Ask HN: What are the best books you've read this year? - adamnemecek
======
mindcrime
_It 's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow: How
to Use Speed as a Competitive Tool in Business_ by Jason Jennings & Laurence
Haughton

 _Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software_ by Charles
Petzold

 _What Is Relativity?: An Intuitive Introduction to Einstein 's Ideas, and Why
They Matter_ by Jeffrey O. Bennett

 _Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and
Time—and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of
Everything_ by George Musser

 _Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time, #13)_ by Robert Jordan & Brandon
Sanderson

 _Second Foundation_ by Isaac Asimov

Just started reading _The Penguin History Of The World_ by J.M. Roberts & Odd
Arne Westad. I'd always found history interesting in a general sense, but
other than a couple of specific periods that I found interesting (the American
Revolution, WWI, WWII), I had not studied the subject in much depth. So I
figured I'd start with a good single-volume overview of World History as a
whole, then go back and dig deeper into additional areas that pique my
interest.

So far it's pretty fascinating. It's especially interesting when you see how
elements of our modern world have roots that can be traced back for millennia.
It's also fun to note the extent to which geography and climate have impacted
the evolution of human civilization(s). It gives you a lot to think about in
terms of dealing with anthropogenic climate change. Even if human civilization
isn't wiped out completely, we could certainly see massive changes in the
nature of our civilizations as a result. At least history seems to suggest so.

------
douche
_The Black Company_ by Glen Cook[1]. Gritty low-fantasy story about a more-or-
less lovable band of misfit mercenaries.

 _The Path Between the Seas_ by David McCullough[2]. Account of the history of
the building of the Panama Canal, from the first French attempts, their
collapse, the political and business machinations to transfer ownership to the
US.

 _A Mad Catastrophe: The Outbreak of World War I and the Collapse of the
Habsburg Empire_ by Geoffrey Wawro[3]. History of Austro-Hungary in the years
leading up to the outbreak of the Great War and the disastrous first year of
the war on the Austrian fronts.

 _Old Man 's War_ by John Scalzi[4]. Military Sci-fi. Elderly earthers are
recruited, have their consciousness implanted in young, superhuman, and extra-
human, clones, and are sent out to the stars to wage questionable war to
expand the human race.

 _The Forever War_ by Joe Haldeman[5]. Starship Troopers, except with
relativity, and so the poor SOBs on the front-lines watch the rest of the
world move ahead millenias around them.

 _Avogadro Corp: The Singularity Is Closer Than It Appears_ by William
Hertling[6]. A team at a suspiciously Google-like corporation inadvertently
creates an AI system integrated with their email system, which develops beyond
its creators wildest dreams.

[1] [http://amzn.to/2gEdbns](http://amzn.to/2gEdbns)

[2] [http://amzn.to/2h5nIZg](http://amzn.to/2h5nIZg)

[3] [http://amzn.to/2gda4lm](http://amzn.to/2gda4lm)

[4] [http://amzn.to/2h85fvW](http://amzn.to/2h85fvW)

[5] [http://amzn.to/2h5seaw](http://amzn.to/2h5seaw)

[6] [http://amzn.to/2gddDN6](http://amzn.to/2gddDN6)

