A lot of
the books in those lists are also available for free at mises.org

------
charliepark
Magic Ink: Information Software and the Graphical Interface, by Bret Victor
[http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/](http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/)

(or PDF:
[http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf](http://worrydream.com/MagicInk/MagicInk.pdf))

~~~
jowiar
Along with everything else Bret Victor has done.

------
karinqe
'Rationality: From AI to Zombies' is available on a pay-what-you-want basis.
It talks about cognitive science, ethics, human (ir)rationality and how to
improve it, among other things. It stems from the Lesswrong Sequences [2],
which have a lot more content, but are a bit messy.

[1] [https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-
zombies/](https://intelligence.org/rationality-ai-zombies/)

[2]
[http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_materials](http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Rationality_materials)

------
Estragon
_Debt: The First 5000 Years_ [1] Anthropological analysis of finance.

 _With Each & Every Breath_ [2] Highly practical primer on meditation and how
it works, from a Thai Forest tradition perspective.

[1]
[https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf](https://libcom.org/files/__Debt__The_First_5_000_Years.pdf)

[2]
[http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/EachAndEveryBrea...](http://www.dhammatalks.org/Archive/Writings/EachAndEveryBreath_v130123.pdf)

------
oldbuzzard
Feynman Lectures on Physics

[http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/](http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/)

------
kenbellows
All of Cory Doctorow's books are free online:
[http://craphound.com/](http://craphound.com/)

I enjoyed Little Brother and its sequel Homeland quite a lot.

------
jarin
These are fiction, but they're really enjoyable futurist sci-fi. The first one
is about the singularity, and the second one is a really unique and
interesting take on artificial intelligence.

[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/fiction/accelera...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando-intro.html)

[http://lifeartificial.com](http://lifeartificial.com)

~~~
tjradcliffe
My novel "Darwin's Theorem", which is about stories, evolution, religion and
science, is available for free:
[http://tjradcliffe.com/darwins_theorem/darwins_theorem.epub](http://tjradcliffe.com/darwins_theorem/darwins_theorem.epub)

It's character-driven pure speculation on big ideas.

------
atomicbeanie
Higher Order Perl: [http://hop.perl.plover.com/](http://hop.perl.plover.com/)
On Lisp:
[http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/onlisp.html)
Also [http://it-ebooks.info/](http://it-ebooks.info/) has a wide selection of
free ebooks with ads.

------
brudgers
The first amazing thing I found on the internet:

[https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page](https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page)

in early 1994 over gopher at 9600 baud for a penny per minute. Still amazing.

~~~
evanwolf
Me too! And today, I always keep a pocketful of classics on my phone.

------
ericssmith
How to Design Programs 2E

[http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/](http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/matthias/HtDP2e/)

This book is much more than the intro to programming that it appears to be. It
is a foundational approach for producing robust programs, regardless of your
implementation language or level of experience.

~~~
gandalfu
Unfortunately it looks like the authors never completed the next book on the
series about real time programming. How to design worlds.
[http://world.cs.brown.edu/1/](http://world.cs.brown.edu/1/)

~~~
ericssmith
Thanks for pointing this out. I was interested to see they credit Paul Hudak's
"Haskell School of Expression" for inspiration. I will have to take a fresh
look at that given my newfound appreciation of HTDP (due to stumbling across
Norman Ramsey's assessment of it). Also need to look deeper into Hudak's FRP
now that I think about it.

------
avinassh
This repo maintains list of free programming books [0].

Many of the books at Green Tea Press[1] are available for free:

\- Think Python: How To Think Like a Computer Scientist

\- Think Bayes: Bayesian Statistics in Python

\- Think Complexity: Exploring Complexity Science with Python

\- Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers

\- The Little Book of Semaphores

\- Physical Modeling in MATLAB

\- Learning Perl the Hard Way

few others. Do check the site.

Secondly, books by Al Sweigart[2] are also freely available. They include:

\- Automate the Boring Stuff with Python[3]

\- Hacking Secret Ciphers with Python

\- Invent Your Own Computer Games with Python

\- Making Games with Python & Pygame

[0] - [https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-
books](https://github.com/vhf/free-programming-books)

[1] - [http://www.greenteapress.com/](http://www.greenteapress.com/)

[2] - [https://inventwithpython.com/](https://inventwithpython.com/)

[3] -
[https://automatetheboringstuff.com/](https://automatetheboringstuff.com/)

------
facepalm
Harry Potter And The Methods Of Rationality
[http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)

~~~
JoshTriplett
Seconded. I also recommend the podcast version, at
[http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/](http://www.hpmorpodcast.com/) .

------
napperjabber
[http://learncodethehardway.org/](http://learncodethehardway.org/) Great books
not just about the language, but the tools that help make utilizing the
language that much easier.

------
pmontra
The novels and short stories of Peter Watts (scifi)
[http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm](http://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm)

------
gdubs
The Art of Unix Programming:
[http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/](http://www.catb.org/esr/writings/taoup/)

~~~
veddox
A very good book - a solid, down-to-earth approach to designing and
implementing programs.

------
strangetimes
"A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander

[https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage](https://archive.org/details/APatternLanguage)

~~~
sethrin
I had no idea that was online. Thank you for posting it.

For my contribution, I would suggest
[http://bartleby.com](http://bartleby.com) as a source for literature.

------
walterbell
(1) _Lions on Unix_ (PDF and source),
[http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/Lions/index.php](http://www.lemis.com/grog/Documentation/Lions/index.php)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions%27_Commentary_on_UNIX_6th_Edition,_with_Source_Code)

 _" Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code by John Lions
(1976) contains the complete source code of the 6th Edition Unix kernel plus a
commentary. It is commonly referred to as the Lions book. Despite its age, it
is still considered an excellent commentary on simple but high quality code."_

(2) _Harper 's dictionary of classical literature and antiquities_ (1898),
1750 pages,
[https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog](https://archive.org/details/harpersdictiona00peckgoog)

(3) _Oxford English Dictionary_ (1888), 15000 searchable page scans in a
Windows app,
[https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407](https://archive.org/details/oed11_201407)

------
jay-saint
Butterick's Practical Typography
[http://practicaltypography.com](http://practicaltypography.com) is a must
read for anyone in design or UX field.

Everyone should read and take to heart the condensed version
[http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-
minutes.htm...](http://practicaltypography.com/typography-in-ten-minutes.html)

------
codyb
The Tao Te Ching is available for free [0].

It's the basis for the Eastern philosophy of Taoism. Religious or spiritual or
not, I find this collection of verses to encourage different forms of lateral
and vertical thinking that I may otherwise miss.

Anyways, might not be for everyone, but I enjoy it.

[0] -
[http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm](http://www.taoism.net/ttc/complete.htm)

------
jonschipp
Self Service Linux: Mastering the Art of Problem Determination
[http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/013147751X/downloads/0...](http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/013147751X/downloads/013147751X_book.pdf)

Great book on debugging issues on Linux \w strace, gdb, core dumps, etc.

------
readthisthing_
We send a daily newsletter with one really interesting thing to read. Here are
the past 40 or so that we've sent:
[http://readthisthing.com/archive](http://readthisthing.com/archive)

I think you're more talking about books, but still thought this might be
relevant to what you're after.

------
noblethrasher
The short stories of P.G. Wodenhouse, just to see what real mastery of the
English language looks like.

~~~
brickcap
Good to see a fan of Wodehouse :) I like his longer works better. I read
ukridge and mulliner nights a while back. They were good but not as good as
jeeves and the others.

------
stephanos2k
CQRS Journey

"This guidance is designed to help you get started with the CQRS pattern and
event sourcing. It is not intended to be the definitive guide to the CQRS
pattern and event sourcing. Instead, it's a journal that describes the
experiences of a development team with no prior CQRS proficiency in building,
deploying (to Microsoft Azure), and maintaining a sample real-world complex
enterprise system as a reference implementation (RI) to showcase various CQRS
and ES concepts & techniques."

available as PDF: [https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/jj554200.aspx](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-
us/library/jj554200.aspx)

------
jrs235
Steal This Book:
[https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook](https://leanpub.com/stealthisbook)
(Apparently no longer available from LeanPub... heres's a dropbox link:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/qm6vkabvd8jc3le/stealthisbook.pdf?dl=0)
)

Don't Just Roll the Dice: [http://download.red-
gate.com/ebooks/DJRTD_eBook.pdf](http://download.red-
gate.com/ebooks/DJRTD_eBook.pdf)

------
michaelmior
Papers We Love[0] is an interesting collection of computer science papers.

[0] [https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-
love](https://github.com/papers-we-love/papers-we-love)

------
bootload
_" What are your recommended reads that are available for free?"_

Ask Professor Steve. [0]

I ran into Steve on HN back in 2010 and went for a walk with a mob of
economists. [1][2] The key thing I got talking to Steve? Economics is
fundamentally flawed. Read with caution.

Reference:

[0] [https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen](https://twitter.com/ProfSteveKeen)

[1] [http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html](http://seldomlogical.com/kw.html)

[2]
[http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054](http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1126054)

------
fsloth
This translation of Suvorov's "Inside the soviet army" was a real treat to a
history buff

[http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/index.html](http://militera.lib.ru/research/suvorov12/index.html)

Actually quite topical given russias recent escapades - this details pretty
well the society and the power dynamics that gave birth to the current
situation. Also reads like an alternate version of "Catch-22" except the
content should be 100% autobiographical.

------
joeclef
Learn C and build your own Lisp
[http://www.buildyourownlisp.com](http://www.buildyourownlisp.com)

------
wojteksz
Fixed To Flexible – The Ebook by Todd Sattersten. It is about cost, price,
margin, and the options we have for how to sell.
[http://www.scribd.com/doc/26237737/Fixed-to-Flexible-The-
Ebo...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/26237737/Fixed-to-Flexible-The-Ebook)

------
keithpeter
Perhaps not sequential reading on your laptop but very useful none the less...

[https://openstaxcollege.org/students](https://openstaxcollege.org/students)

Selected excerpts from the Physics and Biology volumes have been used by
colleagues of mine to support background reading for pre-university students
in the UK.

------
metaedge
[http://swiftlang.eu/](http://swiftlang.eu/)

Available in .MOBI, pdf, ePub or Online

------
wonjun
I'm giving away "Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented
Software" book for anyone who wants to pay shipping,
[http://www.shareprogrammingbooks.com/books/0201633612](http://www.shareprogrammingbooks.com/books/0201633612)

------
joeyspn
Tesla's "My Inventions" autobiography

[http://www.teslinavizijainterneta.rs/wp-
content/uploads/Nkol...](http://www.teslinavizijainterneta.rs/wp-
content/uploads/Nkola_Tesla_My_Inventions.pdf)

------
TheAlchemist
Warren Buffett's letters to sharelhoders:
[http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html](http://berkshirehathaway.com/letters/letters.html)

This is pure wisdom (a lot of economic subjects, but not only).

------
kev6168
Test-Driven Development with Python
[[http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754/index.ht...](http://chimera.labs.oreilly.com/books/1234000000754/index.html)]

------
AnthonBerg
Tuning for Speed by Phil Irving -
[http://tuningforspeed.com/files/Tuning_for_Speed.pdf](http://tuningforspeed.com/files/Tuning_for_Speed.pdf)

Combustion engine tuning. Very accessible yet deep.

------
jestinjoy1
Self Plug. I maintain a list in my personal web page for reference

[https://sites.google.com/site/jestinjoy/free-
books](https://sites.google.com/site/jestinjoy/free-books)

------
lolive
On the Shortness of Life

[http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e...](http://www.forumromanum.org/literature/seneca_younger/brev_e.html)

------
devalier
The writings of Mencius Moldbug:
[http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/](http://moldbuggery.blogspot.com/) Mind-
bending writings on politics, history and economics.

~~~
tomjen3
If you are new to the neo-reactionaries here is a condensed faq for what they
believe [http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary-
philosophy-...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/03/03/reactionary-philosophy-
in-an-enormous-planet-sized-nutshell/) (it is condensed, but nonetheless
humongous. You have been warned). And, from the same author, a very long list
of why they are wrong [http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-
reactionary-fa...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-reactionary-
faq/)

I do not at all get neoreactionaries but I find their movement fascinating.

~~~
devalier
I would recommend to others to sample the Moldbuggery list, and not to start
with Scott Alexander's writings. The point of Moldbug's writings is not to be
100% accurate. The point is to expose you to new ideas and old forgotten
books, so that you yourself can create a more accurate version of reality. You
won't get this by reading Scott Alexander. To really get the value of the
writings, you need to actually read the old books that Moldbug recommends
reading. It is very, very interesting to read an account of the Revolutionary
War from a Tory or Loyalist who was actually there.

 _" I do not at all get neoreactionaries"_

The first thing to understand is that many neoreactionaries live in once great
American cities where the schools look like this: (
[http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/...](http://www.philly.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/school-
violence/20110328_SV2011_Part3.html) ), many of the neighborhoods look like
this:
[https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1_____enUS368US369&q=urb...](https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1_____enUS368US369&q=urban+decay+philadelphia&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=76UkT_mrA8-30AGKlrD_CA&biw=1739&bih=1115&sei=-KUkT-76DeOW0QH_xrTuCA)
and if you move to the wrong neighborhood this will happen:
[http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Father-Memorial-
Da...](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Father-Memorial-Day-
Philadelphia-Attack-Group-Juniata-305061081.html)

When that is your daily lived experience, you start asking questions about
when it all went wrong.

~~~
googleknol
for an engineer, Moldbug is remarkably bad at using accurate language. for
example, [http://unreserved-
qualifications.blogspot.jp/2015/05/mencius...](http://unreserved-
qualifications.blogspot.jp/2015/05/mencius-moldbugs-little-army-of.html)

~~~
devalier
Yeah a lot of people who like his writings have criticized that term. I don't
really like it myself, but it kind of stuck. The word does refer to a real
phenomena that currently doesn't have a mainstream name. So Moldbug gets
credit for identifying the phenomena and picking some name for it. I'm not
sure what a better name would be - the Clerisy? the Mandarinate? the
Congregation?

But, it is a lot more accurate to see ideology and religion has basically the
same phenomena, with belief in a deity being pretty much spurious, than it is
to see ideology and religion as two entirely different things. So I give
Moldbug credit for pointing out that progressivism is basically the same thing
as a religion.

------
_nullandnull_
You and Your Research by Richard Hamming

[http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html)

------
agentultra
Underground by By Suelette Dreyfus
[http://www.encyclopaedia.com/pdfs/9/518.pdf](http://www.encyclopaedia.com/pdfs/9/518.pdf)

------
mindcrime
_The Law_ \- Frédéric Bastiat.
[http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html](http://bastiat.org/en/the_law.html)

 _Capitalism - A Treatise on Economics_ \- George Reisman.
[http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf](http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf)

The Works of Lysander Spooner.
[http://lysanderspooner.org/node/2](http://lysanderspooner.org/node/2)

 _The Machinery of Freedom_ David Friedman. -
[http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf](http://daviddfriedman.com/The_Machinery_of_Freedom_.pdf)

 _Democratizing Innovation_ \- Eric Von Hippel.
[http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm](http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/democ1.htm)

 _The Sources of Innovation_ \- Eric Von Hippel.
[http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/sources.htm](http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/sources.htm)

 _Introduction to Information Retrieval_ \- [http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-
book/html/htmledition/irbook.html](http://nlp.stanford.edu/IR-
book/html/htmledition/irbook.html)

 _Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms_ \- David MacKay.
[http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itprnn/book.html](http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/itprnn/book.html)

 _Introduction to Cybernetics_ \- William Ross Ashby.
[http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf](http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/books/IntroCyb.pdf)

"Man-Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer As A Communication Device" \-
J.C.R. Licklider.
[http://memex.org/licklider.pdf](http://memex.org/licklider.pdf)

 _Design For A Brain_ \- William Ross Ashby.
[https://archive.org/details/designforbrainor00ashb](https://archive.org/details/designforbrainor00ashb)

The Writings of Douglas Engelbart.
[http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html](http://www.dougengelbart.org/library/library.html)

and if you like maths, don't miss this great list of free maths texts by
George Cain:
[https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.h...](https://people.math.gatech.edu/~cain/textbooks/onlinebooks.html)

------
tjr
[http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/](http://philip.greenspun.com/seia/)

------
samsaga2
One about physics [http://motionmountain.net/](http://motionmountain.net/)

------
gadders
I should think there are plenty of classical texts such as Plutarch, Homer,
Thucydides etc on Project Gutenburg.

------
pnathan
I like working through Richard Gabriel's books from time to time, available at
dreamsongs.org.

------
waqf
If your preferred book isn't available for free, it usually means you haven't
tried at Library Genesis.

------
dbpokorny
noble strategy - thanissaro bhikkhu

[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/nobles...](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/noblestrategy.pdf)

Very readable introduction to the dhamma.

