
Ask HN: Books you read in 2016? - rwieruch
I&#x27;d like to know which books HN read in 2016. Which of these would you recommend? Which of these surprised you, because they are not the usual suspects.
======
wpietri
Matt Ruff's _Lovecraft Country_ , which led me to the non-fiction book
_Sundown Towns_ by James W. Loewen. I'm reading the latter right now and
blowing my mind.

My understanding of the American history of racism was basically that it was
generally getting better over time. Slavery, Civil War, Jim Crow, and then the
civil rights era. What this leaves out was that things got rapidly better
after the civil war for a few decades, and then got substantially worse. And
that it didn't get worse in the south; all over America white people drove out
non-whites from their towns. They created "sundown towns", places where
African-Americans weren't allowed after dark.

This is an era that goes unmentioned in most official local histories, and I
never heard about it growing up white. That was the case even though it was
happening all around the area I grew up. E.g., not far from where my family
lived was a major vacation area built by and for well-off African-Americans
because they were kept out of the white ones:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idlewild,_Michigan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idlewild,_Michigan)

I had literally never heard of the place, let alone known its history, even
though I know the name of almost every town an village nearby.

~~~
tboyd47
I'm going to have to read that one. I recently had the same realization
myself. As you learn about African-American history, racism looks less like a
vanishing relic of the past, and more like a looming spectre over America that
keeps re-appearing and wreaking havoc in every generation.

The thing that really made the difference for me was visiting the Charles
Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit. I actually was there for
a wedding but ended up touring the exhibit anyway.

------
panarky
"It Can't Happen Here", a novel by Sinclair Lewis.

It was written in 1935 during the rise of totalitarian regimes in Italy and
Germany, but before WW2. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that the
American democracy was immune to the disease of dictatorship.

The novel speculates how a populist figure could manipulate people through
fear, racism, corporatism, local militias and bald-faced lies.

He wins the popular vote and turns the US into a totalitarian dystopia.

It's fascinating to get a glimpse into people's understanding of the world
before WW2 broke out. I pictured a series of catastrophes that were surprises
to most people. But it's clear from this book that the horrors were
anticipated in advance.

~~~
anonymousDan
You should check out "I shall bear witness" by Victor Klemperer.

~~~
chillingeffect
While we're on the category of "just before the shit hit the fan," there's
"Defying Hitler." [1] It's the story of the early years in Germany as Hitler
was first coming to power, when the war was first beginning. Very insightful.

[1][http://dannyreviews.com/h/Defying_Hitler.html](http://dannyreviews.com/h/Defying_Hitler.html)

------
alawrence
The War of Art - Steven Pressfield (unsure how I felt about this one, but it's
short so worth a read)

Deep Work - Cal Newport (recommended)

Stumbling on Happiness - Daniel Gilbert (recommended)

Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals - Heidi Grant-Halvorson (lots of great
stuff in here, highly recommended)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Alex Haley (I really like biographies and
Malcolm X was a pretty interesting person. recommended)

Making It in Real Estate: Starting Out as a Developer - John McNellis (meh)

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (I'm not big on sci-fi, so this book surprised
me with how good it was. recommended)

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl (I'm not sure how much I got out of
it, but worth it just for learning about Frankl's unique experiences and
perspectives. recommended)

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (meh)

Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture -
David Kushner (One of those books that makes you want to lock yourself in a
room and program for hours. Carmack's dedication and intellect is especially
awe-inspiring. recommended)

~~~
FajitaNachos
I also read Ready Player One this year and thought it was excellent. Since
then I've been searching for more books that pull me in like that one did. Way
of Kings is pretty good so far.

~~~
demicynic
I tried to read it a couple of years ago and was unimpressed by the long lists
of 'references' to 80's pop culture. I only made it about half way through
before I abandoned it. Is it worth going back to finish it if I didn't enjoy
the first half?

~~~
Freak_NL
It's worth finishing I think — I enjoyed it, but that's not much to go on —
but it is definitely the type of book that should remain unique in your
collection. The eighties pop reference angle is interesting for those of us
who had parts of their childhood in the eighties, but it is not something you
would want to see repeated in a second or third book. A gimmick that works
well once.

Reminds me of House of Leaves (Danielewski), which employs typography and
layered (fictional) authors in a very compelling and unique manner. I can't
imagine ever reading another book like that though (although I know I'll enjoy
rereading it in the future). Any copy-cat would seem like cheap clone compared
to the original.

------
skizm
I realize this is probably not what you meant when asking for book suggestions
on HN, but since you didn't specify: If you're into 2D action / sci-fi /
dystopian fiction (or to be honest, if you're into fantasy/sci-fi at all)
check out the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown.

I went in expecting nothing and almost abandoned half way through the first
book as it seemed like a Hunger Games / Divergent rip off (and I didn't even
like either of those particularly), but holy crap after about half way into
the first book I was hooked. I powered through all three in a week and a half.
The books are pure fun. Didn't make me think too much, and had plenty of
action, politics, twists, broken friendships, violence, sex, rape, torture,
etc. Not exactly YA I would say, but then again the material isn't exactly
complicated either.

All in all, if you need a break from serious reads and enjoy sci-fi / fantasy,
check this out. The books were absolutely written to be made into a movie
trilogy at some point and I can't wait for it.

~~~
bennyg
I second this my goodman. Fantastic "story" books, not really literature. But
amazing books nonetheless.

------
beat
Two standouts:

 _The World Beyond Your Head: On Becoming an Individual in an Age of
Distraction_ , by Matthew B. Crawford. This is Crawford's second book, and I
recommend his first, _Shop Class as Soulcraft_ , even more highly. This is
modern philosophy, intense and grounded in the history and conventions of
philosophy, but not unreadable if you're patient. Crawford started working at
a Washington think tank, and bailed for a more honest life as a vintage
motorcycle mechanic. He walked away from wealth and "success" in favor of
ethics and peace. His focus is on the intellectual and moral value of working
at a craft, using your hands and your mind in concert to create and maintain
things of lasting value. When you work with the physical world, you must shape
yourself to the physical world, as much as you bend the physical world to your
will. In this book, he talks less about the value of work, and more about the
structure of society. It has some fairly extensive critique of the
Enlightenment philosophy that molded American government and ethics, and
pretty brutal takedowns of many of our institutions today, which he considers
wrongheaded and actively interfering with a good life. He'll make you think,
for sure.

The second book is _Drift into Failure: From Hunting Broken Components to
Understanding Complex Systems_ , by Sidney Dekker. The subject is how we
analyze failures in very complex systems (such as airplane crashes, bridge
collapses, etc). Such systems are built extremely carefully and at great cost,
with extensive engineering for safety and reliability, and regulatory
oversight. Yet sometimes, they fail anyway. Analyzing such failures can take
years and is never (honestly) reduceable to some single-sentence cause. Yet
that's what we try to do. Dekker argues that the reductionist approach of the
scientific method, our entire way of doing rigorous thinking, is inadequate
for complex systems, because there are too many interactions. Scientific
method depends on reducing variables, and sometimes, variables can't be
reduced. Again, this is fascinating stuff that will really change how you
think.

------
kirubakaran
Here is my full bookshelf: [http://www.kirubakaran.com/books-
read.html](http://www.kirubakaran.com/books-read.html)

Books Read in 2016:

1\. The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific
Knowledge \- Poundstone, William

2\. My Brain is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdos \- Schechter,
Bruce

3\. One Summer: America, 1927 \- Bryson, Bill

4\. The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #1) \- Liu, Cixin

5\. The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit \- Godin, Seth

6\. At Home: A Short History of Private Life \- Bryson, Bill

7\. Kings of Kings (Hardcore History, #56-58) \- Carlin, Dan

8\. Blueprint for Armageddon (Hardcore History #50-55) \- Carlin, Dan

9\. Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and
Winning the Deal \- Klaff, Oren

10\. William Shakespeare: The World as Stage \- Bryson, Bill

11\. So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for
Work You Love \- Newport, Cal

12\. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative
Battles \- Pressfield, Steven

13\. In a Sunburned Country \- Bryson, Bill

14\. Cannery Row \- Steinbeck, John

15\. Traction: A Startup Guide to Getting Customers \- Weinberg, Gabriel

16\. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World \- Newport,
Cal

17\. Starship Troopers \- Heinlein, Robert A.

18\. No Touch Monkey!: And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late \- Halliday,
Ayun

~~~
cgh
> 1\. The Recursive Universe: Cosmic Complexity and the Limits of Scientific
> Knowledge - Poundstone, William

Wonderful, I have never once in my life encountered another person who has
read this book. I first read it as a student in the '90s and, like "Godel,
Escher, Bach" and "QED", it made such an impact on me.

Strangely, just yesterday I found myself recommending it to someone who is
currently reading the new John Conway biography and had questions about the
Game of Life.

~~~
kirubakaran
Thanks, I liked it a lot too! Two similar books that I'm currently reading
are:

• From Eternity to Here - Sean Carroll

• The Computational Beauty of Nature - Gray Flake

I'd love to hear your thoughts on them if you've read them.

~~~
cgh
Nope, haven't read these but thanks for mentioning them. I'll have a look for
sure.

------
jfmercer
"The English and Their History" by Robert Tombs. This isn't simply another
"here's what happened" history book. Rather, it focuses not simply on _what_
happened and _why_ it happened, but more so on _the stories the English tell
themselves_ about their own history and how that formed and continues to form
their complex ethnic, national, and historical identity. For example, the
Henry V that impressed itself on the English imagination was not so much the
real, historical Henry V, but rather the hero of Shakespeare's "Henriad":
Henry IV, Parts I and II, and Henry V. (Cf. the St. Crispin's Day speech: "We
few, we happy few, we band of brothers," etc.) Dr. Tombs is the Professor of
French at Cambridge. Ironically, after devoting a lifetime to studying the
civilization on the opposite side of the Channel, he has written a masterpiece
on the history of his own people.

If you're looking for a book on the British Empire, this isn't it. Of course,
the Empire is an essential topic in the book; however, Tombs focus remains
centered on Britain, and, more specifically, England itself. For example, when
discussing the Seven Years War, Tombs emphasizes how events abroad affected
domestic politics without going into great detail about the international
events themselves.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in English history.

------
gedrap
\- Introductory Statistics with R by Dalgaard, Peter. A solid introduction to
stats, don't be scared by R bit in the title - it contains plenty of
maths/theory so that knowledge is widely applicable. Brilliant introductory
for everyone who wants to do something stats related. It's amazing how much
can be done with no fancy deep learning algorithms, just plain simple stats.

\- Statistics Done Wrong by Alex Reinhart. Plenty of gotchas with real world
examples from academia. Well written and easy to read.

\- The Circle by Dave Eggers. This one was scary. About imaginary corporation
(a blend of Facebook and Google and Amazon) and probably not too distant
future. If you liked Black Mirrors, you will love this.

\- Brave New World by Huxley, Aldous. Classic novel with interesting thoughts
about engineered society, where every human is assigned class, purpose in the
society and feature at birth.

\- Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal by
Bilton, Nick. Read this book in a weekend, really well written and well
researched about the inception of Twitter.

\- Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Tetlock, Philip E. A
study on people with above average ability to forecast feature events (mostly
geo-political). Talks about measuring predictions and improving them.

\- The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Brilliant book about overlooking
rare events which have dramatic consequences because 'it's unlikely to
happen'.

~~~
johnnydoe9
The Black Swan seems really good, would you say it's entertaining for non-
maths nerds?

~~~
misiti3780
Read the black swan and thinking fast and slow after, I think the combination
is life changing. It was for me anyways. They really complement each other.

~~~
nileshtrivedi
Many of the studies quoted in Thinking Fast and Slow, turned out to be
spurious:
[https://twitter.com/BrianNosek/status/811952178592026624](https://twitter.com/BrianNosek/status/811952178592026624)

------
TheAceOfHearts
I read almost all of Brandon Sanderson's novels. I'd heard of him before, but
I was hesitant to jump into his huge universe. I'm really happy I did, though.
In roughly 2 months I binged on all the Cosmere novels and Steelheart.

He's creating a truly magnificent universe with the Cosmere. As I understand
it, he expects it to reach 32+ books total. It's all centered around
Stormlight Archive, which is an ongoing 10 novel series.

The killer detail that helped win me over as a big fan was the fact that he
communicates with his fans. He's a fast writer, but he still gives updates.
After a few years of following GRRM, having an author that so openly speaks
with his fans is a breath of fresh air. I think everyone is usually aware that
estimates are never truly accurate, but at least it gives you an idea of what
the author expects to accomplish. If he says he's hoping to get the next
Stormlight Archive book by the end of next year, I know that doesn't mean it's
definitely going to happen. But that's fine, at least he's being open and
communicating with his followers.

Honestly, I think Stormlight Archive has blow away pretty much everything else
I've read.

This year I discovered a genre called LitRPG [0] and picked up all the major
books in the genre. It's very light reading, for when you just wanna go off on
a brief adventure. I enjoy videogames but I tend to find myself too tired or
busy to want to go into the grind myself, so this made for an entertaining
proxy.

[0] [http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/28/11801040/have-you-heard-
ab...](http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/28/11801040/have-you-heard-about-litrpg)

~~~
waldfee
Can confirm. All of Sanderson's books are great, but Stormlight is the one
that truly stands out.

------
espitia
1\. Hackers and Painters by Paul Graham 2\. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by
T. Harv Eker

3\. Tribes by Seth Godin

4\. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche

5\. The Industries of the Future by Alex Ross

6\. Bigger, Leaner, Stronger by Michael Matthews

7\. The Science of Getting Rich: Financial Success Through Creative Thought by
WALLACE D. WATTLES (The Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reads)

8\. Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins

9\. Principles by Ray Dalio

10\. Como Ganar Amigas e Influir Sobre las Personas by Dale Carnegie

11\. Without Their Permission by Alexis Ohanian

12\. Tribe by Sebastian Junger

13\. Sapiens A Brief History of Humanity by Yuval Noah Harari

14\. This is Water by David Foster Wallace

15\. How Not to Be Wrong. The Power of Mathematical Thinking by Jordan
Ellenberg

16\. Walt Disney By Neal Gabler

17\. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves by Matt Ridley

18\. Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger

19\. The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

20\. A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B.
Irvine

Out of all these, I would recommend only a few:

\- Sapiens

\- The Rational Optimist

\- Walt Disney By Neal Gabler

\- How Not to Be Wrong. The Power of Mathematical Thinking.

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

~~~
louprado
>> 20\. A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B.
Irvine

I read this book twice in 2016 and hope to read it again in 2017.

~~~
espitia
Yes! I think I left the best for last! Loving the book and it's practicality.
I look forward to writing about it in the coming year.

------
arc_of_descent
I started Jan 2016 jobless, I still am. hence the long reading list! Apart
from these I've read lots on AngularJS, React, Redux, Python.

* The Short Drop (The Gibson Vaughn Series) - Matthew FitzSimmons

* The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

* Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution - Neil deGrasse Tyson

* Elon Musk: How the Billionaire CEO of SpaceX and Tesla is Shaping our Future - Ashlee Vance

* Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries - Neil deGrasse Tyson

* The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest To Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind - Michio Kaku

* An Innocent Client (Joe Dillard Series Book 1) - Scott Pratt

* WIRED - Douglas E. Richards

* Phantoms - Dean Koontz

* Breakthrough - Michael C. Grumley

* Knots And Crosses (Inspector Rebus) - Ian Rankin

* Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston

* The Tumor: A Non-Legal Thriller - John Grisham

* Kick the Drink... Easily! - Jason Vale

* Hide And Seek (Inspector Rebus) - Ian Rankin

* Tooth And Nail - Ian Rankin

* Nexus (The Nexus Trilogy Book 1) - Ramez Naam

* Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow - Yuval Noah Harari

* Biocentrism - Bob Berman

~~~
thisisforyou
'started Jan 2016 jobless, I still am. hence the long reading list!' A year of
pure reading, one of the great, rare, unheralded joys of life... Enjoy it
while you can!

~~~
arc_of_descent
Yeah! But I read voraciously anyway. And also I've been working on my own
projects this 2016.

------
jrgifford
I read 54 books (might be 56, there's still time!) in 2016. Here's the ones I
recommend:

Fiction:

\- Owner's Share by Nathan Lowell

I forget who recommended I read the Solar Clipper series several years ago,
but I have been following them for a long time and look forward to it. It's
part of a series, so start with the first one (Quarter Share) and continue
from there.

\- Star Wars: Tarkin by James Luceno

Non fiction:

\- Programming Beyond Practices by Gregory Brown.

\- Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed by Henry S.F. Cooper Jr.

For the rest of the books I read this year:
[https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/3965760](https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/3965760)

------
a3n
(Some of the +below are O'Reilly DRM-free ebooks. Big fan.)

Python:

+Effective Computation in Physics. Probably the most practical full-
environment treatment of Python I've seen. Write, test, package, distribute.
Third party libs.

Effective Python, Brett Slatkin. Sort of an "N ways to improve your Python."
Part of a series edited by Scott Meyers.

Getting my C mojo back:

I left C/C++ 15 years ago. C++ will likely stay left, but I miss C.

+Reading 21st Century C, Ben Klemens. The first half is the development
environment, which is great, since there's some new stuff since I left, and
lots of stuff I've forgotten or never knew.

Rereading Expert C Programming: Deep C Secrets by Van der Linden. The guy's a
riot. It's dated but still relevant. The inside baseball stuff on problems
seen while working in Sun's compiler group is fascinating.

Rereading C Interfaces and Implementations, Hanson. Hoping this will serve as
my C version of Large Scale C++ Design by Lakos. Honestly though, the literate
programming style of presentation is off-putting. Are we still talking about
that?

------
yblu
I read a few dozens each year. These are the top in my 2016 list.

* Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future. If you can read only one book on startup this year, read this book.

* Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future.

* Running Lean: Iterate from Plan A to a Plan That Works.

* Alibaba's World: How a Remarkable Chinese Company is Changing the Face of Global Business.

* Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle.

* Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble. You will like or hate this book a lot, but it's surely an interesting read and perspective.

* Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life. Good book that gives you a framework to become more optimistic.

* Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.

* The Three-Body Problem Trilogy. Great, great sci-fi.

* Understanding ECMAScript 6. Best ES6 reference book.

* Node.js Design Patterns. Best Node book for intermediate/advanced developers.

* CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems. Great, great book on advanced CSS tips & tricks.

* Mastering Selenium WebDriver. This is probably the only good book on Selenium among so many bad books on this topic.

* Grokking Algorithms: An illustrated guide for programmers and other curious people. This is a good book but might be too basic for many people. Recommended for those who wants to quickly refresh their algorithms knowledge.

~~~
squeaky-clean
I've read a few of these and agree. Zero to One, I really enjoyed this when I
read it. Sapiens was also fantastic, I want to re-read it.

I also got Grokking Algorithms this year. I already have a few denser
algorithm books, but I really liked this one for the basics. I bought it as a
refresher that wouldn't be as dry as reading CLRS, and because I've been
recently helping a friend who is beginning a CS degree.

> Mastering Selenium WebDriver. This is probably the only good book on
> Selenium among so many bad books on this topic.

I have to work with Selenium a lot, and you're right, there are so many
terrible books and articles about Selenium. I'm going to look into this one,
thanks.

------
prashnts
Not a long list, but I'd recommend these:

\- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat ~ Oliver Sacks, 1985. This book
contains tales of some of the Sacks's patients. A very interesting read. [1]

\- The Mind's Eye ~ Oliver Sacks, 2010. [2]

\- Spy Catcher (Autobiography of a MI5 agent) ~ Peter Wright, 1987. [3]

\- Applied Cryptography ~ Bruce Schneier, 1994. Approachable and succinate
language of this book makes it easier to understand. [4]

[1] [http://www.amazon.in/Man-Who-Mistook-his-
Wife/dp/0330523627](http://www.amazon.in/Man-Who-Mistook-his-
Wife/dp/0330523627)

[2] [http://www.amazon.in/Minds-Eye-Oliver-
Sacks/dp/0330508903/](http://www.amazon.in/Minds-Eye-Oliver-
Sacks/dp/0330508903/)

[3] [https://www.amazon.com/Spy-Catcher-Autobiography-
Intelligenc...](https://www.amazon.com/Spy-Catcher-Autobiography-Intelligence-
Officer/dp/0670820555)

[4] [http://www.amazon.in/Applied-Cryptography-Protocols-
Algorith...](http://www.amazon.in/Applied-Cryptography-Protocols-Algorithms-
Source/dp/8126513683)

~~~
sateesh
If you like books by Sacks I would also recommend reading "Phantoms in the
brain" by S.Ramachandran

~~~
prashnts
Thanks! We had an elaborate discussion on VS Ramachandran's work at uni. last
semester. I'd definitely read this one.

------
tartuffe78
\- "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" by Susanna Clarke.

I usually can't read a book after seeing the movie or show, but the BBC
version was so good and I read reviews that they left out quite a bit. The
book definitely had a lot more detail, and was even more entertaining.

\- "Flash for Freedom" by George McDonald Fraser.

A part of series of historical fiction starring Harry Flashman, a cowardly
degenerate who always ends up admired and revered by all around as a hero.
This one is set amongst the 49ers, the Battle of Little Big Horn, and more.

\- "Neverwhere" By Neil Gaiman.

Fantasy novel about a regular guy in London sucked into a magical "London
below". I thought it was clever writing, and the audiobook read by the author
was surprisingly good.

\- "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen.

Post-apocalyptic novel about the effects of an EMP attack on the USA.

\- "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank.

Another post-apocalyptics novel, about conventional nuclear attack on many
sites in the USA.

\- "Cibola Burn" by James S. A. Corey.

Part of the Expanse Series that has been made into a show on SyFy. These books
aren't page turners for me, but overall they are entertaining enough.

~~~
sanderjd
If you like listening to books on tape, the version of Neverwhere read by
Gaiman himself, is my absolute favorite one.

------
tsaprailis
I had asked a question[0] regarding books a few months ago which ended up in
the following list[1]. From those so far I have read the following:

\- Elon Musk: Inventing the Future - Ashlee Vance Totally worth to get insight
into the Elon. Kinda changes the superhero/good guy image everyone has but you
end up with more respect for him whatsoever.

\- Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman Awesome book presenting modern
psychology. You'll get insight into how humans work.

\- Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson Nice, albeit small book
regarding how the creators of rails manage their company. So very nice
insight.

\- The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No
Easy Answers - Ben Horowitz I started reading this but it was too business
centric for me so I stopped, however if you're a business owner it might be
worth it.

\- Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel - Rolf
Potts This is a nice/into book if you're interested into digital nomading,
long term travel in general.

\- The Black Swan - Nassim Nicholas Taleb This in my opinion is a superb book
if you are interested in statistics/philosophy. He presents the chaotic
structure of our world and why extreme events are more common than we
think.Definitely suggested.

\- The art of Learning - Josh Waitzkin This is a book that presents the
Author's (Chess and Tai Chi Chuan World champion) way of learning. Has some
pretty useful insight.

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12415621](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12415621)
[1]: [https://github.com/kostistsaprailis/non-tech-books-for-
devel...](https://github.com/kostistsaprailis/non-tech-books-for-developers)

~~~
skmurphy
Strongly recommend "Art of Learning" There is an interview with Waitkzkin
(whose chess talents were chronicled in "Searching for Bobby Fischer" book and
movie) in "Learning about Learning"
[http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2009/01/21/learning-about-
le...](http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2009/01/21/learning-about-learning-an-
interview-with-joshua-waitzkin/) that gives you a good perspective of his
ability to engage in self-debugging: I blogged about this in
[http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2010/03/13/recurring-
problems-h...](http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2010/03/13/recurring-problems-
have-both-technical-and-psychological-roots/)

------
Arubis
Necessarily an incomplete list, because I haven't kept close track. 2016 was
busy and much of what I read was programming language related, which I will
exclude here.

In no particular order...

Cixin Liu -- The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest. Good read, as you'll see
on everyone else's list.

Neal Stephenson -- Seveneves. Really good but arguably his weakest in some
time; I wish the first three-quarters of the book were shorter and the final
quarter a book in and of itself.

Cal Newport -- So Good They Can't Ignore You. I found this longer than
necessary but an excellent kick in the pants.

Marcus Aurelius -- Meditations. Feels like a good "life reference" rather than
a straight-through read.

Roald Dahl -- Boy, Going Solo. These were fun when I first went through them
years ago, and they still _are_ fun, but the lens through which I view live
has become one increasingly allergic to entitlement, and boy, if you want
entitlement, look to the Brits at the end of the imperialist era.

Ed Catmull -- Creativity, Inc. Read this for work. Enjoyable but ehh.

Peter Tompkins -- The Secret Life of Plants (unfinished). I tried but couldn't
get past the rampant bad science.

Steve Martin -- Born Standing Up. This was a fun profile of a comic that I
appreciate; if you're already a fan it's worthwhile, otherwise skip it.

Derek Sivers -- Anything You Want. You can blow through this in a day and you
should.

Worth highlighting, my most influential read this year:

Tara Brach -- Radical Acceptance. I loved this. No: I _needed_ this. Rather
than the many philosophy-influenced books you'll find in this thread that are
really business books with new buzzwords, this is just about loving yourself
and building on that to live life fully. This will not (at least directly)
help you build a startup. This will (directly) help you build important
relationships.

~~~
Fnoord
> Peter Tompkins -- The Secret Life of Plants (unfinished). I tried but
> couldn't get past the rampant bad science.

I read this book as well when I was younger (in my "new age" period), and I
agree with your opinion.

------
roninb
I reread 1984 this year and it gave me trouble sleeping for a few weeks
afterward. The writing is so perfectly concise that your mind adds visceral
details that fill everything in for you. It makes the environment (political,
physical, economic, etc.) and everything Winston goes through so much more
real.

~~~
unimpressive
You may be interested in _Homage To Catalonia_ , a non-fiction book about some
of the real life experiences Orwell went through that inspired him to write
1984. It's available online to boot:

[http://www.george-orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/](http://www.george-
orwell.org/Homage_to_Catalonia/)

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

------
mayneack
Recommendations:

Non Fiction: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America

[https://smile.amazon.com/White-Trash-400-Year-History-
Americ...](https://smile.amazon.com/White-Trash-400-Year-History-
America/dp/0670785970/)

It sometimes reads like "A People's History of the United States", but the
chapter about Andrew Jackson's election would seem like they were forcing the
analogies to the 2016 election if not for the fact that it was published
beforehand.

Fiction: American Gods [https://smile.amazon.com/American-Gods-Tenth-
Anniversary-Nov...](https://smile.amazon.com/American-Gods-Tenth-Anniversary-
Novel/dp/0062472100/)

I think lots of people will like this book, but certainly those who are into
road trips across America.

------
coldpie
I finished up the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett. It turned out to be one of
the best book series I've ever read. It follows fictional characters inserted
into real history from the late 1800s to the late 1900s including both World
Wars, the Russian revolution, the Cold War, the Kennedy Assassination, the
separation and reunification of Germany, and more. I'm not a student of
history, so I learned a lot about these events, and it's told from an
individual, human perspective which I found very engaging. The characters in
each book are often children of characters from the previous books, so you
actually get to see the youthful characters from the first book age and pass
on their stories, getting this sense of nostalgia for events from earlier in
the story. Highly recommended.

~~~
100k
I haven't read the Century Trilogy, but his Pillars of the Earth is a similar
multi-generational story (about the construction of a cathedral) which I
enjoyed a lot. If you haven't read it, check it out.

------
kj01a
I finished The Lord of the Rings! It took me three years of reading it on and
off, but once I finished it the movies became significantly less epic.

I also read:

The Martian, Andy Weir --Loved it, but not for everyone

Streams of Silver, R.A. Salavatore --A fun read, disappointing ending

A Clash of Kings, George R.R. Martin --Wonderful

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius --Also wonderful

The Art of Peace, Morihei Ueshiba & John Stevens --Platitudinous bullshit and
an affront to O'Sensei

------
kakarot
Masters of Doom may well be the only book I've finished this year. I'm
currently reading a few novels and The Snowball (Buffet's bio) but it is a
slow process because of the overwhelming amount of time I spend reading news,
technical resources, comics, and short stories.

I cannot recommend Masters of Doom highly enough to anyone on this website.
It's about the rise of Id games and the technological and cultural
breakthroughs they made in the industry. Kushner expertly weaves a tale about
video games, programming and entrepreneurship in a way that few can. His
attention to detail is masterful -- not simply an overabundance of detail, but
detail in all the places it belongs. I really felt like I was there with the
two great Johns, just as invested in the future of Id as they were.

------
abronan
I maintain a list of my readings triaged by topics:
[https://github.com/abronan/readings](https://github.com/abronan/readings)

This year was rough for me as I had to deal with severe symptoms of anxiety
that eventually led to panic attacks. I tried to understand the phenomenon and
tackle subjects such as anxiety, consciousness and perceptual experience.
Three books are especially interesting in that regard:

\- The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of
Consciousness - Antonio Damasio -
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125777.The_Feeling_of_Wh...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/125777.The_Feeling_of_What_Happens?from_search=true)

\- Anxious: Using the Brain to Understand and Treat Fear and Anxiety - Joseph
LeDoux -
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23398722-anxious?ac=1&fr...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23398722-anxious?ac=1&from_search=true)

\- Seeing Things As They Are: A Theory of Perception - John Searle:
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22104265-seeing-
things-a...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22104265-seeing-things-as-
they-are?from_search=true)

The first two books are dealing with the neurophysiological aspects, with a
focus on the brain and the specific areas involved with physical sensory
experiences and/or consciousness. It explains how some areas of the brain are
linked to fear and anxiety (fear conditioning, fight-or-flight response,
etc.). Reading "The Feeling of What Happens" gives you all the necessary
knowledge to fully understand the second book which is a tough read. The book
"Anxious" also gives you a glimpse on different methods to treat and prevent
symptoms of anxiety (Cognitive behavioral Therapy, SSRI, beta blockers,
meditation, etc..). The last book is theoretical but comes as a good
complement and gives you a broad understanding on the notion of perception
(which is central to the first book).

Knowing which parts of the brain are involved with fear and anxiety and how
everything fits together helps me controlling my emotions when physical
symptoms of anxiety are appearing (the trigger to panic attacks).

~~~
cloverich
Congratulations on head-on tackling such a tough problem! I wish you the best
of luck as I"m sure it is not easy. Wanted to comment -- I'm not sure the
extent to which this will be useful or relevant (so forgive me if its
misplaced). I was interested in meditation (and to some smaller extent,
buddhism). This book is short and generally well written from a buddhist
perspective but may be of particular interest because the author previously
suffered from panic attacks and believe's his use of meditation allowed him to
control them: [https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Living-Unlocking-Science-
Happines...](https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Living-Unlocking-Science-Happiness-
ebook/dp/B000OI0G6G/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482725830&sr=1-2&keywords=joyful+living)

------
fsloth
Quite a few... but the best one was "Grit" by Angela Duckworth. It could be
categorized as a self help book since it deals with personal growth and
persistence - but from the point of view highly regarded researcher in
psychology.

I highly recommend this book since it's good on so many levels.

Unlike quackery books into self improvement, her book describes her research
and journey into human achievement using the scientific method.

------
jimsojim
Deep work by Cal Newport, great book on how to develop intense focus to be
creative/get more done. Highly recommended.

Race Against The Machine - a concise and informative discussion of the impact
of technology on employment, income distribution and macro economics. Highly
recommended as well.

~~~
q-base
Deep Work sure is a great book, but I would recommend people with interest in
the material just to go directly to Flow by Mihály Csikszentmihalyi.

Read them one after the other, first Deep Work and then Flow. IF you are going
to read both then I would recommend that order. Reading Flow first, then Deep
Work doesn't have much to offer.

Those books actually re-fueled my love of programming.

~~~
stonecodegump
There seem to be two Flow books by the same author :

Flow: The Psychology of Happiness

Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement With Everyday Life

Which one are you recommending?

~~~
danohu
not the GP, but start with Flow. Flow is the famous, classic one. Finding Flow
is a later expansion/restatement -- it's good enough in its own right, but
Flow is the lodestone

------
martinrue
Art & Fear

Of all the books I've read, this one resonated with me the most. It discusses
the process of art making, both the personal process of finding your work and
learning how to get better, as well as the issues with being judged through
your work. If you treat your projects/code more like art than science, I think
this book will be an enjoyable and provoking read.

------
satyajitranjeev
Things I completed:

1\. Elon Musk: Inventing the Future

2\. The Code Book - Simon Singh

3\. Fermat's Enigma - Simon Singh

4\. Deep Work - Cal Newport

5\. Smarter Faster Better - Charles Duhigg

6\. 1984

7\. So good they can't ignore you - Cal Newport

8\. Distributed Systems for fun and profit

9\. Classic Shell Scripting

Things I partially read and hope to complete some time:

1\. The music of Primes

2\. Traction

3\. Founders at work

4\. Your Memory: How it works and how to improve it

Things I would recommend: Fermat's Enigma and The Code Book are very
interesting reads if you are into Mathematics. They are both written very well
and you don't need to know too much of Mathematics to understand it. On the
other hand The Music of Primes started of very interesting and then got a bit
too heavy for an evening read. If you can chug along I think it would be a
good one too.

Of all the self help books I mentioned I think Duhiggs Smarter, faster better
is the one that stands out. It is more of an analysis of various teams and
people and how they got to work efficiently.

Founders at work is a long read but something that you can read a chapter
independently and that's why it is under half read but definitely something to
look at.

[EDIT: formatting]

~~~
bb611
Which Traction did you read?

~~~
satyajitranjeev
Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth by Gabriel
Weinberg, Justin Mares. The book was quite straight to the point not too many
frills.

------
dejv
Out of 32 books I read this year I recommend:

Somehow tech/startup related:

\- Spelunky, Derek Yu: book about creating the game of Spelunky + notes on
game design

\- Disrupted, Dan Lyons: book about "old" guy working in startup

\- Hatching Twitter, Nick Bilton: book about Twitter

Non-startupy books:

\- A Wild Sheep Chase, Haruki Murakami: modern Japanese novel

\- The Hills of Chianti, Piero Antinori: story about wine company and notes on
wine making, wine marketing and other stuff from one of the most notable wine
company from Italy (700 years old, owned by one family whole history)

\- The City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clark: scifi classic

~~~
thisisforyou
Curious if you have read other Murakami?

~~~
mindcrime
Not the author of the parent post, but...

Murakami is awesome. I've only read _After Dark_ and _Colorless Tsukuru
Tazaki_ , but I'm hooked. I'll definitely be reading _Norwegian Wood_ , _Kafka
By The Shore_ and/or _IQ84_ in the near future.

~~~
_jdams
I read Kafka on the Shore in 2016 and let me tell you, I'm not a big reader
(I'm working on it), but it had me thinking about it for weeks.

The book itself is like a dream state, it's magic; There's something about it
where even when I think about it again, I get taken off into the lands within
the book. I hear other Murakami works are similar in that regard. It is really
hard to explain but it had me thinking about my life, who I am as a person to
outsiders who meet me, how I see myself and what I feel my purpose in life is,
etc.

------
blabla_blublu
Currently Reading : Goldfinch!

Best Book I read this year : Deep Work by Cal Newport and One World Education
by Sal Khan.

Best fiction : Laughter in the Dark by Nabokov.

## Deep Work by Cal Newport

## The life changing magic of tidying up by Marie Kondo

## So good they can’t ignore you by Cal Newport

## Serious men by Manu Joseph

## Strangers on a train

## One world education by Sal Khan (Highly recommend it)

There are several wonderful takeaways from the book which I will try to list :

\- The current model of education is broken. The Prussian system was designed
to isolate workers from thinkers and factory laborers from office bearers. In
an era where we need lots of original and creative minds to solve problems, it
just doesn’t work.

\- Conventional education system leads to a lot of gaps in learning, which are
not addressed. For example, in spite of scoring 90% in math, you might have
missed out on a key concept which will come back to haunt you later on.

\- The system of homework is broken. It prioritizes quantity over quality and
is meaningless.

\- The testing system is just a snapshot of the student’s learning and does
not says nothing about a student’s potential to learn a subject.

Sal goes on to propose a futuristic schooling system where students would use
Khan Academy or an equivalent medium to progress at their own pace and use
their classrooms for pursuing creative activities and enhancing his/her
learning. Another interesting idea which he proposes is to dismantle age-wise
segregation and group them based on the levels they are at in terms of
progress made.

I think Sal Khan is a fantastic role model for kids and adults alike. A former
hedge fund analyst turned educator is shaking up the fundamentals of our
education system and tackling problems which are deeply rooted and slowly
turning political as well. Here’s to a bright Sal-led future for education!

Overall, I would give the book 4.5/5\. Visionary. Excellent. Ambitious!

## The Invisible Hand

## Disgraced by Ayad Akthar

## Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

## Laugher in the Dark by Vladimir Nabokov

~~~
quantazelle
Loved The Life Changing Magic, and totally got rid of so much stuff. However,
you should check out this year's Spark Joy by Marie Kondo is a lot more
helpful because it has illustrations of how to fold things and so forth.

~~~
blabla_blublu
That's interesting - will check it out in 2017. I got rid off a lot as well,
but now that the dust has settled down, I am finding it increasingly hard to
remember to not accumulate. It's a constant battle in this on-your-face
advertising and consumption oriented constructs prevalent in society.

------
hdivider
_Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In_ by Roger Fisher and
William Ury.

Once you realize virtually every conversation with a human is also a
negotiation, the need to study it becomes clear.

~~~
jcmoscon
Read about classic rhetoric. It's a fascinating subject!

~~~
hdivider
Interesting. Any book suggestions?

~~~
bcbrown
I too would love suggestions, but I have Cicero's Republic on my list to read.

~~~
Ezra
Not the GP, but I read "Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and
Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion" by Jay Heinrichs this
year, and consider it an excellent intro to classical rhetoric.

------
pmalynin
One book that I've read recently that really stands out is Differential
Geometry of Curves and Surfaces by Manfredo do Carmo. It's a bit outdated, and
at times hard to read, but it has a lot gems that aren't well know (there is a
bit at the beginning on estimating the length of a curve by counting the
number of intersecting lines).

I'd recommend it if you're looking for some math reading.

------
gk1
I've read 13, which is half my goal of 24, but it's still more than the year
prior so I'm satisfied. The three that stand out to me (recency bias in full
effect):

Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky - I went back to Dostoevsky because I
needed a break from business books... Something to distract me from work in
the evenings. Dostoevsky's overly descriptive narrative does a great job of
transporting my mind to 19th-century Russia and far, far from my work and
other present-day concerns.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown, and Deep Work by Cal Newport - Pairing them
together because they both reminded me the same important lessons: 1) Do fewer
things and do them better, 2) Being overly busy is not a sign of success.

~~~
mindcrime
_I 've read 13, which is half my goal of 24, but it's still more than the year
prior so I'm satisfied._

I was a little disappointed that I only got through 24 this year. My goal was
75, which would have represented a stretch beyond the 53 I got through last
year. But it turns out that I picked a couple of really long books this year,
AND I spent a lot more time this year doing stuff like taking Coursera classes
and what-not, which cut into my reading time.

All in all, I guess it just shows that a simple number like "titles read"
isn't really all that meaningful. :-)

 _Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky_

I really want to read this. Maybe in 2017.

------
drelihan
Here are some of my favorites from the year ( ranked in how much they changed
my thinking ):

\- The Art of Being Unreasonable ( Eli Broad ) \- Alibaba ( Clark ) \- The Box
( Levinson ) \- King Icahn ( Stevens ) \- Expert C Programming ( Linden ) \- A
Passion to Win ( Redstone ) \- Chaos Monkeys ( Martinez ) \- A Truck Full of
Money ( Kidder ) \- The Hidden Wealth of Nations ( Zucman ) \- Dead Wake (
Larson )

~~~
dapatil
Loved Chaos Monkeys as well - It's a fun read and very educational at the same
time.

------
H4CK3RM4N
I've been reading through the Discworld series and I've really liked the
commentary on various social structures throughout.

~~~
akuji1993
Had some downtime last week and started the "first three books" edition I got
over a year ago. Very nice read, already ordered two more that sounded very
compelling. The wit and humour is absolutely terrific.

~~~
paublyrne
The first three are him finding his feet, and his voice. They really start to
become excellent with the fourth novel, Mort. Hopefully you ordered that one!

------
vitomd
Enchiridion - Epictetus : the best practical piece of stoic philosophy that I
read (Marco Aurelio or Seneca are good too).

The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You
Can Do to Get More of It - McGonigal, Kelly. Great book

The Feynman Lectures on Physics - Feynman, Richard - He is a great teacher,
you will love physics even if you didn´t like it.

Stumbling on Happiness - Gilbert, Daniel Todd - Great book about how our mind
works

I had to survive - Roberto Canessa: He is a survivor from the the Andes
tragedy, half of the book is about that and the other half about what happens
next, he become one of the best paediatric cardiologists in the world.

------
bcbrown
Language in Thought and Action, S.I. Hayakawa

How to Read a Book, Mortimer J. Adler

Gilgamesh

Beowulf

Snowcrash

High Output Management, Andy Grove

Hell's Angels by Hunter S Thompson

Programming Pearls, Jon Bentley

Walden, Thoreau

Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson

Letters from a Stoic, Seneca

Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Wittgenstein

Tyranny of Words, Stuart Chase

Golden Mean, Annabel Lyon

Disrupted, Dan Lyons

Big Data, Nathan Marz

Practical OO Design in Ruby, Sandi Metz

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley

Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainier Maria Rilke

Anatomy of a City, Kate Ascher

Language and Thought by Chomsky

Hero of a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

Language and Responsibility by Chomsky

Magic, Science, Religion by Malinowski

Meditiations by Marcus Aurelius

Oranges by John McPhee

The Dream of the Enlightement, Anthony Gottlieb

Nonexistant Knight/Cloven Viscount, two novellas by Calvino Italo

Deltoid Pumpkin Seed by John McPhee

Infrastructure by Brian Haynes

I'd recommend almost all of them, but especially the first two, and
Autobiography of Red(poetry).

------
razvanh
I would recommend most of the books I read this year:

* Born a Crime by Noah Trevor

* Half of a Yellow Sun by Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi

* Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Alexievich, Svetlana

* Ex-Formation by Hara, Kenya (best book I read this year)

* A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bryson, Bill

* Algorithms to Live By: The Computer Science of Human Decisions by Brian Christian (applying algorithm theory to daily life)

* Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It by Voss Chris (meh)

* Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days by Knapp Jake (meh)

* All the Light We Cannot See by Doerr Anthony (loved it)

* The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro Kazuo (loved it)

~~~
anonymousDan
So do you recommend secondhand time? Thinking of getting it as a Christmas
present for my Dad. Or is it completely depressing?

------
cicero
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller (recommended SF classic)

The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis (an old favorite, recommended)

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco (some interesting parts, but overall a
disappointment)

Theology and Sanity - Frank Sheed (recommended; a very written description of
the Catholic faith; weaknesses are it's long and it's aimed to a mid 20th c.
audience)

Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensees - Peter Kreeft (recommended;
a good exposition of Blaise Pascal's thought)

Catholicism: A journey to the heart of the faith - Robert Barron (recommended;
a good explanation of Catholicism for the common person)

His Master's Voice - Stanislaw Lem (recommended; very intellectual look at the
problem of first contact)

The Industries of the Future - Alec Ross (the robotics chapter is best; other
parts are more light-weight; easy read)

Clouds of Witnesses - Dorothy Sayers (not my favorite Sayers mystery, but
enjoyable)

A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle (recommended)

Why Gender Matters - Leonard Sax (recommended; most of the book is based on
good science, but he does go out on a limb a time or two.)

Old School - Tobias Wolff (recommended; a world before widespread TV where
high school boys actually got excited about literature)

Infinite Space, Infinite God - Karina and Robert Fabian editors (story quality
varies; I enjoyed some of them)

The Sign of Four - Arthur Conan Doyle (recommended)

On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers (recommended; I love Powers, but Anubis Gates
and Last Call are better. Still, if you like pirates you should like this)

The Art of Worldly Wisdom - Baltasar Gracian (interesting)

Aquinas at Prayer: the Bible, Mysticism, and Poetry - Paul Murray
(recommended; this shows a different side of Thomas Aquinas)

Aristotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy - Mortimer Adler
(recommended; I almost think this should be required reading)

The Pilgrim's Regress - C.S. Lewis (I enjoyed it, but the ideas Lewis argues
against are somewhat dated.)

Edit for formatting

~~~
EthanHeilman
+1 His Master's Voice

------
calebm
1\. Nexus (Ramez Naam)

2\. Infinite Jest (David Foster Wallace)

3\. The Fellowship of the Ring (J. R. R. Tolkien)

4\. The Sin of Certainty (Peter Enns)

5\. The Bible Tells Me So (Peter Enns)

6\. Thomas Traherne, Centuries of Meditations

7\. Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)

8\. Elantris (Brandon Sanderson)

9\. A Wild Sheep Chase (Haruki Murakami)

10\. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Haruki Murakami)

11\. Freedom TM (Daniel Suarez)

12\. Lightning (Dean Koontz)

13\. Daemons (Daniel Suarez)

14\. Foundation and Earth (Isaac Asimov)

15\. Something Wicked This Way Comes (Ray Bradbury)

16\. Fear and Loathing in Las Veges (Hunter S. Thompson)

17\. Foundation's Edge (Isaac Asimov)

18\. The Doors of Perception (Aldous Huxley)

19\. Cryptonomicon (Neal Stephenson)

20\. Tortilla Flat (John Steinbeck)

21\. The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)

------
lunchladydoris
\- The Prize, by Daniel Yergin ([https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prize-Epic-Quest-
Money-Power/dp/184...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prize-Epic-Quest-Money-
Power/dp/1847376460))

It's a history of oil over the last 150 years. Sounds boring. It's not. It's
one of the best books I've ever read.

This book has made me realize that the history of the world over the last
century and that of oil are almost one and the same.

~~~
soberhoff
If you enjoyed that book I also suggest The Commanding Heights by the same
author.

------
swapnull
Ready player one - Good bit of fun for a gamer/80s enthusist

Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger - I had no idea what was going on, i just know i
enjoyed it

American Gods - slow starting but great book

Leviathan wakes - book that the netflix series 'the expanse' is based on

A Song of ice and fire books 1 to 3

------
jszymborski
One of my favorites this year, particularly in non-fiction, is _In Search of
Stupidity_ by Merril R. Chapman [0]. It's an amazing look at the history of
microcomputers and the ensuing software market with a particular eye on what
made certain companies fail.

Chapman worked for sometime in sales and later product management at MicroPro
(WordStar), Ashton-Tate, Novell, etc... so it has quite an "inside-look" feel
and the subject matter sounds like it's treated fairly.

The narrative is quite the page-turner for a non-fiction book, but my only
qualm with it is that Chapman can be pretty sophomoric and unnecessarily
gratuitous in his lampooning and shaming of business leaders or strategies
which flirts with undermining the otherwise really insightful analysis.

It's a little dated (Microsoft is still king and Apple the scrappy underdog),
but I think it's an important context for anyone following tech today.

[0] [https://www.amazon.com/Search-Stupidity-Twenty-Marketing-
Dis...](https://www.amazon.com/Search-Stupidity-Twenty-Marketing-
Disasters/dp/1590597214)

------
Protostome
The three body problem trilogy .. the greatest science fiction of the last few
years

------
Zelmor
After a quarter of an hour, I keep coming back to two books/audiobooks that
have shaped this year. The rest is of no significance in comparison.

The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu Translated by Gia-Fu Feng (1919–1985) and Jane
English (1942–)

Here is the audiobook read by Jacob Needleman, with additional commentary at
the end. You can listen to it repeatedly on daily commutes, gives you
something to consider: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACr-
EGYv71k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACr-EGYv71k)

Dhammapada, The Sayings of the Buddha Translated and edited by Thomas Byrom
While Byrom's translation is not generally well received among literary
scholars, I enjoy his poetic edits, and believe it is easier to remember the
verses in everyday life. I carry it a Shambhala Pocket Classics edition with
myself, usually, and read it as a reminder whenever I lose the way.

Again, read by Jacob Needleman:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbtSvgL2fEU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbtSvgL2fEU)

~~~
Zelmor
Sorry about the crappy/weird youtube videos and titles. It's what I could
find. I myself have the audiobooks.

------
thisisforyou
_The Complete Fiction -Lovecraft, H.P.

_ Pilgrim at Tinker Creek -Dillard, Annie

 _The Fractalist: Memoir of a Scientific Maverick -Mandelbrot, Benoît B.

_ Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories -Blackwood, Algernon

 _Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience -Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly

_ Death in Venice -Mann, Thomas

 _Whites -Rush, Norman

_ The Room -Selby Jr., Hubert

 _Book of Numbers -Cohen, Joshua

_ Maggot: Poems -Muldoon, Paul

 _The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia -Vucinich, Wayne S.

_ The Mezzanine -Baker, Nicholson

 _The Museum of Unconditional Surrender -Ugrešić, Dubravka

_ What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
-Schrödinger, Erwin

 _Dictionary of the Khazars -Pavić, Milorad

_ Honored Guest -Williams, Joy

 _Martyrs and Miracles -Trickey-Bapty, Carolyn

_ Noa Noa -Gauguin, Paul

 _Their Eyes Were Watching God -Hurston, Zora Neale

_ Ordeal by Hunger: The Story of the Donner Party -Stewart, George R.

 _Moby-Dick; or, The Whale -Melville, Herman

_ Eileen -Moshfegh, Ottessa

 _Haute Surveillance -Göransson, Johannes

_ Mazes and Labyrinths: Their History and Development -Matthews, W.H.

 _A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological
Warfare -Harris, Robert

_ Our Lady of the Flowers -Genet, Jean

*The House of the Dead -Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

Current: Black Swan, Nassim Taleb

------
lloeki
Fiction, mostly:

\- Reamde, by Neal Stephenson. What a let down, very formulaic.

\- Vortex, by Robert Charles Wilson (sequel to Spin and Axis). Spin is a must-
read, Vortex was quite pleasant and brings a satisfying closure to the series.

\- Permanence, by Karl Schroeder (re-read). Lots of awesome tidbits (property,
rights, AR, anthropocentrism) scattered through an entertaining semi-hard sci-
fi space opera.

\- La Zone du Dehors, by Alain Damasio. A spiritual sequel to 1984.

\- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (finally!)

\- The Affinities, by Robert Charles Wilson

\- La Horde du Contrevent, by Alain Damasio (in progress). A fantastic,
ontologic, poetic story about the wind.

As well as a couple non-fiction:

\- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! This is made of pure awesomesauce and
perfectly captures the kind of spirit at the root of hackerdom.

\- Pale Blue Dot, by Carl Sagan (in progress). Humbling.

\- Steve Jobs, by Walter Isaacson. Surprised me in many ways.

~~~
mugsie
I have read and re-read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! so many times over
the years. It is a fantastic book.

------
acidburn4
The Teachings of Ramana Maharshi - Arthur Osborne

Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman

The Prince - Nicollo Machiavelli

Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

High Output Management - Andrew Grove

Elon Musk - Ashlee Vance

Red Plenty - Francis Spufford

The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari

The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz

The Inner Game of Tennis - W. Timothy Galleway

My Gita - Devdutt Pattanaik

One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Istanbul - Orhan Pamuk

The Stranger - Albert Camus

------
gravypod
I haven't finished these yet but I'm a college student so it's par for the
course for me to be last minute.

    
    
       Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs [0]
       The Moon is a Harsh Mistress [1]
    
    

Both are fantasitc. SICP on a technical level and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
on a fiction level.

[0] - [https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-
text/book/book.html](https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/full-text/book/book.html)

[1] - [https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-
Heinlein-e...](https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Harsh-Mistress-Robert-Heinlein-
ebook/dp/B00H4EP98S)

------
eogas
I just finished The Phoenix Project recently, and I thought it was great. It
is effectively a novel about a large software project which is being
mismanaged and on the brink of failure, and the steps that the team (and
related teams) took to save it from the grips of death. The point of the book
seems to be to explain the types of situations that are improved by focusing
on devops and agile development.

Personally, this book really hit home, as I had recently left a team/project
much like the one described in the book, however I think anyone working on a
software project at a decent sized company will be able to relate to many of
the problems presented early in the book.

------
rekwah
I've created a goodreads list[0] for top-level comment recommendations.
However, it appears a user may only vote for a max of 100 books per list[1].
So, additional contributors welcome!

[0] -
[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/106689.Ask_HN_Books_you_...](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/106689.Ask_HN_Books_you_read_in_2016_)

[1] - [https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1060933-listopia-
list-l...](https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1060933-listopia-list-limit)

------
quantazelle
1\. The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of
Brilliant Technologies by Erik Brynjolfsson - A history of technological
progress and predictions about the future. Obviously a lot of repetitive jobs
will be automated, but Brynjolfsson posits a few interesting potential
solutions for the future, such as Negative Income Tax.

2\. Chaos Monkeys by Antonio Garcia Martinez - A first person memoir about an
aqui-hire by Facebook / Twitter. Interesting to learn about the differences in
corporate culture and how Ycombinator works behind the scenes.

3\. Economics in One Lesson: by Henry Hazlitt - Explains classical economics
in a way where I now can understand what politicians are talking about.

4\. The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory by John Seabrook - How pop music
is made. It's surprising how assembly-line it actually is, and how many people
work behind the scenes. Google "topline writer," for one.

5\. Hatching Twitter by Nick Bilton - A third-person account of Twitter's
origin and subsequent CEO-shuffling. Wow, I can see why the board would want
to replace Jack and Ev--they are not management material, which is why it's
perplexing that Jack is back (unless it's board politics, again).

6\. Disrupted by Dan Lyons - a memoir by a 50-something writer (who now writes
for HBO's Startup - he wrote White Hat / Black Hat - the one where Ross had
the tequila bottle incident) trying to deal with the culture of a young goofy
startup culture in Boston. Another corporate culture book that was
interesting, and made me glad I don't have to deal with office politics. Lyons
is kind of jerk who doesn't realize it, though.

7\. Steve Jobs - by Walter Isaacson. However, it's missing a lot from the
"NeXT" time, surprisingly. If you're interested in Chrisann Brennan's
perspective, check out her The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of My Life with
Steve Jobs--though be forewarned it's pretty whiney and I really just skimmed
over most of it. Her perspective on why he was attracted to Laurene Powell is
interesting, though.

8\. Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance - It's an authorized biography, so there's that,
but it's still an interesting read.

------
scandox
This is mine:

\- Summae Technologiae by Stanislaw Lem

\- The Futurological Congress by Stanislaw Lem (reread)

\- Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson

\- The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson

\- The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

\- Embassytown by China Mieville

\- The Vegetarian by Han Kang

\- Perchance to Dream (stories) by Charles Beaumont

\- Highrise by J.G. Ballard

\- In a Glass Darkly and Other Stories by Sheridan Le Fanu

\- The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling (checkout my openly annotatable
edition
[https://hc.selectedintelligence.com](https://hc.selectedintelligence.com))

\- All We Shall Know by Donal Ryan

\- New American Stories edited by Ben Marcus

\- This is The Way by Gavin Corbett

It's been a very fictional year. I guess I wasn't enjoying reality enough to
read about it.

~~~
thisisforyou
How did you like 'New American Stories'?

~~~
scandox
Well I know very little about contemporary American fiction so it was all
pretty new to me.

NoViolet Bulawayo was my favourite. Anthony Doerr, Rebecca Lee and Robert
Coover I liked. George Saunders made me laugh though I didn't think the story
was exceptional. I remember really not liking Sam Lipsyte but everybody I
spoke to said I was being unfair.

I'd never read any Don Delillo and I know I'll have nothing but grief for
saying so: I thought it felt like something dust-covered from the 80s to me.
Like a story set in a world of filofaxes. And not in a good way.

I didn't feel strongly enough about the rest I guess to comment. So a pretty
mixed bag - but you know that's contemporary for you...time hasn't sifted the
work, so it is bound to be patchy.

------
Freak_NL
I've read all six novels of David Brin's Uplift trilogies this past year. If
you enjoy sci-fi written with a sound grasp of ecological issues and an
intriguing take on galactic society, have a look at these books.

Also, dolphins in space.

If you are unfamiliar with this author, you may remember him from his essay on
a particular persistent trope in sci-fi writing linked on HN:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13040930](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13040930)

I enjoyed the Uplift series (written in the eighties and nineties) a lot, and
was pleasantly surprised to learn of a short story bundle that came out just
this year. It includes a novelette that takes place in the Uplift universe,
wrapping up some loose ends.

The story bundle is named Insistence of Vision, named for the opening story.
The name is indubitably a nod to John Varley's (sublime!) short story The
Persistence of Vision (also the name of the story bundle it is collected in,
recommended for any sci-fi fan). I always find short sci-fi stories refreshing
in that they provide a chance to explore more radical ideas and settings that
would be hard to facilitate in longer works. Brin is one of those authors who
succeeds in titillating the reader's imagination with interesting what-ifs and
extrapolations without feeling contrived. Recommended.

------
chimprich
* The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee. The prose was a bit purple for me but fascinating book about the progress of cancer treatment including recent advances. Second half of the book is more interesting in my opinion so don't give up if you find the history of cancer a little do dry.

* Tuf Voyaging by George RR Martin. I thought this was a stupid premise (guy travels the universe in a huge ship with cat companions?) but a friend strongly recommended it and I found it stupidly readable and very entertaining.

* Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh. Deeply interesting and humane book about the work of an eminent brain surgeon.

* The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence In History And Its Causes by Steven Pinker. Strong persuasive central thesis even if though I didn't agree with all his arguments. Very wide-ranging book with many ideas from philosophy and history.

* Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen. Informative and scary book about zoonotic diseases. Like a non-fiction cross between the detective, horror and sci-fi genres.

* The Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela. Read this because I felt I should rather than out of pure interest, but it was a good decision: fascinating biography and startling how intelligent and occasionally ruthless Mandela was.

------
aml183
When Breathe Becomes Air ([https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-
Kalanithi/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/When-Breath-Becomes-Paul-
Kalanithi/dp/081298840X)) and Man's Search for Meaning
([https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-
Frankl/dp/...](https://www.amazon.com/Mans-Search-Meaning-Viktor-
Frankl/dp/080701429X))

------
aorth
The Bridge on the Drina, by Ivo Andrić. It's about a beautiful bridge over the
river of a town near the Bosnia–Serbia border, and tell the story of the
people and politics of the region over several hundred years starting in 1300s
or so until 1914. Fantastic introduction to the history and culture of the
region.

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

------
hanoz
I haven't read a single book in 2016, something for which I hold Hacker News
greatly to blame. I have read a good number of Hacker News book suggestion
threads mind, and in turn a lot of Amazon reviews, usually up until the first
unfavourable comment, which is typically enough to put me off completely. I
can but look to Hacker News to make amends, so if anyone has any good advice
for what I should do about this in 2017, I look forward to reading it.

~~~
dublinben
Make up your own mind about which books you want to read. Don't go looking for
reviews before you pick one up. Give it a chance, and if you realize it's not
for you, then move on. You've definitely missed out on reading a good book or
two by being so worried that you might have to read a bad book too.

------
shams93
My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DWWCBEK/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?...](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DWWCBEK/ref=dp-kindle-
redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1)

Rosemary's Baby [https://www.amazon.com/Rosemarys-Baby-Ira-Levin-
ebook/dp/B00...](https://www.amazon.com/Rosemarys-Baby-Ira-Levin-
ebook/dp/B00T5PI5Z8/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-
text&ie=UTF8&qid=1482397494&sr=1-1&keywords=rosemary%27s+baby)

Make: Analog Synthesizers [https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-
Ray-Wilson-e...](https://www.amazon.com/Make-Analog-Synthesizers-Ray-Wilson-
ebook/dp/B00D3VEKH2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1482397580&sr=1-1&keywords=make+analog+synthesizers)

Android UI Design with XML [https://www.amazon.com/Android-UI-Design-XML-
Tutorial/dp/147...](https://www.amazon.com/Android-UI-Design-XML-
Tutorial/dp/1475144067/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482397644&sr=8-1&keywords=Android+UI+Design+with+XML)

~~~
thisisforyou
How did you find 'Rosemary's Baby'? Seems like the novel was eclipsed by the
movie and you never hear about it.

------
Dowwie
2 Highlights:

\- "Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison

\- "The Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

These are beautifully written books-- true art. I read intellectually
stimulating, non-fiction material every moment of my life. Fiction
counterbalances that frenzied information consumption.

I also read 2/3 of SevenEves by Neal Stephenson. Although the first 2/3 were
good, I can't recommend the book due to the last 1/3\. Those who read the book
will know what I'm talking about.

~~~
scbrg
I finished Seveneves today. I agree that there's obviously a huge difference
between the first 2/3 and the last - but how can you tell the second part is
bad if you only read the first?

Personally I think both parts of the story are good. I think that it could
possibly have been split into two different books to give the second part a
bit more space. As it is now, the second part is a bit rushed, and ends quite
suddenly (in classic Neal Stephenson fashion).

~~~
Dowwie
It's not that I didn't read the last 1/3 at all, but that I chose not to
finish

------
adt2bt
I've read and listened to ~30 books this year, below are the ones I recommend.

Audiobooks (Audible):

Food: A Cultural Culinary History - The Great Courses (if you've ever searched
for 'authentic' food, I strongly, strongly recommend this book. It was one of
my favorite listening experiences of the year)

City of Thieves - David Benioff (Wonderful storytelling, I recommend the audio
version just for the performance)

The Elephant Whisperer - Lawrence Anthony (Another example of great
storytelling, highly recommended)

Little Princes - Conor Grennan (Conor does a good job of teleporting you to
another world and capturing the inner spirit of being a child anywhere in the
world)

The Inner Game of Tennis - Timothy Gallwey (A great paradigm for practice and
improvement)

Books:

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl (For some, this will be life
changing. ~3 hour read is all)

Tools of Titans - Tim Ferriss (I've only read through one time, but I plan to
use this as a sort of reference book. I agree true that you'll enjoy 50%, love
20% and never forget 10%, but what falls under each category is different for
everyone)

The Three Body Problem - Liu Cixin (I haven't read any sci-fi in a few years,
this was a great reentry to the genre for me)

The Food Lab - J Kenji Lopez-Alt (If you want to know the why as well as the
how when you cook, this book is for you)

------
josht
Managing Oneself - Peter Drucker (recommended--quick read)

The Martian - Andy Weir (slightly more entertaining than the movie)

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results -
Gary Keller (great for improving ones focus on the task at hand while having
the big picture in mind)

Not Fade Away - Laurence Shames (note to self: it's never too late to
appreciate all we have and have had. recommended)

Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True
Inspiration - Ed Catmull (excellent stories and a unique POV on Jobs)

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose - Tony Hsieh (a
bit higher level than I had hoped for, but still worth a read)

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do
About It - Michael Gerber (recommended)

How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia (meh, I could take it or leave it)

Tribal Leadership - Dave Logan (applicable tactics and strategies to achieving
happiness-- recommended by Tony Hsieh via 'Delivering Happiness'. Highly
recommended)

Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore (solid concept, however this was a dry
read... for me)

The Obstacle Is The Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumphs -
Ryan Holiday (recommended)

The War of Art - Steven Pressfield (a great way to cure procrastination)

Peopleware - Tom DeMarco (not for me)

So Good They Can't Ignore You - Cal Newport (IMHO this book would have been
better as a blog post)

The Lean Startup - Eric Ries (recommended)

As a Man Thinketh - James Allen (quick read, highly recommended)

The Effective Executive - Peter Drucker (terrific book chalked full of wisdom.
recommended)

The Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz (recommended)

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us - Seth Godin (recommended)

Psycho-Cybernetics: A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life - Maxwell Maltz
(first published in 1960, this incredible book has been, hands down, the most
impactful book I read all year. This book helped me finally weed out pervasive
negative though patterns and much, much more. Highly recommended if you're
open to it)

------
yla92
I've read about 20 books this year and most of them are fictions. I am a late
comer in reading English books. At this stage of period, I still finding joy
in reading fictions books than non-fictions. I feel that I should be reading
more non-fictions but I can't help.

Some of the books I've read this year and recommend are

1\. When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi (Found this book through the
author's essay (basically, an abstract from the book) in NY Times. I love it.
It is the story about the life of the neurosurgeon who was battling with his
cancer.)

2\. The Bridge to Brilliance - Nadia Lopez (Found this book from Humans of New
York page. It is the story about a school principal trying to open up a
school, getting school and other struggles along the way.)

3\. The Phoenix Project - I think HN audience would know it. Fun read.

4\. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (This
is the book I've been meaning to read but only did it awhile ago. It's
beautifully written. It opens up my minds about aging and the struggles that
elder people face it. It also reminds me that it is most important that one
gets to enjoy life till it ends.)

The other books I read are 5 books of Haruki Murakami. Among them, I really
enjoyed Wind Up Bird Chronicle and After Dark a lot.

My Goodreads for "read-2016" (although I am hoping to read a book before end
of the year) is at
[https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/22920556?shelf=read-20...](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/22920556?shelf=read-2016).

------
noufalibrahim
1\. Red Plenty (Francis Spufford) - Fascinating fictionalised account of the
history of the USSR. Gets a little tedious at times but worth it.

2\. Anils Ghost (Michael Ondaatje) - Drama with a war background. Nice read.

3\. Financial intelligence for Entrepreneurs - Very useful now that I have a
small company of my own.

4\. How to Speak How to listen (Mortimer Adler) - Worth it. I enjoy public
speaking and this was well written and quite useful.

2016's been a bad year for me as far as books go.

------
wyldfire
I read pretty much just fiction: "Daemon", "Dark Matter", "Brave New World",
"Armada", "Oryx and Crake" (in progress). They're all pretty great, I heard
about several of these on HN.

"Armada" was a nice simple story very much along the lines of "Ready Player
One." "Daemon" was surprising -- an interesting 'what if' regarding the
evolution of AI.

~~~
freehunter
Daemon was one of the best book series I've ever read. It's one of the few
that stuck with me and made me fall in love with "near-future sci-fi". Things
at the bleeding edge of technology that are technically possible today, and
the book is written in today's world (not tomorrow's), but just hasn't been
done yet.

Douglas Richards has a whole series of these near-future sci-fi books as well.
Mind's Eye is good (along with it's whole trilogy) and Wired/Amped is decent
too. I'd be hard pressed to say if Daniel Suarez or Douglas Richards are the
"new Michael Crichton", but I'm glad both of them are writing books.

~~~
wyldfire
Hmm -- book series? Is there a sequel‽ Wow I better check it out, I really
felt like it could keep going from there.

------
skadamou
For my birthday this year some friends got me The Dictator’s Handbook by Bruce
Bueno de Mesquita and Marx’s Capital Illustrated by David Smith. I’ve always
been at least tangentially interested in political/economic theory and these
two books offered an easily accessible new perspective on their respective
subjects I hadn’t gotten before. The Dictator’s Handbook I found to be
particularly insightful.

~~~
bcbrown
Have you heard of Confessions of an Economic Hit Man? It's somewhat similar.

~~~
skadamou
I have not but I will certainly check it out. Thank you for the suggestion

------
impostervt
After reading through what people have posted so far, I wonder if we should do
a "Recommend one, and only one, book that you read this year".

------
vegancap
Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations'. Very old, very heavy, but very eye opening.
A must read for anyone interested in economics.

------
alc90
My goal for this year was to read 10 books. Not a huge challenge but I'm happy
I managed to complete it. I'm currently at my 16th book - so I might say
that's pretty good.

Here's my 2016 reading list:

#1. Zero to One - Peter Thiel - 3.5*

#2. The Alchemis - Paulo Coelho - 3.5*

#3. Founders at Work - Jessica Livingston - 3*

#4. Traction - Gabriel Weinberg - 4.5*

#5. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie -4*

#6. Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations... - Frederic
Laloux, Ken Wilber - 4*

#7. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work - Mason Currey - 3*

#8. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert T. Kiyosak - 3*

#9. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs... - Eric Ries - 4.5*

#10. Meaningful: The Story of Ideas That Fly - Bernadette Jiwa - 3*

#11. Elon Musk: Inventing the Future - Ashlee Vance - 4*

#12. Rework - Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson - 4.5*

#13. Anything You Want - Derek Sivers - 4.5*

#14. South of the Border, West of the Sun - Haruki Murakami - 3.5*

#15. As A Man Thinketh / The Path Of Prosperity - James Allen - 4*

Currently I'm reading If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi - and so far
it seems to be one of the top 3 books I've read this year - definitely a 4+*
book.

------
adavis32
Here is a partial list of the books I read this year. These are all books that
stood out to me which I enjoyed:

Fiction Books:

* Leviathan Wakes, Caliban's War, Abaddon's Gate, Cibola Burn by James S. A. Corey

* Homeworld, Out of the Black (books 3 & 4 in the Odyssey One series) by Evan Currie

* Furies of Calderon, Academ’s Fury (1 & 2 of the Codex Alera series) by Jim Butcher

* The Aeronaut’s Windlass also by Jim Butcher

* The Queen of Zamba by L. Sprague de Camp

* Giant of World's End by Lin Carter

* Batgirl of Burnside (graphic novel)

Non-fiction Books:

* Here is Your War by Ernie Pyle - the 1st of his books chronicling American soldiers in World War 2

* Vagrant Viking by Peter Freuchen - auto-biography of the Danish explorer/Nazi resistance fighter/writer/film-maker

* Voices of 1776 by Richard Wheeler - the Revolutionary war in the words of people who were there.

The non-fiction books surprised me because I really enjoyed all of them and I
usually only read fiction or technical books. The Odyssey One books by Evan
Currie also stood out to me because I found the first one for a low price on
Kindle and I was blown away by the story.

------
swengw
Most recommended:

\- Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others.

\- Lawrence Weschler - Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. A
quality biography of Robert Irwin based on interviews over decades, and helps
you learn to appreciate minimalist art to boot.

\- Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

\- Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

\- Burton G. Malkiel - A Random Walk Down Wall Street

\- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah. Saw myself in several of these
characters

\- Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba the Greek

\---

Also good:

\- Jack London - John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs. Illustrates all of the
interesting ways in which a person is tempted to drink: when someone else buys
you one, when it's cold outside, ...

\- Danny Bowien - The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook. Lots of stories between
the recipes.

\- David Byrne - How Music Works

\- Meg Jay - The Defining Decade

\- Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast

\- Magdalena Droste - Bauhaus 1919-1933

\- Arimasa Osawa - Shinjuku Shark

\- Zadie Smith - Changing My Mind

\- Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

\- Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

\- Marie Kondo - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

\- Haruki Murakami - The Strange Library. A fifteen minute read.

\- Tim Ferriss - The Four-Hour Workweek. Good tactics for saving time; bad
business advice.

\- Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle

\- John Berger - Ways of Seeing

------
Fnoord
Data and Goliath - Bruce Schneier (very good, preaching to the choir in my
case though)

Dune - Frank Herbert (been waiting more than 20 years to read this. If you
haven't seen the movie from 2001 highly recommended, else not)

The Psychopath Code - Pieter Hintjens (psychology book, highly recommended,
allowed me to understand a whole lot more of the "toxicity" in society)

Python for Informatics - Charles Severance (too easy for crowd here, and for
me, but quite good for newbie programmers. Note: Python 2.x; not 3.x!)

Ghost in the Wires - Kevin Mitnick and William L. Simon (good humor, great
suspense, likeable main character)

Kingpin - Kevin Poulsen (a less likeable main character but nevertheless
suspenseful)

And a bunch of cookbooks which I won't bother you with, I didn't fully
complete any of them either.

I'm very happy that all the books I read were a hit, but did not read nearly
as many as I wanted to. To restate, I can recommend all of the above. But
they're not all new from 2016 (if that was the intention I apologise).

------
catwell
I finished Keynes, Hayek: The Clash that Defined Modern Economics (Nicholas
Wapshott), started in 2015.

I read:

* Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders (David Marquet)

* Joy at Work: A Revolutionary Approach To Fun on the Job (Dennis Bakke)

* Ne vous résignez pas ! (Bruno Le Maire - French politician)

* Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age (Michael Hiltzik)

* Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble (Dan Lyons)

* Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management (Scott Berkun)

* Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy (Thomas Sowell)

* The Success of Open Source (Steve Weber)

* Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (Cathy O'Neil)

* Programming in Lua (fourth edition - I read every edition)

I started reading (and will probably finish by the end of the year)
Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension (Samuel Arbesman).

As for what I recommend, it depends what you are into, but I would say I
really enjoyed Making Things Happen, which is a must if you have any kind of
project management to do, and Basic Economics.

~~~
kevinSuttle

      Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy (Cathy O'Neil)
    

Whoa. Need to check that one out. Thanks.

------
jkchu
The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg (highly recommended)

Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson (recommended)

Modern Romance - Aziz Ansari (audiobook recommended)

Boomerang - Michael Lewis (great if you have a light interest in
macroeconomics)

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (recommended)

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (recommended)

Joyland - Stephen King (great, short read)

Creativity, Inc. - Ed Catmull (Parts on the history of Pixar were interesting)

------
Jemaclus
I keep an active list of books I've read, along with my reviews at my book
review website,
[https://books.brianseitel.com](https://books.brianseitel.com). One of the
benefits of this is that my favorite books automatically populate on the left.
In 2016, I read over 60 books. My top 10 for 2016 (so far) are, in rough order
of favorite-ness:

\- "All the Birds in the Sky" by Charlie Jane Anders

\- "The Shards of Heaven" and its sequel "The Gates of Hell" by Michael
Livingston (fictional story set in Roman times)

\- "The Last Breath" by Charlie Magee

\- "The Guns of Empire" by Django Wexler (Book 4 of The Shadow Campaigns
series, which I highly recommend)

\- "The King's Traitor" by Jeff Wheeler (original take on Arthurian legend)

\- "Uprooted" by Naomi Novik

\- "End Game" by Lindsay Buroker (Book 8 of her sci-fi series, The Fallen
Empire, which is a pretty fun series overall. Short and sweet adventures.)

\- "Soulblade" by Lindsay Buroker (Book 8 of her fantasy series, Dragon Blood,
which is another great series. All of Buroker's books are good, imo.)

\- "Ghost Talkers" by Mary Robinette Kowal (It's WWII, ghosts are real... and
they're spies.)

This year I also read books 1-3 of The Expanse, and I think they would also be
in this list, except I haven't reviewed them yet. I'm currently reading Book
4, with the recently published book, Babylon's Ashes, in the queue. I fully
expect these to make it into the top 10.

Obviously, I enjoy sci-fi / fantasy the most, but across a wide range of sub-
genres. For non-sci-fi, my top read was "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit
Sethi, which really changed the way I organize my finances.

------
a3n
Assholes, a Theory.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assholes:_A_Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assholes:_A_Theory)

Helped me understand why I object to assholes, and the real damage an asshole
does to a group.

The sections on asshole capitalism, aka entitlement capitalism, are
fascinating and relevant.

------
rwieruch
I just started to read more and more, that's why some classics are in my list:

\- The Power of Habit - [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-
power-of-hab...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609433-the-power-of-
habit)

\- The Greatest Salesman in the World
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/356896.The_Greatest_Sales...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/356896.The_Greatest_Salesman_in_the_World)

\- Originals
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614523-originals](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614523-originals)

\- The One Thing [http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16256798-the-one-
thing](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16256798-the-one-thing)

------
kgabis
I really enjoyed reading "The Disaster Artist" by Greg Sestero and Tom
Bissell. It's about making of the movie "The Room" and it's
writer/director/producer/leading actor Tommy Wiseau. It's one of the funniest
books I've ever read (about one of the funniest movies I've ever watched) and
I would highly recommend reading it to anyone who's curious how this movie
came to exist or is just looking for a good laugh.

Other than that I found "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed" by Eric
Cline a very interesting read, especially when it comes to methods described
to figure out what happened over 3000 years ago. Contrary to it's title it's
not very sensationalistic and it doesn't appear to make any claims it cannot
back with some sort of evidence (and it tries to present both sides of the
argument if something is uncertain).

------
mullsork
These are the ones I read this year that I really loved:

Genghis Khan
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93426.Genghis_Khan_and_t...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/93426.Genghis_Khan_and_the_Making_of_the_Modern_World)

Mistakes were made (but not by me)
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/522525.Mistakes_Were_Mad...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/522525.Mistakes_Were_Made_But_Not_by_Me_)

Sapiens - a brief history of humankind
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens)

A little history of the world
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61505.A_Little_History_o...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61505.A_Little_History_of_the_World)

That last one I just finished and look forward to re-reading real soon. It's
written by a German and from a European point of view.

A few other good ones but not top of my list of recommendations:

The church of fear - [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17201748-the-church-
of-f...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17201748-the-church-of-fear)

A brief history of time -
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3869.A_Brief_History_of_...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3869.A_Brief_History_of_Time)

Looks who's back - [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17289087-look-who-s-
back](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17289087-look-who-s-back)

------
cconcepts
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future - The subject
is extremely interesting, challenging and thought provoking but I felt like
Ashlee Vance (Author) was somewhat inspired by Walter Isaacsons Steve Jobs in
terms of his portrayal of Musk as the genius who is somewhat a jerk. Either
that or Vance was trying to convey that people like Musk and Jobs often are
jerks....(6/10)

Extreme Ownership: Jocko Willink - entertaining listening in the car, perhaps
no so much if you tried to read it. An impressive balance of storytelling and
principles. (6/10)

Maximum City: Suketu Mehta - as someone who has lived in Mumbai for nearly
five years, this book captured the pulse of the supercity as no other has.
Able to describe the inherent beauty of modern India without resorting to the
typical cliched western neuroses about the place. (8/10)

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics: Carlo Rovelli - Got recommended this book
multiple times. Brief and succinct so Carlo must be commended for that. As a
pop-science book it kind of paled in comparison to Bill Bryson's "Complete
History" (6/10)

Rebels: Aris Roussinos - A raw, honest and powerful book that tells a story
about many of the world's conflict zones from the perspective of someone who
may get shot themselves. Refreshing and beautifully upsetting all at once.
(7/10)

Mere Christianity: C.S. Lewis - A broad spectrum of thoughts about meaning and
purpose that have obviously been considered for many years and then condensed
in a very succinct way (8/10)

Business Adventures: John Brooks - A recommendation by Buffet and Gates,
entertaining read with business principles built in (7/10)

Tools of Titans: Tim Ferriss - Obviously written for those of us who have
allowed our attention spans to be destroyed by the constant sugary stimulation
of the internet, Tim nails the balance of useful thoughts and observations
from a broad array of guests while keeping it succinct and entertaining.
(7/10)

------
pkaler
Here's my whole list for the year in reverse chronological:

\- Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance

\- Tools of Titan by Tim Ferriss

\- Competing Against Luck by Clayton Christensen

\- Scrum: A Breathtakingly Brief and Agile Introduction by Chris Sims

\- Build Better Products by Laura Klein

\- Capital in the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Picketty

\- Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

\- Lean Customer Development by Cindy Alvarez

\- Impossible to Inevitable by Aaron Ross & Jason Lemkin

\- Grit by Angela Duckworth

\- Love Sense by Sue Johnson

\- Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

\- Working Effectively With Legacy Code by Michael Feathers

\- Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg

\- Sprint by Jake Knapp

\- Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb

\- Becoming a Supple Leopard by Kelly Starrett

\- Superforecasting by Philip Tetlock

\- The Inner Game Of Tennis by Timothy Gallwey

\- Design Sprint by Richard Banfield

\- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

\- The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver

\- Advanced Swift by Chris Eidoff

\- Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Some of these books are older and had been on my list for awhile. Some were
released this year. Most of these books are very good. I usually stop reading
bad books by the end of the first chapter.

~~~
internaut
You ought to know that Thinking, Fast and Slow has research in it that did not
replicate. If you do some googling you'll observe a lot of people had a much
more critical second take.

I believe it was the recent rash of replication failures that ferreted this
out, so it is worth checking out in case you adopted false premises
accidentally.

------
arethuza
"The Silent Deep: The Royal Navy Submarine Service Since 1945" \- I was
worried that this would be rather dry, but I found it rather engrossing - from
the accounts of the various espionage escapades during the Cold War, to the
political machinations around the creation of the nuclear fleet (with a
surprisingly large input from Hyman Rickover, who was quite a character) to a
contemporary account of the "Perisher" command course. Imagine being on an
incredibly stressful training course where if you fail you are _immediately_
removed from the environment and not allowed to work in that area ever again!

[https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0171SWRGI](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0171SWRGI)

------
n3on_net
Here is my list of 2016:

\- The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the
Ultimate Theory

\- The 48 Laws Of Power

\- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

\- Crossing the Chasm

\- The Richest Man in Babylon

\- Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

\- Europe: A History

\- The Penguin History of Europe

\- The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon

\- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Every of the books was awesome. The only thing is that I haven't finished
Europe: A History from Norman and read The Penguin History of Europe instead
because the Norman book was just too long for me. But It has way more details.

I switch between business-related books and non-business related (it can be
everything from philosophy to language history to hardcore science) but I
don't read fiction (The Richest Man in Babylon is fictional, but still the
focus is on self-development).

Hope you could see some titles that might interest you.

~~~
100k
Finishing Europe: A History was a challenge but I really enjoyed it
(especially his focus on "outlying" states). Norman Davies's No Simple Victory
is also worth checking out. It's probably the best book I've read about World
War 2.

------
pointnova
These books were my favorites this year:

\- Alibaba - The house that Jack Ma built by Duncan Clark
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25817524-alibaba](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25817524-alibaba)

\- Shoe Dog - A memoir by the creator of NIKE by Phil Knight
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27220736-shoe-
dog](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27220736-shoe-dog)

\- Originals - How non-conformists move the world by Adam Grant
[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614523-originals](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25614523-originals)

------
sdegutis
The _Diary of St. Faustina_ , also titled "Divine Mercy in My Soul". Even
though I owned it for a few years, I didn't really pick it up until just this
year. I know only a small percent of us here are religious, but for those of
you who are, well let me just say that I recently told my wife and children
that this book is so important and helpful and good, that it ranks #2 (right
after the Bible).

What's nice about it is that it's broken up into very small paragraphs, many
of them unrelated to the ones surrounding it. So it's easy to read it for 30
seconds and still get value out of it, when you're a busy person like me
(whether due to profession or family or both).

------
krausejj
I've been _raving_ about two books this year:

1) The Swerve (won the Pulitzer Prize)

A few years old but newly relevant - it made me think, are we at the dawn of a
new renaissance or the breakdown of society? Both have happened before... we
lost much of the classical era's accumulated human knowledge when papyrus
scrolls were burned/destroyed in the Middle Ages. Is computer storage much
more resilient than papyrus in the face of social upheaval?

2) Ecotopia

What if Northern California seceded and let its crazy out in a super-green,
post-technological, self-sufficient independent state? This book, written in
the 1970s, has ridiculous foresight and anyone familiar with the Bay Area will
deeply appreciate this thought experiment.

------
hackerkid
\- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

\- Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike by Phil Knight

\- Rework by Jason Fried

\- Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam

\- Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by
Laura Hillenbrand

\- The Martian by Andy Weir

\- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman

------
rdeboo
I set myself a goal to read 20 books; I succeeded. Here's the ones I recommend
most:

Kim Zetter - Countdown to Zero (on Stuxnet virus and how it was smuggled into
the nuclear facility; very interesting)

Gary Kasparov - Winter is Coming (we should consider Russia a dictatorship by
now; though until recently, western politicians treated it as a democratic
partner country)

Mark Goodman - Future crimes (wide spanning book on crime in the age of the
internet)

Philip E. Tetlock - Superforecasting (how amateurs can consistently beat
domain professionals in forecasting all kind of stuff)

Venkat Subramaniam - Programming Concurrency on the JVM (good overview of your
options (diy with locking / akka / clojure & STM))

~~~
forgetsusername
> _Kim Zetter - Countdown to Zero (on Stuxnet virus and how it was smuggled
> into the nuclear facility; very interesting)_

I know this is about books, but Alex Gibney's documentary on the subject is
also decent:

[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5446858/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5446858/)

Although they chose to use a method to move the narrative that I wasn't fond
of, there are some neat interviews with some of the early researchers.

~~~
rdeboo
Thanks, I'll look it up!

------
gshubert17
Most memorable books I read this year:

Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace. It took our reading group about six months to read
it. Our discussions really added to my understanding and enjoyment.

Thomas Rid, Rise of the Machines: A Cybernetic History. From Norbert Wiener's
Cybernetics to recently disclosed Russian attacks on American computer
systems.

Harry Turtledove, Joe Steele. An alternate history in which Josef Stalin's
parents immigrate to the U.S. and their son becomes President in 1932 instead
of FDR.

George Dyson. Turing's Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe. Focuses
on John Von Neumann and the computer he built at the Institute for Advanced
Studies at Princeton.

------
viraptor
_The view from the cheap seats_ by Neil Gaiman
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24331386-the-view-from-
th...](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24331386-the-view-from-the-cheap-
seats) \- lots of good content about books, music, comic books history, etc.
There's over 80 other books mentioned inside and it makes you want to read all
of them.

 _Dracula_ by Bram Stoker - because it was mentioned in the previous one and
it's amazing how many elements we borrowed / changed / rewritten in the new
works compared to the original.

------
StClaire
01\. The second machine age

02\. The Firm: The secret history of McKinsey and it's influence on American
business

03\. The Simpsons and their mathematical secrets

04\. League of denial

05\. The Martian chronicles

06\. The Sixth extinction

07\. Lost stars

08\. The Devil in the white city

09\. China in ten words

10\. The Fourth revolution

11\. Red Mars

12\. Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe

13\. Grit: Passion, perseverance and the science of success

14\. The Signal and the noise

15\. The Third chimpanzee

16\. The Willpower instinct

17\. The Master algorithm

18\. The Emperor of all maladies

19\. 1491

And _I 'm reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee._

Honestly, I really enjoyed _League of Denial_ about all the shady stuff the
NFL did around CTE, _Lost Stars_ which is an incredible Star Wars book, _The
Willpower Instinct_ , and _1491._ Everything else was kind of take it or leave
it. I doubt I'll read as many books next year

------
cdnsteve
Are you reading paper books, PDFs on laptops, ebooks on tablets? How do you
read?

~~~
wtfishackernews
Audiobooks, this way I can do mindless chores while reading books.

~~~
tunap
I donned my kneepads and washed my floors by hand two weeks prior while
listening to Empires Of Light. Floors never looked better. Now I need another
long, drawn out chore(or a roadtrip) to finish as I cannot just sit and listen
to audiobooks unless I have a mindless task to keep me physically occupied.

Tesla, Westinghouse, Edison & Morgan. A fascinating bit of history about the
people & events that delivered electricity to the world.

[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/507952.Empires_of_Light](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/507952.Empires_of_Light)

------
danial
Books I read that I would recommend:

Deep Work - Cal Newport

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business - Charles Duhigg

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance - Angela Duckworth

Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise - Anders Ericsson, Robert Pool

The War of Art - Steven Pressfield

Do the Work - Steven Pressfield

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future - Ashlee Vance

Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike - Phil Knight

The one that surprised me the most was the last one on that list. I don't
usually read memoirs but this one was recommended by a few people so I picked
it up and found the honesty with which he describes his mistakes refreshing
and useful.

------
mrbill
\- A Square Meal: A Culinary History of the Great Depression

Will most likely end up being the best nonfiction book I've read all year.

Fiction:

\- Limbus, Inc. - Book III (I liked I and II better tho)

\- Sleeping Giants (Themis Files) - a sleeper recommendation by a coworker
that I KNOW will end up as a movie.

\- Underground Airlines (Modern day, but the Civil War never happened)

\- The Nightmare Stacks (A Laundry Files Novel)

\- Lovecraft Country

I read a LOT more than what's listed here, but these are the noteworthy ones.
I read a book every couple of days. Lots of military monster-hunting fiction,
zombie apocalypse pulp, manly adventure novels, self-help stuff, etc.

------
Razengan
Not many, sadly, but

 _The City of Ember_ by Jeanne DuPrau, and

 _The Icewind Dale_ trilogy / _Legend of Drizzt_ series by R.A. Salvatore.

Ember was a very nice take on post-apocalyptic fiction; a Steampunk city
surrounded by absolute darkness that still managed to retain a semblance of
normal everyday life. Something about the setting felt very homely despite its
inconveniences.

The Drizzt series is of course a guilty pleasure full of good old-school role-
playing fantasy tropes. It does a nice job of providing my Dungeons & Dragons
fix while I wait for a new video game.

------
Morris_Worm
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch Be prepared to have your mind blown to hell up. No
you don't have to be a geek or hold a doctorate in quantum mechanics to enjoy
this book. This is something that you will find impossible to put down or stop
thinking about long after you have turned the last page.

[https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Novel-Blake-
Crouch/dp/110...](https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Novel-Blake-
Crouch/dp/1101904224?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr-mr-title)

------
samuell
Completed books I really really liked - Best first:

\- Jeff Hawkings "On Intelligence" (My review:
[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1561177903](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1561177903)
)

\- Cal Newport "So Good They Can't Ignore You"

\- Cal Newport "Deep work" (My review:
[https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1777252642](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1777252642)
)

------
impostervt
"The Autobiography of Malcom X"

What a crazy life he led.

"Napoleon: A Life" \- Andrew Roberts

A gigantic book that still felt rushed because of how much he did during his
life.

"Babylon: Mesopotamia and the Birth of Civilization" Kriwaczek, Paul

Interesting introduction but I was hoping for more of a focus on a specific
period of time. Instead if covers several thousand years of history.

"Buddhism Without Belief" \- Stephen Bachelor

Meh.

"The Book of Magic: From Antiquity to the Enlightenment" \- Copenhaver, Brian

"The Philosophy Book" \- Will Buckingham

Great into to the history of Philosophy

"The Vindication of Man" by John C Wright

Great, great series.

------
olalonde
"A Random Walk Down Wall Street" by Burton G. Malkiel. I would recommend it as
an introduction to personal finance (or to amateur traders who believe they
can beat the market).

------
khorchanov
Quran, a very superior all in one book, I have never seen a book as expressive
as this one, I invite anyone just to "try" it ;)

Freakonomics, is a good one about economy from a new angle of view

~~~
cicero
I read the first half of the Quran several years ago; I need to give it
another try and read the whole thing someday soon.

------
atollstat
I'm a historical fiction nut & as it just so happened the Sharpe series from
Bernard Cornwell (21 books) had been too long on my wish list, waiting to be
read. Finally, got around to finishing it this year.

Usually, I'm real bad at reading & finishing non-software non-fiction; but
managed ~10 of those this year.

Enjoyed reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight & I contain multitudes by Ed Yong. I
keep going back to Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman quite a bit. Need to
read more in 2017.

------
nicholast
Here are a few I enjoyed in 2016 by genre:

Business - Making Things Work by Yaneer Bar-Yam

Investing - Charlie Munger The Complete Investor by Tren Griffin

Essays - Michel de Montaigne Complete Essays ($.99 on Kindle!)

Physics - At Home in the Universe by Stuart Kauffman

Software - An Elementary Introduction to the Wolfram Language

Current Events - Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom

Fiction - The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

Music - Jerry on Jerry (audiobook is a recorded interview of Garcia!)

Biography - Benjamin Franklin An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Autobiography - A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

All of these are highly recomended!

~~~
magnanimous11
I absolutely agree with your recommendation of "A Confederacy of Dunces", but
it is definitely not an Autobiography.

~~~
andrewtbham
confederacy of dunces is one of the funniest books i have read. should have
been made into a movie by now.

~~~
nicholast
Yeah it's basically a modern Don Quixote set loose in New Orleans. Very much
character driven, lots of fun.

------
kranner
\- Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown

\- Tibet, Tibet by Patrick French

\- Maya: A Novel by CW Huntington, Jr

\- The Science of Enlightenment by Shinzen Young

\- Flask Web Development by Miguel Grinberg

\- Buddha's Diet by Tara Cottrell

\- A Feast of Vultures by Josy Joseph

\- Genghis Khan: Life, Death and Resurrection by John Man

\- Chasing the Scream by Johann Hari

\- Cuckold by Kiran Nagarkar

\- Goliath by Tom Gauld

\- This Will Never Happen Again by David Cain

\- Cure by Jo Marchant

\- If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai: A Conducted Tour of India by Srinath
Perur

\- Deep Work by Cal Newport

\- Enduring Love by Ian McEwan

\- The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

\- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

\- The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

and a few others that aren't worth recommending; all the above are.

------
sidcool
I now I am late on reading this one, but Pragmatic Programmer.

Then there was The Kite Runner Also, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence
Then Becoming a Technical Leader by Gerald

I wish I had read more.

------
transitorykris
Fiction:

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami (I love Murakami’s novels, recommend starting
with Hard Boiled Wonderland though)

Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball - Haruki Murakami

The Maltese Falcon - Dashiell Hammet (Surprising just how much San Francisco
is in it)

The Postman Always Rings Twice - James Cain

Seveneves - Neal Stephenson (recommended)

Pattern Recognition - William Gibson

The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway (recommended, refreshing language)

Non-fiction:

Running Lean - Ash Muraya

Lean Customer Development - Alvarez

Talking to Humans - Giff Constable

Hooked - Nir Eyal (probably not need the book to get the thesis)

Sprint - Jake Knapp

Juno Beach - Mark Zuehlke

Anti-Education - Nietzsche

------
orthur_b
\- Modern Romance: An Investigation by Aziz Ansari

\- The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter by Meg Jay

\- The Like Switch: An Ex-FBI Agent’s Guide to Influencing, Attracting, and
Winning People Over by Jack Schafer

\- Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales

\- The Passion Trap: How to Right an Unbalanced Relationship by Dean C. Delis
и Cassandra Phillips

\- The Joy of x: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity by Steven
Strogatz

\- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

\- The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

------
mugsie
My top fiction books this year:

* City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke

* The Master Magician - Charlie N. Holmberg

* The Algebraist - Iain M. Banks

* Hunters of Dune - Brian Herbert (in progress)

Non Fiction Pick:

* Command and Control - Eric Schlosser

------
cpach
Non-fiction:

 _Becoming Steve Jobs_ / Rick Tetzeli & Brent Schlender

 _Remote: Office Not Required_ / David Heinemeier Hansson & Jason Fried

Fiction:

 _Rum Punch_ / Elmore Leonard

------
johnnydoe9
1\. The Harry Potter series

2\. Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg

3\. Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

4\. The Movie Doctors by Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo

5\. It's Only A Movie by Mark Kermdode

6\. Dark Night by Paul Dini

7\. Dark Days by Randy Blythe

8\. David Fincher Interviews by Laurence Knapp Graphic Novels - Scott Pilgrim
Series, New 52 Batman series and Batman/TMNT crossover.

If anyone can recommend more stuff I'd be interested in based on this stuff
please go ahead I want to read more this coming year.

------
mutor
One book which I'd like to mention here is:

p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code by Sue Armstrong. Its a well
written book on a very complex topic. [1]

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/p53-Gene-that-Cracked-
Cancer/dp/14729...](https://www.amazon.com/p53-Gene-that-Cracked-
Cancer/dp/1472910524/)

------
philh
I've spent the whole year reading _Albion 's Seed_, a history of four major
British migrations to America - each came from a different part of Britain,
and went to a different part of America, creating four separate cultures in
what became the United States.

Also the entire Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (currently midway through the
final book).

------
f_allwein
Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, 1963-1972 by David West Reynolds. Good
account of one of humanity's greatest technological achievements.
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16072775-apollo](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16072775-apollo)

------
nitins
\- Lord of the Rings \- Peace Is Every Step \- The Hobbit \- A BRIEF HISTORY
OF TIME \- The Andromeda Strain \- The Power of Now

------
jdpigeon
It was the second year of my "read books like an adult" effort and there were
some great ones:

 _Infinite Jest_ (David Foster Wallace)*

I was blown away by how completely delightful it was to read. I went in to it
with a lot of trepidation about its length and esoteric fixation, but found
myself completely immersed in the book in a way that I hadn't been since I was
kid. I didn't pick up any hard and fast lessons from the book (indeed, its
thesis is mostly that life is hard and the easy answers that are out there are
toxic), but I definitely came away from it feeling like it was a bit more
acceptable to share what I really thought and felt with others. Reading the
book is like entering an intimate communion with DFW's mind and it reinforced
in me the importance of inter-human connection in that way.

 _Every Love Story is a Ghost Story (D.T. Max)_

DFW's biography, which I read after Infinite Jest. I highly recommend reading
after IJ to get more background on where the books idea's came from. Two
things I learned: 1. IJ basically took him ten years to write, 2: An
incredible amount of it is drawn from personal issues and experiences, his
struggles with addiction and loneliness were very real and he greatly
downplayed them in his interviews.

 _The Invention of Nature (Andrea Wulf)_

The best historical book I've ever read. Von Humbolt was one of the greatest
scientists to ever live and I can't believe I'd ever heard of him before. The
book itself does a great job of tying together the ideas of many great
thinkers: Humboldt, Darwin, Thoreau, Muir, Goethe.

 _The Conquest of Happiness (Bertrand Russel)_

Great little 'self-help' book from Russel. Perhaps a bit quaint in its
datedness and Englishness, but a lot of the ideas still hold true. His
thoughts on boredom were the high point of the book IMO.

 _The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz)_

The most 'make an adult of you'-feeling book I read this year. After attending
an 'MBA bootcamp' style course, this book was the gritty, personal account
that helped me tie all those lessons together. I got a job with a startup
shortly afterwards and because I've never studied business (or worked in a
real company before), I refer to the lessons in this book a lot.

 _My Struggle, first volume (Karl Ove Knausgaard)_

Still reading this one and not entirely sure what to think. It's entertaining,
heartfelt, and provides that sense of communion that good fiction needs. The
book's purpose seems totally up in the air, however.

~~~
b_emery
I appreciate the reviews btw, thanks. More useful than just a list.

------
vadyalex
I am glad to announce that I am almost finished my reading challenge this
year, here is the list ->
[https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/5288302](https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/5288302)

------
neic
My favorite books of 2016 was, and I can recommend all of them:

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

Honorable mention from 2015: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I have just started
Homo Deus and my first impression is that is is a worthy sequel.

------
shazam
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi (highly recommended, but come
prepared)

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J. K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany
(recommended for HP nostalgia)

Elon Musk - Ashlee Vance (recommended)

Shoe Dog - Phil Knight (highly recommended)

Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell (meh)

The Gene - Siddhartha Mukherjee (currently reading, recommended so far)

------
guiomie
Too Big to Fail: really interesting, but for some reason reading this book
stressed me.

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: Easy to read and entertaining. I actually
had to spend a good 10 minutes going thru the plot to understand what
happened, felt great to get it.

(Unfinished) Barbarian Days: a book on surfing

------
plinkplonk
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B Irvine.

I'm not (and have no intention of being) a Stoic, - my personal philosophy is
very different - but I really liked the author's approach in bringing an
ancient philosophy to life in modern times.

------
mattherman
I've spent most of 2016 chipping away at the Wheel of Time series by Robert
Jordan. Almost done!

------
ud0
CSS Mastery - Andy Budd

CSS: The definitive guide - Eric Meyer

HTML & CSS design - Jon Ducket

Zero to One - Peter Theil. (Started reading it early this year, still on it.)

I've a self-taught developer coding professionally for 4 years now and I'm
looking to fill knowledge gaps and understand how things work under the hood.

------
dorfuss
David Kushner's ''Masters of Doom'' about John Carmack, John Romero, id
Software, Scott Miller and Apogee and the game industry in the 1990s. Well
written and, as far as I'm concerned, fascinating part of the hacker culture
and history.

------
karan_dev
Here is list of books i read in 2016 -
[https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/15676150](https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2016/15676150)

------
jmbake
I set a goal to read 30 books this year and somehow achieved it:
[https://jonbake.com/blog/30-books-2016/](https://jonbake.com/blog/30-books-2016/)

------
adentranter
An add-on to this question if people dont mind.

What medium are you reading these books on?

Physical, ebooks, pdf, kindle?

~~~
infinita740
I read mostly on my kindle, I also read a few technical books as pdf on my
laptop.

I read two physical books this year (~25 on kindle).

I read a lot of books at the same time so I find e-readers to be very
convenient because I don't have to carry a lot of books as I used to do
before.

EDIT: clarification

------
leandot
Tech: Relevant Search, Clojure for the Brave and True

Personal: The Subtle Art of not Giving a f*ck

Sci-Fi: Red Rising

Fantasy: Powder Mage, Age of Myth

And a plug, but on topic - book mentions on HN:
[http://hackernewsbooks.com](http://hackernewsbooks.com)

~~~
fokz
Is "The Subtle Art of not Giving a f*ck" good? In what way does it affect you?

~~~
leandot
I found it really good, if you haven't, just read it and experience it for
yourself. For me couple of things really stuck:

\- choose carefully what you give a f*ck about, but when you do, do it right

\- there will always be problems, deal with them and move on, it's your own
responsibility.

\- the constant pursuit of a positive experience is in itself a negative
experience, acceptance of a negative experience is a positive experience

------
Fr0ntBack
Progress - Jonah Norberg About why the world is really getting better.
[https://oneworld-publications.com/progress-hb.html](https://oneworld-
publications.com/progress-hb.html)

------
virjog
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss

Ask GaryVee by Gary Vaynerchuk

Deep Work by Cal Newport

Give and Take by Adam Grant

Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg

------
mrhektor
Science and the City by Laurie Winkless was a fun read. Some parts of it are a
bit hype-y, and some parts are a bit obvious, but overall it's a great read to
find out the mechanics behind things we take for granted

------
bewe42
I'd like to add "Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned". Even though the book could
be shorter and the idea is rather simple, it made me re-think how I search for
ideas and how I decide what to work on.

------
perseusprime11
Fiction: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams. This was
fun and unexpected time travel novel.

Non Fiction: Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. This was a great read that resets you
and puts things in perspective.

------
huuuuza
Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris, My Life as a Quant -
Emmanuel Derman, Plato at the Googleplex - Rebecca Goldstein, What I Talk
About When I Talk About Running - Haruki Murakami

------
nkzednan
Mostly read fiction. Some of my top books I read this year are:

\- Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino (as well as his other detective
novels)

\- Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Zafon

\- The Martian

\- Dark Forest (and the Three Body Problem)

\- Shantaram

\- Age of Myth by Michael Sullivan

\- Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

------
patrickbolle
Zen Mind, Beginners Mind The Dharma Bums - kerouac Desolation Angels - kerouac
Wake Up - Kerouac Mindfulness in plain english 10% Happier Big Sur - kerouac

... Yeah I'm on a Buddhism and Kerouac kick right now

------
p0nce
My favourite book this year: Thinking Fast and Slow. Well worth the hype.

------
nathell
Probably the single most important thing I've read in years: Marshall B.
Rosenberg, _Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life_.

Also:

Irvin Yalom, _Love 's Executioner_

Gavin Extence, _The Universe vs. Alex Woods_

------
yomritoyj
Moschovakis, "Notes on Set Theory". Fast paced introduction to axiomatic set
theory without too many prerequisites. The 'NAND to Tetris' of mathematics if
you will.

------
agentultra
The Hidden Keys by André Alexis

The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross

The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

The Prince by Machiavelli

William S Borroughs: A Life by Barry Miles

Programming in the 1990s by Edward Cohen

On Numbers and Games (again) by John H. Conway

------
misiti3780
I read 47 books so far:

* Oxygen (Lane)

* The Vital Question (Lane)

* Mitochondria and the meaning of life (Lane)

* Life Ascending (Lane)

* Shoe Dog (Knight)

* Heat (Buford)

* Thinking Fast And Slow (Daniel K, 3rd time reading it)

* Fluent Forever (Wyner)

* Dark Money (Mayer)

* Elon Musk (Vance)

* The Black Swan (Taleb, 5th time reading it)

~~~
adt2bt
How did you like Fluent Forever?

~~~
misiti3780
i loved it, the chapter on space repetition systems alone made the book worth
it - i had no clue what they were, but now i used them for everything.

------
hampo
all non-fiction mostly geopolitics and history:

Prisoners of Geography, Tim Marshall From the ruins of Empire, Pankay Mishra
(best read of the year) Capitalism: A short history, Jürgen Kocka The Great
Transformation, Karl Polanyi The Second World War, Churchill

Not from this year but still resonating: Postmodern Imperialism, Eric Walberg
(should not be read uncritically) The Rich don't always win, Sam Pizzigati

------
WereBooks
SO many! But some notables were Lincoln Farish's 'Vampire of Rome' and Ernest
Cline's 'Ready Player One'

------
monksy
\- Java Performance

\- The New Thing- Michael Lewis

\- Mastering Docker

\- Akka In Action

\- Mastering Gradle

\- Functional Programming in Scala and Closure

\- How To Fail At Almost Everything and Still Win Big - Scott Adams (Highl
Recommended)

\- The Charisma Myth

------
leonj1
Recommended: Idea Flow, Enduring CSS, Beautiful Java, Elegant Objects, Apache
Solr a practical approach, GSON (LeanPub)

------
riledhel
I'm impressed by how little fiction you guys read. Not even the classics are
listed here (minus some exceptions)

~~~
d33
Perhaps it's just that they assume they should list the more hacker-y ones?

------
textread
* "The slight edge" by Jeff Olson: ~ 3 hr audiobook, Counterintuitive idea: Small decisions matter the most

------
johnwheeler
1\. Dan Lyons: Disrupted

2\. Stephen King: Joyland

3\. Ray Kroc: Grinding it Out

4\. Antonio Garcia Martinez: Chaos Monkeys

5\. Jonah Berger: Contagious

6\. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: Finding Flow

7\. Calum Chase: Surviving A.I.

8\. Dan Ariely: Payoff

~~~
adt2bt
How did you like Finding Flow?

~~~
johnwheeler
I enjoyed it. Doesn't go in-depth about the flow state as the original book.
More 'purpose of life' material. The author is a philosopher as much as a
psychologist. I sensed that in the original, and this drove it home.

Nice thing is its compactness. You can burn through it in 2-3 days easy.

------
chrismaeda
I read a few PG Wodehouse books every year. Uncle Fred, Lord Emsworth, and
Bertie Wooster are my spirit animals.

------
Raphmedia
Finally got around to read hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy.

My favourite books of the year were Brian Jacques Redwall series.

------
zitterbewegung
I would recommend Batman The Killing Joke. A great Batman comic but the best
comic that features The Joker.

------
giaour
I adored Between the World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates and Kazuo Ishiguro's The
Buried Giant.

~~~
adt2bt
What made Between the World and Me great in your opinion?

------
Kyro38
The best for me would be :

\- Sapiens ~ Yuval Noah Harari

\- Mindset ~ Carol Dweck

\- Why we do what we do ~ Edward L. Deci

\- Capital in the XXIst century ~ Thomas Piketty

------
gallerdude
Annihilation - by Jeff Vandermeer was a big treat.

I like ambient music, and I'd call this an ambient book.

------
uhtred
11/22/63, Stephen King

War is a Racket, Smedley Butler

The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins

Mans Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl

Foundation, Isaac Asimov

------
tonyblundell
Lots, I guess highlights would be...

Pavane by Keith Roberts

The Spire by William Golding

Running Man by Stephen King

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell

------
pramodbiligiri
Deep Work - Cal Newport (highly recommended)

A Mind for Numbers - Barbara Oakley

The Road to Character - David Brooks

------
n2dasun
Is there a good way (besides commenting) to save posts like these to find
later?

~~~
pitt1980
if you upvote it, it stays in you upvoted stories list in your profile,

I learned the hard way here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11253648](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11253648)

lol, you live, you learn

~~~
n2dasun
lol. Nice little gentle nudging there.

------
mec31
Hillbilly Elegy, J. D. Vance.

~~~
ScottBurson
I just finished this last night. Highly recommended.

------
highdesertmuse
Chaos Monkeys: Obscene Fortune and Random Failure in Silicon Valley by Martin

------
urza
Highlights:

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

When Three Worlds Collide

Permutation City

The Story of Human Body

Incognito: the secret life of your brain

------
baboun
A bunch and mostly Why Grow Up. To be followed by Kant's Groundwork.

------
squeaky-clean
I didn't reach my goal for books read this year, but I still read a lot and
found several good ones. The ones I would recommend to others:

How to Read a Book - Mortimer Adler. Really helped me feel more comfortable
reading technical books and large books. I've probably worked through more
tech/textbooks this year than all other years combined. (It's not a
particularly high number this year, it was just low all the other years,
haha).

Meditations - Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hays translation. I highly recommend
this translation if Meditations is a book that's interested you. It's written
very informally and casually. Like Aurelius writing in a notebook before bed.
While other translations are very length and flowery with descriptions and
overly formal.

Superintelligence - Nick Bostrom. This one gets talked about a lot on here. I
bought it because it's a topic I'm very interested in, but I was expecting
more hype than real content. I must say, I was very pleasantly wrong about
that. Bostrom makes some really solid arguments about what superintelligence
might mean and many ways it could potentially arise.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up - Marie Kondo. I didn't like most of
this book. But the tips for tidying up, as well as the surge of motivation you
magically get just after reading it made the book worth it.

Test-Driven Development with Python - Harry Percival. Obey the testing goat!
Thanks to this book, all my current professional projects are using TDD. I had
been making an effort to test code before, but generally after writing the
code. The biggest benefits, for me, of writing tests before the rest of the
code is that 1) My projects are organized so much better than before. 2) My
tests feel much more comprehensive than they ever did previously.

Surprise books. These I wouldn't recommend for everyone here, but they're the
most interesting ones I personally found this year:

Obfuscated C and Other Mysteries - Don Libes. Someone on HN recommended it,
and I managed to find a used copy for $6. Just incredible if you love C, low
level code, and hardcore tricks and optimizations. Some of the chapters
explain winning entries to the IOCCC, and some explain strange tricks with C
that probably aren't too useful in current day applications and may not even
work on modern hardware. Not just insightful, but also very funny.

Computational Fairy Tales - Jeremy Kubica. Recommended to me by someone in
IRC. Aimed mostly at kids, it's a fairy tale that involves computing. Princess
Ann has to save the kingdom from a prophecy of doom. Along her journey every
encounter indirectly describes a comp sci concept, such as showing an ogre how
to repeatedly hit metal to make a sword mimics a FOR loop. A magical town
where all the people only speak in completely boolean terms ("Is the castle
that way?" Ann points. "No, it's that way" the villager points the same
direction as Ann, but a fraction of a degree to the side). I think I picked up
some good examples for explaining computers to kids without getting into
jargon. Very cute, though I didn't finish it because I got tired of the
simplicity, would recommend for a child.

------
throwaway1892
North and The King's Game by Jean Raspail. Very good fiction books.

~~~
Dowwie
Were either translated to English?

~~~
throwaway1892
I don't think so.

Apparently the only one that got translated is The Camp of the Saints, which
is very differents in its themes.

------
globalgoat
favourites by category: \- fitness: Becoming a supple leopard \- fiction:
Seveneves \- non fiction: Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and How to Think
Smarter About People Who Think Differently

------
garymoon
Tolkien's: \- Lord of the Rings \- The Hobbit

------
pinewurst
The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye - Sonny Lew

------
swah
Antifragile - N. Taleb

Trust me I'm lying - Ryan Holiday

------
unstatusthequo
Atlas Shrugged

~~~
forgetsusername
It's a pretty epic adventure book if you can get through the awkward "love"
scenes and overwrought economic philosophy.

------
apocalypstyx
Fiction:

Inherent Vice --- Thomas Pynchon

The Great and Secret Show --- Clive Barker

Jurassic Park --- Michael Crichton

The Mothman Prophecies --- John A. Keel (1)

The Wind in the Willows --- Kenneth Grahame

Ender's Game --- Orson Scott Card

All Quiet on the Western Front --- Erich Maria Remarque

The Drought --- J. G. Ballard

The Dead Father's Club --- Matt Harris

Children of Men --- P. D. James

The Islanders --- Pascal Garnier

Silence of the Lambs --- Thomas Harris

Inherit the Wind --- Jerome Lawrence & Robert E. Lee

The Butt --- Will Self

Inside Outside --- Philip Jose Farmer

The Panda Theory --- Pascal Garnier

Fanshaw --- Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Letter --- Nathaniel Hawthorne

This Census-Taker --- China Mieville

The House of the Seven Gables --- Nathaniel Hawthorne

The A26 --- Pascal Garnier

The Blithedale Romance --- Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Weird --- Edited by Jeff VanderMeer & Ann VanderMeer (2)

Front Seat Passenger --- Pascal Garnier

Non-Fiction:

The Wealth of Networks --- Yochai Benkler

Field Notes from A Catastrophe --- Elizabeth Kolbert

What Ever Happened to Modernism? --- Gabriel Josipovici

Escape Velocity --- Mark Dery

What We See When We Read --- Peter Mendelsund

(1) Author described as non-fiction, publisher hedged bets and labelled in as
such, supposedly.

(2) If only this book could be picked by Subterranean or Centipede press so
it'd be a better printed and bound book than Tor ever seems to want to do.

I always recommend Ballard, even when not wanted. Relevant quote:

    
    
       A story by J. G. Ballard, as you know, calls for people who don't
       think. One begins with characters who regard the physical universe
       as a mysterious and arbitrary place, and who would not dream of
       trying to understand its actual laws. Furthermore, in order to be
       the protagonist of a J.G. Ballard novel, or anything more than a
       very minor character therein, you must have cut yourself off from
       the entire body of scientific education. In this way, when the world
       disaster — be it wind or water — comes upon you, you are under
       absolutely no obligation to do anything about it but sit and worship
       it. Even more further, some force has acted to remove from the face
       of the world all people who might impose good sense or rational
       behavior on you, so that the disaster proceeds unchecked and unopposed
       except by the almost inevitable thumb-rule engineer type who for
       his individual comfort builds a huge pyramid (without huge footings)
       to resist high winds, or trains a herd of alligators and renegade
       divers to help him out in dealing with deep water.  Algis Budrys,
       Galaxy magazine (December 1966)
    
    

I'd recommend Pascal Garnier for anyone who likes sickly dark humor +
surrealism + noir + a kind of Ballardian-air. Also Pynchon. Hawthorne might be
the stand-out this year, in the sense of his works' subtle, implicit ability
to question the authorial mode, the nature of the text itself, and the
instability of it.

In non-fiction I'd recommend Dery's Escape Velocity; It's from the 90s but
still deals too presciently with many of the issues around the near-
religification of modern electronic technology. And Josipovici if you lean
toward depressive jolts of existential anxiety (it deals mostly with the arts,
but I think there's a broader life applicability).

------
a_bonobo
Some of my favorites this year:

Fiction:

\- Jude The Obscure, Thomas Hardy. The way Hardy 'smuggles' Jude's viewpoint
into the narrative is so ridiculously well crafted, a pleasure to read.

\- Legend Of The Galactic Heroes - a big anime from the 80s which was based on
Japanese soft SF novels, which are now finally being translated. Worth a read
if you're into space operas and large scale politics, I'm happy that the age
of ebooks allows for such 'niche' interests to get translated.

Non-fiction:

\- Secondhand Time: The Last Of The Soviets, Svetlana Alexievitch. It's her
'usual' style, a selection of interviews with a 'chorus' of shorter
interviews, this time about the fall of the Soviet Union. Lots of interesting
stuff from people whose world was replaced with another world overnight.

\- The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815, Tim Blanning. This is actually an
entry in the long row of Penguin History of Europe, but I haven't read the
others. It examines certain aspects of change in Europe (starting with how
transport networks moved from mud roads to proper streets and culminating in
how the nation state was invented)

\- Vanished Kingdoms: The History of Half-Forgotten Europe, Norman Davies. As
the title says, a collection of essays on small kingdoms and countries which
have only existed for a short time, some for which no current country claims
'ancestry'. It's always important to remind yourself what a random patchwork
current European borders are.

\- Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe. This is a collection of notes on
young Eckermann's conversations with the aging Goethe. Goethe is famous for
always challenging himself, always trying to create, make and be involved
until his last day, it's absolutely inspirational. Before this book I didn't
understand why he's such an icon for Germans (and I read a few biographies),
but I get it now, he lived the 'man is his own marble' saying.

Computer stuff:

\- Introduction to Machine Learning with Python, Mueller and Guido. This is
essentially a more detailed version of the scikit-learn documentation with
more elaborate exercises (even though some of it overlaps), highly readable.
The scikit-learn documentation itself is among the best python package
documentation out there and is something you can read 'cover to cover'.

\- Write Great Code - I've only started to read this one, it's very much about
the basics of what a computer does when you're running high level code, so you
can adjust your coding style. So far it's very useful.

Stats:

\- Discovering Statistics Using R, Field/Miles/Field. A very opinionated,
highly amusing (the constant humor may annoy some), huge waltz through
statistics and how to use the methods and interpret their output in R.

~~~
IndianAstronaut
Andy Field is such a good and entertaining writer.

------
highdesertmuse
Chaos Monkeys --By Martin

------
thraway2016
The Culture of Critique

------
highdesertmuse
Chaos Monkeys

------
nojvek
Randallstown Monroe's "what if?" From the creator of xkcd. It's a fun and
insightful read on how much goes and analyzes the hypothetical questions

------
laxatives
* Fiction *

The Alchemist -- reread one of my favorites of all time

Candidate -- reread

Infinite Jest -- takes 300 pages to "get" David Foster Wallace's style and 500
pages to enjoy it, but well worth the investment. Probably one of my favorites
of all time now.

The Brothers Karamazov (in progress) -- Have been wanting to read more Russian
Literature and apparently Infinite Jest borrows many plot points from Brothers
Karamazov. I just started it a few days ago...

* Non-Fiction *

String Theory -- another book by David Foster Wallace containing a few essays
on tennis. Even if you don't like his fiction, I doubt anyone would argue that
the eponymous essay isn't great.

Open -- Andre Agassi's autobiography

Inner Game of Tennis -- reread

Winning Ugly -- Read this twice in 2016 (reread in progress). My mental game
is volatile to say the least.

My System (in progress) -- Aron Nimzowitsch's Chess study

In a Sunburned Country -- Bill Bryson's description of his trip to Australia

Sailing Made Easy -- ASA 101/102

Coastal Cruising Made Easy -- ASA 103

Buying Your First Sailboat

Open Water Diver Manual -- PADI Open Water Certification

Enriched Air Diver Manual -- PADI Nitrox Certification

Adventures in Diving Manual (in progress) -- PADI Advanced Open Water
Certification

Shadow Divers -- Diver's in the 90's discover a German U-Boat just dozens of
miles off the coast of New Jersey

Triple Your Reading Speed -- It definitely works, but its only applicable to
simple texts like popular fiction and maybe news articles/blogs. I guess it
probably does still benefit denser stuff though.

The Origin of Conciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind -- This is
quite possibly the work of a crank, but there's some interesting ideas that
seem not impossible. A lot of his arguments are clearly cherry picked and
loads of sentences like, "The statue had a big ear, obviously an example of
bicameralism".

Piano Handbook (in progress) -- Been working on the exercises in this and
started learning the piano as an adult, two years ago. Just two chapters of
eighteen to go...

Jazz Piano (in progress) -- Will focus on this once the above text is done

The Wine Bible (in progress)

Porsche: Origin of Species (in progress)

Millionaire Next Door (in progress) -- In strong conflict with the ideas
presented in the text above...

* Technical Non-Fiction *

Functional Programming in Scala

Pro Git

Learning from Data

Optimization Models; Califiore, El Ghaoui (in progress)

Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets (in progress) -- Not great. Very
little motivation to finish this one...

Had the goal of 30 books, at least 8 of which had to be textbooks. Not quite
there, but there's some really dense stuff this year, so I'm not too worried.
I had no idea how little fiction I was reading; will need to adjust that next
year.

------
kizz246
Most Highly Recommended:

Cosmos \- !!!

The Measure of Reality \- How quantification has completely changed the face
of society. Very interesting stuff. This has probably been my favourite read
this year.

Nightfall \- Interesting ideas of the role of religion in society and mass
hysteria

Speaker for the Dead \- Really fascinating book. I love sci-fi where there is
an alien species that humans have trouble understanding for whatever reason

Books I unrecommend:

Heretics of Dune \- Ugh. Tedious. I actually couldn't finish it. Didn't start
Chapterhouse either.

Information Doesn't Want to be Free \- Pretty basic. How many footnotes do you
really need before you just include them in the text?

Was on maternity leave this year so there are quite a few. Those marked * are
also recommended.

Guns Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond *

The Vital Question - Nick Lane *

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath *

Convergent Series - Larry Niven *

Cosmos - Carl Sagan *

World of Ptaavs - Larry Niven

The Integral Trees - Larry Niven

The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

The Girl with Seven Names - Hyeongseo Lee *

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values - Robert M
Pirsig *

The Thrilling Adventures Of Lovelace And Babbage (Comic) - Sydney Padua

The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 - Roger Zelazny

The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250 - 1600 - Alfred
W. Crosby *

Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C Clark *

The Time Dweller - Michael Moorcock

Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card *

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card *

Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible - Tim Gunn *

The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimon *

The Hugo Winners vol. 3 - Various

Between Planets - Robert A. Heinlen

The Martian - Andy Weir *

Perelandra - C S Lewis

Heretics of Dune - Frank Herbert (Unfinished, couldn't do it.)

Nightfall - Isaac Asimov *

Foundation's Edge - Isaac Asimov *

Foundation and Earth - Isaac Asimov *

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlen *

Information Doesn't Want to be Free - Corey Doctorow

Currently Reading

Engines of Creation: The Coming Era Of Nanotechnology - K. Eric Drexler *

Planets for Sale - A.E. van Vogt

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald

~~~
mlennox
If you haven't read it yet, 'Left hand of Darkness' from Ursula le Guin is
very good.

------
heyAaronHatch
Atlas Shrugged

1984

Fahrenheit 451

Brave New World

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

Neuromancer

------
ggregoire
I'm not a big reader:

\- Elon Musk bio

\- Deep Work

\- Manna

------
mindcrime
Books I finished in 2016. There are others that are still "in progress", but
I'll skip those for now.

\- Towers of Midnight (Wheel of Time, #13) - Robert Jordan

\- Artificial Intelligence: What Everyone Needs to Know - Jerry Kaplan

\- The Gathering Storm (Wheel of Time, #12) - Robert Jordan

\- Ashley Bell - Dean Koontz

\- 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 - George Musser

\- What Is Relativity?: An Intuitive Introduction to Einstein's Ideas, and Why
They Matter - Jeffrey O. Bennett

\- Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software - Charles
Petzold

\- The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom - Stephen M. Stigler

\- Deliver Us from Evil (A. Shaw, #2) - David Baldacci

\- Total Control - David Baldacci

\- Second Foundation (Foundation #3) - Isaac Asimov

\- Foundation and Empire (Foundation #2) - Isaac Asimov

\- End of Watch (Bill Hodges Trilogy, #3) - Stephen King

\- Foundation (Foundation #1) - Isaac Asimov

\- Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity - David Foster Wallace

\- The Meaning of Science - Tim Lewens

\- Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and
Outmarketing Your Competition - Guy Kawasaki

\- The Last Mile (Amos Decker, #2) - David Baldacci

\- Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble - Dan Lyons

\- Management Strategies for the Cloud Revolution: How Cloud Computing Is
Transforming Business and Why You Can't Afford to Be Left Behind - Charles
Babcock

\- 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 - Jason Jennings

\- Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die
- Eric Siegel

\- Mastering the Complex Sale: How to Compete and Win When the Stakes Are
High! - Jeff Thull

\- The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King

What would I recommend out of this batch? Pretty much all of the fiction
titles, and out of the non-fiction, I'd call out these as particularly
recommended:

Mastering The Complex Sale, by Jeff Thull

Code, by Charles Petzold

and

It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow by Jason
Jennings.

The one I'd call out as "not recommended" is

The Seven Pillars of Statistical Wisdom by Stephen M. Stigler. I guess it has
it's place, but it didn't turn out to be as enlightening as I'd hoped it would
be.

------
engi_nerd
This year involved a career change, so much of my reading was oriented around
my shift from flight test engineering to software engineering.

Non-fiction (technical):

* Code Complete, 2nd Edition by Steve McConnell. I can't say enough good things about this. I have kept referring to it in the months since I read it for the first time.

* Computation Structures by Stephen A. Ward. I have read most of this one; it's a good reference for understanding computers at various levels of abstraction.

* Simulation and its Discontents by Sherry Turkle

* Scientific Computation: Python Hacking for Math Junkies by Bruce E. Shapiro. Good for getting back into Python after a few years away.

* Accelerating MATLAB Performance by Yair Altman. Altman has an exhaustive knowledge of MATLAB and this book is a must for anyone doing serious work in MATLAB.

* Doing Data Science: Straight Talk from the Frontline by Cathy O'Neil

History:

* The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, by Peter Heather. Very well researched and written narrative examining how the Empire fared in the 3rd-5th centuries. Has a different perspective than the usual "Barbarian invasions ended the empire".

* One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson. I love everything Bryson writes. This is no exception.

* Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center by Jonathan H. Ward. Also read Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey by the same author. Ward writes the most amazing technical histories. It's quite obvious that he spent massive amounts of time piecing together exactly how things at Kennedy worked during the Apollo years. It's full of amazing little details like which firing rooms were used for which mission, how the entire Saturn V stack was rap-tested (literally having people lie on their backs on a work-platform and synchronously press against the rocket with their legs to try to get it to resonate), and so much more. If you are an Apollo program enthusiast you must read these two books.

Biography

* Kelly: More than my Share of it All by Clarence L. "Kelly" Johnson. The man was a far better engineer than writer. A much better look at Kelly's business life was put together by his protege, Ben Rich (with Leo Janos), in "Skunkworks: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed".

* Fighter Pilot, by Robin Olds. Autobiography of one of the brashest, best aces of World War II and Vietnam.

* American Patriot: The Life and Wars of Colonel Bud Day, by Robert Coram. Not as well-written as Coram's biography of John Boyd. Or maybe Boyd just appeals more to my fighter-jet engineering side.

* Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. Amazing account of what it was like to be a combat rotary-wing pilot in Vietnam.

Other Non-Fiction

* The M1 Garand Owner's Guide by Scott A. Duff. Worth it for Garand owners.

* Atlas Obscura: A Guide To the World's Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer. The print book is beautiful and ever fascinating.

* This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs The Climate, by Naomi Klein. Like a lot of popular non-fiction, this could have been an excellent long-form article instead.

Fiction:

* The Mandibles: A Family, 2029–2047 by Lionel Shriver. A book with a high concept story and poor execution.

* The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Not my first time reading it, but just as enjoyable on this go-around.

* QB VII by Leon Uris. Fiction, but based on some of Uris's own experiences as the defendant in a libel suit. A solid read.

* Noble House, by James Clavell. The only book in his Asian series I hadn't read. Amazing, as are all the rest.

* The Tao Trilogy by Wesley Chu. Eh. First book was decent, it got tedious after that. Only finished it all because I was on a business trip with poor internet access.

* The Power of the Dog, by Don Winslow. I also read the follow-up, The Cartel. Winslow researched these books for years and they are powerful indictments of the War on Drugs. They're also good fiction, but many of the characters have real-world analogues. I spent quite a bit of time during/after reading these looking up the real-world history of the drug wars since 1975.

------
chrisherd
Originals - Adam Grant: Concise and clear, originals change the world but they
aren’t the people we think they are.

When breath becomes air - Paul Kalanithi: Haunting, beautiful, moving and
perfect. Life is surprising and we can’t legislate for the things that are
thrust upon us.

Shoe dog - Phil Knight: How a gang of misfits can changed the world. Favourite
entreprenurial journey I've ever consumed.

Sapiens - Yuval Harari: Wow, nothing else to say.

The Future of the Proffesions - Richard & Daniel Susskind: This is a tough
read, it was a slog, but it was worth it. The world is changing before our
eyes. Professions will die, not just entry level labour intensive jobs.

Contagious - Jonah Berger: If you own a business you want things to go viral,
Jonah enlightens you to the possibilities of how.

Platform Scale - Sangeet Paul Choudary: Excellent and rigorously supported. An
infusion of practicality and academia. A look behind the curtain of the
collaborative economy.

The Third Wave - Steve Case: The low hanging fruits have been picked, now
what? The internet of things is coming, but what does that mean.

The Sharing Economy - Arun Sundararajan: I’m a believer in the
sharing/collaborative economy but i’m worried, the way people are being
treated is deplorable. A projection of whats to come.

Grit - Angela Duckworth: Why do some people succeed and others don’t? Why did
the child prodigy fail? Why do some people drop out of school and others
thrive? Favourite book of the year.

Black Box Thinking - Matthew Syed: Cognitive dissonance, why do we think the
way we do. Why can’t we change our minds even when we are wrong?

Clay Water Brick - Jessica Jackley: Want to learn what it takes to change the
world?

Behind the Cloud - Marc Benioff: Marc Benioff is a genius.

Postcapitalism - Paul Mason: Does capitalism work? This seems even more
pertinent following recent political upheaval. First Brexit now Trump, this
gravitas of what this book conveyed wasn’t really certain until those moments
occurred. The world is changing, brought forth by massive economic migration
and the erosion of borders. Can we stay the same or must we evolve to survive?

Zero to One - Peter Thiel: Classic.

Presence - Amy Cuddy: I was going to omit this from the list on account of the
fact some of the science of the book being flawed. I couldn’t, I loved it. It
spoke to me about my own issues facing impostor syndrome.

Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh: Tony is my mentor, he just doesn’t know it,
yet.

Peers Inc. - Robin Chase: Could zipcar have been uber if the technology
existed? It doesn’t matter, but reading this I felt like I was learning about
a secret nobody knew about. Chase was ahead of her time, probably too far, but
the book is gold.

Things a Little Bird Told me - Biz Stone: Sometimes billion dollar ideas are
about luck arising from failure.

Business For Punks - James Watt: Do things your way or fail trying to please
other people. Business for punks is brash, unapologetic and sure of itself. It
doesn’t make any excuses, instead it forces it down your throat. In the same
way Brewdog is a business like no other so is this book. It’s irreverent and
certain. It’s the best business book i read this year, without queston.

OrphanX - Gregg Hurwitz: out Bourning Bourne, out Bonding Bond and out
Reachering Reacher.

------
anotherevan
In science fiction:

 _The Wayfarers_ books _The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet_ and _A Closed
and Common Orbit_ were quite good. Fantastic world building and characters,
although the plots seem to meander about with not too much purpose.

[https://www.goodreads.com/series/170872-wayfarers](https://www.goodreads.com/series/170872-wayfarers)

Recently ploughed through _The Expanse_ series.

[https://www.goodreads.com/series/56399-the-
expanse](https://www.goodreads.com/series/56399-the-expanse)

 _Dark Matter_ was a good read if you like parallel universes.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833670-dark-
matter](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27833670-dark-matter)

 _The Rho Agenda_ series was a surprisingly good read.

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

 _Quantum Night_ was something a bit different from Robert Sawyer.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25734179-quantum-
night](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25734179-quantum-night)

 _Farmer in the Sky_ is one of those books I re-read every few years.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50851.Farmer_in_the_Sky](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50851.Farmer_in_the_Sky)

And _Barsk: The Elephants’ Graveyard_ would probably have to be rated my
favourite for the year.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667916-barsk](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25667916-barsk)

Horror:

Not really a horror fan, but stumbled into the _I Am Not a Serial Killer_
series by accident a few years ago and love it. Read the forth and fifth in
the series this year. If you’re more a psychological thriller than horror fan,
give it a go anyway. (Shame about the awful movie adaptation.)

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

Crime/Thriller:

 _Fool Me Once_ upholds Harlan Coben’s usual good quality reads.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26109394-fool-me-
once](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26109394-fool-me-once)

 _Memory Man_ and its sequel were good reads. Must chase up more by this
author some time.

[https://www.goodreads.com/series/150209-amos-
decker](https://www.goodreads.com/series/150209-amos-decker)

 _The Wrong Side of Goodbye_ by Michael Connelly

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29154543-the-wrong-
side-...](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29154543-the-wrong-side-of-
goodbye)

According to my goodreads list I’ve ready sixty books this year (so far).
Although looking back through them while compiling this list, some of them
were short stories. It will be interesting to see what my page count is when I
do my yearly reading stats in a couple of weeks.

------
guiambros
Last year I gave myself a Zuckerberg-style goal to read a book every two
weeks. It started well, but some months were harder than others (usually when
the book wasn't very good, so I would switch to podcasts for a few weeks,
before getting back on track).

Here's an unordered list of the best:

[BUSINESS / SELF-IMPROVEMENT]

\- " _Work Rules!_ " \- about Google's culture and values

\- " _Search Inside Yourself_ " \- about mindfulness, meditation, and the
impact on your life.

\- " _What got you here won 't get you there_" \- Liked a lot more than I
expected.

\- " _Re-read Innovator 's Dilemma_" \- a great classic; never gets old.

\- " _How will you measure your life_ " \- from the same author. Also
excellent.

\- " _The Best Service is No Service_ " \- good overview on why Amazon's
customer service is so good

\- " _Crucial Conversations_ " \- half is common sense; half is good tips to
practice everyday.

[PROGRAMMING]

\- " _Fluent Python_ " \- was afraid it'd be too basic, but not really.
Enjoyed it a lot.

\- " _Think Complexity_ " \- about algorithm complexity, data structures, etc.
Great read.

\- " _Python Data Science Handbook_ " \- meh.

\- " _Fundamentals of Deep Learning_ " \- good intro. Helped me solidify some
concepts from Andrew Ng's ML course

\- " _Deep Learning_ " \- by Goodfellow and Bengio. Just started, but really
liking it.

[STARTUPS] (all excellent; in order)

\- " _The Hard Things about Hard Things_ "

\- " _Zero to One_ "

\- " _The Founder 's Dilemmas_"

\- " _The Launch Pad_ "

[FICTION]

\- Trilogy: " _Off to be a wizard / An Unwelcome Quest / Spell or High Water_"

\- " _Infinite Jest_ " \- tried but failed to finish. May try again later.

\- " _Ready Player One_ " \- nice, but repetitive after a while. Good read
before the movie comes out.

[NON-FICTION]

\- " _What If?_ " \- xkcd FTW

\- " _How to Read a Book_ " \- good concepts, but should be a 10 pages blog
post, not a book

\- " _Spark_ " \- Science of the Exercise and the Brain - Long, but good

\- " _Sugar Shock_ " \- still reading; hopefully will help me cut my sweet
cravings

[BIOGRAPHIES]

\- " _The New New Thing_ " \- about Jim Clark's life, one of the very first
entrepreneurs

\- " _Machines of Loving Grace_ " \- about the research and the rise of AI

\- " _Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution_ "

\- " _The Second Coming of Steve Jobs_ " \- About Pixar's story. Liked more
than Isaacson's biography

\- " _The Innovators_ " \- great summary of computer industry, from the 1800's
till today

\- " _Ghost in the Wires_ " \- Kevin Mitnick's story. Had started years ago,
but finally finished it

\- " _Idea Man_ " \- about Paul Allen's story. Quite an impressive man.

~~~
thisisforyou
How far did you get into 'Infinite Jest'. Did you break pg. 200? In my
expeirance there seems to be this energy hump at pg. ~200, but if you can push
past that it is smooth sailing till the end. (and absolutely worth it)

~~~
Arubis
In particular, I remember it was the description of Hal's father effectively
ending his tennis career on the court that made it impossible for me _not_ to
finish--around p170 or 180.

~~~
guiambros
Good tips, thanks! I definitely didn't get that far; more likely pg 100 or so.
I was listening on Audible, so I guess that was the problem. Will try reading
next time.

------
coldshower
I just finished recommending 1491 by Charles Mann in a previous thread, and
I'll do so again here: [http://amzn.to/2hKn6Ly](http://amzn.to/2hKn6Ly)

Surprising how innovative and densely populated the people of ancient americas
were back then.

