Ask HN: What should I read this summer?

9 points by nahcub 12 years ago | 8 comments

I'm looking to compile a reading list for this summer, and I'm sure other HNers would love to have a list of suggestions from the community.

I'll read just about anything, so what are some of your favorite books, both fiction and nonfiction?

dirktheman 12 years ago |

I'm re-reading all the classics they made you read in high school. Melville, Darwin, Machiavelli, Kafka, Camus, Kant, you name it. At the time, I didn't realize why they were so highly regarded. Now that my mind matured somewhat I'm beginning to see.

A good example of this is The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. I read it a good 20 years ago as part of an English literature assignment. It wasn't too hard to read, but I didn't think much of it at the time. I re-read it last year, and was blown away, not only because I read a lot more on the Great Depression/Dust Bowl period, but also because of the writing style of Steinbeck. Hemingway: the same. The tone, the rhythm, the choice of words... pure art. Like this gem from The Great Gatsby (it's about turning 30): "Thirty: the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthousiasm, thinning hair". One sentence, perfectly describing the anxiety of turning 30... I could go on forever, but all I want to say is: don't forget the classics!

a3n 12 years ago |

If you skim this, you'll find decent lists amidst the false positives:

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=read#!/story/forever/0/read

Or this:

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=books#!/story/forever/0/books

Or this:

https://hn.algolia.com/?q=papers#!/story/forever/0/papers

Or this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=books%20...

My specific response to a similar query:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7620928

lawncheer 12 years ago |

I am not a Steven King fan really, have only seen 1 or 2 of his movies, and never read anything by him; but I randomly picked up 11/22/63: A Novel, and read through it in 2 days, it was awesome.

determinant 12 years ago |

I like Nate Silver's book, "The Signal and the Noise." If you read it, you shouldn't focus on the scenarios he describes specifically. You should try to take his mindset, walk away from the book, and try to decode the signal from the noise everywhere.

It's a helpful book, perhaps maybe even more so than your typical self-help book. I would have liked for such a book to have existed when I was a teenager.

karangoeluw 12 years ago | |

http://www.amazon.com/The-Signal-Noise-Many-Predictions/dp/1...

pearjuice 12 years ago |

The Harry Poter novels. Sometimes underrated, but those works are serious pieces of literature. You will learn a lot about story integrity and using your fantasy to accomplish anything your mind implies is possible.

Not only will you see a slight fathom of the concepts behind a successful chain of best-selling books, you will also have a great narrative of things which are in no way possible yet seem so extremely likely to exist.

tjr 12 years ago |

Some books I've read recently that I enjoyed:

Mindstorms and The Children's Machine by Seymour Papert

Privacy on the Line by Whitfield Diffie and Susan Landau

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea by Barbara Demick

Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men by Donald McCaig

How Children Learn the Meanings of Words by Paul Bloom

rjf1990 12 years ago |

Books that have really inspired me/changed my perspective:

Good to Great, by Jim Collins (and all his other books)

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie

Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh

Peak, by Chip Conley

As far as books I find entertaining and stimulating, but not necessarily actionable, anything by Michael Lewis or Malcolm Gladwell.