
The Best Books I Read in 2015 - uptown
http://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Best-Books-2015
======
e15ctr0n
Here are some other lists of 'Best books of 2015':

Goodreads [https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-
books-2015](https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-books-2015)

Amazon
[http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13108091011](http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=13108091011)

The Washington Post
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/entertainment/best-b...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/entertainment/best-
books-of-2015/)

The New York Times
[http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-b...](http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/books/review/100-notable-
books-of-2015.html)

The Economist [http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-
arts/21679439-best-b...](http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-
arts/21679439-best-books-year-are-about-north-korea-detroit-nagasaki-and-
being-pilot-shelf)

~~~
jbuss
The Goodreads top books list is just a popularity contest. People vote for the
books they recognize.

~~~
maaaats
And that is bad why? At least for me, it's a bigger chance that I would enjoy
a book from that list than from a list made by some professional critic.

~~~
mturmon
Speaking for music best-of lists, as compiled from votes of critics: I've
found these lists are not very helpful in finding music I actually care about.
It's frustrating, because there seems to be so much utility there.

I've explained it like this: To get on the list, something has to be
considered at-least-good by a lot of people, and this tends to reward (1) herd
mentality; (2) lowest-common-denominator. The list selects against anything in
any niche, even when it's excellent.

As I look back through music that has meant a lot to me, there is just not
much overlap with best-of lists.

Note: I'm talking about critics-vote, pooled, best-of lists. Single-critic
best-of lists don't average out niche tastes and, for the right critic-
listener match, can be very helpful indeed.

~~~
bmelton
Moreso for music than books, but I personally find that most of my favorites
tend to have at least as many people that hate it as love it.

Neutral Milk Hotel's "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", for example, is an
extremely polarizing album. Between Mangum's nasally vocals, beginner-to-
intermediate technical talent, the inclusion of saws and theramin as
instruments; it all adds up to a love/hate affair. I'm not a big fan of any of
Mangum's other works, but AOtS has an allure that is just... indescribably
gripping.

I don't go around recommending it, but when it comes up in my playlist, I find
that I am simply compelled to stop what I'm doing and listen to the entire
album, which is thankfully short, as far as albums go.

~~~
sveme
Thank you. Haven't thought about that album for many years, but now that you
brought it back to my attention, I'll listen to it later today - which nicely
supports the point you're trying to make.

------
tlrobinson
Cheatsheet, without the affiliate links (another commenter posted these with
affiliate links then deleted it after being called out):

The Road to Character, David Brooks -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081299325X](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081299325X)

Thing Explainer, Randall Munroe -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544668251)

Being Nixon: A Man Divided, Evan Thomas -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812995368](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812995368)

Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open, Julian Allwood -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190686005X](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/190686005X)

Eradication: Ridding the World of Diseases Forever?, Nancy Leys Stepan -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801450586](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0801450586)

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345472322)

Honorable Mention:

The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life, Nick
Lane -
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393088812](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393088812)

~~~
davidw
Nothing wrong with affiliate links if you're a regular user of this site:
we're capitalists here. I make sure to include them if I link to a book,
because I could use the money more than Jeff Bezos. Of course, I don't link to
stuff just for the sake of linking to it, but only do so if I would have
anyway. I think it's pretty clear whether someone is a spammer or not.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=hullo](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=hullo)
seems to be the person who included some links. They have clearly been here a
while, participates constructively, and doesn't seem to spew out a lot of
affiliate links (any, actually, that I can see).

~~~
tlrobinson
Perhaps, but taking a famous person's list of books and reposting it with
affiliate links and no disclaimer is definitely crossing the line in my book.

~~~
manish_gill
Why? I'm genuinely interesting in your line of reasoning.

~~~
hueving
Profiteering in comment sections pollutes the incentives for commenters. Sure
the links were useful, but they were much less useful than a person providing
a really insightful comment about a typical article that shows up here. I
don't want one person making monetary gain over another.

~~~
andreyf
If only there was a system where we could somehow crowdsource deciding which
comments are "really insightful" and which are not...

------
vonnik
Anyone who refers to David Brooks as "the insightful New York Times columnist"
has lost me as a reader. I can't remember the last time he had an original, or
even accurate, thought.

[http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-dont-think-david-
brooks-i...](http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/i-dont-think-david-brooks-is-
okay-you-guys-1702674607)

Here are two good books:

* The Korean War: A History - Little known fact: The US took the wrong side in the Korean War by putting the former officers of the Japanese imperial army in power in Seoul. It committed countless atrocities to achieve its stalemate, including fire-bombing half the country (Germany redux) and using napalm on whole villages, a foreshadowing of Vietnam.

* Old School - A novel by Tobias Wolff. If you're tired of tired prose, try Wolff. He cares about sentences.

~~~
ar-jan
Indeed. Here's a Radio Yerevan take on Brooks' writings, from Language Log:

> Question to Language Log: Is it correct that if you show an American an
> image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in
> the tank and what it is doing, while if you ask a Chinese person to describe
> a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish
> swim?

> Answer: In principle, yes. But first of all, it wasn't a representative
> sample of Americans, it was undergraduates in a psychology course at the
> University of Michigan; and second, it wasn't Chinese, it was undergraduates
> in a psychology course at Kyoto University in Japan; and third, it wasn't a
> fish tank, it was 10 20-second animated vignettes of underwater scenes; and
> fourth, the Americans didn't mention the "focal fish" more often than the
> Japanese, they mentioned them less often.

From: Reality v. Brooks -
[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=19531](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=19531)

~~~
nostromo
That's a pretty lame critique. It seems they're purposefully reading the wrong
study, since there is another study that focuses on Chinese students and backs
up Brooks' article.

[http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1995-...](http://psycnet.apa.org/index.cfm?fa=buy.optionToBuy&id=1995-09449-001)

[http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/n/x/nxy906/COMPS/CLT/cul...](http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/n/x/nxy906/COMPS/CLT/cultureandCLT/MorrisPengculturalconstrual.pdf)
(full text)

~~~
ar-jan
The critique is of how Brooks handles reporting facts in general. The joke I
quoted is based on a specific example Brooks gave, which is traced to its
original source (Brooks mentioned one of the authors, Nisbett - see
[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=478](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=478)).

I linked to the other page because it contains links to about a dozen other
posts looking into Brooks' writing.

There _might_ be other evidence supporting his general point, but then he
should be citing that evidence, not twisting the facts or making things up.

~~~
nostromo
Read the column. He's very obviously talking about multiple studies. The
Nisbett study was about farm animals, not fish.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/opinion/12brooks.html](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/opinion/12brooks.html)

> When the psychologist Richard Nisbett showed Americans individual pictures
> of a chicken, a cow and hay and asked the subjects to pick out the two that
> go together, the Americans would usually pick out the chicken and the cow.

~~~
conistonwater
That one also appears in the llog posts if you follow the links:
[http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=478](http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=478)

As far as I can tell, their critique is correct in that the research Brooks
cites isn't enough to support the claims that he wants to make.

------
Negitivefrags
I'm always sad that lists like this from tech people never contain any
fiction.

I have often seen the sentiment that everything you read should have some kind
of educational value or it's just a waste of time.

Does Bill Gates not read fiction? Perhaps he understands that he would be
looked down on if he were to include some in his list.

~~~
drzaiusapelord
I feel like I can get my fix of fiction via TV and movies which is probably
close to one hundred hours per month, perhaps more. More fiction is not what I
need right now. I suspect most people's media consumption follows mine. Books
are great for learning while TV/movies are great for storytelling. Yes, I
understand the benefits of the novel, but its value proposition for me from a
time perspective is very poor, especially since the standard length of the
novel is a lot of filler to meet commercial expectations (I'm not paying
fifteen bucks for 120 pages!). Most fiction books I've read can easily be
edited down to novella length and lose next to nothing of substance.

Conversely, My wife consumes nothing but fiction. I find that pretty sad
honestly.

~~~
mountaingoating
Every time is see a post like this I get the urge to pretentiously rant about
the ongoing decline of appreciation for aesthetic values. Tech culture often
seems completely tonedeaf on artistic issues. Talking about the "value
proposition" of the novel is borderline comical. If the fiction books you've
read could be edited down to novella length, you should read better fiction
books.

I have no idea how we got to a place where the value of Tolstoy, Cervantes,
Flaubert, etc. needs to be defended from Breaking Bad and cinema (not that
there's anything wrong with Breaking Bad and cinema). But apparently most
people currently seem to be at a point where if they read the first few pages
of "Lectures on Literature" they'd just squint their eyes, cock their heads,
and proceed to not understand one part of what it means to "remain a little
aloof and take pleasure in this aloofness while at the same time we keenly
enjoy—passionately enjoy, enjoy with tears and shivers—the inner weave of a
given masterpiece"

~~~
drzaiusapelord
At my age I've already read those authors and pretty much all the celebrated
classics. I'm not sure why you think I haven't. Also, to be completely honest,
many/some of those classics are fairly over-rated.

>Every time is see a post like this I get the urge to pretentiously rant about
the ongoing decline of appreciation for aesthetic values.

Everytime I meet someone like you I poke into their true reading habits and
its a lot of YA stuff, chick-lit, top 20 pop-culture junk, etc. Just because
you read a classic once doesn't mean that the entire medium known as books
gets free pass. Sturgeon's law applies to all art if we're being honest with
ourselves.

The fact that fiction comes at the cost of reading non-fiction cannot be swept
under the rug. Its a completely valid concern. Those in my peer group can tell
me all about $popular_scifi and $popular_chicklit but not much else.

Its pretentious to think that fiction is magically superior to all other forms
of communication. I think we'll look back at how incredibly overly-entertained
we are today and wonder how we lived such shallow lives. That's a narrative no
one talks about: how much fiction we're constantly consuming and the
incredibly low quality of it all. Most people have the information consumption
habits equal to eating junk food for every meal and yet they have the gumption
to pretend they're mighty intellectuals on the mountain barking wisdom to us
idiots below because they falsely assume consuming carefully crafted fiction
designed to sell is some strange esoteric intellectual pursuit. No, its the
kid reading some tech manual and building something original who's doing
something intellectual and esoteric, not the girl downing Hunger Games,
Twilight, and Divergent trilogies on the bus and giving snide looks to the
"nerds" around her who don't get "literature." Then she goes from the bus to
the boob/youtube and zones out for hours until bedtime then back to
work/school. That's a sad life and if you're honest with yourself, you'd agree
with me.

------
rcavezza
Gates has also reviewed all of these books in more detail on gatesnotes.com.
Here's the link to the Thing Explainer review (which I ordered today) -
[http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Thing-
Explainer](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Thing-Explainer)

Others Below:

Eradiation:
[http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Eradication](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Eradication)

Mindset: [http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Mindset-The-New-
Psychology-o...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Mindset-The-New-Psychology-
of-Success)

The Road To Character: [http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Road-to-
Character](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/The-Road-to-Character)

Being Nixon: [http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Being-
Nixon](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Being-Nixon)

Sustainable Materials: [http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Sustainable-Materials-
With-B...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Books/Sustainable-Materials-With-Both-
Eyes-Open)

~~~
scholia
Randall Monroe is currently doing a book tour so you can hear him speak and
get a signed copy if you're in the right place at the right time.

He was at NASA in Houston today.....

------
DenisM
Did anyone read the books he recommended last year? Were they worthwhile?

~~~
e15ctr0n
In 2010, Bill Gates praised books by Vaclav Smil, a professor emeritus of
environment and geography at the University of Manitoba.[1]

It's true that Smil's books are packed with facts and ideas about ecology
issues.

But much before Smil, Buckminster Fuller had urged every engineer to ask the
question 'How much does the structure weigh?' From that starting point, Fuller
went on to design geodesic domes and other light weight structures of immense
strength and no weight.[2]

Shortly after Bill Gates made Vaclav Smil famous as his go-to person on
ecology, Wired got Smil’s take on the problems facing America and the
world.[3]

From the Wired article,

> WIRED: Let’s talk about manufacturing. You say a country that stops doing
> mass manufacturing falls apart. Why?

> SMIL: In every society, manufacturing builds the lower middle class. If you
> give up manufacturing, you end up with haves and have-nots and you get
> social polarization. The whole lower middle class sinks.

The share of manufacturing in all jobs has been declining steadily in the US
since 1950. The service sector has always had a larger share than
manufacturing. The ability of poorly educated males in the US in the 1950s and
1960s was due to limited competition from other countries. Once other
countries also built up their educated people, the US wage rates had to
suffer, relatively speaking. It does not matter which sector these poorly
educated people are employed in – the problem is that they are poorly educated
but want high wages, and this is no longer competitive.

> WIRED: You also say that manufacturing is crucial to innovation.

> SMIL: Most innovation is not done by research institutes and national
> laboratories. It comes from manufacturing—from companies that want to extend
> their product reach, improve their costs, increase their returns. What’s
> very important is in-house research. Innovation usually arises from somebody
> taking a product already in production and making it better: better glass,
> better aluminum, a better chip. Innovation always starts with a product.
> Look at LCD screens. Most of the advances are coming from big industrial
> conglomerates in Korea like Samsung or LG. The only good thing in the US is
> Gorilla Glass, because it’s Corning, and Corning spends $700 million a year
> on research.

Under Smil's nose, Microsoft, Google and Apple and cellphones have changed the
world – with hugely disruptive innovation almost equal to the invention of the
printing press. But, if you are looking at the wrong place, you will not see
innovation that has improved the lives of billions around the world.

> WIRED: Can IT jobs replace the lost manufacturing jobs?

> SMIL: No, of course not. These are totally fungible jobs. You could hire
> people in Russia or Malaysia—and that’s what companies are doing.

Not the IT innovation jobs. There’s no IT innovation coming from these
countries.

> WIRED: Restoring manufacturing would mean training Americans again to build
> things.

> SMIL: Only two countries have done this well: Germany and Switzerland.
> They’ve both maintained strong manufacturing sectors and they share a key
> thing: Kids go into apprentice programs at age 14 or 15. You spend a few
> years, depending on the skill, and you can make BMWs. And because you
> started young and learned from the older people, your products can’t be
> matched in quality. This is where it all starts.

Again looking at the wrong place. The quality of Japanese cars beats almost
any manufacturer in the price range. Toyotas are world-class – even beating
VW.

> WIRED: You claim Apple could assemble the iPhone in the US and still make a
> huge profit.

> SMIL: It’s no secret! Apple has tremendous profit margins. They could easily
> do everything at home. The iPhone isn’t manufactured in China—it’s assembled
> in China from parts made in the US, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea,
> and so on. The cost there isn’t labor. But laborers must be sufficiently
> dedicated and skilled to sit on their ass for eight hours and solder little
> pieces together so they fit perfectly.

Agreed – Apple could make huge profits even if the iPhone is assembled in the
US. But, Apple would not pay them $30/hour, which is what you need to support
a lower middle-class life.

> WIRED: But Apple is supposed to be a giant innovator.

> SMIL: Apple! Boy, what a story. No taxes paid, everything made abroad—yet
> everyone worships them. This new iPhone, there’s nothing new in it. Just a
> golden color. What the hell, right? When people start playing with color,
> you know they’re played out.

Agreed that iPhone 5 is no innovation. But, iPhone and iPad did not come from
Germany or Switzerland!

> WIRED: Your other big subject is food. You’re a pretty grim thinker, but
> this is your most optimistic area. You actually think we can feed a planet
> of 10 billion people—if we eat less meat and waste less food.

> SMIL: We pour all this energy into growing corn and soybeans, and then we
> put all that into rearing animals while feeding them antibiotics. And then
> we throw away 40 percent of the food we produce. Meat eaters don’t like me
> because I call for moderation, and vegetarians don’t like me because I say
> there’s nothing wrong with eating meat. It’s part of our evolutionary
> heritage! Meat has helped to make us what we are. Meat helps to make our big
> brains. The problem is with eating 200 pounds of meat per capita per year.
> Eating hamburgers every day. And steak. You know, you take some chicken
> breast, cut it up into little cubes, and make a Chinese stew—three people
> can eat one chicken breast. When you cut meat into little pieces, as they do
> in India, China, and Malaysia, all you need to eat is maybe like 40 pounds a
> year.

Agreed, if this can be done. But, that’s not the world trend, Chinese per
capita consumption of meat has gone up many times in recent years.

[1] [http://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Important-Books-About-
Energ...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/Energy/Important-Books-About-Energy-by-
Vaclav-Smil)

[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_fuller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_fuller)

[3] [http://www.wired.com/2013/11/vaclav-smil-
wired/](http://www.wired.com/2013/11/vaclav-smil-wired/)

~~~
tedmiston
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, but these quotes make Smil seem almost neo-
luddite.

------
farresito
If anyone is interested in the book Sustainable Materials, it's free:
[http://www.withbotheyesopen.com/read.php](http://www.withbotheyesopen.com/read.php)

------
Artoemius
For me, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is hands down the best
book of 2015: [http://hpmor.com/](http://hpmor.com/)

~~~
smaddox
Thanks, looks interesting.

------
oafitupa
"Waking up: A guide to spirituality without religion" by neuroscientist and
philosopher Sam Harris. Don't be so quick to dismiss it please, give it a try.
It's not mysticism.

~~~
crusso
_It 's not mysticism_

It's the opposite of mysticism. It's a great neuroscientist-based look at
meditation. I'd highly recommend it if you're interested in meditation but put
off by all the mumbo jumbo you get from many other sources of meditation info.

~~~
puredemo
But my chakras..

------
legohead
If you like fantasy, there are three series you need to read:

The Blade Itself (3 books)

The Kingkiller Chronicle (waiting on third and final book)

The Stormlight Archive (waiting on third and final book)

~~~
anchpop
The 3rd book in The Stormlight Archive series will not be the last. It is
planned to be a 10-book series

~~~
legohead
That's good news! Dunno why I thought it was three books.

------
mathgenius
I've read two of Nick Lane's books: he is a fantastic writer, and writes about
hard-core biology that will set your brain on fire.

------
guscost
Thing Explainer is fantastic. Some of the best presentations of complicated
ideas I've ever seen. It's a spinoff from this classic:
[https://xkcd.com/1133/](https://xkcd.com/1133/)

Also check out a similar piece on general relativity:
[http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-space-doctors-
big...](http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/the-space-doctors-big-idea-
einstein-general-relativity)

~~~
weavie
I've just bought this for my son in the hope that it will encourage him to
actually read something rather than always look stuff up on YouTube.

------
programminggeek
If you like books on making things, you might like my book:
[http://brianknapp.me/creative-pursuit/](http://brianknapp.me/creative-
pursuit/) It's $0.99 on Amazon, but if you want a free copy, just email me
hi@brianknapp.me and I'll send you one.

------
carlosgg
Re: "The Road To Character", an interview of the author on On Point in April:

[http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/04/20/moral-guidance-david-
broo...](http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/04/20/moral-guidance-david-brooks-new-
book)

------
mrharrison
Here is a list of lists [https://popsnip.com/topic/863/Best-Books-
of-2015-List-of-Lis...](https://popsnip.com/topic/863/Best-Books-of-2015-List-
of-Lists)

------
graffitici
I wonder how much that video must have cost him! It's such a great production.
I really like the way the table and the props match the theme of the relevant
book. I'm guessing $10K for the one minute video?

~~~
jonknee
I'm sure he's got video people on staff, so probably very little marginal
cost. Look back at some older posts, there are a lot of videos. Here's one
from last week about his dad's 90th birthday:

[http://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Happy-Birthday-
Da...](http://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/Happy-Birthday-Dad)

------
Isamu
I second the review of _Mindset_ by Carol Dweck. This book is a result of her
work studying these issues as a psychologist. Re-posting my summary:

Two mindsets:

 _Fixed mindset_ \- talents, abilities and intelligence are fixed, endowed

 _Growth mindset_ \- talents, abilities and intelligence are learned and can
be developed

These mindsets are learned, and have fundamentally different reactions to
challenges. The two-mindsets model is a simplification for the purposes of
explanation.

 _Failure_

The growth mindset embraces failure as a necessary part of learning. In fact
failure is a indicator of an area for potential growth, if the opportunity is
taken to overcome that failure. The fixed mindset avoids and fears failure; it
is taken as evidence of a hard limit of your endowed talent.

 _Motivation_

The growth mindset sees effort as necessary to mastery. Almost any level of
mastery may be attainable with the right regimen of practice. Obstacles are a
normal part of mastery and must be overcome as a matter of course in order to
grow. Criticism is not taken personally, but used to indicate areas for
improvement and growth.

The fixed mindset sees effort as producing only small effects compared to
their fixed ability. May be more prone to give up in the face of obstacles
since it is thought that there is no new mastery to be gained. Criticism is
more likely to be taken personally, as the individual identifies with the
perceived limits of their ability and thinks that improvement is impossible
beyond a certain point.

 _Perceiving others_

The growth mindset is not threatened by others’ abilities. Others’ examples
may serve to inspire. The fixed mindset is more likely to be jealous of
others’ abilities since they are perceived to be highly desirable gifts and
the result of luck and circumstance.

 _Teaching Children_

Praise children by emphasizing their work and persistence. Do not use labels
like “smart” or “gifted” that would reinforce a mindset of fixed abilities.

 _Relationships_

Growth oriented mindset is more likely to be understanding and ready to learn
from experience. Fixed mindset sees problems as a result of unchangeable
personal attributes and are pessimistic about change. More likely to have
unrealistic expectations, like not having to work at a relationship that is
“meant to be”.

 _Examples_

Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth and Wilma Rudolph are given as
examples of overcoming early setbacks with a growth mindset.

Last chapter is a “workshop” of situations and questions to help you develop a
growth mindset.

------
dorfsmay
Is "The Mindset" a new edition? If so, is it worth reading if you are familiar
with the original one?

For people who haven't read it BTW, I highly recommend it, especially if you
are a parent.

------
pdeuchler
"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy

"Flash Boys: Not So Fast: An Insider's Perspective on High-Frequency Trading"
by Peter Kovac

"Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson

------
reitanqild
Anyone here like me who is happy to have read one (or very few) fiction
books[0] during 2015?

[0]: Books you read primarily for someone kids not included ;-)

------
rdl
Is The Three-Body Problem worth reading?

~~~
Paul_S
It's terrible sci-fi but the sci-fi bit is only there to draw moralistic
parallels between aliens and the Chinese. Some gruelling stories about China's
culturual revolution that were pretty interesting but otherwise it's pretty
bad. I'm sure the quality of the writing is lost in translation so I'm not
complaining about that - just talking about the story.

------
deu30v09
These are list of must read books next year- How i wish i was aware of this
books before now, i would have digest all by now. Not late , will still read
them

------
mei0Iesh
I can't read any of that because I'm distracted by the mental image of Bill
telling someone the best books he read, with some conversation, and that
person asking some questions while writing notes, then spending hours in front
of his laptop, emailing a draft to someone else, who asks Bill a few more
questions then returns a draft to someone else who finalizes it and publishes
on "GatesNotes" written as if he sat down on his blogging backend and typed it
out in a textfield.

I have no idea the process behind this website, but it seems unlikely enough
that he'd sit down and write it himself that I can't take it seriously. From
what little I read, it doesn't sound like something produced directly from him
without first passing through others, at least for formatting and correction.

~~~
bostonpete
I think people read these notes for the "big ideas" presented, not for the
majestic prose of Bill Gates. Given that, why do you care who assembles and
copyedits the information for him?

~~~
mei0Iesh
It's kind of like if you turned on TV to watch the President's speech, and
noticed it was a computer-generated 3D representation. It wouldn't be
distracting? He's saying all these things, and I can't receive the message
because all I see is a puppet pretending to be a man. I'm wondering about who
actually wrote it, how many people it took to animate, whether it's even an
authentic message or if it's part of some propagandic theatre.

I think if someone is going to use their personal name on a website, they
should actually write it. Otherwise, it's deceptive. If it's going to be a
team effort, then call it a different name, and don't show a big picture of
your face at the top of the screen.

------
ThrowayAccount
I was once berated for posting a blog article on how to build a multitude of
data structures, in 3 different programming languages. The reason for this was
because "This is hacker news, and this article is first year computing science
stuff." \- Yet Bill gates reads a book about Richard Nixon, and suddenly it is
the top item on here, even though it is in no way related to anything
technical. I'm out, this place is most definitely a circle jerk at this point.

~~~
molsongolden
It might be that people see this headline and are interested in returning
later to skim the book list and all of the other lists linked here in the
comments.

Upvoting Bill's book list might not mean they like his list, think it belongs
at the top of HN, or that they even read the blog post. The top-of-front-page
ranking could just be the result of a large number of readers upvoting in
order to have the discussion show up in their "saved stories".

 _edit_ : A "save story" button that is independent of the voting/ranking
mechanism might actually change the front page significantly.

~~~
bthomas
Conversely, the list of most saved stories seems more useful than most
upvoted.

