[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?
I mostly read newspapers and technical journals, but two books that
I read that made an impression: "The Changing World Order" and "The
Gulag Archipelago".
Author : kwar13
Score : 116 points
Date : 2025-12-26 12:55 UTC (10 hours ago)
| cjmcqueen wrote:
| Lots of news and articles, but also "The Craft", a history of
| Freemason's by John Dickie, was one of the more interesting
| books.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| Frankenstein. Superb science fiction, very readable even though
| written 200 years ago. And Wuthering Heights, which strangely
| like Frankenstein, has a complex narrative structure and an
| unhinged, obsessive central character
| spudlyo wrote:
| I read it this year too. I was surprised by the amount of
| heartfelt soliloquising the monster did, he was much more
| compelling than I expected. Victor of course was the real
| monster in the story, self obsessed, not taking responsibility
| for his actions, I found myself actively rooting against him.
| pm3003 wrote:
| - Emperor of Rome by Mary Beard, very entertaining.
|
| - Lolita, it's mostly what you've read about it.
|
| - a few short stories by Heinrich von Kleist.
| cmiles74 wrote:
| I mostly read fiction but I made time for a couple of nonfiction
| books this year. On the fiction side I really enjoyed "Luminous"
| and "When We Where Real".
|
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminous_(novel)
|
| - https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/When-We-Were-Real/Dar...
|
| On the nonfiction side, I can recommend "Careless People" and
| "Apple in China".
|
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Careless_People
|
| - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_in_China
| neuralkoi wrote:
| "Apple in China" was pretty good! I can second that one. If you
| haven't checked it out, "Chip War" is also pretty good and
| along the same style. I'm reading it right now.
| metadope wrote:
| I was surprised by how much I enjoyed _Careless People_. The
| unexpected peek into the author 's personal childhood and
| family ethos was really interesting. The look at Facebook from
| within was a cautionary tale.
|
| I also liked _I Am Not Your Enemy_ by Reality Winner.
| jeremyscanvic wrote:
| I read Sad Tiger by Neige Sinno. Really unsettling but definitely
| worth reading.
| troymc wrote:
| One of my favourite reads from this past year was _Infinite
| Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe_ by
| Steven Strogatz. It 's a wonderful review of the history of
| calculus, including intuitive explanations of the basics.
| anovikov wrote:
| History of the Franks, by Gregory of Tours
| paganel wrote:
| For those interested in the subject (and who can also read
| French) I also heartily recommend the most recent edition of
| Augustin Thierry's _Recits des temps merovingiens_ [1]. Of
| course that it has most probably long been surpassed when it
| comes to historic accuracy, after all it was written almost 200
| years ago, but it is very interesting nonetheless for being one
| of the first books that really put the focus on the
| Merovingians from a historical perspective that was
| "scientific", for lack of a better word.
|
| [1] https://www.fnac.com/a21142694/Thierry-Augustin-Recits-
| des-t...
| coderatlarge wrote:
| if you do read french, proust's "in search of lost time" (vol
| 1) is a lot more accessible and enjoyable than my high school
| teachers made it sound years and years ago. it even contains
| a depiction of what a learned engineer should be like.
| kretaceous wrote:
| Getting into reading again this year after a long break.
|
| The most memorable read of this year was "The Count of Monte
| Cristo" (1846) by Alexander Dumas .
|
| It's one of the greatest stories ever told. It's ~1250 pages but
| I sped through it in 3 weeks even if I'm a slow reader.
|
| Highly recommended!
|
| I also read The Stranger by Camus and the two top Orwells which
| lived up to the hype.
| motoboi wrote:
| The Count of Monte Cristo was published in serial form. Daily
| from 1844 to 1846.
|
| That explains a lot the format, which tended to try to retain
| the audience.
|
| Also, the author wrote in advance of the daily publication, but
| the book was written "live", answering to public perception and
| response. This is a reason why the book is so "good": the
| author had the chance to adjust the story based on data from
| sales and feedback from readers.
|
| Of course Dumas was a great writer too, but this live writing,
| data based is probably why the book resonates so well with
| audiences.
|
| So, as a joke, if you read count of monte cristo in 3 weeks,
| you did the equivalent of bing reading it.
|
| This happens with soap operas too. 10 years ago, they lasted 1
| year. They had an initial structure, the story, the characters,
| but responded in "real-time" to audience feedback.
|
| For those willing to read the book, give yourself some time.
| Try to read it over a course of some years. Read a little, come
| back to it.
|
| There are several famous books written in the same form, like
| Crime and Punishment or The Three Musketeers.
|
| Oh, and also authors got payed by installment, so that explains
| the lenght lol
| BloondAndDoom wrote:
| Loved the stranger, I read it for the first time this year too.
| I read plenty of sub culture (mostly modern; Irvine welsh etc)
| but the stranger was just so different than anything I've ever
| read. Like the language is so olan yet it works so well, and
| then you have this great finish, it's a weird masterpiece.
| DJBunnies wrote:
| Very much enjoyed the Hyperion Cantos series by Dan Simmons.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| Spoilers, but the excerpt posted here [0] of Aenea was one of
| my favorite scenes from Hyperion Cantos. "Choose again" as a
| gentle reminder to reevaluate our beliefs and structures, and
| to really choose, not just go along with whatever. You can
| always choose again.
|
| [0] https://raccaldin36.livejournal.com/1849917.html
| liamconnell wrote:
| I read the second two books this year and was unfortunately
| disappointed.
|
| First two were so fun but I think I got hung up on some of the
| more clumsy stylistic parts of the Endymion books. I guess my
| "trust" in the author comes from the style and tropes they use,
| and if I they lose my trust none of the deeper parts resonate.
| Glad you enjoyed!
| oleggromov wrote:
| Me too. It's phenomenal, especially the first book and the
| pilgrims' stories. Such a moving mix of religious mystics,
| science fiction and the dreaded AI. The second one builds up
| the tension and the last 2... are good.
| eunoia wrote:
| Read the first two this year. Absolutely incredible and now
| some of my all time favorite sci-fi.
| flopsamjetsam wrote:
| I have read the first one many times. Such a great read, will
| have to tackle the rest of the series next year.
| kneel25 wrote:
| I got really into Hemingway's work, reading all the best ones,
| but my favourite being 'A moveable feast' his diary essentially
| released at the end of his life set when he was mid-twenties in
| 1920s Paris. Me being the same age, I was inspired enough to go
| there and retrace some of his steps.
| nickcw wrote:
| My favourite SF book this year was "Translation State" by Ann
| Leckie. It is set in the Imperial Radch world so having read the
| Ancillary trilogy is useful but not essential.
|
| I like it because it contains the strangest aliens (the Presger)
| that I have come across. They are as far from humans in costumes
| as you could get. What the Presger do (and their proxies in the
| Human world the Translators) is totally unguessable.
|
| A fabulous hard SF read and a must if you read the Ancillary
| trilogy.
| subdavis wrote:
| I enjoyed Translation State so much. It thought that Leckie got
| lost in the depths of Octavia Butler's extra weird shit (and
| Xenogensis) and cross bred it with the political novel style of
| the Ancillary trilogy, and the result was _chefs kiss_.
|
| I feel comfortable recommending it even if you haven't read any
| other Leckie.
|
| Edit: if you haven't read the Bloodchild anthology by Butler,
| give it a read. Some of the short stories will seem very
| familiar after Translation State, especially the alien parts.
| asplake wrote:
| I enjoyed it too, but I was already a big fan of the Imperial
| Radch series. Does it work standalone also?
|
| Edit: just to add that the audiobook is really well narrated
| elric wrote:
| I can warmly recommend anything written by Leckie. Her scifi is
| great. But her attempt at fantasy (The Raven Tower) is also
| most excellent.
| elcapithanos wrote:
| My favourite by far was Adam Becker's More Everything Forever.
|
| Special mention also goes to Taming Silicon Valley by Gary
| Marcus.
| ThouYS wrote:
| I got deep into the stormlight archive by brandon sanderson.
| great escapism!
| alex-moon wrote:
| The History of Medieval Europe by Maurice Keen
|
| Reality is Not What it Seems by Carlo Rovelli
|
| The Brain: The Story of You by David Eagleman
|
| I had a crack at reading the first Game of Thrones novel (I think
| it's just called A Game of Thrones) but my brain seems to be in
| non-fiction mode at the moment. I think I'm drawn to a kind of
| sweet spot halfway between "related to my everyday experience"
| and "removed from my everyday experience" - not sure I could read
| about programming or business at the moment, though I also
| haven't tried.
| kyleblarson wrote:
| I reread The Secret History by Donna Tartt for the umpteenth time
| and it is still wonderful.
| arvid-lind wrote:
| Not enough. Going to try to rein in some sustained attention in
| the new year.
|
| - Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
|
| - Playground by Richard Powers
|
| - Designing Data Intensive Applications by Martin Kleppman
|
| I'm curious how much AI-generated stuff I read this year...
| likely at least a book's worth, but it would be more like one of
| those books with 365+ random deep dives into stuff that's not
| really relevant to my life.
| aabiji wrote:
| The most interesting books I read this year were:
|
| Acting class - I found this book surprisingly compelling. It made
| me reflect on my own search for connection and identity, and how
| easily it is to be misled and manipulated when you've got no one
| close.
|
| Earthlings - The book's plot gets really horrific (don't let the
| cover fool you). However, it did make me think about social norms
| and taboos a little differently.
|
| 1984 - It was my first time reading the book, and man, looking
| around and seeing bits and pieces of the surveillance mentioned
| in the book in real life is kind of terrifying...
|
| Grapes of Wrath - It's definitely the most heart-wrenching book
| I've ever read. Watching the Joad family get absolutely
| devastated by the monster that is unchecked capitalism is so sad
| :(
|
| Skunk works - Really good book on the development of Lockheed's
| stealth planes. However, I did wish I got more technical details.
|
| I would love to see some more book recommendations :)
| nmora wrote:
| I read a decent amount of books but the ones that stood out are:
|
| - Anatomy of the State (Murray N. Rothbard)
|
| - Diaspora (Greg Egan)
|
| - The Freeze-Frame Revolution (Peter Watts)
| Mossy9 wrote:
| Humble Bundle has spoiled me and my ebook library has grown by
| around a 100 books this year...
|
| Tech book recommendations: 'Secure by Design', 'Designing Data-
| Intensive Applications', 'Building Secure and Reliable Systems'
| and 'Fundamentals of Software Architecture'.
|
| For scifi: 'Murderbot Diaries' and 'The Expanse' - both are just
| great entertainment
| kwar13 wrote:
| I actually have a large backlog of books I got on HB. Time to
| go through it
| kristopolous wrote:
| I was actually writing, been doing it full time for months. I've
| spent probably over 1,000 hours ...
|
| Not trying to make any money, just feel compelled to do this.
|
| A fiction story about how personal computers have dismantled
| society over 40 years... it takes place in 1983 and involves a
| vulnerable opportunistic time traveler who's getting more than he
| bargained for.
|
| Here's some quotes to give you a feel:
|
| "The smartphone is the electrical stunner in the slaughterhouse
| of society"
|
| "You'll be able to access any TV or radio station in real time,
| around the world, talk to people overseas in high resolution
| video with live translations for free and be bored by it"
|
| "In the future the hermetic spaces of solitude will be breached
| as we build a global village. The private will become public and,
| ironically, the public will become private as the streets empty
| of experiences taken indoors, inside of bedrooms, beneath our
| screens of glowing grace."
|
| It's intentionally meant to be ambitious, brutal and challenging.
| And hopefully insight will materialize from the dust of forgotten
| dreams.
|
| If you are interested in reading it, just hit me up
| criddell wrote:
| I gave Marcus Aurelius' Meditations a go and gave up around half
| way. Maybe if I knew the historical context it would seem more
| profound?
|
| I enjoyed Three Body Problem a lot more than I thought I would.
| That was probably the best book I read in 2025.
| vtomole wrote:
| Which version did you read? I read this one:
| https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Penguin-Classics-
| Hardcove..., which provides a lot of context. Here are my
| thoughts on it: https://vtomole.com/blog/2025/12/14/aurelius
| criddell wrote:
| The Gregory Hays book.
| bencornia wrote:
| I also read Meditations this year. Definitely not what I was
| expecting. It's not cohesive at all. My biggest takeaways were
| the inevitability of death and generally letting go of our
| sense of control.
| elric wrote:
| Expecting it to be "cohesive" seems like an odd thing,
| considering it's literally a bunch of musings & meditations
| which were taken from a man's private journal.
|
| I've found many of the individual musings to be quite
| interesting. In particular the ones that relate to perception
| (my own biggest pitfall).
| shmoe wrote:
| Did you read the rest of the 3 body problem books? Some of the
| best scifi i've read in a looong time for sure.
| primaprashant wrote:
| Started making side projects as a developer this year and hope to
| start working on my own products full-time from next year. Two
| books I found useful for positioning the product:
|
| - Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
| (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45166937-obviously-aweso...)
|
| - Building a StoryBrand by Donald Miller
| (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210137279-building-a-sto...)
| kwar13 wrote:
| Tx. I've been building a lot of projects as well. These seem
| interesting!
| GrahamL wrote:
| This is so funny. I've read both these books and absolutely
| loved Obviously Awesome and could not stand StoryBrand.
|
| Wrote reviews on both Obviously Awesome[0] and StoryBrand[1]
| for anyone interested.
|
| [0] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5369411790 [1]
| https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5686301930
| rochansinha wrote:
| How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg
|
| Bhagvad Gita by Eknath Easwaran
|
| Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
|
| How The World Really Works by Vaclav Smil
|
| The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee
|
| The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
|
| Chaos by James Gleick
|
| Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive #5) by Brandon Sanderson
|
| The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by
| Daniel Coyle
|
| The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
| flopsamjetsam wrote:
| > Chaos by James Gleick
|
| I read this quite a while ago, and can't remember it at all.
| What did you think of it?
|
| > The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
|
| Loved this when I was a kid.
| bronco21016 wrote:
| Early in the year I picked up "Dark Wire" by Joseph Cox. It was a
| fascinating dive into the world of "secure phones", particularly
| a company called Anom.
|
| I also read:
|
| "Digital Fortress" - Dan Brown (not strictly technically
| plausible but the suspense kept me hooked) "Never Enough" -
| Andrew Wilkinson (meh)
|
| Currently working on: "The Technological Republic" - Andrew Karp
| "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" - Martin Kleppmann
|
| I had a tendency of a lot of false starts on books this year. I
| picked up several recent LLM/AI books and would make it like a
| chapter before realizing it was mostly just AI generated slop and
| gave up.
| dbuxton wrote:
| Loved "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" by Herman Wouk
| - middlebrow from the 70s but no less good for that.
|
| Re-read "The Art of Not Being Governed" by James C Scott which is
| really mind-expanding stuff.
| vtomole wrote:
| Turns out, a lot of Plato this year. See https://vtomole.com/ for
| the list.
| neuralkoi wrote:
| How to Think Like Socrates - I normally have a difficult time
| digesting philosophy in older translations or language, but this
| one was really nicely written and well communicated.
|
| Water by Rumi (translated by Haleh Liza Gafori) - also
| unexpectedly good. She uses a modern style and it reads so
| beautifully. It gave me glimpse of the beauty of the Persian
| language.
| sestep wrote:
| For fiction I read a lot of Brandon Sanderson: the second
| Mistborn series, plus a few of the Secret Projects. I quite liked
| _Tress of the Emerald Sea_. Also currently reading R. F. Kuang 's
| _Katabasis_ which I 'm really enjoying so far.
|
| For nonfiction, I found Amanda Ripley's _High Conflict_ to be
| excellent and insightful. I also finally got around to reading
| _The Selfish Gene_ by Richard Dawkins; I expected it to be fine,
| but it far exceeded my expectations! On top of that, the edition
| I read also had "end notes" interspersed throughout the book
| with retrospectives from decades later, which only added to the
| book's richness.
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| I reread "The Screwtape Letters" by CS Lewis for the first time
| since high school and appreciated it even more. Although it's
| written from a Christian point of view, the principles are
| applicable to any moral framework.
| joewhale wrote:
| Would you be open to sharing more? I'm a Christian, and I'd
| love to hear from your perspective.
| haensi wrote:
| I'm a Christian as well and spent a day in Oxford earlier
| this year. After spending some time at Magdalen College, I
| bought every book I could by C.S. Lewis and just finished
| Letters to Malcolm (on prayer) today.
|
| His refreshingly honest take is very relatable, humorous and
| encouraging.
|
| I can highly recommend it if you're interested in prayer life
| (and how to use powerful formulations in letters)
| mindcrime wrote:
| My goal for the year was 15 books. I've finished 14 so far and
| should finish #15 in the next couple of days if all goes well.
| Here's what I've read (it's a mix of fiction and non-fiction) in
| reverse order by completion date:
|
| _Nash Falls_ - David Baldacci
|
| _Exit Strategy_ - Lee Child & Andrew Child
|
| _Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry_ -
| Marvin Minsky & Seymour Papert
|
| _We are Legion (We are Bob)_ - Dennis Taylor
|
| _Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the
| Microstructure of Cognition: Volume 1: Foundations_ - David
| Rumelhart & Jay McClelland
|
| _Semantic Information Processing_ - Marvin Minsky
|
| _Associative Engines: Connectionism, Concepts, and
| Representational Change_ - Andy Clark
|
| _Associative Networks: The Representation and Use of Knowledge
| of Computers_ - Nicholas Findler
|
| _The Analogical Mind: Perspectives from Cognitive Science_ -
| Dedre Gentner, Keith J. Holyoak, Boicho N. Kokinov (eds)
|
| _Similarity and Analogical Reasoning_ - Stella Vosniadou (ed)
|
| _Never Flinch_ - Stephen King
|
| _The Bad Weather Friend_ - Dean Koontz
|
| _Kluge: The Haphazard Construction of the Human Mind_ - Gary
| Marcus
|
| _After Death_ - Dean Koontz
|
| The 15th book that I hope to finish will be:
|
| _Principles of Semantic Networks_ - John F. Sowa (ed)
| Cub3 wrote:
| The bobiverse books are fantastic, would suggest continuing the
| series as it gets even better
| chistev wrote:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46384109
| fogus wrote:
| Technical followed by non-technical. I read more than these, but
| these are the highlights.
|
| Mouse, a Language for Microcomputers by Peter Grogono - Mouse is
| basically an esolang with barely any abstraction facilities, but
| the book was well-written and the language compelling enough to
| explore further.
|
| Notes on Distance Dialing (pdf) by AT&T - Described the telephone
| systems of the USA and Canada in the mid-1950s. The reading is a
| dry as it gets, but it was a fascinating dive into a vastly
| complex system solving extremely hard problems. This is a must-
| read for folks interested in systems-thinking. That said, I am
| actively looking for recommendations for books about the process
| of designing and building the unbelievably complex telephony
| system over the rudiments of the earlier systems. Recommendations
| welcomed!
|
| The Eye of Osiris by R. Austin Freeman - This is the first book
| that I've read from Freeman and I suspect that I will read many
| more in the future. The story follows the disappearance of John
| Bellingham, Egyptologist and the subsequent investigation. As the
| investigation stalls, the eminent Dr. Thorndyke digs into the
| case. The story sets up the mystery nicely and indeed provides
| enough information to the reader to infer how the disappearance
| occurred and who or what facilitated it. The book is one of the
| best whodunits that I've ever read.
|
| The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens - His final work
| remains unfinished as he passed away before he could complete it.
| Further complicating the meta-story is that he also didn't
| outline the ending nor even put to paper the "villain" of the
| story. The meta-mystery of the ending has motivated a mountain of
| speculation around the ending including dozens of continuations
| of the story from other authors, all deriving their pet endings
| from textual hints, accounts from Dickens' friends, illustration
| notes, and even in some cases seances supposedly accompanied by
| the spirit of Dickens himself. What was written by Dickens is
| spectacular and a compelling mystery and although it would be
| great to know the resolution, in some ways the "Droodiana" that
| has cropped up over the past 150+ years is reason enough for it
| to remain a mystery. The whole lore around Edwin Drood is a
| worthwhile hobby in itself and well-worth exploring. The Chiltern
| Library edition of the book contains the story and a good bit of
| the lore around the writing and the meta-works available at the
| time of its publication.
|
| The Shadow People by Margaret St. Clair - Sadly out of print and
| difficult to find, but I've had it on my shelves for decades and
| finally got around to reading it. The book came onto my radar in
| the 1980s when I learned about it in the appendix-n of the 1st
| edition Advanced D&D Dungeon Masters Guide. I enjoyed many of the
| books at the time and have slowly swung around to re-reading them
| over the past few years. Sadly, most on the list do not stand the
| test of time for me, but St. Clair's mixture of 60s counter-
| cultural leanings in a fantasy/sf world still works. The cultural
| touch-points in the book feel quite dated, but despite the
| occasional awkwardness, the story is unique even today.
|
| Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner - The book started as a
| passable novel of manners focused on a turn of the century
| British middle-class family. The titular character was mostly
| background decoration for the first third of the novel and AFAIR
| was talked about only in the third-person. It's only when she
| made the choice to move out on her own to the country in her
| middle age does she gain a central role in the narrative and her
| inner thoughts revealed. This is where things really pick up
| because I was shocked to learn that this unassuming woman's inner
| thoughts had a delicious darkness to them. I don't want to give
| away too much, but I'll just say that you will not expect how the
| story ends.
|
| Patience by Daniel Clowes - A profound graphic novel using time-
| travel to explore the idea of enduring love with a story that
| proceed through time, following Jack as he tries to alter the
| past and save the woman he loves. This well-known science fiction
| motif is elevated by Clowes' signature psychological complexity.
|
| Narcissus and Goldmund by Herman Hesse - I've read most of the
| books by Hermann Hesse but this one escaped my attention until
| this year. The story follows the parallel lives of a monk
| Narcissus and his passionate friend Goldmund as they respectively
| search for meaning in life through spiritual means and through
| pleasures of the flesh.
|
| We Who Are About To... by Joanna Russ - A small group of
| astronauts crash land on a hostile alien world and quickly
| realize that rescue is unlikely to come. Many SF stories have
| started this way and so the expectation is that this is a
| colonization story... but Russ thrives on subverting reader
| expectations.
|
| Fifty Forgotten Records by R.B. Russell - Another lovely entry in
| Russell's series (one can hope) of autobiographical explorations
| of art, so far covering literature and now music. This book
| describes 50 records of varying popularity and Russell's personal
| connections to each. While I certainly enjoyed finding a dozen or
| so new albums to explore, the true triumph of the book lies in
| the vulnerable, reflective memoir threaded throughout.
|
| The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler A novel that follows
| 4-generations of the Ponitifex family, with a particular
| bildungsroman-esque thread around Ernest, a young man who's
| naivete leads to his downfall and how his life unfolds
| thereafter.
|
| I wrote about these (and more) at
| https://blog.fogus.me/2025/12/23/the-best-things-and-stuff-o...
| jayflaherty wrote:
| Check out:
|
| Introduction to Telephones and Telephone Systems (3rd Ed.) by
| A. Michael Noll: A great system-level overview covering
| instruments, transmission media, switching, and signaling.
|
| Understanding Telephone Electronics by Carr, Winder, & Bigelow:
| Focuses on the electronic components and workings of telephone
| systems.
| homarp wrote:
| The Shadow People:
| https://archive.org/details/bwb_P8-AVK-513/page/n4/mode/1up
| me_jumper wrote:
| Started rereading Pratchett's discworld novels. Gosh I love his
| writing.
| TheAceOfHearts wrote:
| I read The Buddha: Biography of a Myth, by Donald S. Lopez after
| hearing him on Conversations With Tyler. That's probably my top
| non-fiction book this year. Key takeaway was that the history of
| Buddhism is incredibly deep. Two highlights: First, the Buddha
| said that minor rules could be disregarded after his passing, but
| the person that was informed of this forgot to ask for
| clarification of what rules were minor, so there's debate over
| which rules must be followed. Second, the Buddha left us because
| nobody asked him to stay. This second point makes me reflect on
| the importance of reminding people that they are valued.
|
| I also read The Red Book, Reader's Edition, by Carl Jung. I'm
| still processing that one. The artwork in the book is
| breathtaking and I strongly suggest looking it up even if you
| only look at the art. Narratively, it feels a bit like rambling
| at times. I'd previously read Archetypes and the Collective
| Unconscious, and Aion, and felt like those had a bit more
| intelligible substance. The first few chapters of Aion are
| excellent, but then Jung just goes on for like a dozen chapters
| about fish symbolism which completely lost me.
|
| I also read a few other books on occult and esoteric topics, but
| my thoughts on those books are more complex than what I'm willing
| to type out on mobile. Key takeaway from a book on Wiccan
| Witchcraft was that they also believe in a system of
| reincarnation. I'm interested in reading through some of the core
| texts of Chinese Mythology at some point, but there aren't any
| good audiobook recordings for some of them.
|
| I'm sad to say that I made very little progress in getting
| through proper college level textbooks, but I'm working through
| Molecular Biology of the Cell.
| andystep wrote:
| Not a huge book reader, but this year two impressed me:
|
| - Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich by Norman Ohler
|
| - The Elephant in the Brain by Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson
| Brajeshwar wrote:
| I stopped reading newspapers long back (early 2010s). During the
| Pandemic, I started a newspaper subscription (very common in
| India, delivered to the home) so I can use it to segregate wet
| waste properly. I started reading bits and pieces:
| horrors/misfortunes sell; news is stale, etc. Of late, I decided
| to look at it from a different angle, bringing back my childhood
| nostalgia, when I devoured every piece of reading material I
| could find. Now, I pick the ones I want to read, marking them as
| a reminder of continuity, a small bridge to a past life. I'm
| going to continue this slow reading with Newspapers. Wrote an
| article about my feelings, scheduled to be published on my
| personal blog in 2026-JAN.
|
| For books, this year has been the year with the fewest books
| read.[1] I ended up reading the past: John Keats's Poems, Marcus
| Aurelius, The Great Gatsby, Odyssey, and Iliad by Homer.
|
| As a habit and a tribute to something I liked in the past, I read
| Dan Brown's latest, "The Secret of Secrets." I also started re-
| reading some of Sidney Sheldon's books, but, as of this day, I
| could no longer summon the enthusiasm to continue beyond Master
| of the Game and The Sands of Time.
|
| I also re-read the fantastic book, "Flatland: A Romance of Many
| Dimensions"[2] by Edwin Abbott Abbott.
|
| 1. https://brajeshwar.com/2025/books/
|
| 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland
| Scarblac wrote:
| I was suffering from a burnout for much of the year and read
| mostly to relax. Reread a bunch of Discworld and read most of the
| Expanse series for the first time. Some Murakami. The Conway
| biography ("Genius At Play"), also a reread because it's fun.
|
| But "The Dream Machine: JCR Licklider and the Revolution That
| Made Computing Personal", often recommended om HN, was amazing.
| It has _so much_ of the history of how personal computers came to
| be, and so much that was new to me.
| subdavis wrote:
| Pachinko by Min Jin Lee stuck with me more than anything else I
| read this year. It is a work of simple beauty.
|
| It's a story of several generations of poor Korean women who
| eventually immigrate to Japan. The front half of the book is
| wonderfully paced to spend time with the characters. The back
| half can feel a bit rushed, but it becomes more of a page turner.
|
| The Cold Millions by Jess Walter is another period novel about
| union organizing in the Pacific Northwest around the turn of the
| century, and follows two brothers. The depth of research makes
| this book wonderfully vibrant.
| BhavdeepSethi wrote:
| Pachinko has been one of my favorite reads for a long time. If
| you enjoyed that, you'll also like Green Bone Saga by Fonda
| Lee.
| ketzu wrote:
| Technically last year, but less than 365 days ago:
|
| * The Mom Test
|
| * The SAAS Playbook
|
| Actually in this year, the ones I remember the most:
|
| * Start Small, Stay Small
|
| * From Yao To Mao (more a series of lectures on chinese history)
|
| The most recent one I haven't finished yet but was surprised I
| liked:
|
| * Software Engeineering at Google
|
| Many more things described ring true or feel desireable, and I
| recognize too many of the anti-patterns from companies I worked
| for. Although, I also recognized the good things people were
| doing and started to appreciate them more.
| kwar13 wrote:
| I've heard a lot of good things about "The Mom Test". It's the
| next one I read.
| ketzu wrote:
| I really enjoyed it and it helped me spot some unhelpful
| questions even outside startups!
| card_zero wrote:
| I read Murder Must Advertise, by Dorothy L Sayers. Quote:
|
| All over London the lights flickered in and out, calling on the
| public to save its body and purse: SOPO SAVES SCRUBBING--NUTRAX
| FOR NERVES--CRUNCHLETS ARE CRISPER--EAT PIPER PARRITCH--DRINK
| POMPAYNE--ONE WHOOSH AND IT'S CLEAN--OH, BOY! IT'S TOMBOY TOFFEE
| --NOURISH NERVES WITH NUTRAX--FARLEY'S FOOTWEAR TAKES YOU FURTHER
| --IT ISN'T DEAR, IT'S DARLING--DARLING'S FOR HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES
| --MAKE ALL SAFE WITH SANFECT--WHIFFLETS FASCINATE. The presses,
| thundering and growling, ground out the same appeals by the
| million: ASK YOUR GROCER--ASK YOUR DOCTOR--ASK THE MAN WHO'S
| TRIED IT--MOTHERS! GIVE IT TO YOUR CHILDREN--HOUSEWIVES! SAVE
| MONEY--HUSBANDS! INSURE YOUR LIVES--WOMEN! DO YOU REALIZE?--DON'T
| SAY SOAP, SAY SOPO! Whatever you're doing, stop it and do
| something else! Whatever you're buying, pause and buy something
| different! Be hectored into health and prosperity! Never let up!
| Never go to sleep! Never be satisfied. If once you are satisfied,
| all our wheels will run down. Keep going--and if you can't, Try
| Nutrax for Nerves!
|
| Intriguingly familiar cynicism, vintage 1933.
| davedx wrote:
| I stumbled upon some great reddit posts this year with reading
| suggestions, and compiled my own "humanity is fucked" themed
| reading list, which included:
|
| * Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey
|
| * The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
|
| * Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
|
| * Dawn by Octavia Butler
|
| I then diverged from this list (I have more) to re-read (though
| it's not such a great divergence):
|
| * If This Is a Man / The Truce by Primo Levi
|
| Other books I enjoyed reading this year in no particular order:
|
| * Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
|
| * Machine Vendetta by Alastair Reynolds
|
| * Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds
|
| * Aurora Rising by Alastair Reynolds
|
| * Shadow of the Silk Road by Colin Thubron (loved this)
|
| * The Lord of the Rings (the god knows how many times re-read)
|
| * The Centauri Device by M. John Harrison
|
| * Future's Edge by Gareth Powell
|
| * Blueshift by Joshua Dalzelle
|
| * The Heart of a Continent by Francis Younghusband (I didn't
| quite manage to finish it, but it was a fascinating read
| nonetheless)
| reedlaw wrote:
| I'm on my fourth George Eliot novel this year, Adam Bede, which
| was her first published novel. I started with Middlemarch and
| proceeded to read Silas Mariner, Romola, and Daniel Deronda. The
| 1985 film adaptation of Silas Marner is very good and faithful to
| the novel. The 1970 Daniel Deronda film is similarly faithful and
| well-acted but the 2002 version is neither.
| easywood wrote:
| A few years ago I promised myself to read the top of "must reads"
| from world literature. Many of them were literally unreadable
| (hello Moby Dick). But some of them are true gems, must-reads
| indeed. I just finished "The Grapes of Wrath" and holy cow, this
| is an impressive piece of literature. And unfortunately, more
| relevant than ever. Why not give science fiction a break and try
| this classic instead.
| liamconnell wrote:
| Neither are on-brand for hacker news but:
|
| [Best fiction] Stoner - John Williams [Best non-fiction] Say
| Nothing - Patrick Radden Keefe
| nowandlater wrote:
| After reading Primo Levi's "The Drowned and the Saved", I went on
| a binge of his earlier works: "If This Is a Man", "The Truce",
| "If not now, when?". All great, but I keep coming back to "The
| Drowned and the Saved"; it's hard to put my finger on it, but
| it's a book that provides more meaning about life than anything
| I've ever read.
| nika1975 wrote:
| I really enjoyed The Technological Republic by Alexander C. Karp
| and Nicholas W. Zamiska. It's sharp, opinionated, and unusually
| concrete about how state capacity, technology, and institutional
| competence intersect in practice. Even if you don't agree with
| all of it, it's a book that forces clearer thinking about power,
| technology, and governance.
| bwb wrote:
| My 3 favorites were:
|
| Dungeon Crawler Carl - I laughed, I cried, perfect match for my
| sense of humor.
|
| The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter - Great read, changed some
| of my training because of it.
|
| Fall of Giants by Ken Follett (#1 of The Century Trilogy series)
| - An amazing overview of the 20th century through the eyes of
| several families accross the globe (fiction).
| wannabebarista wrote:
| I mostly read non-fiction and technical articles.
|
| My favorite book this year was "Differential Privacy" (2025) by
| Simson Garfinkel. Differential privacy is a mathematical theory
| of data privacy sandwiched between cryptography, databases, and
| ML. This is the first book-length non-technical introduction, and
| it's well executed.
|
| Here's my full book list for the year:
| https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2025/.
| jebarker wrote:
| My top reads this year:
|
| - How to Tame a Fox - great popsci history of a genetics
| experiment
|
| - "The Sixth Extinction" and "Not the end of the world" -
| compelling but contrasting takes on climate change
|
| - Through Two Doors at Once - posci history of the double slit
| experiment
|
| - Alvarez: Adventures of a Physicist - Luis Alvarez should get
| just as much attention as Feynman does IMO!
|
| - A Matter of Death and Life - the last book I read this year
| that was touching and made me remember what's really important in
| life
| shinycode wrote:
| SciFi books : old's man war of John scalzi and Hail Mary of Andy
| Weird, great books
| Pooge wrote:
| "Endure" which I highly recommend to anyone ever slightly
| interested in human performance.
|
| "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson. Beautiful world-building
| as always.
|
| And some others that I can't remember but those two were the
| highlights of the year.
| code-blooded wrote:
| My favorite reads of the year:
|
| - _Futu.re_ by Dmitry Glukhovsky (author of Metro 2033 series).
| Interesting take of how life would look like if humans became
| immortal.
|
| - _Blackout_ by Marc Elsberg. A semi-realistic depiction of a
| 2-week long blackout in Europe caused by a terrorist attack.
|
| - _Millenium trilogy_ by Stieg Larson. Murder mystery in Sweden.
| Really enjoyed the setting.
| dandano wrote:
| The Will of the Many. An epic high fantasy adventure. I'm just
| about to finish the second book in the series - The Strength of
| the Few. I haven't gasped this many times reading a book in
| while.
| wirtzdan wrote:
| I'm half way down The Strength of the Few.
|
| Always looking forward to read the next chapter.
| dandano wrote:
| Same here! I'm on the final 200 pages. It's going to painful
| waiting so long for the third in the series. I went straight
| from book 1 to 2 with no wait thankfully.
| sedeki wrote:
| I read "Pyramid Principle, The: Logic in Writing and Thinking" by
| Barbara Minto. Highly recommend it.
| jppope wrote:
| Ted Chang, Bunch Books on Roman Architecture, "You, me, and
| Ulysses S. Grant", Raving Fans (for work), 3 body Problem, Not
| the end of the world, Anti-fragile (3rd time), Transformed (for
| work, it was trash), Harry Potter (in Spanish), and some other
| things I can't think of off the top of my head.
| toddwprice wrote:
| Nexus by Yuval Harari is one of the most influential books I've
| read.
| branon wrote:
| The Gulag Archipelago is on my shelf, when I rotate back to
| Russian authors (big fan of Dostoevsky, Nabokov, Bulgakov) I will
| hopefully get to it.
|
| Here's my log for 2025, most recent at the top. Currently I am
| slogging my way through Heinlein's "The Number of the Beast"
| which I'm not a fan of. Halfway done with it though!
|
| Gabrielle Zevin, "The Hole We're In" (not my usual genre, enjoyed
| this though)
|
| Robert A. Heinlein, "Stranger in a Strange Land" (pretty good)
|
| Robert A. Heinlein, "Time Enough for Love" (PHENOMENAL, highly
| recommended)
|
| Robert A. Heinlein, "Methuselah's Children" (pretty good,
| required to understand "Time Enough for Love")
|
| Richard K. Morgan, "Altered Carbon" (very good)
|
| Robert A. Heinlein, "The Rolling Stones" (young adult, but good
| all the same)
|
| Robert A. Heinlein, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" (very good)
|
| Piers Anthony, "On A Pale Horse" (very good, never got very far
| into the series though)
|
| Lincoln Child, "Full Wolf Moon" (okay, not great)
|
| Lincoln Child, "The Forgotten Room" (pretty good)
|
| Lincoln Child, "The Third Gate" (very good)
|
| Lincoln Child, "Terminal Freeze" (okay, not great)
|
| William Gibson, "In the Beginning... Was the Command Line" (good,
| but outdated, look up what he's said about it more recently)
|
| Lincoln Child, "Deep Storm" (very good)
|
| James Patterson, "Along Came a Spider" (not my usual genre, okay
| though)
|
| Jules Verne, "Around the World in 80 Days" (from childhood,
| revisited)
| chickensong wrote:
| > William Gibson, "In the Beginning... Was the Command Line"
| (good, but outdated, look up what he's said about it more
| recently)
|
| That's Neal Stephenson, not William Gibson.
| alexashka wrote:
| I re-read Plato's The Republic.
|
| It's a must read for 0.001% of the population.
| whartung wrote:
| I don't read much any more. Mostly magazine articles.
|
| I did re-read "The Long Run" from Daniel Keys Moran (one of the
| very short list of books I've re-read, and this was #4 or #5).
|
| "Were you taught to hate Peaceforcers?" "Taught? No."
|
| The only new book that I read was "Heat 2" by Michael Mann and
| Meg Gardiner.
|
| It was "ok". It honestly felt like a mashup of "Heat", "Miami
| Vice", and "Blackhat". So, not as fresh as I would have liked.
| (Mind, I really like all of those movies.)
|
| I'll see the movie when it comes out, but the book was just "ok".
| brokegrammer wrote:
| Demian by Hermann Hesse. I wanted to scream "Stop overthinking!"
| to the protagonist. Something I can relate to.
|
| Siddharta by Hermann Hesse. Helped me understand that a perfect
| life is a collection of ups and downs and that one must accept it
| all.
|
| Amerika by Franz Kafka. Could relate to the protagonist because
| people take advantage of his naivety.
|
| Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Made me see the world in a less
| pessimistic way.
| dkdcio wrote:
| my most interesting reading this year has been Stafford Beer
| (Brain Of The Firm, Heart Of The Enterprise). fascinating person
| and books
|
| I've otherwise been largely re-reading books I haven't read in a
| decade or so
| EddieB wrote:
| I've been working through more Dostoyevsky- currently ending the
| year reading The Brothers Karamazov (Constance Garnett
| translation).
|
| It's topping The Idiot for me- and a fitting way to end the year.
| I have spent most of 2025 stuck in a 19th Century reading cycle
| which started when reading Murakamis "After the quake" short
| story collection, specifically Super-Frog saves Tokyo where he
| mentions Anna K.
|
| Anna Karenina-> Crime and Punishment-> The Idiot and some various
| Kafka in the mix too.
|
| Hoping to visit some modern stuff again next year
| adamors wrote:
| If you are looking for some modern stuff that would go nicely
| with Dostoyevsky/Kafka, I can warmly recommend Krasznahorkai,
| especially his first book, Satantango.
|
| Really well written and well structured novel, and although he
| uses long sentences and no paragraph breaks, the writing is
| surprisingly accessible and incredibly immersive.
|
| It was my first fiction book in a long time and it made me love
| fiction again.
| EddieB wrote:
| Thank you adamors, I'll be sure to give Satantango a go next-
| I've been struggling to find a modern substitute for the
| Russian classics and haven't been able to put my finger on
| why- there is a quality to it that keeps me engrossed.
| imzadi wrote:
| I'm on my about 10th re-read of Dungeon Crawler Carl. I also
| reread the Murderbot Diaries.
|
| Some new listens that I liked:
|
| * Blood Over Brighthaven
|
| * Fleabag: A Monster Evolution LitRPG
|
| * Flybot
|
| * The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
|
| * Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil
| romulobribeiro wrote:
| I've listened to Project Hail Mary, even though the story is not
| that much complex and is predictable at times, the audiobook
| experience is the best I've had, I have been looking at similar
| audiobooks but couldn't find any
| shmoe wrote:
| Can't wait for the movie man.. first my bump, bro!
| brightball wrote:
| You should check out the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.
|
| The audiobook for the most recent one released and immediately
| became the best selling audiobook in the world. The talent of
| Jeff Hayes and Soundbooth Theater have ruined other audiobooks
| for me.
| moughxyz wrote:
| The Matter With Things by Iain McGilchrist
|
| Completely rewired how I view language, consciousness, and
| matter.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matter_with_Things
| shmoe wrote:
| The Silo series by Hugh Howey -- some excellent sci-fi to go
| along with the show
|
| The Red Rising series by Pierce Brown -- lots of sci-fi fun,
| extremely epic
|
| The Dark Tower series by Stephen King -- King's "Lord of the
| Rings" opus, great writing, ending maybe a little unsatisfying
| but not abnormal
|
| Artemis - Andy Weir's first book -- Fun read about a heist on the
| moon. Anticipating Project Hail Mary movie early next year!
|
| Currently in the middle of: The Talisman - Stephen King / Peter
| Straub
| MezzoDelCammin wrote:
| Fiction (shortlist):
|
| -Some Desperate Glory (Emily Tesh)
|
| -A Memory called Empire (Arkady Martin) both of these are a
| fairly interesting take on scifi worldbuilding. Could be called
| "highbrow", but IMO pretty easy reads still.
|
| -Piranesi (S. Clark) - well written fantasy and plenty of other
| stuff that I've seen in other comments (Dungeon Crawler Carl does
| stand out a bit, but it's really a guilty pleasure / escape kind
| of a read).
|
| Non-Fiction
|
| -Brakneck (Dan Wang) - slightly outdated (by ~2y, which seems
| really breakneck), but still interesting take on modern China
|
| -Capitalism (Sven Beckert) - still halfway through this one, but
| it's shaping up to be my #1 for 2025 non fiction
|
| -The Origins of Efficiency - from B. Potter, the author of
| Construction Physics blog. The blog is fairly information dense,
| but this basically reads like a textbook. Still a pretty good
| reference IMO for people working in manufacturing.
| dyukqu wrote:
| # Catch-22 (by Joseph Heller) - had been seeing it mentioned on
| HN (and other sites) for years, I finally read it and it was one
| the best novels I've ever read.
|
| # The Universe and Dr. Einstein (by Lincoln Barnett) -
| recommended for anyone who is interested about Einstein's thought
| process that gave birth to two great theories.
|
| # What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (by Haruki
| Murakami) - it's my first book from H. M. and I really liked it.
| It's kind of a memoir and made me like Murakami and now I plan to
| read his novels too.
|
| # How to Build a Car (by Adrian Newey) - that famous F1 car
| designer... Great read. Gives readers a chance to glimpse into
| both (technical) thought process behind designing a race car and
| human side of it.
|
| # Basic Mathematics (by Serge Lang) - not *reading* exactly,
| working through it (to brush the rust off of my math
| fundamentals).
| josephb wrote:
| I loved this recent "Show HN", I found some gems for the reading
| list in 2026!
|
| Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46345897
| 3n4n wrote:
| I already forgot what I read for my work (MS in CS), so I'll
| stick with fiction.
|
| This year was slow for me reading-wise. Not a whole lot:
|
| - The Blind Owl / Sadegh Hedayat - Prince of Annwn (Mabinogion
| Tetralogy #1) - Norse Mythology / Gaiman: read it before
| accusations came out - Brief Interviews with Hideous Men / David
| F Wallace - A Connecticut Yankee ... / Mark Twain (not yet
| finished)
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| The Burnout Society - Byung-Chul Han
|
| The Disappearance of Rituals - Byung-Chul Han
|
| Outlive - Peter Attia (This felt like a complete waste of
| attention)
|
| An Emotional Education - School of Life/Alain de Botton
|
| The Story of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
|
| Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Hayao Miyazaki
|
| Plants from Test Tubes - Lydiane Kyte; John Kleyn; Holly
| Scoggins; Mark Bridgen
|
| Some biography I've forgotten
| elric wrote:
| What did you think of The Disappearance of Rituals? It's been
| on my radar, but I've already got a big pile of books waiting
| to be read.
| kashyapc wrote:
| My top book of the year:
|
| _Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times_ , Alan Walker
|
| A riveting read by a legendary musicologist and biographer.
| Walker spent about ten years researching this. It is 700 pages,
| which seems daunting but he makes this authoritative bio
| absolutely enjoyable. It's also a "corrective biography", it
| dispels a lot of myths. This book is one of the best examples of
| accessible writing with flair. What a writer!
|
| Throughout the book, Walker tastefully quotes musical phrases (in
| notation) from Chopin's works to situate them in context. I often
| paused reading and put on the track on a given page (nocturnes,
| mazurkas, preludes, etc). It made the reading experience
| incredibly rich and fun. Other things I enjoyed: Chopin's letters
| to his friends and family, life in aristocratic salons of Paris,
| London, Warsaw, and more--Chopin had unparalleled access. Of
| course, there's also a lot of gut-wrenching stuff. As the book's
| blurb says, it really _is_ for both the casual music lover and
| the professional pianist.
|
| If you haven't discovered them yet, give a listen to Chopin's
| nocturnes. But please, give them an attentive listen and play
| them on a high-quality audio system. Here[1] is one of his finest
| nocturnes (it is less famous than the "happier" nocturne that
| follows it, Op. 9 No. 2).
|
| [1] _Nocturne in B-flat minor, Op. 9 No. 1_ :
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThMGf07UBHQ
| stringtoint wrote:
| Work related: The Culture Map - can strongly recommend! Non-work:
| the Alex Rider series. Both entertaining and serious when it
| needs to be without being super grim.
| testdelacc1 wrote:
| _A Gentleman in Moscow_ by Amor Towles blew me away by the
| quality of the writing, the endearing characters and the charming
| setting. I'm glad I picked it up and I strongly recommend it to
| you.
|
| I haven't been reading much in the last couple of years and I
| credit this book for getting me back in the game.
| kryptn wrote:
| Lots of scifi.
|
| Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance, and Absolution of Jeff
| VanderMeer's Southern Reach series.
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/112239-southern-reach
|
| Reread books 1-4 of Dennis E Taylor's Bobiverse series to read #5
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse
|
| John Scalzi's Interdependency Series
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/202297-the-interdependency
|
| Basically all of the Culture Series by Iain M Banks
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/49118-culture
|
| Of Peter F Hamilton:
|
| - The Salvation Sequence series
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/242882-salvation-sequence
|
| - The Void Series, a sequel-trilogy to the Commonwealth Universe
| series https://www.goodreads.com/series/43520-void
|
| Of Alastair Reynolds:
|
| - Pushing Ice
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48991704-pushing-ice
|
| - Eversion https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60097716-eversion
|
| Of Adrian Tchaikovsky:
|
| - Shroud https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/230237860-shroud
|
| - Elder Race https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56815367-elder-
| race
|
| - Alien Clay https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/199851460-alien-
| clay
|
| - Going through The Final Architecture now
| https://www.goodreads.com/series/305076-the-final-architectu...
|
| Also Upgrade, by Blake Crouch
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59439117-upgrade
|
| Also First, by Randy Brown
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/196399619-first
| elric wrote:
| Fiction: some more novels in Steven Erikson & Ian C Esslemont's
| Malazan Empire universe. These two produce some of the best
| fantasy I've ever read, and I've read a fuckton.
|
| Non-fiction: A System for Writing by Bob Doto was pretty good.
| Also gave Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal a chance, but
| found it to be uninspiring, self-aggrandising drivel.
| peacefulnerd wrote:
| I RSS read all day about solid state batteries, which recently
| are in power banks. Hope to hear about folding MicroLED phones on
| www.microled-info.com But they will start out too expensive.
|
| Because abusive parents false arrested/committed me without a
| trial as manic for buying a Linux (they can barely use apple)
| computer and RockBox music player. I spent much time gathering
| these quotes https://antipsychiatry.yay.boo/
| VierScar wrote:
| What are the quotes? I don't understand, some of them are just
| a single word like "Art", "Autoimmune", "Cartoons"; or
| innocuous phrases with no context.
|
| What am I supposed to understand from this?
| phtrivier wrote:
| I started the year with "Right thing, right now", and I'm ending
| it with "wisdom takes work" (R.Holiday), but I'm happy to say
| that I'm now a bit "tired" of re-reading the same rehashing of
| other people's book, and I want to read the original ones. Which,
| actually, is the pont.
|
| I wanted to read classics, and devoured "The portrait of Dorian
| Gray" (O.Wilde), where maybe 50% of all the "as O.Wilde said..."
| quotes seem to come from (uttered by a single, incredibly
| obnoxious character.)
|
| I challenged myself to read "Les Miserables" (V.Hugo), and
| actually managed to get two tomes out of five down. Eminently
| quotable, heavily skippable - why on earth spend half a time on
| describing the ins and out of Waterloo, except to show off ? -
| and, surprisingly, at times, _funny_.
|
| The bio of Pierre Mendes France (J.Lacouture) was very much
| topical, given the mess in Franch politics. We had more PMs in
| one year than in a few chapters of the book. It's very weird to
| read that, at some point, some politicians were "liked" by the
| people - but lost power anyway.
|
| A small Edouard Phillipe book called "Men who read" almost made
| me like the guy - his next book is more serious and expected. It
| pains me to think that our next election is going to be about
| "well read people who disappointed everyone" vs "popular jocks
| with no education who will end up disappointing everyone".
|
| "Abundance" (E.Klein / D.Thompson) is an attempt from "well read
| people" to at least try and understand why everyone is
| disappointed and prefer the jocks. I don't think they included
| any solution in their book, though - maybe they save it for the
| sequel, or for E.Klein's presidential bid.
|
| I want to read all Stripe press - if only, because the covers
| rock, and they're optimistic. Started with "Poor Charlie's
| Almanach" (C.Munger), which a disappointing rehash of the same
| funny speech seven times. (Tldr : be multidisciplinary, study
| cognitive biases, don't trade). In the middle of "The Origins of
| Efficiency " (Potter)
|
| "The Wave" (Souleymane) was not optimistic. And not practical at
| all - sure, AI enabled drones carrying bioweapons will suck. "The
| Age of predators" (G. Da Empoli) reminds us that the AI enabled
| bioweapons carrying drones will come from an illiberal state
| enabled by billionaires from Silicon Valley, and Russian trolls.
| I wish someone told me where to go to avoid being targeted too
| early.
|
| "Everything is tuberculosis" (J. Greene) reminded me of a time
| when scientists were trying to solve problems as opposed to
| creating brand new ones - but at least the next generations won't
| die of boredom.
|
| "We, programmers" is a rehash of Uncle Bob's pre talks "history
| of programming". I loved the long and detailed parts about
| G.Hopper. He ends with a (failed) attempt to convince that
| programmers will still be needed in the age of AI.
|
| Steve Yegge's "Vibe coding" goes full "resistance is futile"
| about programming with agents, and, interestingly, ends up
| talking more about TDD than Uncle Bob - but the words
| "electricity consumption" and "climate impact" are not utured,
| because, why spoil the fun.
|
| "The Common LISP cookbook" tried to explain me the difference
| between ASDF, quicklisp and whatnot - 2025 was the closest year I
| ever go to actually writing something in LISP instead of reading
| books about it.
|
| And also, "The baby is a mammal" (M.Odent) and "Becoming a dad
| for dummies", because this year was probably the last one we're
| I'll get so much time to read :)
| billwashere wrote:
| Completed books:
|
| Project Hail Marry by Andy Weir
|
| Dungeon Crawler Carl (Books 1-7) by Matt Dinniman
|
| I'm currently reading:
|
| Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost
| Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams
| flopsamjetsam wrote:
| > Project Hail Marry by Andy Weir
|
| The only Andy Weir book I've read. Loved it.
| kylecazar wrote:
| Albert Camus -- _The Plague, The Fall, Exile and the Kingdom, and
| Selected Essays_
|
| I'll pick the one(s) I read most recently. Camus and his
| absurdism resonate with me. His writing is simple and precise,
| but his ideas are big. Some of these essays were rereads, but I
| gained something new, as I have more life experience to integrate
| with the subject matter.
|
| If you ever find yourself wondering what the point of effort and
| progress is given the realities of life, you may enjoy his work.
| I suspect there are some of his (and peers Sartre and de
| Beauvoir) readers floating around here on HN.
| rmnclmnt wrote:
| My highlights were the Edward Ashton books << Mickey7 >> and <<
| Antimatter Blues >> (sequel to the first).
|
| Haven't seen the movie adaptation yet but the books are such
| delightful dark humor SF, loved them
| lawgimenez wrote:
| Almost done with Genghis Khan and the making of the modern world
| by Jack Weatherford, I really enjoyed it. If someone can
| recommend other updated, history reads about empires, world
| history etc.
| amunozo wrote:
| Oh, I read that some years ago. I am not sure if it's very
| similar, but I can recommend Debt by David Graeber. It is an
| economic history of the world that deals with the use of credit
| and bullion in different societies during history.
|
| Another book I enjoyed this year is The Golden Road by William
| Dalrymple. It explains the crucial cultural, economical, and
| religious influence that India had in Eurasia before and during
| the middle ages. This one is more similar to Genghis Khan and
| the making of the modern world, I believe.
| lawgimenez wrote:
| Thanks for the recommendations, will check them out!
| brightball wrote:
| - Dungeon Crawler Carl series (and audiobooks)
|
| - ShapeUp
|
| - Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success
| rossdavidh wrote:
| "The Gentle Grafter" by Henry, O.
|
| "Blight: Fungi and the Coming Pandemic" by Monosson, Emily
| "Options" by Henry, O.
|
| "Population Fluctuations in Rodents" by Krebs, Charles J.
|
| "In Search of the Old Ones: An Odyssey among Ancient Trees" by
| Fredericks, Anthony D.
|
| "The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024, edited" by
| McKibben, Bill
|
| "The English Abbey: Its Life and Work in the Middle Ages" by
| Crossley, Fred H.
|
| "The Stereoscope in Ophthalmology" by Wells, David Washburn
|
| "Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps - Why Nature's Maligned
| Predators and Pollinators are Essential to Planetary Health" by
| Sumner, Seirian
|
| "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" by Jacobs, Jane
| <--- best book I read this year
|
| "The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural
| World" by Kimmerer, Robin Wall
|
| "Making Useful Things Of Wood" by Gottshall, Franklin H.
|
| "States of Disorder, Ecosystems of Governance: Complexity Theory
| Applied to UN Statebuilding in the DRC and South Sudan" by Day,
| Adam
|
| "Migration Mysteries: Adventures, Disasters, and Epiphanies in a
| Life with Birds" by Rappole, John H.
| amunozo wrote:
| Crime and Punishment from Dostoevsky is the book I enjoyed the
| most this year. I don't read much fiction but this is the novel I
| enjoyed the most in my life. I love how it deals with human
| thoughts and psyche. I would encourage anyone to read it.
| benlivengood wrote:
| I finally got around to reading Wheel of Time. It didn't quite
| take the whole year but a few solid months. If I had tried
| spreading it out over a longer period I wouldn't have been able
| to remember the overall plot or characters, I think.
| mellosouls wrote:
| My notable find this year was an author who will serve for me as
| a successor to le Carre as a reliable source of thoughtful spy
| fiction and I have a backlog of his work to look forward to, but
| the first for me was:
|
| The Crocodile Hunter by Gerald Seymour
|
| An elderly MI5 also-ran contemptuously tagged "the eternal flame"
| by his bumptious young colleagues shows doggedness, courage and
| unexpected depth as he pursues a dangerous ISIS returnee planning
| an attack on British soil. Unusual and riveting.
| flopsamjetsam wrote:
| Dune: re-read the first time since I was a teenager. Mostly to
| compare my memory of it against the films.
|
| Foundation and Second Foundation: for much the same reason.
|
| Both very enjoyable reads, but quite different from the modern
| interpretations.
|
| "How Life Works: a users guide to the new biology" by Phillip
| Ball. Really extended my understanding of where biology is now.
| otsaloma wrote:
| My favorite of the year would be Maxim Gorky's three-part
| autobiography: I read "Childhood" and "In the World" (a.k.a.
| "Amid Attendants") and just started the last part "My
| Universities". Gorky drifted as an orphan from house and job to
| another and describes an interesting array of characters he came
| across, mostly poor and misfortunate, but many of them good as
| well.
|
| "He took me under the arms, lifted me up, kissed me, and placed
| me firmly on the jetty. I was sorry for him and for myself. I
| could hardly keep from crying when I saw him returning to the
| steamer, pushing aside the porters, looking so large, heavy,
| solitary. So many times since then I have met people like him,
| kind, lonely, cut off from the lives of other people."
| ropable wrote:
| The best non-fiction book I read in 2025 was "The Fabric of
| Civilization" by Virginia Postrel. It was completely fascinating,
| and made a good argument that the production of cloth/textiles
| might by one on the most import core developments that allowed
| modern, organised society to arise.
|
| Highly recommended.
| agentultra wrote:
| Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky.
|
| The Peripheral by William Gibson.
|
| Enshittification by Cory Doctorow.
| ktallett wrote:
| The Dream Factory and a lot of quantum photonics papers.
| Kerrick wrote:
| Cal Newport, _So Good They Can 't Ignore You_. This book
| convinced me to stop widening my skillset by beginning again, and
| start doubling down on my strengths.
|
| Gene Kim et al., _The Phoenix Project_. This book reinvigorated
| my love for management, which I lost in 2021-2022. I 'm still an
| IC, but I decided to stop refusing management roles.
|
| Kent Beck, _Extreme Programming Explained, 2nd Edition_. This
| book lit a fire under my ass to figure out better ways of
| working. I followed it up with the next one in a book club at
| work.
|
| James Shore et al., The Art of Agile Software Development, 2nd
| Edition _. This book gave me hope that a productive, humanist,
| productivity-oriented workflow can work in today 's software
| world. I read it with my teammates in a book club at work,
| including the software engineers, QA tester, product owners, and
| UX designer. Unfortunately the rest of my team had little
| interest in putting it into place where I work.
|
| Robert C. Martin, _Clean Architecture _. This book was a
| delightful read. Uncle Bob weaved practical advice together with
| stories from his past that served both to illustrate his points
| and to entertain. While I don 't agree with _every* word in the
| book (e.g. Screaming Architecture), I still recommend it to every
| Senior+ Software Engineer.
|
| Eric Evans, _Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the
| Heart of Software_. Aside from its amazing content, this book has
| some of the best typesetting I 've ever seen. I sought out a font
| that is a match (or near-match) and reverse-engineered the letter
| spacing, line height, heading font sizes, etc. Its content was
| great too, but I was glad to have read Vaughn Vernon's _DDDD_
| first.
|
| Vaughn Vernon, _Domain-Driven Design Distilled_. This book
| followed up Shore 's work in our book club at work. Everybody on
| the team really liked what they read, but nobody felt like they
| had actionable insights. So the engineers went on to read
| Vernon's _Implementing DDD_ , and the non-engineers read Adzic's
| _IM_ and Patton 's _USM_.
|
| Vaughn Vernon, _Implementing Domain-Driven Design_. I read this
| book with a book club at work. While Evans 's work was well-
| grounded in theory and left a lot of interpretation in the
| patterns behind DDD, Vernon is a practical, nuts-and-bolts DIY
| guide to one approach to DDD. Luckily, these tactics resonated
| with my team and our codebase has seen marked improvements in the
| past few months. I'm looking forward to our process catching up
| so we can do more than "DDD Lite."
|
| Jeff Patton, _User Story Mapping_. This book was fun, practical,
| and completely outside any way I 'd ever worked. It also helped
| me understand exactly why I've failed every time I tried to make
| my own SaaS startup on nights and weekends.
|
| Gojko Adzic, _Impact Mapping_. This book was basically a
| pamphlet. The process seems...good? But since I 'm no longer in a
| role with the influence or authority to recommend product
| direction, I doubt I'll get much use out of this for a while.
|
| Tanya Reilly, _The Staff Engineer 's Path_. This book wants to
| follow in the footsteps of Camille Fournier's _The Manager 's
| Path_, but it seemed less specific and useful as a roadmap.
| Perhaps that's because of how different "Staff Engineer" is from
| company to company, at least when compared to the roles covered
| by Fournier. But it did help me earn my promotion _to_ Staff
| Engineer, so it was clearly worth reading.
|
| Tamar Rosier, _Your Brain 's Not Broken_. This book was the
| second I read after I got diagnosed with adult ADHD. I
| appreciated that it helped me de-stigmatize, because I harbored
| some bummer feelings when I realized _no actually I didn 't grow
| out of it_. It also helped me reflect on my habits of action, and
| see them in a new light. I was surprised to see how much of my
| anger and frustration in life was a coping mechanism to help me
| get things done. I've had a much calmer life since recognizing
| that.
|
| Austin Kleon's trilogy: _Steal Like An Artist_ , _Show Your Work_
| , _Keep Going_. These books were cute, full of incredibly
| quotable passages, and fun to read. I didn 't spend enough time
| on them, though. A lot of the lessons I thought I'd learned left
| my brain like water through a sieve.
|
| Kent Beck, _Tidy First?_. This book helped me understand the
| economics of software through a new light. That was important to
| me, because during the time I spent as a Director of Software
| Engineering I was not given a budget and asked to manage the
| department 's expenses.
|
| Antonio Cangiano, _Technical Blogging, 2nd Edition_. This book
| convinced me to start a blog. It was going really well, and then
| I shrank back from it due to fear of vulnerability. Since I got
| over those fears and started blogging again, it 's been a lot of
| fun again. I incorporated what would've been tweets into the blog
| (as "quick posts") in addition to my longer-form, less-ephemeral
| content (as "articles"). Writing has been a great way to solidify
| what I've learned and distill my opinions. Heck, I should migrate
| this comment to my blog.
|
| I also read other books (especially on my journey to becoming a
| magician), but these were the ones I thought Hacker News might be
| most interested in.
| cons0le wrote:
| Water margin
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-12-26 23:00 UTC)