Comment by kidintech | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kidintech | Hacker News Reader

My compiled list for 2020, as suggested by friends I respect and HN:

General

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- Master & Margarita (w reader's guide)

- Why we sleep

- The righteous mind: why good people are divided by politics and religion

- The wisdom of insecurity

- The denial of death

- The three body problem (friend's advice: slow burn, stick with it)

- The dubliners

- The devils (Dostoyevski)

- The name of the rose

- Enten-Oller (Kierkegaard)

- Zero to one (Peter Thiel, recommended reading as palantir new joiner - not fantastic but has some thought provoking ideas; i.e. which very important truth would very few people agree with you on?)

Economy/finance

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- Basic economics (Thomas Sowell)

- How an economy grows and why it crashes

- Know the city

Math

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- Coffee time in Memphis

- Real analysis (mathematics textbook)

- Problems from the book (Halfway through this one, and I found it really enjoyable, even with only a CS bachelors)

If anyone has read any and has feedback/notes, I'm looking forward to hearing them!

My fiancée is an avid reader of fiction and canonical literature, she averages around 40 books a year. I was looking for something interesting to get her one Birthday for a change and was recommended "The Master & Margarita" by some folks on reddit. She loved it. It's a very strange book apparently but it steered her into some other Russian authors since.

I've read "Why we sleep" on your list—I average about 20 non fiction a year. It made me think about my own sleeping habits, although I believe there is a blog post out there that claims there is little scientific evidence to back up some of the medical claims made in the book, I still found it beneficial and thought provoking. The history and theory around sleep and it's role in human evolution I found particularly interesting.

> I believe there is a blog post out there that claims there is little scientific evidence to back up some of the medical claims made in the book,

You might find this useful: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21546850

Here is the blog post regarding factual errors in "Why we sleep" in case anyone is interested: https://guzey.com/books/why-we-sleep/

I was about to read the book based on a colleague's recommendation, but the blog post and a separate article in my local newspaper debunking few of the claims made me decide against it.

I've seen The Master & Margarita mentioned a few times in this thread and for anyone who might pick it up, you'll want to familiarize yourself with popular historical Christian names and events first.

I was not raised Catholic and was a bit lost reading through some of it because I had no idea who some of the characters were or what the references meant. Made for some fun conversations with my girlfriend who read it first and was familiar with all those names and their historical context.

It was a fun book to read though. Got a bit boring for a while but the ending is great so I'm glad I stuck with it.

Interestingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of overlap in my have-read/wants-to-read:

Master and Margarita: Very recommendable.

Three body problem: Got bored.

Enten-Eller: Delightful.

Basic economics (Sowell): Very recommendable.

How an economy grows and why it crashes: Childish and grossly simplifying. I read this one while taking a year's of economics on top of my CS. My impression is that some economists have a bad habit of not stating their basic scholastic assumptions. Sowell and Krugman are, in my opinion, not unbiased, but able to inform you at a level where you don't feel like they're also trying to brainwash you.

As for the remainder, I've taken a few notes for myself, so thanks. :-)

Thanks for the feedback too!

Since you seem to have similar taste (or people you respect?), what other books/authors have you enjoyed/would recommend? I am a big fan of Hesse, despite his works being very unrelated to anything on my list.

Each of the books in the three body trilogy started a bit slow for me, but the payoff was worth it. Opens up into a pageturner about 1/3 of the way in.

I second that. A few years ago, I began reading the first book of the trilogy after lunch to kill time, and got so bored and nearly gave up nearly 1/3 ~ 1/2. And then suddenly the idea became clear. I couldn't put it down and skip the dinner to finished it.

And the second and third books got even better. Especially the third one was mind-blowing beyond description at that time for me. I was sad when I finished them all because I didn't know when I would have a similar experience on another book/series.

Had a similar experience. The end was bitter sweet for me. Could not put them down till the end .

Can someone tell me why Master and Margarita is a masterpiece? I’ve read it this year and it was a slow read, of basically (possibly) the author’s dreams or long mescaline trip.

Many years ago I was especially excited about how the author managed to circumvent Soviet censorship restrictions :-)

It’s mostly a masterpiece because of when and where it was written, and who it was written about. If you’re lacking the context of the author and the times (most people are), it can take a long, hard time to appreciate.

Specifically, it’s written for a Soviet audience at a time when the censor was hard to get past. So the only way you could publish controversial thoughts or critiques about society was to couch it in metaphor, sarcasm, and double entendres, in a way that requires a lot of cleverness and courage on the author’s behalf. Master and Margarita is considered to be one of the peaks of this genre, because the story it tells manages to have an interesting plot and narration style, even if it’s just there to prop up the incessant jabs at contemporary soviet elites and norms.

It’s sort of like reading a comedy in another language, that’s been translated to English, but all the jokes are region specific, satirical slant rhymes that are explained in the footnotes. It’s very good, but hard to enjoy in its, originally intended, viscerally funny delivery.

I see. In hindsight, it makes much more sense now, thank you!

I, for one, found it unbearable to read. I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe someone with the right background and who can read it in the original language could find some appreciation for it. I did not, but YMMV.

Master and Margarita is one of my "level 0" books (the small shelf of books that get dumped in the suitcase when I uproot and change continents). It bears rereading over the years.

> If anyone has read any and has feedback/notes, I'm looking forward to hearing them!

The wisdom of insecurity: very very good if you are at all interested in the matters it explores

Zero to one: the whole genre of business wisdom books is crap IMHO, but at least this one is short

Basic economics (Thomas Sowell): total must read

Interesting list, commenting to have a look again later. I'm already reading the name of the rose after giving up half-way a few years ago.

how are you finding it?

I'm not very well educated in the fields of history and philosophy so I constantly have to google for references to people or concepts I've only heard of before.

It's much more rewarding this way than how I went through half of the book in the past ignoring a lot of things I was ignorant of, but it's a way slower process.

It's an experience I'm thoroughly enjoying, but some of the characters described seem to me like they couldn't be real people, but this might just be that my way of thinking as someone living now clashes so heavily with how actual monks in the 14th century thought about the world. I'm giving the author the benefit of the doubt on this for now, as, again, I'm very ignorant on this topic and he was an actual academic in the broader field we're discussing.

> some of the characters described seem to me like they couldn't be real people

Could you elaborate? I'd like to hear what you find dissonant.

Apologies, I didn't find the time to look up a specific example as none came to mind on the spot.

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