Is there a book, paper, report or article etc. that really stood out?
I spent the past year reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I’m on the last push of the final(seventh) book
It was my first dip into any King books and I’m equal parsers impressed and exhausted with his writing style.
I always assumed he was a horror writer, but after chugging through the series this year I’m excited to dig into his other works(after a short break for sure)
It’s difficult to describe but I found so many parallels between this story and my life that it was eerie to read at times. On top of that, the descriptors he uses in his writing are fascinating. At times the story, especially early on, was confusing and even now, have more questions than answers.
I’d like to take a few years and then come back to the saga and give it another shot.
Until then, if anyone has recommendations on the next books (non-horror please) to dig into, please send them my way!
Ukridge by PG Wodehouse. I hadn't really ventured out the Blandings/Jeeves/Psmith collections that much. Ukridge may be the funniest book I've ever read. He's also featured in another book 'Love Among the Chickens' - absolutely hilarious.
If you like these, you should try the Uncle Fred books. Of course almost everything by Wodehouse is a sublime masterpiece.
I am so glad to read this comment. Wodehouse is sublime in all what he wrote - if you end up reading Jeeves series, I would recommend Right Ho, Jeeves and Code of Woosters
I finally read Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged) Fully worth the hype.
Also read a lot of Arabian fantasy (?). Fantasy with djinn etc. Favourites were Master of Djinn and the City of Brass series.
I put The Hunchback of Notre-Dame in that category, a pleasure to read from front to back. The association with work made it take me decades to get to some of the books assigned for class in high school, like these. A few were so good that I tried to read Anna Karenina again. Maybe in a few decades more I'll like that one too.
I read Hunchback of Notre Dame around 20 years ago. The ending is until today the only book ever to make me cry. Don't remember much else, probably a good time to pick it up again.
I'm still reading it, but the book Material World by Ed Conway has been very informative and enjoyable to read. It's a book that I've been looking for for a long time. It explores how different common natural resources are intertwined with one another and their role in our every day lives. It also contains a lot of details about the processes and economics related to their extraction and how they are turned into usable forms.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/what-is-entropy-a-measure-of-...
I recently read this and was blown away by the way entropy was re-introduced to me.
Crafting Intepreters, by Robert Nystrom.
I didn't realise how simple it can be to design a simple programming language. I'm having a lot of fun doing it.
I finally read the Attack on Titan manga this year. It was incredible and not at all what I was expecting from the trailers.
Lots of unexpected twists to the story, a steady pace of reveals of interesting mysteries, and it seems the entire story was planned out from the start, with things set up at the very beginning that receive a payoff much later.
I also read and really appreciated the Witch Hat Atelier manga. It's kind of like a Harry Potter-style story but with a hard magic system like Brandon Sanderson (once you know it you can look at a picture of the spell and be able to guess what it's supposed to do... also there's a lot of modularity in the system so it feels a bit like programming with functions at times, building up more complex and creative spells from the synthesis of smaller ones).
A lot of the story in the manga seems to be setting up these interesting moral quandaries about how and how much should you help less fortunate people when you have the power/ability/knowledge to do so, but there are restrictions to what you should do and good reasons for those restrictions, and how can you work around those restrictions and still feel good about yourself and feel like you've done enough (even when you know you could be doing more)?
Also should those restrictions be in place in the first place, or are those restrictions ultimately doing more harm than good, and did those who put those restrictions in place do it with good or ill intentions?
It's still ongoing, and probably only about halfway through so far, but it was a really interesting read that I'll definitely go back to just so I can ponder its messages again and again. It also doesn't have an anime yet but it has to be getting one sometime soon, it's too good and the art in the manga is too pretty not to get one.
I'm also about halfway through 20th Century Boys manga and that's a really clever mystery about some sinister things happening in modern day juxtaposed with the protagonist's childhood, and what in his childhood might somehow be related to what's going on in the modern day.
I went in totally blind (just having heard it's really good) and have really enjoyed discovering the secrets of the mysteries (and there's still plenty more to be revealed). It's got a different character art style than most manga as well, and it's pretty refreshing (characters have defined lips, it's weird at first but refreshingly different).
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„Understanding Deep Learning” by Simon Prince
Among all ML books, it’s a really good overview of many concepts connected one to another and spelled out in easy to grasp way
Also „Designing Machine Learning Systems” by Chip Huyen looks really promising and very hands-on (lessons learned by very committed practitioner). It gives actionable tips and provides real life insights. I haven’t finished reading it yet though
The 3-body problem trilogy (Rememberance of the Earth's past). My first sci-fi novels ever - the Netflix show sold me and these novels compelled me on a whole new hard sci-fi rabbit hole.
Presumed Innocent (preceeded by the Apple TV show of same name). Murder mystery. Loved it.
Tie-in novels from videogame franchise:
- Deus Ex: Black Light
- Devil May Cry: before the nightmare
I've also started Marvel Comics in anticipation of Fantastic Four and the whole Secret Wars storyline it will build up.
Couldn't finish a single non-fiction this year, but enjoyable so far:
- Zero to One
- When I say no, I feel guilty
- Designing data-intensive applications
I really liked "The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder". It's very well researched and pieced together from conflicting accounts.
After I was finished I decided to look up the author and found out he wrote "Killers of the Flower Moon" and "The Lost City of Z", both of which I really enjoyed! If you like books like Endurance, Unbroken, or A Land So Strange, you'll dig this one.
Someone here in HN wrote that he/she read all of Jack Reacher’ 20 books, I’m doing the same and now I just read 2 of its books in a week.
It’s a light read, something to get your mind of coding.
I was unexpectedly blown away by a post-apocalyptic book called Wool by Hugh Howey, the first one of the Silo trilogy. Hard to say what did it exactly, just the overall combination of plot, storytelling and pacing. I read (or rather listen to) a lot of fiction and sci-fi specifically, and can't recall the last time I was this much into a book. About to start the second one, and also looking forward to the TV series based on it.
Huh. Maybe I should try it again. I read a lot (https://3e.org/books/) and I found Wool to be so execrably awful I couldn't get last the first 100 pages. Like literally some of the worst writing I'd ever seen.
After you finish the Silo series, if you're wishing for more, there are some short stories in the same universe in an anthology Hugh Howey edited:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apocalypse_Triptych
I generally prefer long-form fiction, but very much enjoyed most of the stories in the Triptych books, and they led me to other, similar authors whose work I also enjoy.
Awesome, thank you for the suggestion!
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann.
When worlds were conquered through brute force and wooden ships, it is crazy to imagine how pivotal vitamin C was.
I looked at this book several times last year, but I couldn't get past how hard Barnes and Noble were pushing it!
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
These are really fun, I’m on the fourth book now.
Highly recommend the series as well! Very fun to read
"Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty" by Daron Acemoglu
Do nations fail primarily for economic reasons?
When the level of exploitation by those on top becomes too extreme, that's what does it?
Does that adequately explain other factors like disease, religion, natural disaster, incompetence, corruption, conquest and civil war?
yes, author does explain multiple factors, which impacts a nation's success. Such as institutions, culture, politics, historical events, vicious or virtuous cycles. Etc. It's good book overall.
Feynman Lectures on Physics books. It might just be the right timing for me as I've only recently really started to grasp calculus and linear algebra, but a lot of things are clicking into place as I read.
You might like Infinite Powers (Steven Strogatz) and Faraday, Maxwell, and The Electromagnetic Field (Nancy Forbes)
one day im gonna read them. iv read "excuse me, Mr Feynman" aproximately 5 times and its one of my favourite books ever.
An interesting watch on Richard Feynman: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42276170
Turns out he never wrote any books in his life, so merry Christmas everyone, you’ve all read all books written by Feynman. The video puts a pretty convincing argument that most of the stories about him are made up dinner-table entertainment and didn’t happen.
I want to earn enough money to never (have to) work again, so I can lay in the garden and read all his lectures
"A life of ease is a difficult pursuit."
-- William Cowper
It's between Adrian Tchaikovsky's Children of Time and Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary.
"Drinking Molotov Cocktails with Gandhi" by Mark Boyle. It widened my perspective on the systemic violence of our society. Few books really change my perspective, but this one did.
Related:
Ask HN: What were the best books you read this year?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42268570
Ask HN: Best non-fiction book you read in 2024?
Doppelganger by one of the smartest people alive today, Naomi Klein. I don't know how I'd even begin to summarize it, but it cooled a lot of the existential dread I'd been feeling lately about the direction of Western society. might do the same for you if you're in a similar boat.
Right/Wrong by Juan Enriquez
Very interesting outlook on the ethics of the near future. Gave me a great (new) perspective on many issues.
https://www.amazon.com/Right-Wrong-Technology-Transforms-Eth...
I did Recursion, Upgrade and Dark Matter by Blake Crouch and they were all really fun easy reads. Highly recommended.
"Death of a Racehorse"
By W.C. Heinz
The New York Sun
July 29, 1949
Very short, very good. Sorry to ruin your Christmas, wait until tomorrow to read it.
Fun books:
o the follet valley mysteries by Ian Moore. (Fun crime procedural, with the protagonist being a rather ineffectual unemployed film studies lecturer in france , and a cast of domineering supporting actors)
o Uruly by David Mitchell (A "rollock" through early english monarchy, pointing out the luck, or lack of it, of all the kings and queens)
It's by the better-known-as-an-actor David Mitchell. There's another David Mitchell, whose main profession is author, he must be annoyed that the actor is writing books now..
Unruly would make my list too, thoroughly enjoyable.
Wisdom’s Workshop (2016) by James Axtell is a history of the American research university from Medieval times to the present. It's worth reading for anyone in academia or grad school in the US.
Each year, I put together lists of the books and articles that I found most interesting. Here's my book list for 2024: https://bcmullins.github.io/interesting-books-2024/
I'm still cranking out my list of articles.
I read: Computer Systems: A programmer's perspective. Been a good read, but some chapters contain very dense knowledge. Might have to read again.
Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens
I did very much enjoy this. Its a fun book, and an even funner-er-er audiobook
The Gervais Principle by Venkatesh Rao
I did Not understand my work Environment anymore but this blogpost perfectly explained it
https://nextjs.org/docs (ㆆ _ ㆆ)
I work on these docs – thank you!
Fiction: Sword of Kaigen M.L. Wang
Non-Fiction: The Will to Changs Bell Hooks
For me, it's a tie between the Murderbot Diaries, and the print editions of Dungeon Crawler Carl.
It's been a long time since I just read for pleasure, and I totally forgot what I was missing.
The Dungeon Crawler Carl books are great!
I discovered them by accident, and they're one of my favorite series this far.
Frank Ramsey by Cheryl Misak. Kid only lived till 26 and changed the disciplines of Philosophy, Mathematics, and Economics. Ludwig Wittgenstein was reported to have said Ramsey was his only contemporary.
Here's an interesting BBC radio program [0] from 1978 on Ramsey. I came across this years ago and felt inspired to go into research. Of course, this program is a bit out of date and doesn't touch on his pragmatist turn much at all!
Two weeks ago I found John Maynard Keynes's 1951 volume Essays in Biography at Calico Books in Ventura (bookhounds like myself enjoy provenance details like that). He knew Ramsay personally, and one of the essays in the book is dedicated to him. I especially enjoyed the following passage by Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson that Keynes quotes. Dickinson wrote this about Ramsay and also about C P Sanger, an older man who died about the same time:
It does not become a Cambridge man to claim too much for his university, nor am I much tempted to do so. But there is, I think, a certain type, rare, like all good things, which seems associated in some peculiar way with my alma mater. I am thinking of men like Leslie Stephen (the original of Meredith's Vernon Whitford), like Henry Sidgwick, like Maitland, like one who died but the other day with all his promise unfulfilled. It is a type unworldly without being saintly, unambitious without being inactive, warmhearted without being sentimental. Through good report and ill such men work on, following the light of truth as they see it; able to be sceptical without being paralyzed; content to know what is knowable and to reserve judgment on what is not. The world could never be driven by such men, for the springs of action lie deep in ignorance and madness. But it is they who are the beacon in the tempest, and they are more, not less, needed now than ever before. May their succession never fail!
The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson
An alternate future where the Europeans are completely wiped out by the plague, and how society could have changed.
In The Distance by Hernan Diaz.
Dune. I started it a while ago but I want to read past the 2nd movie now, so I'm forcing myself to finish the first book.
I have to the Aggressor book series by FX Holden. It's set in the near future with AI, drones, and much more. It is a Tom Clancy-like book about WW3 breaking out over Tawain. Sometimes, I would come out of reading it and be unsure if I was reading the news or a book.
the brother's karamazov by dostoyevsky
I started The Brothers Karamazov four times through the years, but would quit each time after 50 pages or so. I finally realized that I was repulsed by the story because the father reminded me of the worst aspects of myself. Once I accepted that I was able to read on and finish the book, and now I look upon it as one of my favorite novels.
I would have given up on it early on, but when I was going to Berkeley in the late 1970s, I attended First Presbyterian Church, where Earl Palmer was pastor. He extolled The Brothers Karamazov, Sheldon Vanauken's book A Severe Mercy, and Star Wars from the pulpit. His favorite part of TBK was the Grand Inquisitor chapter; I had to slog through that, but overall found the book quite rewarding, not least of all because it is a window into the Russian soul, which I think remains to this day a different beast than our own.
> I finally realized that I was repulsed by the story because the father reminded me of the worst aspects of myself.
dostoyevsky is brilliant at this
I flew through both The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment (both powerful, excellent books) but I'm having difficulties reading Demons.
You Gotta Want It by Jake Paul.
Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Heart warming, heart breaking, sad, funny. And a great story.
“Measurement” by Paul Lockhart, of “A Mathematician’s Lament” fame.
This was recommended by the delightful and talented Tibees YouTuber.
A few pages in and I was absolutely hooked and ready to start proving geometric conjectures…
A truly amazing communicator and educator.
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Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made by Vaclav Smil
Just a wonderful book.
Educated by Tara Westover. A really wild story I couldn't put down after the first 3 pages. A must-read, esp. For HN readers.
The Catalyst: RNA and the Quest to Unlock Life's Deepest Secrets by Thomas R. Cech — This is a standout for me. Spotlight on RNA with interesting historical context of the field.
i reread roadside picnic, and started reading it in russian and it is arguably my favourite book ever.
Highly recommend Doomed City, probably the most complex novel the Strugackis ever wrote.
Mostly non fiction
The Vortex by carney and miklian Flying Blind by Peter Robison The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut
Character Limit by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac
Shadow of the torturer by Gene Wolf
And
Several play throughs of Caves of Qud.
Been on a weird sci fi kick this year.
Shadow of the Torturer is wonderful.
It was a tough read, but I really liked it.
I’m going through the rest of the book of the new sun now.
Im sure it’ll be rewarding to read it again after finishing the series.
Economix by Michael Goodwin.
The Power of the Powerless by Havel
"The latest findings from the World Wide Fund for the Nature’s Living Planet Report come with a stark warning that we may be closing in on a point of no return for nature. Over the last 50 years, wildlife populations have experienced a staggering 73% decline."
https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/news/2024/october/wildlife-po...
"Livestock make up 62% of the world’s mammal biomass; humans account for 34%; and wild mammals are just 4%."
https://ourworldindata.org/wild-mammals-birds-biomass
... We're deep into an apocalypse, and I really hope we start acting like it.
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