Ask HN: What was the best book you read in 2013? - Kopion
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bmelton
The Silo Saga, by Hugh Howey. Originally self-published and released as short
Kindle "Singles", the first section of the series is collected in "Wool". The
Omnibus collects the first five singles, and is $6 on Amazon[1]... but if you
want to test it out, the first single he released is still available for free
in the Kindle store. It ranks among the best zero dollars I spent all year.

Behind that, I really enjoyed "White Noise" by Don Delillo, though I did have
some problems with characterization (basically, all the characters were the
author), and Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of
Inverted Totalitarianism

[http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Part-One-Hugh-Howey-
ebook/dp/B005...](http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Part-One-Hugh-Howey-
ebook/dp/B005FC52L0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386903043&sr=8-1&keywords=Wool+Part+1)

[2] [http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Silo-Saga-
ebook/dp/B0071X...](http://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Silo-Saga-
ebook/dp/B0071XO8RA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386903023&sr=8-1&keywords=Wool)

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h1ccup
This is my list(Most of these books aren't from 2013): 1\. The Man Who
Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff by Jane Smiley

2\. Halting State by Charlie Stross

3\. Levels of Life by Julian Barnes

4\. The Particle At The End Of The Universe by Sean Carrol

5\. Churchil Bomb by Graham Farmello

6\. The Science Of Memory by Charles Fernyhough

7\. The Anatomy of Violence: The biological roots of crime by Adrian Raine

8\. The Bet: Paul Ehrlich, Julian Simon, and our gamble over Earth’s future by
Paul Sabin

9\. Experiencing Art: In the brain of the beholder by Arthur Shimamura

10\. The Spark: A Mother’s Story of Nurturing Genius by Kristine Barnett

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sivetic
The Count of Monte Cristo .. not sure why it took me all these years to read
it, but it was one of the best books I've ever read.

~~~
aagha
I'm reading this right now (in my 30's) and LOVING it! It's a hefty read, but
the story--though I've heard the story before, seen movies, etc.--is so great
it's fantastic.

~~~
sivetic
I'm 31, so I'm about the same age .. I've heard of the book before, but didn't
know much about it, and haven't read it until this year. It truly blew me
away, almost from first page. It will be one of the very few books that I re-
read.

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user_235711
"Quiet" [http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/about-the-
book/](http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/about-the-book/)

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brotchie
I make note of the books I read in 1-2 sittings because I can't put them down.
This year these were:

    
    
        Five Billion Years of Solitude - Lee Billings
        Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
        Grand Ambition: An Extraordinary Yacht, the People Who Built It, and the Millionaire Who Can't Really Afford It - G. Bruce Knecht

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jrjarrett
1\. The Ocean at the End Of The Lane - Neil Gaiman

2\. Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie

3\. The January Dancer/Up Jim River/In The Lion's Mouth/On The Razor's Edge -
Michael Flynn

4\. Ghost Spin - Chris Moriarity

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rk0567
"The power of habit" [http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-
habit](http://charlesduhigg.com/the-power-of-habit)

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jamesmcintyre
Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Abundance by Peter H. Diamandis

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adidash
Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg

Lean Analytics - Alistair Croll and Ben Yoskovitz

Serve to win - Novak Djokovic

Honorable mention: Sell More Software - Patrick Mckenzie

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ajford
For me, it's a tie between _Daemon_ by Daniel Suarez and _The Lost Fleet_
series by Jack Campbell.

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ozh
Ender's Game, for the 8th time or so, which I wanted to re-read again before
watching the movie

~~~
ZofiaKorcz
Did you like the movie?

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enthdegree
I had to read Linear Algebra by Hoffman and Kunze for a class. It was really
applicable and useful.

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o_nate
One of these:

Robert Bellah - Religion in Human Evolution

Frank Kogan - Real Punks Don't Wear Black

Jerry McGill - Dear Marcus

Mark Kurlansky - The Big Oyster

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frostmatthew
_CODE_ by Charles Petzold

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dome82
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

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Nicholas_C
For Whom the Bell Tolls

I've been on a Hemingway kick ever since.

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khangsile
100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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chrisgd
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

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tyrelb
Think & Grow Rich

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navyad
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

1984 by George Orwell

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contextual
A book I actually finished? I'd say _One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of
Amazon.com_ by Richard Brandt. It's not the whole story though. Bezos is
portrayed in a favorable light throughout.

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thenerdfiles
_Decoding Reality: The Universe as Quantum Information_.

~~~
thenerdfiles
There's a great collection of essays in _The Philosohy of Law_ (edited by
Richard Dworkin), which gives a characterization of legal philosophy/thought
in Western Analytic tradition, and _Post-Scarcity Anarchism_ (Murray
Bookchin), a sort of historical analysis on how the post-structuralists'
thought played subnarrative to the orthogonal political philosophy of that
tradition.

I tend to read longform articles. _Thanks, news!_

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davidsmith8900
\- The Hero's Journey

