Ask HN: What books are you reading

28 points by yread 15 years ago

What non-programming non-technical books are you folks reading? I'm looking for something interesting to read and I would appreciate your suggestions.

To make it fair I'll start: I just finished reading the Omon Ra that pavlov linked to in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2590980 and Dubliners by James Joyce and I'm currently laughing my way through Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee in the court of King Arthur. I would very much recommend it - its language is surprisingly modern (people are twittering and lolling and you can hear an occasional jabber) an even the satire is modern (poking fun at the patent office!). Besides the Yankee is an engineer so you can sympathize with him.

kaeluka 15 years ago

Just now I'm reading something I wanted to read for a long time: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The next will be Through the Looking Glass, same author. Amongst the last few books I read, I recommend Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Marlen Haushofer - The Wall (although this will be too kafkaesque for some), Fahrenheit 451. I do love Jules Verne as well.

Atlas Shrugged should be known to anyone around here, I guess.. Relating to Atlas Shrugged: Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Both books were very influential to me when I was younger.

noelsequeira 15 years ago

Interesting aside: I'm pretty sure your intention was jest, but lolling isn't as modern a word as the internet generation would have you believe (and has an entirely different meaning).

From the etymology of loll (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=loll):

mid-14c., lollen "to lounge idly, hang loosely," perhaps related to M.Du. lollen "to doze, mumble," or somehow imitative of rocking or swinging. Specifically of the tongue from 1610s.

  • yread 15 years ago

    yes, thank you. I understood more or less what it meant but I have never seen it before and considered it an interesting contrast

tokenadult 15 years ago

I just finished reading the entire Harry Potter series of novels for the first time, as my third son was reading it for the second time. My daughter will finish the series soon.

I also read selected parts of The Good Book: A Humanist Bible

http://www.amazon.com/Good-Book-Humanist-Bible/dp/0802717373...

before I had to return it to the library yesterday. I especially like the section "Proverbs," which I read in full. I was able to find the section that quotes Confucius and Mencius extensively just before I returned the book. It's an interesting concept, but some parts of The Good Book: A Humanist Bible are extremely dull reading.

I am likely to read Quotology

http://www.amazon.com/Quotology-Stages-Willis-Goth-Regier/dp...

next, to learn more about how quotations are traced after being misattributed, a subject I own another book about.

I agree with the OP that A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is well worth reading.

krmmalik 15 years ago

I'm currently reading Meatball Sundae by Seth Godin. It talks about how, just like the industrial revolution did away with the local blacksmith, the new marketing revolution is going to do away with the need to interrupt people through Tv/Radio/Advertising etc.

He also says that as the way to market a business has and is changing, this also means the way companies organise themselves and run has to fundamentally change too. Its a very interesting read.

The second book i am reading is called "Too nice for your own good" by Duke Robinson. It's for people who are either passive/aggressive or not very assertive. I have yet to make a judgment on this one, but it seems ok so far.

Apologies if you were looking for some interesting reading in terms of fiction. I havent read fiction in years.

arethuza 15 years ago

I've just started listening again to the unabridged Audible version of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle - I couldn't get into the book form but the audio book version is great.

Last few Kindle books I've read were:

See No Evil by Bob Baer, the experiences of a CIA case officer in the Middle East (which influenced the movie Syriana).

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis, about the Big Swinging Dicks of Wall Street.

Decline and Fall by Chris Mullin, the diaries of one of the more decent members of the former Labour Government here in the UK.

webgambit 15 years ago

Audiobook: I just finished Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. I highly recommend it if you're into fantasy type novels. It has a unique magic system and is very well written. I've been off and on with War and Peace for a while. Kind of dry so far.

Kindle: The Law by Frederic Bastiat, extremely good book describing the fundamental purpose of law and government.

Dead Tree: Essence of Discrete Mathematics by Neville Dean, seems to be pretty good book, just haven't devoted enough time to reading it.

Toddward 15 years ago

Crazy - I was just about to ask this same question.

My New Years resolution for this year was to read two books a month. I just finished reading "In the Plex" by Steven Levy and I'm starting Stephen Hawking's "A Briefer History of Time." It should take me no time to blow through the latter, so I'm looking for suggestions as for what to read next.

flomincucci 15 years ago

Just finished reading The Loser by Thomas Bernhard. Cruel, repetitive, ironic... effing brilliant. It's about three pianists - one of them it's Glenn Gould, and how meeting him ruined the life of the other two. Currently reading High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. I can't be objetive about him, I simple love it. (The movie is great, also)

eswat 15 years ago

The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson and Linchpin by Seth Godin.

I had started Linchpin first but I’m now focusing on finishing The Primal Blueprint instead. If you like to question Conventional Wisdom and want to take a second look at how modern society has wrongly dictated what we eat, how we work out, etc. then give it a read.

schrototo 15 years ago

The Instructions by Adam Levin. Best book I've read since Infinite Jest (by David Foster Wallace, of course, also highly recommended). The characters, the story, the language, my god the language... It's all utterly fantastic. The last 300 pages had me so thoroughly gripped, I read them in one sitting.

wccrawford 15 years ago

I just finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy. In less than a week. It was really good.

dmc 15 years ago

Currently reading Little Brother by Cory Doctorow - an OK book - and keeping Starting Strength by my side as a reference.

Starting Strength is a great introduction to weightlifting and getting stronger, I highly recommend it.

limmeau 15 years ago

I'm somewhere in Un Lun Dun by China Mieville right now. I cannot recommend his imaginative writing enough. (Un Lun Dun is a children's book in the same way the Potters are children's books).

imjonathanlee 15 years ago

Currently reading: The girl who kicked the hornet's nest

Top Favorites: Count of Monte Cristo, The three musketeers, Sherlock Homes and the Hound of Baskersville, Atlas Shrugged, The Client

Sodaware 15 years ago

Currently reading The Power of Full Engagement (after hearing about it on HN). It's not bad, and has already encouraged me to look at my eating & working habits.

tomfluff 15 years ago

The Religion War - Scott Adams

Really great read though recommend reading God's Debris first for better understanding of the characters

lylejohnson 15 years ago

House of Leaves, by Mark Z. Danielewski. Not sure that I can recommend it, but it's very different from anything else I've read.

  • squidsoup 15 years ago

    Make take on it was that it was a very evocative and unsettling story, marred by too much 'post-modern' noodling.

picardo 15 years ago

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.

http://www.onintelligence.org/

  • Tekhne 15 years ago

    I absolutely 2nd this suggestion! It was really fascinating. There were some dry parts, but mostly I couldn't stop reading (actually, I did the audiobook).

latch 15 years ago

Just started Light by M. John Harrison

The Takeshi Kovacs novels, by Richard Morgan, are next on my list.

jbogan 15 years ago

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

krat0sprakhar 15 years ago

Dot.Con by John Cassidy - How America Lost its Mind and Money In the Internet Era. Highly recommend.

haffi112 15 years ago

I'm currently reading Gödel, Escher, Bach an eternal golden braid. I definitely recommend it.

starter 15 years ago

The Bible: Ecclesiastes - For Humans

Starting From Scratch by Wes Moss - For Entrepreneurs

cb372 15 years ago

I recently read "Reading the OED" by Ammon Shea. Recommended for word nerds.

dablya 15 years ago

Yet another example of a thread where seeing votes would be useful...

ritonlajoie 15 years ago

I just bought the latest Fred Vargas, I highly recommend this author.

sokolski 15 years ago

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

fbnt 15 years ago

Nothing To Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea

szcukg 15 years ago

Game of Thrones....One helluva of a book

dogriffiths 15 years ago

For The Love of Physics - Walter Lewin.

kirpekar 15 years ago

Cutting for Stone -- Abraham Verghese

1reza 15 years ago

The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky

gennaria 15 years ago

The Passage by Justin Cronin

OoTheNigerian 15 years ago

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared M. Diamond (courtesy of a HN recommendation on this kind of thread)

In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy (courtesy PG's tweet and retweets of that tweet).

I am now loving my kindle because I can switch between books easily without the accompanying load

ujjvala 15 years ago

Atlas Shrugged.

zackattack 15 years ago

The Biology of Transcendence

not sure if that counts as technical or not ;)