
Ask YC: Good books to take on a week away? - sadiq
I'm heading off on holiday in a fortnight, for a week break. I've decided to leave my laptop behind, to avoid the week long hotel hacking session, that was last year's 'holiday'.<p>Since this year i'm going to force myself to relax by the pool with a book or two, I was wondering what things people would recommend?<p>I'd prefer things not directly technical (since I tend to read many of them while working) though not necessarily fiction.<p>Thanks!
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xirium
See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=191715> for audio book suggestions

See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=176710>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=110899> and
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=85840> for favourite books.

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rokhayakebe
Take "no books". Use this time to physically get in touch with the rest of the
world. Spend time with you, then with total strangers. Now if you are an
introvert like me, this will look scary, but I think it will do you more good
then reading. Enjoy your vacation.

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gruseom
Oh, goody: an excuse to link to the "Blog" of "Unnecessary" Quotation Marks.
<http://quotation-marks.blogspot.com>

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michael_dorfman
Wow. Amazing site. (I mean, "amazing" site.)

Thanks for that.

~~~
gruseom
"Your welcome".

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lbrandy
> I'd prefer things not directly technical though not necessarily fiction.

Sounds exactly like me. I strongly suggest:

1\. The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins)

2\. The Demon-Haunted World (Carl Sagan)

...or if you need a little inspiration...

3\. Founders at Work

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ca98am79
I'm on a week vacation right now and brought along Founders at Work - it is
great.

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soundsop
Siddartha by Herman Hesse. It's a short read but very interesting.

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knv
Or maybe Steppenwolf by the same author.

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ovi256
I can also recommend Magister Ludi, or The Glass Bead Game. Wonderful book.

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senthil_rajasek
As a hacker you will like this non-technical fiction

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_Incident_of_the_Dog...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_Incident_of_the_Dog_in_the_Night-
time)

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ovi256
It was amazing. As a blurb, I could describe it as an insight into the mind of
an autist. On a personal note, I'll say it was a trip through the mind of an
almost ramen.

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brlewis
Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People

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tomjen
Second. This is a great book.

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xirium
> This is a great book.

Which version did you read? Dale Carnegie's estate has published a slightly
different version almost every year since Carnegie's death.

The version I read mentioned Stevie Wonder. I was thinking 'WTF? I thought
that Stevie Wonder became famous after Dale Carnegie died.' Indeed, I was
right. Anyhow, for this reason, I recommend the earliest edition you can
obtain so that it is closer to Carnegie's intentions.

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pfedor
Anything by Greg Egan. It is a science fiction author who actually has a very
good understanding of science (he's published articles in a scientific journal
about quantum gravity) and makes non-trivial use of it in his plots. Plus,
he's a computer programmer and you can go to his website and see a collection
of applets, some of them illustrating the concepts from his novels and short
stories. On top of that, he is good with all the soft stuff, like character
development and psychology etc., that is essential for great fiction but that
some science-intensive science fiction is very much lacking.

There are other very good nerd literature authors out there, like Vernor Vinge
and Neal Stephenson, but to me none of them was as big a revelation as Greg
Egan.

If you don't mind something non-mainstream and a bit dated, but first-class
literature nonetheless, you can try Stanislaw Lem. It's a Polish author but
most of his work has been translated to English. I consider him one of the
best science fiction authors ever. "The Star Diaries" is light and funny, a
perfect pool side reading.

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robg
The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

\- I'm finishing it this weekend and it's a good fun read with lots to like:
portrayal of early comics' culture, history, and impact, working long hours to
produce a passionate product, leveraging your best qualities, and finding
meaning when it appears bleak.

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JacobAldridge
Mister God, This is Anna

A short book that shows the awesome power in looking at things in a new light
(in this case, through the eyes of a child). Not directly religious as the
title may seem. Warning: I can't get to the end of Page 1 without crying.

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fizz
The Telegraph's list of the "50 best cult books" has some great ones in there.
Whatever a "cult book" is... I guess I read lots of cult books. :)

[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04...](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/04/26/nosplit/boanotherlist126.xml)

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eznet
I know what book I am taking for my week away next week: The Ultimate
HitchHiker's Guide - 5 complete novels and 1 story. This is an awesome group
of stories that are really fun to read. If you haven't read them at least once
or have only read the guide to the galaxy, you should definitely check it out.

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scorpioxy
Well, for non-technical books; I have enjoyed the following in no particular
order: \- Founders At Work \- Eric Sink on the Business of Software \- The
Great War for Civilization \- Pity the Nation \- On Intelligence \- The State
of Africa \- Long Walk to Freedom ....etc

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justindz
Haruki Murakami. Sputnik Sweetheart, Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore. After
the Quake, if you like short stories. Great stuff.

If you want something lighter, try Banana Yoshimoto. If you want something
with more sex and gruesome murders, try Ryu Murakami.

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Tichy
I'd recommend to start with Norwegian Wood for Murakami. Didn't like Sputnik
Sweetheart at all, and many of his other books tend to be too esoterical for
my taste. But NW was esoterics-free, if I remember correctly.

~~~
justindz
You do. I'm a fan of magical realism, so the esoteric content doesn't bother
me but I totally get your ranking on that point. Norwegian Wood is all
psychology and no parapsychology. If I remember correctly, South of the
Border, West of the Sun is similar in that regard.

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jordyhoyt
Anything by Vonnegut that you haven't read. Almost all of his books would be
readable in a week or so. ("Player Piano" may be most appropriate to suggest
given the nature of this site.)

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jsomers
Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse. Quick read, very elegantly written.

Nearly everyone that I know who has read it puts it at the top of their list.

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timcederman
Things The Grandchildren Should Know - Mark Oliver Everett (as in son of Hugh
Everett, many-worlds theorem physicist)

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avinashv
GEB? Might take you more than a week, but it's great reading.

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chasingsparks
The Picture of Dorian Gray

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rsa
Fountain head by Ayn Rand.

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bigtoga
egads - he didn't say he wanted to be bored and made to feel like *&$% ;)

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ola
Crash by JG Ballard

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signa11
programming the universe, seth lloyd is very nice.

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LPTS
Cryptonomicon is great if you haven't read it. I think it's a canonical piece
of scifi. It's two generations of nerds from a family. One is a WW2
codebreaker, and his grandson is a startup tech guy. The book tells the story
by switching between 1940s and 1990s. Lots of historical people, alternate
timeline stuff. Lots of interesting ideas about economics and information. A
great read.

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Shadow84
One could ad Neal Stephenson books in general. Especially Snow Crash. Jointly,
with Cryptonomicon, one of the best books I've ever read! In Snow Crash, the
author envisioned stuf like Google Earth or Second Life, only in a much more
advanced way. The book was written in 1992 :-)

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bigtoga
How about these:

Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works:
<http://tinyurl.com/3ftxva>

Founders at Work:<http://tinyurl.com/4cytwa>

(links are to amazon.com)

