Ask HN: What is the best book you read on 2017? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What is the best book you read on 2017?

61 pointszwrt45 comments

Non-fiction:

Tough to call. I got a lot out of Deep Work by Cal Newport, The Obstacle Is The Way by Ryan Holiday, How To Win At The Sport Of Business by Mark Cuban, Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, and The Engines of Creation by Eric Drexler, as well as the three Grant Cardone books I read: The 10x Rule, Sell or Be Sold and Be Obsessed or Be Average.

Fiction:

I'll go with The Whispering Room by Dean Koontz. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami was also pretty good.

You can see the entire list of what I've read lately (and further back) on my Goodreads profile:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/33942804-phillip-rhodes

or, if this link is visible publicly, on this "2017 in books" page:

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/33942804

More replies to similar question here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15801996

As for me, best fiction: three body problem

Best non-fiction: WTF by Robert Peston

Wool (Silo series)

https://www.amazon.com/Wool-Omnibus-Kindle-Motion-Silo-ebook...

IMO the first chapter is the strongest by far: https://www.2uo.de/wool/

scifi: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/columbus-day/

nonfic: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/data-science-from-scratch/

fiction: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/everyone-burns/

Here is my full list: https://kirubakaran.com/bookshelf/

Nice bookshelf page! It would be nice if you could somehow box in red, say, the best book for each year...

Thanks for the kind words and the idea! Will do.

For anyone looking for a DS primer, I have to say I was really disappointed with "Data Science from Scratch". It was all breadth with little depth. It felt more like a suggested list of topics to further research w/ other material.

I personally got way more value and insight out of "Data Science for Business" and would highly recommend it.

Thanks for the recommendation. I like "Data Science from Scratch" for the same reason you dislike it :-)

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck [Mark Manson]

Its an easy & enjoyable book on subject : A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life.

Dark Matter: A Novel (Fiction) - One of my favorite SF story so far. https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Novel-Blake-Crouch/dp/110...

Principle: Life and Work, Ray Dalio (Business & Decision- Making) - Very interesting and thoughtful book around building a meritocracy. https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Life-Work-Ray-Dalio/dp/150...

Principles is my best non-fiction read of 2017. Superbly written.

Web serials:

Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/table-of-contents/)

A Practical Guide to Evil (https://practicalguidetoevil.wordpress.com/)

Both of these have active communities on Reddit also. I really think web serials are underrated compared to "real" books.

I don't normally read him but yudkowsy's book Inadequate Equilibria was a really good look at how he analyzes "market failures" in society at large. And it's freely available from https://equilibriabook.com

2017 was also the year I read classics like 3-body problem and ready player one

Fiction: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Nonfiction: The Banker's New Cloths by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig

Full list: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/63629672

I normally only read books to help me sleep and usually that book is "Lord of The Rings". However, I did branch out in 2017 with "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman which I quite enjoyed until near the end where it got a little too crazy.

1. Thinking fast and slow - Kahneman

2. Outliers - Malcom Gladwell

3. How to read and do proofs - Daniel Solow

All of these were packed with great insights and are books I'm sure I will return to in the future for multiple re-reads.

If you enjoyed Outliers (or are thinking about reading it), I'd suggest reading Peak (in addition to, but also instead of).

https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp...

thanks for the tip!

I enjoyed Outliers when I read it a while ago, but have since realised it's just a bunch of anecdotes.

Maybe I'll come to that conclusion at some later point as well. Still, the point about how rules in social systems bias outcomes in subtle ways was an interesting anecdote (the hockey player birthday distribution).

Yes. Malcolm Gladwell loves to write about his own brilliantly uncovered anecdotes...

Peak loses a lot of that, and is co-authored by a psychologist who is behind a lot of more scientific work in the area of expertise (his work is also referenced in Outliers).

In general, I recommend people skip Outliers (really just skip Gladwell entirely) and read Peak instead.

Kurt Vonnegut: Complete Stories

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mister-kurt-he-posthumou...!

Goethe: Life As A Work Of Art

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2017/12/21/super-goethe/

Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts [Stanislas Dehaene], interesting book about up to date neuroscience.

Book of Proof [Richard Heath Hammack], great books on maths. gives a head start on proofs.

Mastery [Robert Greene], best self help book I've read.

https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/5980292

Non-fiction: Illumination in the Flat-woods by Joe Hutto, an amazing story about raising turkeys.

Fiction: Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins, a new great magical realism book, great if you like Stephen King / Clive Barker / Robert McCammon.

My list: https://schollz.github.io/books-2017/

By far the most memorable book I read this years was "When Breath becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi. It's a quick read an immensely impactful.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25899336-when-breath-bec...

The best book published in 2017 for me is this one:

"A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market" by Edward O. Thorp

http://www.edwardothorp.com/books/a-man-for-all-markets/

Fiction: We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor - the first of a very enjoyable SF trilogy

Non-Fiction: Chasing the Harvest: Migrant Workers in California Agriculture by Gabriel Thompson - a collection of detailed and moving stories from people who work in the fields in California.

I've read over 100 books this year, but mostly non-fiction. I'm kinda surprised that my favourite book ended up being a fiction book, which is: 'Ready Player One'

Do you have a speed reading technique or just read for a long time per day?

I read when I'm in transit or waiting for people

I made a promise to buy a book / e-book per week. So I better make sure I finish it.

When I'm driving or walking from one place to another I'm listening to an audiobook and it is at 3x speed

I think if you're forced to read a lot of book, you'll come up with a system that works for you. Some of the advice people give over the internet might not work at least that was my experience

Martin Kleppmann's "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" is one of the best books in computing I've read in a very long time (and thus the best book of 2017).

The best book I have ever read I read in 2017, it’s the book “The Anatomy of Peace” (and it’s twin Leaders and Self Deception) from the Arbinger Institute.

Nonfiction: Hillbilly Elegy By JD Vance

Fiction: Golden Son by Pierce Brown - liked the whole trilogy; Rosie Project/Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

I've been reading David Walliams' books for children. I think they're very good. More importantly, so does my child.

Fiction (fantasy): Broken Empire Trilogy by Mark Lawrence (2013)

Fiction (Sci-fi): The Three-body Problem by Liu Cixin

Non-fiction: The C Programming Language

"Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise" by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

Hilary Mantel's novels "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies"

Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield

The Monsters of Education Technology

Some of the most memorable/useful/wonderful:

Fleck - Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact

Hacking - The Social Construction of What?

Felsner - Geometric Graphs and Arrangements

xkcd volume 0

Tommy Wonder - The Books of Wonder

Elisabeth Lloyd - Science, Politics and Evolution

..and, it's embarrassing to admit it on here :-) but I didn't read Refactoring or Clean Code or Kent Beck until 2017. Better late than never.

Nonfiction: Tools of Titans

Fiction: Shantaram

Hyperion

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Ready Player One

Grit

Mindset

Peak

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