Alright, so a month ago i made this same thread, and it seemed quite popular.
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8257369)
Since then i´ve:<p>Read:<p>Siddhartha - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siddhartha_(novel)<p>Das Steppenwolf - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppenwolf_(novel)<p>Into the Wild - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(book)<p>Bought, but yet not read:<p>Godel, Escher, Bach - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach<p>Being and Nothingness - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_and_Nothingness<p>CODE - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code:_The_Hidden_Language_of_Computer_Hardware_and_Software<p>Let´s hear what HN recommends and is currenty reading
Godel, Escher, Bach;<p>This book is dense. But takes three times as long to read as any fiction that length. Most paragraphs require stopping and pondering.<p>It is my second time attempting to read this book. The first time, was about 6 months ago. Now, being on my second year in CPGE and having been through quite some math, it was more approachable.<p>Hofstadter invents his own system of formal mathematical logic and his own procedural programming language to explain concepts, without going into what would be considered a more "standard" formal logic system or even the Turing machine itself. He does a good job piecing them together but at certain times I feel like it'd be more meaningful to read the original works on several of the subjects he touches on.<p>While formal logic certainly predates this book, a lot of the AI and neuroscience research that he describes were (and are) very much active. The book was published in 1979, and its references to AI reflect the time period.<p>The book is hard to read, especially for prolonged periods of time. It's dense and the concepts are not the easiest to begin with.<p>Worth reading? Maybe.<p>Will it expand your thinking? Probably, though maybe not as much as you might expect; due to the broad spectrum of topics covered, it's not as deep as I would like in some areas and spends too much time smoothing over difficult topics in certain fields in order to make "clever" maps between concepts in the fields (though in this aspect he's just being a computer scientist---simple representations that map cleanly across everything! Sadly, the world is not that way).<p>Very good? Absolutely.
Currently engaged in:<p>-The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell. Just a fun read. Fiction sucks me in pretty easily, and I enjoy the time-hopping.<p>-Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia's Water Crisis - Cheryl Colopy. Not enjoying this as much as I thought I would so far, possibly because I have too much academic experience in the topic area and the writer is a reporter. I'm a bit more pragmatic about large energy projects, not exactly bleeding heart, but I try to focus on the bigger picture. It was a free book on a table at work though from someone cleaning out their office, so not a big deal.<p>-Operations Research - Hillier and Lieberman. Also a free book from work. Something I need a stronger foundation in for upcoming projects.<p>Perpetual Backburner<p>-Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace. I've gotten a couple hundred pages in a few times. If I get distracted at all it's so hard to go back to.<p>-Capital in the 21st Century - Piketty. I blazed through the first couple hundred pages around when it came out, then I went on a long vacation. Now I sort of nibble at it when I'm in the mood. One of the most compelling economics books I've ever read.<p>Recently finished<p>-The Book of Basketball - Bill Simmons. Fun to read about the history of the NBA from a true fanatic. Eyes glazed over in some sections on the Celtics though.
Read: "Einstein: His Life and Universe" by Walter Isaacson<p>Currently reading:<p>"Zero to One" by Peter Thiel<p>"Discover Meteor: Building Real-Time JavaScript Web Apps" by Tom Coleman & Sacha Greif<p>Reading next:<p>"Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" by Walter Isaacson<p>Overall, I like Isaacson's writing style, and for someone with a non-scientific background, did a pretty good job at describing physical concepts such as a relativity and space-time.<p>It was exciting to read his bio on Steve Jobs the day it came out, but in retrospect seemed to lack depth. I'm not sure if I learned anything new about him as a person, than just someone following Apple and his career over the years.
Currently reading:<p>A Guide to the Good Life: Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - William B. Irvine<p>Algorithm Design Manual - Steven S Skiena<p>Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don't Work - Dan Roam<p>Highly recommend the first 2, Blah Blah Blah is a rehash with a twist on Back of the Napkin.
Recently finished:<p><i>Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom</i> by Cory Doctorow -- frankly, I found it kind of boring, and also found the narrator unsympathetic. I'm not sure if the author intended him to be an Unreliable Narrator or not.<p><i>Facts, Values, and Norms</i> by Peter Railton -- Gains three stars for combining serious consideration of ethical and meta-ethical issues with a completely naturalistic worldview and a genuine grappling with history and ideology. Loses two stars for being far, far too long-winded and using vague, colloquial terminology and appeals to intuition where a methodoological naturalist can and should appeal to the fruits of science. (Copy-pasta'd from my Amazon review)<p><i>Rapture of the Nerds</i> by Charles Stross -- pretty funny, even if it made a transhuman superintelligent supercivilization look kind of... dumb.<p>Currently re-reading for fun:<p><i>The Wee Free Men</i> and <i>I Shall Wear Midnight</i> by Terry Pratchett -- It's Discworld. Go read them. NOW. And read <i>A Hat Full of Sky</i> in the middle.<p>Then there's been a lot of textbooks I've been reading, which I won't list. Though...<p><i>Logical Labyrinths</i> by Raymond Smullyan -- dense, and <i>fun</i>, a graduate-level intro textbook to first-order logic disguised as a logic textbook.
The Algorithm Design Manual<p>My 'technical non-fiction' read to help keep my mind sharp.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B8139Z8/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o00_?ie=UTF8&psc=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B8139Z8/ref=oh_aui_d_det...</a><p>The Disaster Artist<p>My 'non-technical non-fiction' read to help keep me interesting around non-tech folk. The making of 'The Room,' complete with lots of weird Tommy Wiseau moments and behind the scenes insanity.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSAZ6LE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=1OHHR3E8POWSY&coliid=I3NWCBWNSAIPVW" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BSAZ6LE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl...</a><p>Neuromancer<p>My fiction read to help keep my mind young.<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O76ON6/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o02_?ie=UTF8&psc=1" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000O76ON6/ref=oh_aui_d_det...</a><p>Edit: formatting
Started this book way back, but finally getting around to finishing it now:<p><i>The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape</i> - James Howard Kunstler<p>It's a bit of a rant, though I think the author is generally on-point. As an armchair urban planner myself, his constant skewering of Le Corbusier work as a total failure makes me very, very happy.<p>For balance I'm also working through:<p><i>Doing Documentary Work</i> - Robert Coles<p>There are some great insights in the book, but the author has a very tedious tone and is very, very verbose. I'm not sure if I will finish it, though I'll try. He also likes using really big words (like, a level of vocabulary that suggests he's deliberately trying to write at a superhuman reading level), which is tedious since his excessive vocabulary ultimately doesn't help him make his point better. I'm pretty sure I can get through Middle English faster than I can get through this book.
China Mieville, Embassytown, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/books/review/book-review-embassytown-by-china-mieville.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/books/review/book-review-e...</a><p><i>"Language is the principal theme of “Embassytown,” a particularly deep-thinking entry in a tradition of using the speculative resources of science fiction to address how language shapes culture and society ... The drama of “Embassytown” develops as the Ariekei learn to lie and are beset by violent addiction to a new kind of speech. The resulting plague sends waves of change pulsing through the semi-sentient buildings and machinery of their city — an inspired Miévillean touch, grotesquely original (addicted houses try to grow ears) and yet also strikingly familiar to anybody who’s spent time in a neighborhood in steep decline."</i>
Read: Ayn Rand - We The Living
Currently Reading: Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged<p>Honestly loving Atlas Shrugged, but We The Living is easily my favorite book I have ever read. It has deeply affected how I think about life and I share many philosophical beliefs with Rand, would highly highly recommend.
I'm about a quarter of the way through "The Martian" by Andy Weir. It's good, geeky fun so far. Some of the dialog is clunky but the main character is interesting and fun.<p>I also read "11/22/63" by Stephen King. An interesting twist on time travel with the usual King propulsiveness. Recommended for King fans like me who may not have read him in awhile.<p>"Geek Sublime" by Vikram Chandra is a surprising mix of "my career in writing" with computation lessons and history. I took a break from it to read The Martian but it's extremely interesting. He's one of my favorite writers and I'm glad he's got something out that might expose him to a different audience.
The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 (John Toland)<p>Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Alfred Lansing)<p>Dusty Warriors: Modern Soldiers at War (Richard Holmes)<p>NB A book that I read recently that I wasn't expecting to like very much but really enjoyed was "A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown" - to say that he's had an eventful life is a bit of an understatement (Royal Marines, SBS, MI6, politics) - he actually comes across as a politician with strongly held morals - shame I can't vote for him!
Machine Learning: a Probabilistic Perspective
<a href="http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~murphyk/MLbook/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~murphyk/MLbook/</a><p>excellent ML textbook, comes with code
Currently Reading:<p>Annals of the Former World - John McPhee
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78.Annals_of_the_Former_World" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78.Annals_of_the_Former_...</a><p>My Years with GM - Alfred P. Sloan Jr.
<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/275912.My_Years_with_General_Motors" rel="nofollow">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/275912.My_Years_with_Gene...</a>
Read:
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why by Laurence Gonzales (This was a great read),
The Painter by Peter Heller (Interesting novel),
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown (Good ideas and content, repeats a lot)<p>Currently reading:
The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham,
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William Irvine,
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer<p>Edit: reformatted for clarity.
I'm working my way through the novels that were joint winners of the Hugo and nebula awards. Every book has been fantastic, although The Left Hand of Darkness was the high note of the books I hadn't read before.<p><a href="http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_Hugo_and_Nebula_awards" rel="nofollow">http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_joint_winners_of_the_...</a>
Read: Dune by Frank Herbert<p>Reading: Foundation by Isaac Asimov<p>I have been trying to get back to science fiction after leaving it for so long. It's great so far!
In the Heart of the Sea: The Tradgedy of the Whaleship Essex, often called the non-fiction version of Moby Dick.<p>It's a brilliant, engrossing read > <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17780.In_the_Heart_of_the_Sea" rel="nofollow">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17780.In_the_Heart_of_the...</a>
Just finished:
In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin
Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger<p>Now reading:
Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiesen<p>Been on a travel themed binge the last few weeks, rereading my favorite travel books. I highly recommend Arabian Sands, gives a pretty unique view of how the Arabian Peninsula was changing right after WWII.
Read
-----<p>The Unwritten Laws of Engineering - King & Skakoon
The Epic Struggle of the Internet of Things - Bruce Sterling
The Dilbert Future : Thriving on Stupidity in the 21st Century
Always Postpone Meetings with Time-Wasting Morons - Scott Adams<p>The Straight Dope Tells All<p>Currently Reading<p>The Mahabharata - This is an epic<p>Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet
Recently read:<p>Programming Elixir - Dave Thomas<p>Introducing Elixir - Simon St. Laurent and J. David Eisenberg<p>The Swift Programming Language - Apple<p>Currently reading:<p>Functional Programming in Swift - Chris Eidhof, Florian Kugler, and Wouter Swierstra<p>Recently purchased but not started:<p>The Algorithm Design Manual - Steven S Skiena<p>Sipping from time to time:<p>Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics - Jonathan Wilson
I just finished Feynman's Rainbow by Mlodinow. It's an interesting look at Feynman and Gell-Man. It was a little lighter on Feynman moments than I expected, but certainly worth the read. I took a break from the 3rd Game of Thrones book to read that.
I'm a good way through Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.<p>So far it has given a lot of insight into his upbringing and general history that would be the bedrock of his philosophy. Hopefully it gets into how he identified and executed on his business strategies.
Recently finished Freakonomics (S Dubner & S Levitt) and East of Eden (Steinbeck). Highly recommend the latter, but Freakonomics was a bit of a disappointment, possibly because it was overhyped to me beforehand. Worth a read, though.
Reading: "A Game Design Vocabulary" by Anna Anthropy and Naomi Clark.<p>It's good, I recommend it. She addresses quite well what I think is wrong with a lot of indie games these days, and offers insightful ideas to making games better.
Read:<p>Zero to One - Peter Thiel<p>Traction Book - Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares<p>Currently Reading:<p>How to win friends and influence people - Dale Carnegie
Understanding A3 Thinking: A Critical Component of Toyota's PDCA Management System (Sobek II and Smalley)<p>Data Smart: Using Data Science To Transform Information into Insight (Foreman)<p>An Everlasting Meal (Waters and Adler)<p>Product Design and Development (Ulrich et al)
Currently Reading:<p>Good Strategy, Bad Strategy
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11721966-good-strategy-bad-strategy" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11721966-good-strategy-b...</a>
This is an interesting site, which started up recently, producing short stories paired with music.<p><a href="http://musicandmythology.com/mm0.html" rel="nofollow">http://musicandmythology.com/mm0.html</a>
Currently read and recently read, in no particular order:<p>Modern C++ Design (Andrei Alexandrescu)<p>The Screenwriter's Bible (David Trottier)<p>Clean Code (Robert Cecil Martin)<p>Il Codice da Vinci (Dan Brown)<p>The Anatomy of Story (John Truby)<p>A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton Malkiel)<p>The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg)
Evidence-Based Technical Analysis - David Aronson ; Chapters 4 and 5 give a very accessible explanation of statistical inference through the use of sampling distributions. It's an excellent book.
Code Complete, 2nd Edition.<p>Rating [<i>][</i>][<i>][</i>][<i>][</i>][<i>][ ][ ][ ] => [7]<p>Level [</i>][<i>][</i>][<i>][</i>][*][ ][ ][ ][ ] => [6]<p>Basic => Intermediate<p>Pages => 753<p>This is a generalist book with lots of references to more advanced topics about programming.
Currently reading:<p>Where The Golden Apples Grow, Kage Baker<p>Ten Things Every Child with Autism Wishes You Knew, Ellen Notbohm<p>Atypical: Life With Asperger's in 20 1/2 Chapters, Jesse A. Saperstein<p>Unframed: The Art of Improvisation for Game Masters<p>Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
The Turning Point (book) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turning_Point_(book)</a>
Just finished:
Ready Player One and
The Riftwar Saga (both very enjoyable)<p>Reading: Predictably Irrational (more substance than most business books I've read)
Reading: How to Lie with Statistics - Darrell Huff<p>A very entertaining read: throughout the short book, Huff satirically likens abusers of statistics to criminals.
Recently read:<p>Fluent in 3 Months - Benny Lewis<p>Currently reading:<p>The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger<p>Looking forward to:<p>Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking)
Zero To One - Peter Thiel<p>Tribes - Seth Godin<p>The Four Agreements - Miguel Angel Ruiz (life changing) The<p>Seven Spiritual Laws of Success - Deepak Chopra<p>These are some that I am reading/read recently.
-- Read --<p>Don Delillo: End Zone<p>Luc Ferry: A Brief History of Thought<p>Brett Easton Ellis: Less Than Zero<p>-- Working on --<p>Don Delillo: Libra<p>Hubert Dreyfuss: Being in the World (it's taking me a long time...)
Reading:<p>Michaelangelo - A Life in Six Masterpieces<p>Proving Darwin - Making Biology Mathematical<p>Handmade Electronic Music - The Art of Hardware Hacking
Read:
The Fall of Hyperion<p>Reading:
Eloquent Javascript 2nd edition
Learn You a Haskell for Great Good<p>Next:<p>Discworld series<p>Secrets of The Javascript Ninja