I'm asking because I've picked up many excellent books based on recommendations from HN, and I think it would be great to have a centralized thread to gather recs.
I think out of all the books I read, the stoicism book made the biggest impact on me -- http://www.hn-books.com/Books/A-Guide-to-the-Good-Life-The-A... . It really came out of left field and provided immediately useful advice on how to conduct myself both as a founder and as a hacker. But "The Sparrow" was the best sci-fi I have read in years, so I can't exclude that. Terrifically good book. http://www.hn-books.com/Books/The-Sparrow.htm
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In 2010, every single book I read, I read on my Kindle. Buying a Kindle has been the best thing I have ever done for my reading addiction. I recently upgraded to a Kindle 3, and I wholeheartedly recommended you get one as well, even if you currently have a Kindle 2.
Here are the top books I enjoyed in 2010, and you will enjoy also.
- The His Dark Materials Trilogy. Start with The Golden Compass.
- The City & The City by China Miéville. Quite the post-modern detective story. (Read also his novel Perdido Street Station)
- Surface Detail, the new novel by Iain M. Banks, who has quickly catapulted to the very top of my “Favorite Sci-Fi Authors” list. Surface Detail may not be the best novel for a Banks-unfamiliar reader, however — you may wish to start with something like Consider Phlebas or Look To Windward.
- I re-read Robert M. Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Read this book carefully and it will change your life. (N.B. It’s not really about Zen, although it kinda is.)
- The true story Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers, about Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian-born painting contractor in New Orleans. What Zeitoun does for the people of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina is heartwarming and truly American, and what the US Government does to him and his family is terrifying and utterly infuriating.
- The Wind-up Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is a fun Thai cyber/gene-punk yarn. Bacigalupi is a new author, and I look forward to reading more of his stuff.
- Dan Simmons’ Song Of Kali has an invasive and palpable stench of suspense. This horror novel set in Calcutta is an excruciating, brutal, and brilliant read.
- Kafka On the Shore by Haruki Murakami. I’ve always been a fan of Murakami’s works, but this novel from 2002 is, in my opinion, one of his greatest. It’s beautiful, haunting, and superbly thought-provoking.
But mostly, because it's black.
* This was one of the best science books I've ever read. Zimmer uses e-coli as the primary actor a tour of genomics and history of the big breakthroughs in micro-biology. I'm a developer, but this book was a page turner that really opened my eyes to to how cells operate, perform logic-like functions, and communicate.
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves - Matt Ridley
* Ridley's basic thesis is that specialization and trade are the primary means of the betterment of the human condition, and he has a lot of thought provoking ways of looking at the world that will forever change the way I think about technology and business. A wide ranging and enjoyable read
I'm not even much of a Linux systems programmer though my work touches on many of the topics raised, but the lucidity and total lack of confusion in the text has blown me away. It's 1500 pages of awesome and I'm not surprised by all the accolades it's received as being the new "essential" book for UNIX-based developers of all stripes.
It's a complete guide about sleep. If you want to manage your sleep, avoid various disorders, know how to treat them and stay in good health - you must have it. Mr. Dement is a pioneer of sleep science and knows a great deal about it. He's also a wonderful story teller - it feels as if you're reading an exciting novel, while the book remains very scientific and useful.
Personally, it helped me understand my sleep, I learned (though not completely) how to manage it and became a much happier person.
The book is about how, for a confluence of reasons, psychotropic drugs like antipsychotics and antidepressants actually, long-term, exacerbate the mental illness they're trying to cure.
What I love about Whitaker is his approach. He doesn't say 'these drugs are bad, footnote 11'. He explains the studies he talks about. He indicts other studies. He's EXACTLY what I look for in an academic paper (he's not an academic, though). Definitely worth a read.
I also finally read "Founders at Work", but I'm sure you all read that already.
Not only is it written by the author of the epic ender's game series ( which is a must as well), but it mixes genetic mutations of time control, ancient(objectively, not subjectively.) civilizations and plain ol good sci-fi together for one hell of a ride.
A bit farther down the list would be the newest Wheel of Time books. Brandon Sanderson annoyed me at first, but once I got over that I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it had a very similar style to the original. I enjoyed it immensely.
Somewhere after that are a few of the slightly more technical books I read. Maybe Coders At Work? It gave me a better sense of the history of the industry, but I don't think you should read it if your goal is to learn how to be a better hacker.
Finally there is The Bible, which I would recommend to anyone.
In addition to being one of the greatest minds of his generation, Feynman also had a rich life outside of science.
Reading his stories was as close as I'll come to having him share anecdotes as a guest on my "fantasy dinner party" list.
"Singularity Sky" by Charles Stross
"The Player of Games" by Iain M Banks
Three Cups of Tea (http://www.threecupsoftea.com/)
Stones Into Schools (http://www.stonesintoschools.com/)
Roberto Bolano - The Savage Detectives because what's not to love about tough guy poets?
David Bain - Empire Express because it put startups and business in a new light.
Rework - Jason Fried and David Hansson
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? - Seth Godin
The Rings of Saturn by W.G. Sebald - a fascinating way of looking at the world
Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
Eating Animals - Jonathan Safran-Foer
Desperate Characters - Paula Fox
- Predictably Irrational. Everyone here knows this book, right? It had been on my reading list for too long, and I'm glad I eventually managed to read it. Much more enjoyable that I expected it to be, even given the fact that much of the material is well-known already. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predictably_Irrational
- Longitude follows John Harrison's fascinating, painful and lengthy quest to win the Longitude Prize by creating a clock that was accurate enough to determine longitude at sea. Dava Sobel is a great writer and makes this topic totally engaging (aside: Sobel started her writing career as a technical writer at IBM). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longitude_(book)
- Bad Science is Ben Goldacre's essential and extensive criticism of the media's health care reportage and of various health-related issues (vaccinations, placebos, etc.). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Science_(book)
- Sum has had a fair bit of press over the last few months. It's a collection of forty stories on the afterlife, by David Eagleman. It's a novel exercise in philosophy, and I thoroughly enjoyed five or six of the stories. It's a very creative and original book (and short, too) and is a good lesson in constrained thinking.
- The PayPal Wars is the story of PayPal's early years from the viewpoint of former PayPal marketing executive, Eric Jackson. I found it a riveting read on the trials and tribulations of a startup in a difficult market. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_PayPal_Wars
- Made to Stick is interesting in many ways (such as marketing, psychology and rhetoric, to name a few) and is extremely well-written. Chip and Dan Heath really know their subject and explain how to make ideas or concepts memorable in this captivating book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Made_to_Stick Tip: Read the extensive excerpts on the official website — http://www.madetostick.com/excerpts/ — and, if you enjoy them, read the full book.
- Lolita is one of those books everyone knows about, even if they haven't read it. I decided to sit down with this beast of a book and am glad I did. It's a great story and will really get your moral cogs ticking over. As well as that, Nabokov has an amazing way with the English language, and from very near the beginning I become a lifelong fan of his style. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolita