[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: What is the best thing you read in 2022?
Is there a book, paper, report or article etc. that really stood
out?
Author : th33ngineer
Score : 200 points
Date : 2022-12-19 17:51 UTC (5 hours ago)
| jszymborski wrote:
| Easily The City & The City by China Mieville.
|
| The premise is great, the characters are fun, the plot will keep
| you engaged.
|
| A noir detective story about a murder that happens in the space
| between two cities which are in superposition. That is, they
| share the same geographic space, but citizens are forced to live
| in only one of the cities by a seemingly omnipotent power called
| Breach that maintains the borders of the two cities.
| ArcMex wrote:
| I have heard good things about this book. I have it on my
| Kindle and plan to read it next year.
| bryan0 wrote:
| Amazing book. I would love to see a film adaptation. I also
| recommend his Bas-Lag series starting with Perdido Street
| Station.
| jszymborski wrote:
| I've not seen it but there's a mini-series adaptation
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7205264/
| medler wrote:
| Great book. I read it a few years ago and still think about it
| often, especially when I'm walking by a homeless person on the
| street
| lianna-vba wrote:
| Besides The City & The City I really enjoyed Kraken and Un Lun
| Dun by China Mieville.
|
| Kraken is the hunt for a giant squid after it vanished from a
| London museum.
|
| Un Lun Dun is a young adult story of two friends who end up in
| a whimsical version of London.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| IIRC Kraken was described as 'an explosion in an ideas
| factory'. I liked the ideas but about half way through began
| to wish that Mieville would calm down and explore in more
| detail some of the characters / concepts he'd introduced
| earlier in the novel.
| jszymborski wrote:
| I'll have to check them out!
|
| I was first drawn to TC&TC because I was told Disco Elysium
| draws from it, and boy howdy was that right. Something is so
| wonderful about a crime procedural in an entirely fantastic
| universe.
| lianna-vba wrote:
| That's funny, I just added Disco Elysium to my Steam wish
| list yesterday.
| jszymborski wrote:
| You will not be disappointed! Possibly my favourite game
| of all time.
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| Best paper I read was "Conflict-free Replicated Data Types
| (2011)".
|
| https://pages.lip6.fr/Marek.Zawirski/papers/RR-7687.pdf
|
| CRDTs get a lot of hype on HN, 95% of the time it's for
| collaborative editing. But they're much more than some JS library
| to build an app around - they're a formalism of distributed
| systems that are strongly eventually consistent. What this means
| is if the mathematical properties [0] of CRDTs hold, there's no
| conflicts, no rollbacks, no user intervention - provided the same
| data is received by every node (in any order, mind you), they
| will all be in an identical state without a consensus.
|
| For me this is massive, and I'm convinced this has big industrial
| applications, ie distributed systems in domains where the source
| of truth is most naturally modelled as append only events. In
| this scenario, the whole database is a single CRDT.
|
| Also - and I hope I'm not outing myself as a pleb here - but each
| time I re-read it I discover new things, stuff I might have
| glossed over, didn't fully understand, or didn't appreciate
| before.
|
| So yeah, have to hand it to this paper. It's really broadened my
| horizons.
|
| [0] way less scary than you think. If you're comfortable with
| first year abstract algebra, operations, sets, relations etc
| you'll be fine.
| kovrik wrote:
| Gene Wolfe.
|
| The whole Solar Cycle (The Book of the New Sun, Urth of The New
| Sun, The Book of The Long Sun, The Book of The Short Sun), Fifth
| Head of Cerberus, Peace, There Are Doors, The Sorcerer's House
| ... .
|
| Wolfe is a genius.
|
| Before that I also finished Malazan.
| gnuhack wrote:
| The Gene Wolfe's novels are outstanding. I think it should be
| more well-known. I just heard of him by coincidence in a blog
| post that appeared in my RSS feed, and no one that I know had
| ever heard of him.
| kwindla wrote:
| Best is hard! But "Owls of the Eastern Ice," about fieldwork in
| Siberia studying owls, is definitely up there.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/22/owls-of-the-ea...
| scottndecker wrote:
| The Guns of John Moses Browning. One of those where you didn't
| realize how someone you likely don't know much about has impacted
| every human on the planet.
| ArcMex wrote:
| Fiction
|
| I discovered and read Blake Crouch this year
|
| - Dark Matter
|
| - Recursion
|
| - Upgrade
|
| - Pines
|
| I also discovered and read
|
| - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
|
| - Gravity by Tess Gerritsen
|
| - A Man by, At the End of the Matinee Keiichiro Hirano
|
| It's between Recursion and Project Hail Mary for me. I am leaning
| more towards Recursion.
|
| Non-fiction
|
| I discovered and read the following this year
|
| - Deep Work by Cal Newport
|
| - The Millionaire Fastlane by M.J. DeMarco
|
| - Zero to One by Peter Thiel
|
| - How to Start a Business Without any Money by Rachel Bridge
|
| - Creative Gene by Hideo Kojima
|
| - Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
|
| - The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
|
| - Show Your Work, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
|
| - Press Reset by Jason Schreier
|
| I would say Deep Work and Steve Jobs had the biggest impact on
| me.
|
| Programming
|
| I am learning Elixir using Elixir In Action by Sasa Juric.
| ManuelKiessling wrote:
| If you haven't already, I strongly recommend to read ,,Becoming
| Steve Jobs", too.
|
| Isaacson's book isn't "wrong" per se, but it makes the wrong
| point, imho. There really have been two Steve Jobs it seems
| (but crucially, NOT in a Jekyll & Hyde way!), and Isaacson
| didn't get that.
| bwanab wrote:
| Recursion, Blake Crouch was an amazing ride.
| ushercakes wrote:
| Project Hail Mary was such a fun read. I burned through it in 2
| days, and was sad when I finished it. 10/10 would recommend
| John23832 wrote:
| It was way too short, but also just long enough.
| Archipelagia wrote:
| If you enjoyed PHM, you might also like: - For a more horror
| take, "There's no Antimemetic Division" https://qntm.org/scp.
| Without spoiling, it's about people trying to fight against a
| threat that's impossible to remember about. - Ted Chiang's
| "Understand". Again without spoiling too much, it's about a
| man whose intelligence rapidly increased. - Harry Potter and
| Methods of Rationality. Yeah, I'm serious, if you like the
| "smart character solves problem by thinking" it's amazing.
| mancharface1 wrote:
| Newport's work led me to read 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman,
| which I regularly think about. It's a refreshing read on time
| management.
| theptip wrote:
| "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang (from 2002).
| Contains the short story that the movie Arrival was based on, and
| a bunch of other cool stories as well. Definitely the best SciFi
| I've read in a long time.
| kevmarsden wrote:
| Four novels stood out:
|
| - Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
|
| The novel explores aging, careers, and relationships. As I plod
| further into middle age, I felt like it was written for me.
|
| Amor Towles is a brilliant writer. I enjoyed all three of his
| novels:
|
| - A Gentleman in Moscow - Rules of Civility - The Lincoln Highway
| dymax78 wrote:
| The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. Grim and gritty, with
| phenomenal character development that hones in on the fallibility
| of people. The narration by Steven Pacey is incredible, if you'd
| like to go that route.
| trynewideas wrote:
| I was late by a year to it, but Kazuo Ishiguro's _Klara and the
| Sun_ was both fascinating and, typical for Ishiguro, almost
| lethally concentrated melancholy. A literary take on AGI and
| religion from the cleverly written perspective of an AI assistant
| device, mixed with a coming-of-age story and a meditation on the
| disposability of modern technology.
| powerset wrote:
| How did you feel it compared with some of his other works?
| Personally I enjoyed it, but to me it wasn't quite on the same
| level with some of his other books like the buried giant or
| remains of the day.
| Eumenes wrote:
| Always with Honor
| (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55807906)
|
| Memoir from the leader of the White Army during the Bolshevik
| revolution. Sparked an interest in Russian history for me.
| apocalypstyx wrote:
| _Sex Versus Survival: The Life and Ideas of Sabina Spielrein_ by
| John Launer.
|
| _What Is a Minor Literature?_ by Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari.
| netfortius wrote:
| "The Idea of the World", by Bernardo Kastrup. A complete
| departure from my materialistic view of the world, and - in spite
| of certain arguments made in the book, with which I disagree -
| offered me the chance to learn something that now requires more
| reading on the topic.
| odo1242 wrote:
| The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** by Mark Manson?
| PuppyTailWags wrote:
| Rabbit Test by Samantha Mills [0] is the heavily researched, hard
| sci-fi that retains its close intimacy on the impact on regular
| people that I think science fiction should be going towards. It's
| realistic, heavy-hitting, and doesn't bullshit on the politics
| involved.
|
| https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/rabbit-test/
| paparush wrote:
| Holy shit, that was a great read.
| atlasunshrugged wrote:
| I reread Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner, which despite having
| been published ~50 years ago, still seems prescient and with
| relevant commentary on modern life
| BasilPH wrote:
| Reading it right now, but I already think it's the test thing:
| Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
|
| I was (and still am) obsessed with productivity. But I more and
| more my tasks had felt like something I needed to get done, to
| afterwards finally be able to relax and profit from them. But
| this time never came and I just got busier.
|
| The book does a great job at explaining how much of our daily
| grind is based on a refusal to accept our finitude. And once we
| accept our finitude, we can get a lot more done in a happier way.
| jen729w wrote:
| The audiobook, read by the author, is terrific.
| legendofbrando wrote:
| This book was definitely one of my highlights. The number of
| times I exclaimed "I'm really not the only one that feels
| that?!" Was too many to measure. It really forces you to
| confront time in a way that I haven't stopped thinking about
| since.
| BasilPH wrote:
| I'm having the same experience. And what I love, is that he
| proposes solutions that work, without sugarcoating things.
|
| One of the biggest learnings from this book so far, is that a
| certain level of anxiety is inevitable. Especially when
| you're doing work that is meaningful to you.
|
| Being able to accept that anxiety and still continue is what
| makes all the difference.
| zw7 wrote:
| I also recommend his mailing list, "The Imperfectionist". He
| only sends out an essay maybe once a month but they aren't
| posted anywhere so you have to subscribe.
| jen729w wrote:
| Neville Shute's novel 'On the Beach', from 1957.
|
| I won't spoil it -- Wikipedia has a synopsis if you want -- other
| than to say it's end-of-times dystopia. But from 1957. It's
| delightful.
|
| My friend Tim:
|
| > Just finished On the Beach. Simple and profound. Just need some
| Zoloft and I will be great. Thanks for the recommendation.
| nbernard wrote:
| If you like old movies, don't miss the 1959 adaptation!
| kickout wrote:
| 1492 by Charles Mann
| powerset wrote:
| "When We Cease to Understand the World" was fascinating
| historical fiction, which felt more like fiction because the
| stories were so out there and well-written. Many times I looked
| up the wikipedia entry on some character or event, only to
| discover that some of the more bizarre and out-there parts of the
| story that I had assumed were fiction were actually fact.
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4462913650
| jackhalford wrote:
| << Axiomatic >> sci-fi short stories by Greg Egan. I think it's
| the first time fiction has clicked for me. It's hard sci-fi so
| the science is accurate and that helps a lot. And the fact that
| they're short stories helps because of my modern day short term
| attention span...
| yboris wrote:
| _The Precipice_ by Toby Ord
|
| https://theprecipice.com/
|
| An amazing nonfiction book that at times reads like science-
| fiction. A grand overview of various existential risks humanity
| faces and what we can do to decrease the chances. As it stands,
| the author estimates humanity's survival chances to be 5/6 per
| 100 years, given today's state of things. This is equivalent to
| playing a Russian roulette - not something we can maintain for
| the long term. So _now_ is one of the most important times in
| history of humanity: preventing our not-unlikely total
| destruction.
| jonvaljonathan wrote:
| The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman So simple and clear. I listen to
| it once or twice a year.
|
| How to Fight a Hydra by Josh Kaufman A heroes story about doing
| hard things.
|
| Courage is Calling by Ryan Holiday I didn't actually finish this
| one. I just go back to it for about 20-30 minutes every time I
| need a boost. I save it for when I feel overwhelmed and it snaps
| me right out of it.
|
| Clean Code, the Clean Coder, and Clean Architecture by Robert C
| Martin Amazing. I am better for reading these.
|
| Venture Deals by Brad Feld Saved me a lot of time and heartache
|
| The Metaverse by Matthew Ball The first real definition of the
| Metaverse I've ever heard. Loved it.
| gvedem wrote:
| Reincarnation Blues, by Michael Poore. Takes on some serious
| stuff but never takes itself too seriously.
| Scarblac wrote:
| After Terry Pratchett's death in 2015 I started rereading all of
| Discworld in publishing order, I had read about half of them
| before.
|
| This year's batch included _The Fifth Elephant_ and later _Night
| Watch_, and they're really fantastic. The pinnacle of the series?
| I have about ten books left to find out.
|
| Also _The Loom Of Life_ (in Dutch, its Dutch title translates to
| "Why are there so many species") and it was a nice dense
| introduction to biodiversity and ecology.
|
| And others less worth mentioning.
| jules-jules wrote:
| The meta-crises framework co-developed by Daniel Schmachtenberger
|
| https://consilienceproject.org/
| slybootz wrote:
| "The Man from the Future: The Visionary Life of John von Neumann"
| by Ananyo Bhattacharya
| tptacek wrote:
| I finally got around to reading The Spy Who Came In From The
| Cold, which was pretty great. Also the Richard Burton movie (read
| the book first).
|
| Best paper, easily:
|
| https://nebuchadnezzar-megolm.github.io/
| jjallen wrote:
| By far the best thing I've read in years is the blog about
| obesity and its mysteries, slimemoldtimemold.com. Can't recommend
| it enough.
| flobosg wrote:
| Related, from a few weeks ago: _Ask HN: Best books read in 2022?_
| - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33849267
| tayo42 wrote:
| and this thread also has the same comment in it. the same
| question was asked only a couple weeks before that one.
|
| I think hackernews could aggregate some of these types of
| repetitive questions and topics better?
| didsomeonesay wrote:
| https://hackernewsbooks.com/
| tayo42 wrote:
| didnt know about that, though one downside is that it
| doesnt encourage discussion of the book recommendations.
| Though idk how much of that actually happens anyway
| p0pcult wrote:
| "The Ministry For the Future" by Kim Stanley Robinson and
| "Termination Shock" by Neal Stephenson provide compelling
| approaches to dealing with climate change, in the form of
| thriller novels.
| raptor556 wrote:
| "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee.
|
| If anyone can recommended some other "beginner" books for
| learning genetics I would really appreciate it.
| j7ake wrote:
| The gene machine (centres around nobel prize winning discovery
| of ribosome structure)
|
| Time love memory: influence of genes on time keeping, mating,
| neurobiology.
| lordgrenville wrote:
| She Has her Mother's Eyes is a good one. But of course if you
| want to learn properly you need something more comprehensive
| than books like these.
| bwanab wrote:
| The two recent books by Madeline Miller, "Circe" and "The Song of
| Achilles"
|
| "Crossroads" Jonathan Franzen
|
| "Agassi" Andre Agassi - I don't normally read sports memoirs, but
| this one came highly recommended by a woman author that I have
| read recently so I gave it a try. As a tennis fan who pretty much
| alway routed for the other player when he played (except when he
| played Pete Sampras), I found the book totally engaging. Highly
| recommended.
| conductr wrote:
| I was a big Sampras fan, curious on details of your exception.
| I don't follow off the court/field drama so was he a huge jerk
| or something?
| Teknoman117 wrote:
| I read the first two fiction books I'd read in a long time this
| year:
|
| - Children of Time
|
| - Children of Ruin (the sequel)
| weejewel wrote:
| Build by Tony Fadell (iPod, Nest).
| pokstad wrote:
| Three Body Problem trilogy. Most unique sci-fi I have ever read.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| In the same vein of "interesting sci-fi thought experiments", I
| keep coming back to Hurley's _The Stars are Legion_ as an
| amazing (and disturbing) exploration of what a society that
| used biology the way we use electronics could look like.
| ArcMex wrote:
| Nice! I have this on my 2023 TBR. Cannot wait. I read Netflix
| is picking it up for an adaptation?
| davnicwil wrote:
| I'll tell you what I tell others when I recommend it - the
| trilogy is so good that I am jealous of your position of
| having not yet read it!
| Archipelagia wrote:
| Sadly, Porn by Edwars Teach (better known as The Last
| Psychiatrist).
|
| He has a very opinionated style, so if it doesn't work for,
| you'll hate it. At the same time, I've found it extremely
| insightful about human nature and it forced my to face some parts
| of myself that I wasn't aware of and didn't like.
|
| Very much love-or-hate read, but worth trying. Just maybe check
| out his old blog first to see if his style is bearable for you.
| HEmanZ wrote:
| I finally got around to reading Moby Dick this year. I found it
| to be about 100x better and more approachable than I expected,
| and there's so much to meditate on while reading it that I am
| excited to read thru it a second time.
|
| Also, 2 new Cormac McCarthy novels just came out and I re-read
| the boarderlands trilogy and blood meridian this year to prep
| myself. I can't recommend these enough, even tho it was my second
| time reading
| zemidz wrote:
| I got a beta copy of our very own Michael O. Church's book
| (Farisa's Crossing) in February. I had to promise I wouldn't say
| anything revealing but I think you all should read it. It's way
| better than I thought it would be and there is a good chance he
| will make the kind of Mark in literature that he had hoped and
| failed to make in technology.
| AntoniusBlock wrote:
| Starting FORTH by Leo Brodie - Written in a casual, funny,
| beginner friendly way, and even though I'm not a beginner I still
| enjoyed it immensely. Now if only Forth were more popular!
|
| Edit: realised OP said `thing' not `things' so I deleted some
| books.
| Alekhine wrote:
| I recently had an idea for a spellcrafter game that uses forth.
| check back in several years?
| AntoniusBlock wrote:
| Will do! Also, nice name. Alekhine's games have given me
| great pleasure over the years.
| amusingimpala75 wrote:
| The Bible (ESV)
| Nathanael_M wrote:
| The Bible (NASB95)
| arawde wrote:
| Here's a few:
|
| * Matthew Klein & Michael Pettis - Trade Wars Are Class Wars
|
| * Bruno Latour - We Have Never Been Modern
|
| * Thomas Kuhn - The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (had
| never read it before, probably book of the year for me)
|
| and of course, Matt Levine's Money Stuff, which is good every
| year!
| gnuhack wrote:
| The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe.
|
| Absolutely astounding, the best book I've read in my life. Gene
| Wolfe has become my favorite author ever. Each time I reread the
| book I discover a million things I didn't notice before.
| coldpie wrote:
| I subscribe to Asimov's bi-monthly (6/year) sci-fi short story
| magazine and there's always one or two stories that really stand
| out every issue. It's always a treat when a new one turns up in
| the mailbox. https://www.asimovs.com/
| Freak_NL wrote:
| Collections of short sci-fi stories can be thoroughly
| refreshing. It gives the author the space to explore outlandish
| concepts (societal, philosophical, technological, etc.) that
| wouldn't work too well stretched out to a full novel. From
| recent anthologies to paperbacks collecting a bunch of stories
| around a theme from the seventies: there are gems in every one
| of them (misses too of course).
|
| I find it a good way to explore authors I haven't read anything
| by as well.
| Epicism wrote:
| The end of the world is just the beginning by Peter Zeihan. It is
| an amazing walkthrough of the modern global economy and how it is
| changing based on changing demographics and politics. Highly
| recommended.
| legitster wrote:
| I was not initially impressed with Zeihan. He's a bit of a
| know-it-all and is very fatalist with his predictions.
|
| That said, I've really come around on him lately. His
| predictions are broadly accurate, and it's very refreshing to
| see a version of the world that rises above political
| noisemaking.
| jwsteigerwalt wrote:
| It was Matt Crump's saga about his cheating students at crump
| lab.com. It was taken down, but it was a great read.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| Fiction: The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier. Very fun novel
| somewhere between sci-fi and literary fiction, best read without
| having spoiled anything about it.
|
| Non-Fiction: The Bright Ages - Matthew Gabriele. Very nuanced
| well written popular history of the medieval period
|
| Journalism: Not from this year but I read it this year the first
| time: Largely photographic piece about the drug war in the
| Phillipines: (warning, very disturbing/gory)
| https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/07/world/asia/ro...
| willsoon wrote:
| Mme. Bovary. First it just was an exercise to show to my wife how
| _descriptions_ are _action_. I was trying to improved her
| everyday writing, you know, memos from work, informal/formal
| letters. I'm reading French just a little as English. So we are
| doing this... _exercises_ based upon an Spanish translate. And
| there it was. Just like I used to be remember it: fabrics that
| suddenly becomes a living creature embracing Emma B. nee Rouault,
| feelings that forms heavy lakes falling upon her, light that is
| light and sound and it taste like aluminum. Sorry to inform: is
| not a novel about couples, not even about a couple, not even
| about Emma. It's all about how you can tell a thing, whatever
| thing, not thinking about it as static dead thing but a living,
| fiery, not a few times menacing, whatever.
| zwieback wrote:
| I read Madame Bovary a long time ago because in the old days
| when we visited East Berlin from the west they forced you to
| exchange some money into the worthless Ostmark. The only thing
| worth buying were books and even those were printed on terrible
| paper. I ended up with Madame Bovary and absolutely loved it,
| depressing as it is.
| etrautmann wrote:
| I cannot understand what you've written here.
| awesomegoat_com wrote:
| The news that lockdown ends.
| krishna0902 wrote:
| Thinking fast and slow, and Principles. Both live up to their
| reputation.
| philip1209 wrote:
| Haruki Murakami's "Novelist as a Vocation" has been inspiring for
| me. It's a memoir about his path as an author. I find that his
| discussions of topics such as writers block relevant to my
| technology work.
| zwieback wrote:
| Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel.
| voisin wrote:
| Might be worthwhile to read this after Station Eleven and The
| Glass Hotel. While not a formal trilogy, there are a lot of
| connections and quite honestly they are each totally amazing.
|
| Last Night in Montreal, by the same author, is also great, and
| totally different from the above three.
| ddritzenhoff wrote:
| let's talk about owls with diabetes by David Sedaris. Never has a
| book made me laugh out loud more than this one. It's completely
| ridiculous and crazy, but I loved every minute of it.
| jamincan wrote:
| I discovered Patrick Radden Keefe's writing this past year, and
| loved his writing style enough to immediately pick up a second of
| his books.
|
| Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern
| Ireland
|
| Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
|
| I've also been listening to a lot of audiobooks and was really
| impressed by Rosamund Pike's reading of The Great Hunt by Robert
| Jordan (Book 2 of the Wheel of Time series) for Audible; enough
| that I'm waiting to listen to Book 3 to when her reading of it is
| released next summer.
| BlaisePascal wrote:
| The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. It definitely lives up to
| its reputation.
| ArcMex wrote:
| I have an audio-book of this! And a flight next week!
| jszymborski wrote:
| See, I love Bulgakov, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but I really
| didn't get Karamazov (it's a personal failing, not attributing
| it to the work).
|
| There are some beautiful aspects of the book that will always
| stay with me. The Grand Inquisitor monologue is captivating,
| Alyosha is a deeply interesting character, Mitya's stories of
| gallivanting on a troika through Russia, and everything that is
| Grushenka...
|
| But as a whole, I can't say I understood it. I didn't
| understand how these characters came together, or how the
| ending tied these (albeit interesting!) stories together.
|
| Karamazov was the first Dostoevsky book I read. When it came to
| The Idiot, I was shocked by how different the writing style
| felt. It flowed more, the dialogue drove a lot of the
| narrative, and it generally was just a lot less dense.
|
| I'm hardly an English Major let alone a scholar of Russian Lit
| so I'm sure the thoughts here are pedestrian.
| nkh wrote:
| I had a similar feeling after finishing the book. This YT
| video really helped frame the book for me:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UBOA00EAQw
| jszymborski wrote:
| Thanks! I should seek out more analysis... Master &
| Margarita is my favourite book, but I don't think it'd
| crack Top 10 if it weren't for the end notes.
| 0x008 wrote:
| Everything's on Andrej Karpathy's blog.
| lynndotpy wrote:
| The Rustonomicon (WIP) made Rust things _click_ in a way that
| really benefitted me: https://doc.rust-lang.org/nomicon/
|
| Definitely in the running!
|
| I'd also recommend "The Moral Character of Cryptographic Work":
| https://web.cs.ucdavis.edu/~rogaway/papers/moral-en.pdf
| LAC-Tech wrote:
| Yeah 2022 was the year in which rust transitioned (to me) from
| "frustrating waste of time language" to "wait a minute, the
| standard library is really good, the tools are really good, I
| could probably make useful software with this".
|
| Though curious why a book describing unsafe rust made rust
| click for you?
| lynndotpy wrote:
| It made me better understand how Rust works and how it is
| designed, and in doing so, it really untangled how
| borrowing/ownership works.
|
| I liken it to paint a tree, full of leaves which obscure its
| branches. I might never paint the branches, but understanding
| how the branches are shaped will help me draw a better tree.
|
| This was in tandem with reading the Rust book, being active
| in the IRC, and writing programs to learn! The Rustonomicon
| just happened to have what I needed.
| gocartStatue wrote:
| Re-read ,,It's Not Luck" by Elijahu Goldratt; maybe it's not
| ,,epiphany", but very good instruction on tackling seemingly
| ,,impossible" projects.
| publicdaniel wrote:
| Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned: The Myth of the Objective by Ken
| Stanley and Joel Lehman. This book was a fascinating read for
| anyone with ambitious objectives (or an interest in optimization
| algorithms). Ken is such a deep thinker, I love when he's on
| podcasts or gets interviewed, and reading his book was a real
| treat.
| empiricus wrote:
| The erogamer. For all its flaws, it has many amazing moments. It
| made me think about life and how people change as they age.
| arthurjj wrote:
| Fiction: Gideon the Ninth - which was both funnier than expected,
| given it's about necromancers, and also a great view of how very
| technical discussions appear from the outside
|
| Non fiction: Probably "Becoming Trader Joe" really shows how
| business decisions are path very situational and path dependent.
| i.e. the whole store brand schtick of Trader Joe's started
| because of alcohol regulations
| lianna-vba wrote:
| Gideon the Ninth was hilarious. Naomi Novik's Scholomance
| trilogy and Martha Wells' Murderbot series have a similar mix
| of great storytelling and snark.
| setgree wrote:
| Cryptonomicon. A classic but deservedly so.
| jimiray wrote:
| Business: Team Topologies Non-Fiction: Be Love Now Fiction: The
| Lost Metal
| rtrunck wrote:
| "Einstein's Fridge" was great to learn about the history and
| development of thermodynamics at a fairly high level.
|
| "Good Inside" on becoming a better parent was also great and
| taught me a lot.
|
| "Every Tool's a Hammer" on becoming a better maker.
|
| "Crafting Interpreters" on learning about and building compilers.
|
| All were really great reads.
| boucher wrote:
| Also read Crafting Interpreters recently and enjoyed it.
| gravypod wrote:
| I really enjoyed this Dan Luu article https://danluu.com/nothing-
| works/
|
| It's something I had been thinking about for a while but didn't
| have the knowledge required to put it into words. I end up
| linking it a bit.
| maskull wrote:
| That Hideous Strength
| lowbloodsugar wrote:
| _There is No Antimemetics Division_ by qntm [1]:
|
| An antimeme is an idea with self-censoring properties; an idea
| which, by its intrinsic nature, discourages or prevents people
| from spreading it. Antimemes are real. Think of any piece of
| information which you wouldn't share with anybody, like
| passwords, taboos and dirty secrets. Or any piece of information
| which would be difficult to share even if you tried: complex
| equations, very boring passages of text, large blocks of random
| numbers, and dreams...
|
| But anomalous antimemes are another matter entirely. How do you
| contain something you can't record or remember? How do you fight
| a war against an enemy with effortless, perfect camouflage, when
| you can never even know that you're at war? Welcome to the
| Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day
|
| [1] https://a.co/d/hqdu0We
| smlavine wrote:
| John Green's "The Anthropocene Reviewed" was surprisingly a great
| joy to read. It was a light in the dark for me. He makes me feel
| thankful and appreciative of being a part of the human race
| without coming off as cheesy or contrived. And it's funny, too.
| chillydawg wrote:
| Jack Four by Neal Asher. sci fi first person mega action.
| impossible to put down. Close second would be Hail Mary by the
| guy who wrote the Martian.
| woodruffw wrote:
| I finally read The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down[1], which
| has been on my list for years.
|
| Cultural/anthropological journalism tends to fall into a handful
| of traps (fawning over "exotic" cultures, or dismissing them as
| backwards), and this is one of a small handful of books that
| avoid those errors. I highly recommend it to anybody who's
| interested in medical anthropology, or more generally to anyone
| looking to understand (a tiny fragment of) the immigrant
| experience in the US.
|
| [1]:
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12609.The_Spirit_Catches...
| werber wrote:
| Paradais by Fernanda Melchor was the only book I literally could
| not put down till I finished. It's a short book, but extremely
| visual. I read it maybe six months ago and the whole story has
| played through my head since then.
| lianna-vba wrote:
| Thanks for the recommendation, I just grabbed a copy.
|
| When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut was
| that book for me this year. It's an odd blend of fact and
| fiction covering a handful of 20th century physics and math
| discoveries. Alexander Grothendieck, Einstein, Schrodinger and
| Heisenberg all appear.
| paparush wrote:
| Fiction
|
| --------
|
| Termination Shock - Neal Stephenson
|
| Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
|
| Shards of Earth - Adrian Tchaikovsky
|
| Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
|
| Gnomon - Nick Harkaway
|
| The Gone Away World - Nick Harkaway
|
| The Apollo Murders - Chris Hadfield
|
| Nonfiction
|
| ----------
|
| Mindf*ck - Chris Wylie
|
| 1776 - David McCullough
|
| Apollo 8 - Jeffrey Kluger
| dsm4ck wrote:
| River of the Gods by Candice Millard
| https://www.npr.org/2022/06/15/1105189330/river-of-the-gods-...
| BirAdam wrote:
| I've been reading the Foundation series, and it's quite good.
|
| Aside from that:
|
| "The New Right" by Michael Malice
|
| "The Storm Before the Storm" by Mike Duncan
|
| "The Anglo-American Establishment" by Carroll Quigley
|
| "Numbers Don't Lie" by Vaclav Smil
|
| Books that weren't good:
|
| "A Short History of Man" by Hans-Herman Hopper
|
| "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzweil
|
| "After Evangelicalism" by David P. Gushee
| sockaddr wrote:
| The Bobiverse
| madmax108 wrote:
| Book: You Are Not Expected to Understand This: How 26 Lines of
| Code Changed the World by Torie Bosch [1]
|
| Came across this book randomly on Twitter and picked it up. The
| book is broken into 26 essays about significant pieces of code
| (defined vaguely), ranging from the Morris Worm to Pagerank to
| the popup window and the 1x1 invisible gif and how these shaped
| the modern tech landscape. Lovely read overall, and really shows
| how pieces of code you work on today can end up having long
| lasting impact on how society perceives technology as a whole.
| Best of all, it's not a heavy read, but offers a lot of concise
| info that can send you down wormholes of wikipedia.
|
| Paper: Amazon DynamoDB: A Scalable, Predictably Performant, and
| Fully Managed NoSQL Database Service [2]
|
| Database systems have always been a passion of mine, and the
| paper from AWS about how DynamoDB works internally is an
| incredible look into what makes a NoSQL DB platform capable of
| serving 89 million requests per second _(this is in the intro)_
| which is incredible scale. Always good to see how engineering
| decisions shape products, and it's been interesting to see Dynamo
| take shape over the last decade _(though I recommend most folks
| to stay away from it because of it's mad pricing)_
|
| [1]: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60254955-you-are-not-
| exp...
|
| [2]: https://www.usenix.org/system/files/atc22-elhemali.pdf
| tayo42 wrote:
| I read "Crucial Conversations" this year. It feel like it has the
| potential to be life changing. Need more time to tell what impact
| it really has.
|
| It introduced me to a new topic, which is analyzing social
| situations and apply problem solving skills to them. Something
| that never occurred to me for some reason. I now realize there
| are smart people working and having interesting thoughts and
| conclusions in this topic. So much more to explore. (Open to
| recomindations too!)
|
| The book also seems to give more useful information about how to
| handle difficult social situations. I was pretty down on work and
| becoming cynical (still am though hah!) The advice I often get is
| stuff like be agreeable, don't rock the boat, dont say anything
| with passion ("corp speak"), to get ahead and get what you want.
| This feels bad to me. Often it appears in corporations the only
| people that are getting ahead are those types of yes people. I
| feel like this book gave me the tools to have differing opinions
| and express them successfully.
|
| I also liked the book shows that a lot of these difficult
| conversations are actually in your control. Most people seem to
| have terrible communication skills I'm learning. Often I would
| write off a bad conversation as the other person just being an
| asshole or difficult or something. after reading this it seems
| like it is possible to handle a lot of these a lot better.
|
| Disjointed thoughts off the top of my head, but I found the book
| pretty enlightening. Id recommend it if you struggle with
| expressing your opinions in emotional conversations.
| BigHatLogan wrote:
| Buying this off the strength of your recommendation. That
| sounds exactly like what the doctor ordered. I'm getting worse
| at expressing myself the older I'm getting, and I'm finding it
| impairing my personal life, work life, social situations, etc.
| Will give this one a read--thank you!
| Archipelagia wrote:
| Likewise - it's been on my to-read list for ages, will
| schedule it as my Christmas reading thanks to OP's comment.
| deebosong wrote:
| Another drop in this bucket.
|
| I read it once and took some notes. Haven't looked back on
| either the source nor my notes (until now!), but the book came
| to me at a time when I was dealing with a lot of inner-
| organizational bureaucracy on a small-scale, but was utterly
| frustrating.
|
| The book gave me new frameworks, and was reco'd to me from
| someone within the org who I was confiding in on the top-level.
| But ultimately, the frameworks weren't enough to change
| necessary structures - because those in power and with
| influence didn't want to change their attitudes, goals, and
| approaches.
|
| As "negative" as that sounds, the book helped in part for me to
| understand the four major buckets for how decisions get made:
|
| * command, from on high to everyone below you who must carry
| out the orders
|
| * consult, to invite input but still one leadership board/
| leader makes the final call
|
| * vote, where majority decides what'll happen after being
| presented with options
|
| * consensus, where a decision is made only after everyone
| agrees
|
| These frameworks helped me to understand that whatever was
| causing obstructions/ friction, was because people in power
| were presenting things as if they were based on consultations
| leading to majority votes, but ultimately, there was a lot of
| game-playing from the top leaders who wanted to use those
| tactics as cover to ultimately have their own way.
|
| Helped me to accept that things were the way they were, and
| there was no need to exert unnecessary energy. And from then
| on, to discern first and foremost what the decision-making
| dynamics are in any group endeavor, be it small-teams or entire
| orgs, and to go from there.
|
| Very cool stuff, for me at least.
| adolgert wrote:
| When I find myself nervous about a meeting, I go back to this
| book and outline the steps it suggests, not just the gist of
| it, but I walk through the steps. It's like having a colleague
| who wants to help you be a better person.
| personjerry wrote:
| Crucial Conversations was mandatory material for managers at
| Facebook, and I feel it's so impactful for any communication
| channel that I recommend to all my professional friends IRL.
| Also in that vein, I highly recommend Nonviolent Communication.
| posharma wrote:
| Interesting. What other books are mandatory reading for
| managers at Facebook?
| mandeepj wrote:
| I ordered both - "Crucial Conversations" and "Nonviolent
| Communication" - as audio books. Both turned out to be super
| dry. Same analogies and scenarios over and over again,
| eventually got tired of listening them; will try again now.
| sAbakumoff wrote:
| Children of the
| Arbat(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children_of_the_Arbat)
|
| Pretty scary book about Russia circa 1930-1940
| irtefa wrote:
| "Slight Edge" by Jeff Olson was pretty good. Lessons from the
| book helped me make progress towards my bigger goals every day.
| You don't need to read the entire book to get value.
| wincy wrote:
| Someone on Hacker News recommended The End of the World is Just
| the Beginning by Peter Zeihan. The audiobook is just fantastic,
| read by the author and you can tell how passionate and concerned
| he is about the subjects he's talking about. It's a long book but
| worth the read.
| benjaminwootton wrote:
| "Man's Search For Meaning" made me think a lot.
| toomanyrichies wrote:
| This book was a revelation for me. Logotherapy, or the idea of
| finding meaning in one's trials and tribulations as a path to
| therapeutic recovery (and even becoming grateful for them), got
| me out of a lifelong spiral of self-pity and resentment.
| hiidrew wrote:
| Life After Lifestyle by Toby Shorin:
| https://subpixel.space/entries/life-after-lifestyle/
|
| Enjoy this piece and some of the themes in it, weird DTC brands,
| authenticity, manufacturing culture. It seems to make sense of
| the current moment we live in.
| palashkulsh wrote:
| The sixth principle Farnham Street blogs
| misiti3780 wrote:
| If you're into historical biographies, I highly recommend The
| Last Lion by McMasters on Churchill. Really puts things into
| perspective about how close Germany came to owning Europe.
|
| It's really 3 books, 5000+ pages, not a quick read but worth the
| effort.
| paparush wrote:
| Oh! I'm about 1/4 of the way through book II. Can't recommend
| enough for history nerds!
| sharadov wrote:
| "So good they can't ignore you" - the book has a contrarian
| viewpoint on how you don't look seek out the field that you are
| most passionate about, but rather you work at getting good at
| something and the passion finds you. Makes so much sense!
|
| "Do hard things" - title is self- explanatory, real growth
| happens under pressure.
|
| "The Snowball" - this is such an important book - not just great
| financial advice, but also filled with life advice from the sage
| of Omaha. It's over 1000 pages long, but it's so honest.
| Frotag wrote:
| Been getting into sci-fi novels recently. Favorite has been stuff
| by Adrian Taichovsky [1]. A lot of it is premised on "what if
| animals were (engineered) smarter". His novels usually explore
| how cognition / language / culture would evolve over millenia for
| different species.
|
| (minor spoilers) For example, one story describes bees that form
| a hivemind. Another describes how language would work with only
| colors. Another describes how society would evolve if knowledge
| was genetically inherited.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Tchaikovsky
| Eric_WVGG wrote:
| quick shout-out to https://literal.club/ as a hopeful successor
| of GoodReads, which has been in a state of disrepair if not
| abandonware for several years now. Literal is a terrific product
| and I hope it gains traction.
|
| as for my own entries...
|
| - _Lapvonia_ by Moshfegh and _Hollow_ by Catling are both sort of
| magical-realism set in medieval European villages, which would
| normally be considered "fantasy" but I assure you are very much
| not fantasy novels as any normal reader would consider. They are
| rather stories about the medieval setting set from the
| perspective of how people a thousand years ago understood and
| perceived their real world.
|
| - and also on that medieval-tales motif, _The Mere Wife_ by
| Headley is a contemporary retelling of Beowulf (the hero is a cop
| named Ben Wolff), great fun and well-styled.
|
| - _Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands_ by Beaton is winning tons
| of awards and deservedly so.
|
| - _Termination Shock_ and _Ministry for the Future_ are stabs at
| possible approaches for solving climate change by very prominent
| SF writers, which miss the mark for various reasons, but worth a
| look as they 're the dominant themes for the next few years of
| science fiction.
| stinos wrote:
| _quick shout-out tohttps://literal.club/ as a hopeful successor
| of GoodReads_
|
| Before I sign up: does it do 'people who liked this book also
| liked...' ? And/or are the recommendations based on previous
| books I put in there myself ok?
| trynewideas wrote:
| There's also BookWyrm, which is ActivityPub-federated and has
| less of the library-management focus in favor of the now
| reading/just finished status updates:
| https://docs.joinbookwyrm.com/
| wannabebarista wrote:
| I just posted a list of articles earlier today.[0] Choosing one
| article and one book, I would go with
|
| - Stylized Facts in the Social Sciences by Daniel Hirschman
|
| - 1177 B.C. by Eric Cline
|
| [0] https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-articles-2022/
| RunSet wrote:
| The Once and Future King, by T.H. White.
|
| The Sword in the Stone is probably my favorite Disney movie so I
| was delighted to discover the movie was based on a book which was
| even better.
| dash2 wrote:
| It's a super book. Remember the first meeting of Arthur and
| Merlin, when Merlin says "how long since we met?" and then has
| a tear in his eye?
|
| He also wrote _The Goshawk_ which I can recommend.
| hothead334 wrote:
| One of my favourites of all time. The singing Cockney hedgehog
| is such a gem.
| cunningfatalist wrote:
| The best works of fiction I read:
|
| - Count Belisarius by Robert Graves
|
| - The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
|
| - The Expanse (all of them)
|
| - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
|
| And the best books on software development were:
|
| - Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach
| by Mark Richards and Neal Ford
|
| - Multithreaded JavaScript by Thomas Hunter II and Bryan English
|
| - The Programmer's Brain by Felienne Hermans
| Freak_NL wrote:
| If you enjoyed _The Bone Clocks_ , consider trying the other
| books in that same universe. Like _The Thousand Autumns of
| Jacob de Zoet_ (particularly if you enjoy its historical
| setting of Edo period Japan on the artificial island of Deshima
| where the Dutch were allowed to operate a trading post), or the
| shorter _Slade House_.
|
| Of course _Cloud Atlas_ is well-known and a good read.
|
| _Utopia Avenue_ , his latest work about a fictional band in
| the 1960s, is a very pleasant and frankly fun read too,
| although different from the others. In typical Mitchell
| fashion, it does loosely connect to his other works and that
| weird uber-narrative he is building. I'm looking forward to see
| what he'll end up doing with that.
| cunningfatalist wrote:
| I already read Slade House, Cloud Atlas, number9dream and
| Ghostwritten. I'm REALLY looking forward to all the others!
| :)
| hardlianotion wrote:
| The Bone Clocks is what killed David Mitchell's work for me.
| Really like Count Belasarius though, but I have always liked my
| heroes heroic, especially the historical ones.
| cunningfatalist wrote:
| Are there some books that you can recommend?
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| I've been listening to the history of Byzantium podcast and
| Count Belisarius is on my list of things to read. Great to hear
| that it's good!
| cunningfatalist wrote:
| I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Grave's Claudius series is
| also great!
| thor_molecules wrote:
| The Bone Clocks is fantastic - probably my #1 go-to when
| someone asks me for a book recommendation.
| stank345 wrote:
| As a perfectionist in recovery, this book was extremely
| illuminating: https://www.newharbinger.com/9781684038459/the-
| anxious-perfe...
|
| I often felt like they were describing me to myself as I was
| reading... Highly recommend if you deal with perpetual
| dissatisfaction with your performance or achievements and would
| like to learn how to accept yourself for who you are and live a
| "lighter" existence.
| teekert wrote:
| Are you linking to another book or is the tile wrong?
| _alexander_ wrote:
| The Inner Game of Tennis
| mmphosis wrote:
| Stolen Focus, by Johann Hari
| the__alchemist wrote:
| I re-read The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson; it represents what
| I love about Sci-Fi: Interesting ideas on the edge of
| plausibility; a speculative society based on their consequences;
| a clever story and setting. Leaves me with a "Could be build
| that?" feeling.
|
| It's inspiring one my current side-projects; a molecular and
| protein modeler/simulation.
| impish9208 wrote:
| Perhaps try The Baroque Cycle next if you haven't already.
| c54 wrote:
| I read Quicksilver and started on The Confusion this year but
| still haven't felt like it's grabbed me. When did it start
| getting more exciting for you?
| powersnail wrote:
| Favorite Technical: _The Pragmatic Programmer_. This is something
| that I should have read much earlier.
|
| Favorite Fiction: _Pale Fire_. Just pure astonishment. Left me
| speechless with how he made the language sing.
|
| Also great (in no particular order):
|
| - _The Sewing Girl 's Tale_ (non-fiction)
|
| - _The Odyssey_ (poem)
|
| - _Tropic of Cancer_ (novel)
|
| - _Tenth of December_ (short story collection).
|
| - _Endurance_ (non-fiction)
|
| - _The Billion Dollar Spy_ (non-fiction)
|
| - _Agent Sonya_ (non-fiction)
|
| - _Agent Running in the Field_ (novel)
|
| - _Little Dorrit_ (novel)
|
| To be honest, I love most of the stuff I read this year. Only a
| handful of books I didn't like enough to read through.
| powerset wrote:
| +1 for Endurance, and if you enjoyed that I also recommend The
| Terror (which is historical fiction but had a similar feel to
| me)
| mariodiana wrote:
| I also recommend _Lost Moon_ (which is sometimes published as
| _Apollo 13_ ). I've joked with people it's the same story,
| except in outer space. If by "story" you mean getting the
| feeling every 20 pages or so of "they are dead now _for
| sure,_ " then it's not really that much of a joke.
|
| I read both of these around the same time and loved them
| both.
| baseballdork wrote:
| I realize this isn't really the intent of the question, but I
| read "The Count of Monte Cristo" this year for the first time and
| it's now my favorite book. It's a classic that I just had never
| bothered with and the story sucked me in. The redemption,
| revenge, scheming, secrecy. It was phenomenal.
| muzaffarpur wrote:
| I reread this book over and over. What a captivating
| masterpiece.
| bmitc wrote:
| It has been a long time since I read it, but it is truly a
| mindbending story. The intricate details and relationships are
| extraordinary, and I am amazed Dumas was able to come up with
| all of it. I remember the pacing being also quite good.
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| I reread it every other year. It's so much fun. It's a shame
| how much the movie adaptations have toned down Dantes. It seems
| like the perfect book for a TV show due to its serial nature
| wpietri wrote:
| Such a delight. And every time I reread it I wonder why the
| serial story (it was published in 18 parts over a year and a
| half) hasn't made a comeback given how desperate sites are for
| eyeballs.
| daltont wrote:
| Very popular suggestion on Reddit. I'm looking to read the an
| unabridged translation.
| coldpie wrote:
| Absolutely one of my favorite books. The unabridged, modern
| (early 2000s, I think) retranslation by Robin Buss is the best
| English version, IMO. It's long, but worth every page.
| vmilner wrote:
| I love it so much. I am sad that the Halas and Batchelor
| animated version I watched as a kid seems to be unobtainable
| :-(
|
| I _strongly_ suggest searching out the modern Robin Buss
| translation (Penguin books sell it in the Uk) rather than the
| public domain version as the text is far clearer and several
| large redactions are replaced.
| ushercakes wrote:
| Meditations - Marcus Aurelius. This year and every year.
|
| It is kind of a stereotype though of tech dudes to be into
| stoicism, but whatever, this book really just puts me in such a
| good frame of mind any time I open it.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| > kind of a stereotype though of tech dudes to be into stoicism
|
| I like this book but completely disagree with your stereotype.
| In fact, I find the tech dude stereotype to lack perspective,
| resort easily to anger and personalization, stew in thought,
| and accuse others for their suffering.
| ambrose2 wrote:
| I think both of you might be right, as my impression of the
| stereotype is more that the tech dude is "into" stoicism, but
| falls short in practice.
| tasuki wrote:
| Welp that's me exactly.
| HEmanZ wrote:
| If you like older wisdom books like this, I'd recommend the
| essays of montaign.
|
| Marcus wrestles with being a man, montaign wrestles with being
| a human.
| tumeo wrote:
| "The Beautiful Tree: a personal journey into how the world's
| poorest people are educating themselves" by James Tooley. It's a
| very interesting book about low-cost private education.
| sixo wrote:
| For some reason "Who We Are and How We Got Here" (David Reich on
| early human history via DNA) was just a delight, to have so many
| open questions be slammed shut.
|
| "The Need to be Whole", from Wendell Berry, is deeply thought-
| provoking in a sort of spiritual-political way, though far too
| long for how much it has to say, and questionable at times.
| dash2 wrote:
| I couldn't finish the Reich book. He knows so much but I
| thought it was very badly written - long sentences winding out
| of control.
| greenie_beans wrote:
| - a collection of lydia davis short stories - 'on earth we're
| briefly gorgeous' by ocean vuong - latest noon magazine - lorca
| poems - 'dirty work' by larry brown
| marcusverus wrote:
| Napoleon by Andrew Roberts. It's one of those rare works of
| history that is both highly informative and a real pleasure to
| read.
|
| It helps that Napoleon lived one of the most extraordinary lives
| in human history.
|
| Key takeaway, in the saucy words of the great man himself:
| "Fortune is a woman. The more she does for me, the more I will
| require of her."
| actinium226 wrote:
| Isaacson's biography of Da Vinci. Beautiful man.
|
| The biography went really deep into his art and pointed out what
| made it so special. As someone who knows nothing about art, this
| gave me a wonderful new perspective both on Da Vinci and on art
| in general.
| hothead334 wrote:
| You might enjoy Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane if you
| enjoyed the Isaacson biography. Fantastic writing and a very
| very interesting man as well as incredible artist.
| ducharmdev wrote:
| The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.
| kevstev wrote:
| An Elegant Puzzle- Systems Engineering Management. The content is
| great, and the design and typsetting are fantastic too. It helped
| formalize a lot of half thoughts I had floating around my head in
| regards to engineering management.
| yboris wrote:
| _Radical Markets_ : Uprooting Capitalism and Democracy for a Just
| Society - by Eric A. Posner and Eric Glen Weyl
|
| https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691177502/ra...
|
| The book recommends radical changes to how we deal with private
| property, voting, immigration, large stock investors, AI stuff,
| and more. It felt like an honest overview of various economic
| policies across the past (pointing out how _radical_ many changes
| were) and a set of reasonable proposals for how to improve our
| currently-broken system.
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