Ask HN: Favorite Books of the Year?

2 points by kevinlou 6 years ago | 2 comments

I'd like to know what books HN loved this year. I'm about to hop on a 13 hour flight, and desperately need some good reads.

domnomnom 6 years ago |

I liked Taleb's Antifragile. It presents the idea that by increasing conveniences and doing other things which decrease the volatility of the natural world, we in the end make the system more fragile (analogous to increasing systemic risk). Where his book is interesting is that it discusses the ways in which things naturally are aided in this volatility that we often like to starve off (the markets are one example). He's a former options trader with a PhD in statistics, so if those things such as epistemology, compounding uncertainty, and the disordered nature of the markets and life sound interesting to you, you'll probably like his books.

mtmail 6 years ago |

> I'm about to hop on a 13 hour flight

If you need answers fast, the HN search feature lists hundreds of answers for "ask hn favorite book', 'ask hn best book' on multiple topics, fiction and non-fiction.

I quite liked the 'Ask HN: What books changed the way you think about almost everything?' https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19087418

Personally I added the audio book 'Salt: A World History' for my next long flight.