Ask HN: What good books have you read lately? - djuralfc
======
imh
Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke

Set in the near-ish future, a big asteroid comes whizzing into the solar
system. Looks weird, so we investigate. It's a total page turner, and reads
like an adventure/mystery. Highly recommended.

\---------

The Malazan Book of the Fallen series - Steven Erikson

A fantasy series, set in a really unique setting. It's an epic fantasy series
with a huge ensemble cast and a bunch of parallel plots that break a lot of
the usual tropes. It's tough to describe, but if you like epic fantasy it's a
must read. I'm on book five of ten and loving it.

~~~
captn3m0
It took me a huge time to get through Rendezvous with Rama. (I stopped reading
and then finished it almost an year later). Even though it is a pretty short
book. For me, it just too much hard-SF with none of the character development.
The ending doesn't help with that either.

But then, I didn't like Eon either (Greg Bear), so maybe hard-SF isn't really
for me.

------
thr0waway1239
I have found Google's Authors@Google playlist an excellent resource for
finding new books to read. Even better, you can usually listen to the first 5
minutes or so of the talk and get a very reasonable idea whether you are
interested, without investing too much of your time.

[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGGpadyh0wS589np9dre-...](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGGpadyh0wS589np9dre-
nOeGfzRfutmQ)

For example, I found Amy Herman's "Visual Intelligence", it is pretty good (I
am still reading it).

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v_tn4nyjwE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v_tn4nyjwE)

------
doug1001
"Clear Waters Rising" by Nicholas Crane. An account of his journey _on foot_
across Europe--literally _across Europe_ \--from Cape Finisterre, Spain to
Istanbul, Turkey. The route Mr Crane takes is particularly interesting: one
day while looking at a physical map of Europe, he notices that the major
mountain ranges of Europe (more or less) form a continuous chain across Europe
--eg, the Pyrenees -> Alps -> Carpathian (+ Tatras). His path follows follows
this chain.

------
fitzwatermellow
There is some remarkable fiction coming out this season by some of the best:

Jonathan Safran Foer's _Here I Am_

Zadie Smith's _Swing Time_

Ian McEwan's _Nutshell_

Colson Whitehead's _The Underground Railroad_

Carl Hiassan's _Razor Girl_

Alan Moore's _Jerusalem_

Jonathan Lethem's _A Gamber 's Anatomy_

Ha Jin's _The Boat Rocker_

T.C. Boyle's _The Terranauts_

Michael Chabon's _Moonglow_

Cormac McCarthy's _The Passenger_

I've got plenty of friends who never touch fiction because "it's not real".
Preferring science, history, economics, biography and virtually anything else.
But I think its obligatory at times. The soul requires it's own nourishment,
if not more so than the body and the mind. Indulge yourself. If only because
great writing will make your writing greater, as if by osmosis. But
ultimately, because only fiction can uncover the truths that can't be revealed
any other way ;)

------
cledet
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari

~~~
8611m
Phenomenal read. It is the kind of book that I will read again several times.

------
omosubi
"The years of lyndon johnson" series by Robert Caro. Though it's a biography,
it is really about how power is gained in the US political system. I'm on the
third book right now, and I recommend them if you are interested in 20th
century american history

------
wglb
Did Gustafson's "Swift Dam" set in a time 50 after the first swift dam
catastrophically failed, wiping out horses farms and family in the valley
below. Our family often went to the Birch Creek Campground below the dam nice
family picnic.

Sid's brother is Wylie whose voice does the yodel in the Yahoo commercials.
Their father, Rib Gustasfson was the vet for Pondera County and the Blackfeet
Reservation and all around the Rocky Mountain Front. Rib also wrote a book
called "Under the Chinook Arch"

As a side note, Pondera county is home to an amazing number of authors given
its population. Not the least of which is Ivan Doig. There are about 14
nationally known.

------
tlackemann
Blue Ocean Strategy by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim

As a software engineer, I've come to really love how good products are built
and how to explore new markets. While I don't think it's a life-changing book,
it's certainly a good read and I'd recommend it to any engineer that wants to
be more product-focused (also Inspired, Creativity Inc, and Zero to One)

------
wirddin
Rework By Jason Friend & DHH / Basecamp. Ignored it for quite some time now,
but got hooked to it, and finished it up in a weekend.

------
xwvvvvwx
Exercises in Programming Style - Cristina Videira Lopes

The same simple programming problem (term frequency) solved using 33 different
programming styles.

[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L2EAVAW/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L2EAVAW/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

------
zachlatta
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

I've been really taking my time with this one, lots of annotations, lots of
re-reading passages and pages.

I'm not done yet, but what I've read so far has really spoken to me and
provided a lot of clarity where I previously had trouble filling in the
blanks.

------
stryk
Wise Guy - Nicholas Pileggi This is the chronicle of the life of Henry Hill, a
half-Irish half-Sicilian kid from Brooklyn, New York who rose through the
ranks of the Mafia back in it's heydays. The most entertaining book concerning
organized crime that I've ever read, by far (these guys really had it all.
they were both feared and respected. they could quite literally do whatever
they wanted to do, whenever they wanted to do it and they need not have any
fear of reprisal from anything or anybody). Also, this is the book that gave
birth to the Martin Scorsese movie GoodFellas -- but as is so often the case,
the book is much better than the movie. Given that the movie is fantastic,
that is really saying something IMHO.

------
brudgers
_Manual of Photography: 10th Edition_
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilford_Manual_of_Photography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilford_Manual_of_Photography)

------
blakesterz
The Last Days Of Night - Graham Moore - It's historical fiction about
Westinghouse, Bell, Edison and Tesla and the fight for the light bulb and
electricity. Fast fun read and rather interesting.

------
guiambros
Here's the best books I've read in the last year or so:

 _> > Computer History & biographies:_

The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, Michael Lewis

The Second Coming of Steve Jobs, by Alan Deutschman

Machines of Loving Grace, by John Markoff

The Innovators, by Walter Isaacson

Ghost in the Wires, by Kevin Mitnick

Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft, by Paul Allen

Creativity, Inc, by Ed Catmull (reading)

 _> > Startups:_

The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz

The Founder's Dilemmas, Noam Wasserman

The Launch Pad, by Randall Stross

 _> > Other books:_

Trilogy: Off to Be the Wizard (series), by Scott Meyer

Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan

Joy on Demand, Chade-Meng Tan (reading)

------
kaushikt
zero to one - Peter thiel - good read

old man and the sea - Hemingway - good read

sapiens (currently reading) - Yuval Noah Harari - fantastic till now

What if (still reading) - Randall Munroe - an interesting read

------
theendoferror
The End of Error: Unum Computing - John L. Gustafson

[https://www.crcpress.com/The-End-of-Error-Unum-
Computing/Gus...](https://www.crcpress.com/The-End-of-Error-Unum-
Computing/Gustafson/p/book/9781482239867)

------
noumenon
"A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara. It follows the story of a group of
friends over 30+ years. I haven't been this gripped by a book in a while.
Difficult subject matter and hard to read a times but it rewards you for your
effort.

------
kaiku
Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs

~~~
neom
GREAT book.

------
captn3m0
Fifth Season - N. K Jemisin.

Epic Fantasy, set in a alternative Earth, where the magic system works on
Earthquakes. Won the Hugo this year, which is why I read it. Breaks a lot of
core writing rules, and tries hard to do things that are rarely seen in the
genre.

------
sixo
A book of Garrison Keillor short stories from early in his career, called (I
think) "Happy to Be Here". Pure hilarious americana, where everyone is
fleecing everyone else all the time but they're always polite.

------
clapas
Guns, germs and steel - Jared Diamond

History and evolution of man kind. Hihgly recommended.

------
neom
Last three great books I've read are:

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America

The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business

------
sunstone
Didn't read it lately but Consilience by W.O Wilson (Nobel Prize winner) is
definitely worth a look if you're not too distressed by having your sacred
cows butchered.

------
marmot777
"Everybody Writes" Not that I follow all the great advice yet but I aspire to
get there someday. I have it on my shelf next to "Elements of Style."

------
marmot777
"Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your
World" It was a bit over the top but I'd recommend reading it anyway.

------
xaa
Anything by Charlie Stross, especially Accelerando (great futurism)

Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz (reading this book WILL make you feel like you're
on drugs)

------
navyad
The pleasure of finding things out- Richard Feynman

------
maverick_iceman
The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin My first introduction to non-western sci-
fi. Intriguing concept and very good translation.

~~~
navbaker
I'll second this, along with its follow up book. I read it close to a year ago
and the description of the particle unfolding into higher dimensions has still
stuck with me.

~~~
captn3m0
My only major complain with the book is that very often it uses particle
physics as hand-wavy magic to break any rules it wishes to, and that breaks
suspension of disbelief for me.

~~~
navbaker
Oh, I don't have any illusions about the physics being accurate! These type of
books are very much an escape for me, so it doesn't bug me too much when
authors take liberties with reality.

------
machtesh
Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

------
killnine
The vital question

------
arjun27
The Sovereign Individual. Highly recommended.

------
FLGMwt
The Compass Rose - Ursula Le Guin

Witch Piss - Sam Pink

1Q84 - Haruki Murakami

------
antisthenes
Irwin Shaw "Rich man, Poor man"

------
gmays
Sapiens

Mastery

The Geography of Genius

Ready Player One

------
dredmorbius
From a recent HN comment, a list, some authors, and some guidelines, largely
based on books which radically changed my thinking.

Currently: Vaclav Smil, _Energy in World History_ (1994), and Manfred
Weissenbacher, _Sources of Power_ (2009). Both detail the role and impact of
energy through world history. The latter draws strongly on the first, both are
exceedingly well documented. TL;DR: coal changed much, oil changed everything.

[http://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-
history/oclc/3...](http://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-
history/oclc/30398523&referer=brief_results)

[http://www.worldcat.org/title/before-oil-the-ages-of-
foragin...](http://www.worldcat.org/title/before-oil-the-ages-of-foraging-
agriculture-and-coal/oclc/837625798&referer=brief_results)

[http://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-age-and-
beyond/oclc/837625...](http://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-age-and-
beyond/oclc/837625970&referer=brief_results)

James Burke's books _Connections_ and _The Day the Universe Changed_ , and
their accompanying television series, were a profound introduction to the
history of technology, science, ideas, and philosophy. Though 30+ years old,
they remain highly current and relevant.

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/connections/oclc/4494136](https://www.worldcat.org/title/connections/oclc/4494136)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/day-the-universe-
changed/oclc...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/day-the-universe-
changed/oclc/12049817)

Jeremy Campbell's _Grammatical Man_ (1984) introduced the concepts of
information theory and their deep, deep, deep interconnections to a tremendous
number of interconnected systems, many not explored within his book. Darwin's
_The Origin of Species_ , James Gleick's _Chaos_ , and many of the works of
Santa Fe Institute members, including John C. Holland, J. Doyne Farmer,
Geoffrey West, W. Brian Arthur, David Krakauer, and Sander van der Leeuw,
continue these themes.

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/grammatical-man-
information-e...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/grammatical-man-information-
entropy-language-and-life/oclc/8306673)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/chaos-making-a-new-
science/oc...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/chaos-making-a-new-
science/oclc/15366709)

William Ophuls' _Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity_ (1977) is perhaps the
best, most comprehensive, shortest, and most readable exposition of the fact,
reality, dynamics, and interactions of limits on the present phase of fossil-
fuel fed economic growth I've found. This is a book I recommend not only for
the message, but the author's clarity of thought and exposition, his
meticulous research, exquisite bibliographical notes, and, given the nearly 30
years elapsed, testability numerous of his predictions, some failed, yes,
others uncannily accurate. Rather more the latter. In a similar vein, William
R. Catton's _Overshoot_ looks at the ecological dynamics in more depth, with
much wisdom, the writings of Richard Heinberg cover the ground of limits
fairly accessibly and more recently. Vaclav Smil in numerous books addresses
technical factors of the profound nature of the past 250 years, and
implications for the future. Meadows, et al, in _Limits to Growth_ set off
much of the post-1970 discussion (though they're hardly the first to raise the
question -- it dates to Seneca the Elder),

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/ecology-and-the-politics-
of-s...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/ecology-and-the-politics-of-scarcity-
prologue-to-a-political-theory-of-the-steady-state/oclc/2524932)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/overshoot-the-ecological-
basi...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/overshoot-the-ecological-basis-of-
revolutionary-change/oclc/6195764)

[https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Aheinberg%2C+richard&a...](https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Aheinberg%2C+richard&amp;qt=owc_search)

[https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Asmil%2C+vaclav&amp;qt...](https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3Asmil%2C+vaclav&amp;qt=results_page)

Though hardly pessimistic, Daniel Yergin's book _The Prize_ (and TV series)
impressed upon me more than any other just _how much_ petroleum specifically
changed and transformed the modern world. Though intended largely as laudetory
and championing the oil industry by the author, my read of it was
exceptionally cautionary. The impacts on business, everyday life, politics,
wars, industry, and transport, and the rate at which they occurred, are simply
staggering. You can continue this exploration in Vaclav Smil's _Energy in
World History_ (1994) (I've recommended Smil independently elsewhere), and a
rare but profound two-volume set I'm currently reading, Manfred
Weissenbacher's _Sources of Power: How energy forges human history_ (2009).
The shear physicality of this book speaks to the message -- it's divided into
five parts: 1) Foraging Age (6 pages), 2) Agricultural Age (156 pp), 3) Coal
Age (160 pp), 4) Oil Age (296 pp), and 5) Beyond the Oil Age (142 pp). That
is, the ~2 million years of pre-agricultural existence are little more than a
footnote, the 8,000 years of agriculture roughly equal to the 150 years of
coal, and the 100 years of petroleum use roughly twice either. The oil and
post-oil ages comprise their own volume. Yergin followed up with _The Quest_ ,
continuing the search for oil, though I've been less impressed by it.

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/prize-the-epic-quest-for-
oil-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/prize-the-epic-quest-for-oil-money-
and-power/oclc/22381448)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-
history/oclc/...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/energy-in-world-
history/oclc/30398523)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/before-oil-the-ages-of-
foragi...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/before-oil-the-ages-of-foraging-
agriculture-and-coal/oclc/837625798)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-age-and-
beyond/oclc/83762...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/oil-age-and-
beyond/oclc/837625970)

Adam Smith's _An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_
is among the most-cited (and most _incorrectly_ cited), least-read books of
high influence I'm aware of, outside religious texts (and perhaps it _is_ a
religious text to some…). The author's message has been exceptionally shaped
and manipulated by a powerful set of forces, quite often utterly
misrepresenting Smith's original intent. Reading him in his own words,
yourself, is strongly recommended. I'd also recommend scholarship particularly
by Emma Rothschild and Gavin Kennedy, though also others, on Smith. Contrast
with the portrayal by the propaganda disinformation front of the Mont Pelerin
Society / Atlas Network / so-called Foundation for Economic Education, and
much of the modern American Libertarian movement (von Mises, Hayek, Friedman,
Hazlett, Rothbard, and more recently, Norberg). Contrast _The Invisible Hand_
(1964), a compilation of essays published by Libertarian house Regnery Press
in 1966, at the beginning of the rise in public use of Smith's metaphor to
indictate _mechanism_ rather than _an expression of the unknown_.

There are numerous editions of Smith, I believe the Glasgow is frequently
cited by Smith scholars: [https://www.worldcat.org/title/glasgow-edition-of-
the-works-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/glasgow-edition-of-the-works-
and-correspondence-of-adam-smith-2-an-inquiry-into-the-nature-and-causes-of-
the-wealth-of-nations-vol-1/oclc/832488566)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-sentiments-adam-
smit...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/economic-sentiments-adam-smith-
condorcet-and-the-enlightenment/oclc/45282974)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smith-and-the-
invisible-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smith-and-the-invisible-
hand/oclc/820387997)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smiths-lost-
legacy/oclc/...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/adam-smiths-lost-
legacy/oclc/56598640)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-hand-a-
collection-o...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/invisible-hand-a-collection-
of-essays-on-the-economic-philosophy-of-free-enterprise/oclc/326622)

I'd like to put in recommendations on technology specifically, but am still
searching for a good general text. The material's covered somewhat in the
chaos and complexity recommendations above (Campbell et al), though I'd add
Joseph Tainter's _The Collapse of Complex Societies_. Charle's Perrow has
several excellent books including _Normal Accidents_ and _Organizing America_.
I'd like to reference something concerning Unix, Linux, and programming,
perhaps Kernighan and Pike's _The Unix Programming Environment_ , Linus
Torvalds' _Just for Fun_ , Richard Stallman's _The GNU Manifesto_ , and Steve
McConnel's _Code Complete_. The O'Reilly book _Unix Power Tools_ also
encapsulates much the strength of the Unix toolset. All these are somewhat
dated.

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/collapse-of-complex-
societies...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/collapse-of-complex-
societies/oclc/15083222)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/normal-accidents-living-
with-...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/normal-accidents-living-with-high-
risk-technologies/oclc/10229932)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/organizing-america-wealth-
pow...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/organizing-america-wealth-power-and-
the-origins-of-corporate-capitalism/oclc/939707157)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-programming-
environment/...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-programming-
environment/oclc/10269821)

[https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-power-
tools/oclc/5238168...](https://www.worldcat.org/title/unix-power-
tools/oclc/52381684)

