Ask HN: 2019 Winter Reading List? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: 2019 Winter Reading List?

31 pointsobilgic13 comments

Hi HN, It hasn't happened for a while but, It was a common theme to have a thread to recommend books for holiday months.

Have you read anything interesting recently that you would recommend?

View on HN

* Rise and Kill First: A history of Israel viewed through their Intelligence and targeted assassination programs. Interesting insights into the individuals and departments that shaped the country and in turn region. According to the author, the Israelis had scrambled jets on multiple occasions to shoot down public airliners thought to be carrying Yasser Arafat. This was only thwarted by individuals intentionally delaying the process. Includes insights into history of the internal debate over the legality and morality of killing other nations non-combatants, sometimes on their soil.

* The Outlaw Ocean: Journeys Across the Last Untamed Frontier: Collection of stories written for the New York Times by reporter Ian Urbina. Only a dozen or so miles off-shore there are no enforced laws. Floating armories, slavery, dumping pollution, over fishing, abortion. Interesting to think all that goes on in the ocean that never really enters the public conscious. [https://www.npr.org/2019/08/21/751707831/the-outlaw-ocean-a-...]

- I've been participating in https://www.reddit.com/r/ayearofwarandpeace since January 2nd of this year. I've stuck with it and we're very close to the end of the book. It's true that the book's long, but nearly every chapter can be read in 15 minutes or less, which is how we've been able to stretch it out.

Books that I've started but haven't finished (primarily due to W&P):

- Dune (Frank Herbert)

- Men At Arms - Discworld (Pratchett)

- The Diamond Age (Stephenson)

- Neuromancer (Gibson)

- The Shadow Rising - Wheel of Time (Jordan)

- Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)

Books that I plan on reading in 2020:

- Little Women (Alcott)

- Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet (Evans)

- A Walk in the Woods (Bryson)

Debt: The First 5000 years by David Graeber. One of the most interesting books I have read in years. It goes really deep into how money appeared, how debt not always have to be payed back etc. A really interesting read!

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough. An extremely interesting store of how two brothers got us in the air. A great story on well thought out incremental innovation and especially risk mitigation of something that from the outside looks reckless and dangerous.

Currently reading through "Imagined Communities" which explores the origin of the concept of a nation and the corresponding nationalism associated. Two chapters in so far and it's pretty interesting.

Beyond that I have "Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus" planned which, as goodreads puts it, "Acclaimed historian Rick Perlstein chronicles the rise of the conservative movement in the liberal 1960s." This is part of a three-part series covering Goldwater, Nixon, and Reagan, but I don't think I'm going to read them serially.

Beyond that, I have several Murakami books queued up, but in German to hopefully help in the whole language acquisition thing. Beyond that, I have roughly 100 books on backlog, but it's been that way for the past few years despite going through a book a week.

Currently Reading:

* The Techniques of Rug Weaving - Collingwood, Peter

* King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa - Hochschild, Adam

* Technohorror: Inventions in Terror - Various

Library Hold List:

* Reclaimed Textiles: Techniques for Paper, Stitch, Plastic and Mixed Media - Thittichai, Kim

* Eating Mindfully: How to End Mindless Eating & Enjoy A Balanced Relationship With Food - Albers, Susan

* The Big Book of Maker Skills: Tools & Techniques for Building Great Tech Projects - Hackett, Chris

* Fusion 360 for Makers: Design your Own Digital Models for 3D Printing and CNC Fabrication - Cline, Lydia Sloan

* Stoner - Williams, John

* Strange Material: Storytelling Through Textiles - Prain, Leanne

* The Fire Is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America - Buccola, Nicholas

* The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma - Van der Kolk, Bessel A.

* The Body: A Guide for Occupants - Bryson, Bill

How Asia works, by Joe studwell. A really good introduction to how certain Asia countries industrialized and why others failed to do so.

Something incredibly wonderful happens: Frank Oppenheimer and the world he made up by K.C. Cole. I just started this one but it's really fascinating and engrossing. I found it on Patrick Collison's bookshelf which looks like it has a lot of other really great recommendations - https://patrickcollison.com/bookshelf

The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa: another one that I'm still currently reading. a very sad book but so well written and thought provoking that I only read 5 or 10 pages at a time and then spend any equal amount of time pondering. Unlike anything I've ever read

This is my list for this Summer (Southern hemisphere here):

* [reading] Atomic Habits (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1847941834)

* [reading] So Good They Can't Ignore You (https://www.amazon.com.br/gp/product/1455509124)

* 97 Things Every Engineering Manager Should Know (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1492050903)

* The Manager`s Path (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1491973897)

* The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787960756)

* Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0787976377)

* Who: The A Method for Hiring (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345504194)

* Power Score: Your Formula for Leadership Success (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345547357)

I'm not sure I'll get to all of them but I spent quite some time researching them and think this is a good list.

I usually read 2 books simultaneously because I like to read them and let certain things sink in. It provides a nice way to link some insights.

I read "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" a few months ago, it's quite good. The narrative delivery makes it a very easy read, and it has some ideas which are useful in basically every situation where collaboration is necessary.

"children of time" & the sequel "children of ruin" by Adrian Tchaikovsky; sci-fi with AIs, uplifted species, uploaded personalities, space travel et al.

Very entertaining, and quite optimistic, compared to a lot of stuff I'd been reading recently.

(I discovered it by someone's comment on HN, by the way.)

I've been reading - and absolutely loving - As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride. For anyone here who loves that movie (it's inconceivable if you don't), I highly recommend it.

The audiobook is excellent as several members of the cast make appearances.

If you are into fantasy books: The Kingkiller Chronicle by Pathrick Rothfuss

- Principles by Ray Dalio

- Why We Sleep

- Seeking Wisdom, from Darwin to Munger.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com