Ask HN: Which book are you reading? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which book are you reading?

15 pointsbrickcap47 comments

I just finished The mating season by PG wodehouse. I will probably start Right ho Jeeves next.

Not reading it currently, but I can't let a thread like this go by without suggesting the Silo Saga by Hugh Howey. The first book in the series is "Wool: Part 1", which (last I looked) was a free Kindle book on Amazon, and I'd graduated to purchasing the rest of the series before finishing the second chapter.

It's a phenomenal series, and I'm a little embarrassed that it took me so long to find it.

Aside from that, I had started (before his passing) an Elmore Leonard marathon with the goal of completing every single novel that Leonard has ever written. If you're ordinarily a sci-fi reader, perhaps this isn't the best suggestion, but I find the wit, terseness and change of pace extremely refreshing.

Yeah that is on my radar. I have wanted to read it ever since I read more about Hugh. Really like the guy.

I recently got back to reading Infinite jest by David Foster Wallace.

On a more technical, I'm reading SICP --- could you believe someone had thrown this book out (I guess left out for donation). I rescued it have been reading through it. Scheme is nice, but what is even nicer is the JS version: ivanistheone.github.io/SICPapp/ (credit Martin Henz for JS adaptation)

Just finished East of Eden and then started up a goodreads account. Without trying, I now have 37 in queue. Pretty excited to find out about goodreads and get solid recommendations/reviews.

If anyone wants to friend up there: https://www.goodreads.com/rockymadden

Currently reading The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't - Nate Silver

Before that, I had just finished The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation by Jon Gertner.

Next, I may read Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan.

Also reading The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don't - Nate Silver

And also in progress:

Buried for Pleasure - Edmund Crispin

The Dying Trade - Peter Corris

Think Bayes - Allen B Downey

Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Gail Dines.

Should be essential reading for everyone, especially men, in this day and age.

http://www.amazon.com/Pornland-How-Porn-Hijacked-Sexuality/d...

48 Laws of Power by Robert Greeene. It's a Machiavellian approach to managing your life in order to maximize your personal power and influence. Although I don't plan on becoming the Prince himself, it's a quick, interesting read written from a unique perspective.

I know I'm a little late to read this, but I've been enjoying How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie. It's interesting how it objectifies social interaction with others in such short passages.

I was late to read that when I read it in 1984!

the modern equivalent of the book is "Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi"

Thanks! I'll definitely check it out!

Just finished http://www.josh.is/rood-a-cyberpunk-novel/

I actually read it a few years back, but came across it the other day, and decided to read it again.

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. I can't figure it out. It seems like it might be terrible. I'm half enjoying it and half sort of hypnotized like a chicken by it.

FWIW, i think it's terrible. There's a few really excellent pieces of writing sprinkled throughout it, but the whole thing felt hollow and self-indulgent to me.

I guess it's a failed experiment the way Catcher in the Rye was a successful experiment. But it's kind of interesting despite that. I like how daringly he injects esoteric religious material into conventional 1950s settings. But it was too hard to pull off. None of the characters is captivating and most of them, especially Zooey, are asses in a way that doesn't feel entirely intentional.

I'm on a Salinger kick, having run across his books for a couple bucks in a used bookstore and never having read him before. He is a singular writer. Catcher was a freak success. Like Kurt Cobain, Salinger would clearly have been happier as an obscure cult artist. But Catcher was the opening bell of the 60s counterculture just as the 50s were getting started. Once it picked up a wave it became a tsunami.

I was surprised at how good the pieces in Nine Stories are, e.g. "The Laughing Man" and "Love and Squalor". He paints childhood and adolescence beautifully, as well as charming interactions between children and sensitive young men. But it all gives an impression of, um, arrested development. Did he write any great adult characters? The pervy teacher in Catcher doesn't count. It seems that adults in Salinger's world mostly just get sour, and the one who is clearly his favorite he has blow his brains out in front of his wife.

More Salinger books are supposed to be coming out now that he's beyond the reach of his fans and the press, and it will be interesting to see on which side of the divide they end up. One hopes they'll be awesome. But I suspect the odds are better that they'll be weird and turned in on themselves.

Could it also be that _Zooey_ was simply read at a different time in your life? I first read _Catcher_ when I was the disgruntled youth that you expect to read it, and found it brilliant. I've re-read it a couple times since then and now find it far less so.

I acknowledge that the writing is still really great, but I'm just not able to connect to it the same way I do other books that I read from the same era.

No, I only read Catcher a couple weeks ago. It's on an altogether other level than F&Z, even though it's no longer shockingly original like it must have been in 1951. I found it brilliant stylistically; only a voice, but what a voice. The emotional impact was different for me than it would have been when I was that age, but I remember very well how all that feels, so I was cheering on behalf of my younger self.

But what are the books that you do still find brilliant? :)

> But what are the books that you do still find brilliant?

With every Vonnegut novel I re-read, I discover something new, more insightful, more brilliant and more compelling than I was able to grasp the last time I read it. This is true for just about every Vonnegut book I've bothered to re-read.

The same holds true for Mark Twain (so far). I recently re-read Tom Sawyer, which I only re-read after realizing that I couldn't really remember anything from my first reading of it. Phenomenal.

There are more, I'm sure, but I'd have to give it thought. The only non-print thing I can think of that is as compelling is "Primer", which is a must-watch movie, but I don't know why I'm mentioning it here, except to remark that it takes more than a single viewing to digest the entire film.

Did you like _The Royal Tenenbaums_? NPR's pop culture critic says that movies is basically F&Z filmed.

(_Tenenbaums_ is among my least favorite Wes Anderson movies).

I haven't seen it! I haven't seen anything.

I finished F&Z last night. The thing is a train wreck. Now I'm curious to read the rest of what Salinger published (pretty easy to do) because Catcher and Nine Stories are so good and F&Z borderline intolerable. Perhaps it was his Metal Machine Music.

Does Tenenbaums principally consist of turgid dialogue about mysticism?

_City of Thieves_ by David Benioff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Thieves_(novel)

I've just started three books this week. Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon, First Shift by Hugh Howey and Understanding Computation by Tom Stuart.

All at the same time! How do you manage? I have tired doing that several times but I usually end of reading the one I like the most first which is why now I focus on only one book at a time.

I don't know about OWaz, but I get bored quickly, so if I read one book last night, I'm not likely to want to read the same book tonight. If I have no other book in the queue I'll probably end up reading HN on the iPad, if I do have other books, well then I'll read them.

I used to read one book at a time but now I really just want to read a lot of different things. I've started forming a habit of waking up by 6:00am (I used to wake up at 9:00am only a few months ago) and reading for an hour before going into the office. Then at night when there is some time I'll read a bit more. On the weekend I will usually spend an afternoon at the library reading or programming. I don't have kids and am not married so time is not an issue.

I'm doing a Neal Stephenson marathon, just started with Quicksilver last night, after finishing Snow Crash and Reamde back to back.

Categorically Unequal by Douglas Massey, great book on stratification and inequality in America. Also reading A Farewell to Arms.

The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker

The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Awesome!

For fun: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.

For figure out a web front end for my REST API: AngularJS by Brad Green & Shyam Seshadri

I'm reading Under the Dome right now. After this I'm thinking of starting The Gunslinger.

I just bought the Chris Hadfield book "An astronaut's guide to life on Earth" :)

Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3) - James S.A. Corey - Its a pretty amazing series.

Started reading the Ender Series in anticipation of the movie. Right now on book 6.

I did that with harry potter. Wanted to do the same with eragon but they never made any more movies :(

Starting Washington by Paul Johnson and rereading a lot of favorites: John Boyd's biography by Coram & Seneca's Letters from a Stoic.

On the side, I am trying to finish Eisenhower's biography - 500/700 pages.

The Machinery of Freedom by David D. Friedman.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton

I love Crichton's stories more than any other author. Pirate is the one that was finished posthumously, right? I've been meaning to pick that one up.

Yes, it was published posthumously. There is another book that was actually finished by another author after Crichton died which is called Micro.

I get the feeling Pirate Latitudes was closer to a first draft than a final draft - but it's still Crichton.

Design for Hackers by David Kadavy

The Count of Monte Cristo

You are in for a treat man. I read it once every year (not cover to cover just my favorite parts esp the prison) just to fire myself up.

Side note: The movie is also quite good.

which movie version? (there are many)

I was talking about this one

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0245844/?ref_=nv_sr_2

not entirely faithful to the book but it is well done. I have not watched the oldies. Any suggestions?

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