Ask HN: Best books you read in 2017? - gallerdude
======
nserrino
Without a doubt, the best book I read in 2017 was the three body problem
(first in a trilogy). I actually came across it in an interview with Alina
Cohen of Initialized via the 20 minute VC podcast. It intrigued me to not know
what it was about, and I recommend that people who are interested in reading
it go in with as little information as possible.

Going to start the second one this weekend :)

~~~
nikofeyn
this has been recommended to me quite often by my girlfriend. i should really
get to it.

~~~
nserrino
If you're like me, you will be gripped as quickly as the first chapter!

~~~
braja
The second one is going to blow your mind.

------
kull
This was a book a girl recommended me after our 2nd date :). The book made me
think about who I am in a different way. I really recommend it, especially for
those depressed because of no social life. The book is funny and scientific.
Also gives some good advice.

Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome Book
by Ty Tashiro

------
carusooneliner
Seeing Ourselves Through Technology by Jill Walker Rettberg. It's a useful
read for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of self representation
through technology. Every time you tweet, take a selfie, like a facebook post
or track your running, you're doing it to perhaps signal something to others
or to document yourself. The book gives a good history on the topic and goes
into people's motivations for self representation.

------
gknoy
I don't recall if I read Ann Leckie's "Ancillary Justice" this year or last
year. It was excellent.

I have only a few pages left of Neal Stephenson's "REAMDE", which turns out to
be better than I had dared hope.

~~~
veidr
I came here to recommend _Ancillary Justice_ too. A surprising, awesome sci-fi
novel that won the Hugo, Nebula, British Science Fiction, Locus and Arthur C.
Clarke Awards.

------
Arun2009
I read a few good books this year, all of them non-fiction. Some that come to
mind are:

"Worldviews - An Introduction to the History and Philosophy of Science" by
Richard DeWitt. Instead of doing a history-only or philosophy-only take on the
topic, I really enjoyed how DeWitt meshed these two viewpoints and examined
how they inter-played with each other. It overthrew forever my image of the
ancients as a group of irrational, superstitious people who believed in such
funny notions as the Sun and the planets orbiting the Earth. DeWitt nicely
explains how given the data that they had, their conclusions were very much
rational. For example, it's very difficult to imagine from our everyday
experience that earth could be orbiting the Sun at a speed of some 30 km/sec.

"A History of the World" by Andrew Marr. I find history a simultaneously
fascinating and frustrating subject. Fascinating, because a good knowledge of
history makes the present day world seem a lot more meaningful and un-
arbitrary. Frustrating, because it's difficult to find a history book that's
not just a list of facts and dates. Marr's work walks us through history via
vivid portrayals of interesting personalities and events. I found the
accompanying documentary series equally interesting as well.

"The Philosophy of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy: Stoic Philosophy as Rational
and Cognitive Psychotherapy" by Donald Robertson. This book examines the
common grounds between stoic (and to far lesser extent, Buddhist) philosophies
and modern cognitive behavioral therapy. It also lists some of the tools in
the stoic's tool-chest to tackle common anxieties and worries about life. The
nice thing about this book is that it teaches you to treat philosophy as a
method of self-therapy, which immediately opens up an ancient fund of
literature to tackle day to day problems.

------
anotherevan
The Aeon 14 novels following Tanis Richards[1] have been a consistently good
read. The Intrepid Saga and The Orion War series. Haven't ventured into the
other offshoots as yet.

The Dome Trilogy[2] was also pretty good, as are the Rho Agenda
series[3][4][5].

And if you prefer horror to sci-fi, the I Am Not a Serial Killer series[6] was
very good overall, although I thought it lost some steam in the last two
books.

And finally, The Rosie Project[7] was so completely charming I ended up
reading it straight through in one night.

[1]
[https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6426890.M_D_Cooper](https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/6426890.M_D_Cooper)

[2] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25501349-unexpected-
rain](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25501349-unexpected-rain)

[3] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/61746-the-rho-
agenda](https://www.goodreads.com/series/61746-the-rho-agenda)

[4] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/142618-the-rho-agenda-
incep...](https://www.goodreads.com/series/142618-the-rho-agenda-inception)

[5] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/175066-rho-agenda-
assimilat...](https://www.goodreads.com/series/175066-rho-agenda-assimilation)

[6] [https://www.goodreads.com/series/49883-john-
cleaver](https://www.goodreads.com/series/49883-john-cleaver)

[7] [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18015965-the-rosie-
proje...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18015965-the-rosie-project)

~~~
ckrusk
+1 for feel-good Rosie Project. The sequel is nice, too.

------
dharmon
I'll give you my 3 favorites of the year:

\- The Destiny of the Republic, by Candice Millard. The shooting of Garfield
is the framing of this book. It covers a time period I knew such little about
(~1880s), so I learned so much reading it. Just a crazy, interesting story in
many ways.

\- The Forever War, by Filkins. Sort of a series of vignettes by a reporter
covering Afghanistan, then Iraq during the war. I still don't know what to
think / feel about it, but I've recommended the book several times.

\- Barbarians at the Gate, by Burroughs, Helyar. A classic that I put off
reading for years because I thought it would be a slog (it's sort of long),
but I finished in a week. I love business history / case study books, and this
is one of the most famous, for good reason. If you like this also check out
Predator's Ball, which I read this year. It's about Milken and the junk bond
era.

~~~
swamy_g
"now that the world is on fire and the barbarians are at the gate you have the
audacity to come to me for help."

Sorry, couldn't resist :)

------
ultrasounder
Not finished yet. Genome- Matt Ridley. The guy knows how to take a "dry"
subject and spin a nice story around the central subject. Was recommended by
Naval Ravikant on the Shane Parrish's Knowledge Project podcast. Makes even
more sense to me now that I actually work for a NGS company.

~~~
WheelsAtLarge
This was one of Mark Zuckerberg's book recommendations. It's a great book to
get a basic understanding of the Genome. I read most of the books he
recommended and all gave me a new view of the world. I've since changed my
view of him. Facebook was not an accident. He truly is a deep thinker and
understands what it takes to move Facebook forward.

------
Jeaye
Top four this year listed below. Two fiction, two non-fiction.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Tea...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Five_Dysfunctions_of_a_Team)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucial_Conversations%3A_Tools...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucial_Conversations%3A_Tools_for_Talking_When_Stakes_Are_High)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_Recognition_(novel)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_Recognition_\(novel\))

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-
Four](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four)

------
jwdunne
Oooh 2017 has been a year of heavy reading. There's a few for very different
reasons:

\- Albert Einstein by Walter Isaacson

\- Functional Programming in JS by Michael Fogus

\- The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes

\- Why the Tories Won by Tim Ross

\- The Game by Neil Strauss (as a story of self-destruction and a guide on how
not to treat women).

\- Built to Sell by John Warrilow

\- The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz

I'm currently reading a handful of books on statistics and UX. This may change
before the end of the year.

I think there's a few I might return to that are half done but I guess the
fact I've put them down half way through disqualifies from being "the best".

Amd just to finish: I love these book posts. A good deal of books I read come
from these :)

~~~
gordon_freeman
Thanks for sharing. I read Steve Jobs by Isaacson and it was great and very
in-depth! I also want to desperately read his latest biography on Leonardo da
Vinci before the year end as heard it is awesome.

~~~
jwdunne
Oh I didn't know he had released one on da Vinci! Thanks for the heads up.

Einstein is a great book. I also recommend the NatGeo series after reading it
- it's based on the book.

------
tonysdg
Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic "Dune". Amazing both for the entertainment
value as well as for the thought-provoking ecological/sociopolitical ideas.

~~~
Dowwie
I think the director of Blade Runner 2049 is working on a Dune movie

~~~
tonysdg
I'd pay to see it. BR2049 was amazing IMO.

------
splintercell
The DAO of Capital by Mark Spitznagel, it basically talks about an investing
approach where “one gains by losing and loses by gaining.”, it is very
insightful because it explains a strategy and effect I have seen work
everywhere. Where people who suffer hardship early on, become stronger to deal
with things, whereas people who do not suffer hardship early on get wiped off
when real hardship arrives.

His whole strategy is about how to do things in life by not trying to take the
greedy algorithm [1] strategy where you choose the most logically beneficial
outcome at each step and hoping to find the global optimum. Rather he talks
about how various organisms in nature take a less than optimal step in the
short run, but in a roundabout way they win big.

Spitznagel runs a billion-dollar hedge fund based on the same strategy, and
his investment approach is to make less profit in the immediate future, only
to make a humongous profit in the long-term future. He has demonstrated this
strategy with his fund in 2015 when the market flash crashed and he made
billions.

1\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greedy_algorithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greedy_algorithm)

------
csnewb
Code Complete, Clean Code, and Debugging were profoundly educational to me as
a junior developer. The Obstacle is the Way helped me deal with personal
issues, but it's still a work in progress. The Joy of Less was a great
introduction to minimalism. I just started reading Neuromancer but its got me
hooked on the scifi/cyberpunk genre.

------
tschlossmacher
Absolutely, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. He crafts a beautiful
story.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was a long one, but very very good also.

Lastly, The Empire of Austria: Its Rise and Present Power by John S. C.
Abbott. It gave me a deeper understanding and historical context on where I am
currently based.

------
rwieruch
Pretty popular and not a niche book, but I enjoyed Give and Take by Adam Grant
very much [0].

\- [0] [https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-give-and-
take/](https://www.robinwieruch.de/lessons-learned-give-and-take/)

------
nkzednan
Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

Red Rising and sequels by Pierce Brown

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

(I read Three Body Problem + sequels in 2016. The first book I thought was ok.
I really liked the second book - The Dark Forest - the Dark Forest theory of
the universe I thought was quite interesting)

~~~
mariushn
Red Rising was great!

Also: Bobiverse
[https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse](https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse)

First Conquest [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21519728-first-
conquest](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21519728-first-conquest)

Lost Colonies Trilogy [https://www.goodreads.com/series/166573-lost-colonies-
trilog...](https://www.goodreads.com/series/166573-lost-colonies-trilogy)

------
danblick
Tim Wu's "The Master Switch". A history of communications industries in the
United States with an emphasis on consolidation / industrial organization and
its effects on free speech.

------
dsego
Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

~~~
plandis
My second favorite book I read this year was Sapiens which is also really good
in case anyone is interested. I mention it because AFAIK, the book the person
I’m responding to recommended is a follow-up of sorts.

------
compliance_data
Fiction: A Little Life, not about technology but a very eye-opening set of
perspectives I've never read before. Cried on the El twice while reading it.

Nonfiction: Master of the Senate by Rob Caro. Lyndon Johnson's years in the
senate (1949-1960) with an incredibly rich historical backdrop and detail.
Caro is known for writing about power and how powerful people have wielded it,
and this is a master work. Paints a very human picture of an extremely
effective politician.

~~~
aestetix
I read it a few years ago, but I must second _Master of the Senate_. Probably
_the_ best book on American politics I have ever read.

~~~
HiroshiSan
If you like Caro's work check out The Power Broker.

~~~
mathperson
I actually much prefer the years of LBJ to the power broker. Caro uses the
extra length to go soon much deeper.

~~~
aestetix
I've read all Caro's work. I greatly enjoyed them all, although the last book
felt like it lost its way about halfway through. Hopefully volume five will be
back on track.

------
moonka
The Oyster War: The True Story of a Small Farm, Big Politics, and the Future
of Wilderness in America by Summer Brennan. I learned more about oysters than
I thought possible, the history of oyster farming, and a lot about the setting
aside of land for national parks. It doesn't drag at all, and the author does
a great job of trying to stay relatively neutral. She does explain her
conclusions at the end, but only have you have formed your own.

------
marconey
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21094755-command-and-
con...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21094755-command-and-control)

Command and Control by Eric Schlosser

A great history of the US nuclear stockpile interwoven with the story of a
specific silo accident

------
Dowwie
I am currently reading the Strugatsky brothers' "The Doomed City". The history
of the book and its fanfare intrigued me. Sci Fi played an important role in
Russian history as authors treaded carefully with their criticisms of the
State. This book was written and went unreleased for decades in fear of
retribution.

------
baccredited
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Highest possible recommendation. Everyone I've
urged to read it has loved it.

------
rmason
Tim O'Reilly's WTF - What's the future. The single best part was where he
details how O'Reilly forecasts the future. But great chapters on open data and
also the clearest explanation on how and why the economy has changed in the
past fifty years.

------
fiftyacorn
End of the World Running Club - I picked it up for £1 on kindle and its about
a group running the length of the UK to make the boat leaving the UK following
a asteroid strike

Also liking Shoe Dog by Phil Knight at the moment

------
sahil_videology
Not done with it yet but listening to a great audiobook from Audible called
Shoe Dog about the founding of Nike. Great story of the tough grind of
starting a business. Recommended on the Acquired podcast.

------
mamaar
One of the best books I've read ever! Haskell Programming:
[http://haskellbook.com/index.html](http://haskellbook.com/index.html)

------
vuyani
Deep Work by Cal Newport

------
tomdre
Jaron Lanier's "Dawn of the New Everything". Beautiful description of his
journey in VR and how Silicon Valley has evolved from the early 80s.

------
kschua
Shoe Dog - Phil Knight

I read this book based on the recommendation of Bill Gates. It was one of the
best books I have read in a while

------
steindavidb
Travels with Charley in search of America

------
carlosgg
The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis

------
petagonoral
leonardo da vinci bio by walter isaacson came out this year. very in-depth &
excellently researched

------
twog
Principles by Ray Dalio, and its not even close. Best book of 2017 imo.

------
rasmus1610
Sapiens by Noah Harari or When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

------
crispytx
Angel by Jason Calacanis

Traction by Gabriel Weinberg & Justin Mares

------
woldemariam
The Simple Path to Wealth by J.L. Collins

~~~
baccredited
Agree this is great, should be required reading for anyone who wants to hit
Financial Independence. Natural fit for HN readers.

~~~
drio
I think it should be read by everybody, period.

------
hkmurakami
"An American Sickness"

------
rodzzlessa
Teaming with microbes

------
fahayekwasright
“Between Facts and Norms” by Juergen Habermas. A voice of clarity for a time
of confusion and rancor.

