Think Joyce writing about a revolutionary plot in the Petersburg of 1910-something, involving patricide and a time-bomb set for 24 hours from now. Yeah.
That and slowly working through Proust (book 5). I'm not sure if I really recommend it, but I'd be interested to hear thoughts from other smarty-pants HN people.
Petersburg is exactly what I wanted to read once school ends. All this CS and math work makes me want to just discorporate myself into a ridiculous, subjective work.
It changed the way I think about pricing, among other things, forever. He makes some wild conclusions then backs them up with scientific experiments. Its a fun read to boot.
"The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson - he's really good journalist and writes well. This is an interesting read about the newish "psychopaths everywhere" meme.
I recently reread Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses.
I was prompted to do so by another book discussion. Not his best book - I think Blood Meridian and The Road are better - but McCarthy is a great writer.
For nerd non-fiction, I just read Jim Lovell's Lost Moon which though not a great book, is a good solid book about greatness.
I'd highly recommend any Scalzi book. The Old Man's War trilogy is great, but if you're after something more light-hearted then The Android's Dream or Agent to the Stars are also great.
What picture can we paint of the universe if we take together the best theories we have about fundamental things like time, life, virtual reality, cosmology etc. Easily the best book i've read in recent years.
Consider that Deutsch is a very distinguished scientist in the field of quantum cryptography/computing. He is really good at explaining things in terms that non-physicists and experts alike can learn a lot!
---------------
Roadside Picnic - Strugatzky
Soviet Science Fiction book about the first and only visit
of earth by aliens. The approach is very unusual since there is never any direct contact between humans and the extra
terrestrial intelligence. The book is more like a study of human society and how it could develop if suddenly there was some extremely advanced technology available to us which we are too primitive to understand/control.
[+] [-] mixonic|14 years ago|reply
The Master & Margarita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Master_and_Margarita
Goethe's Faust & the story of Pontius Pilate retold in 1930s Russia. Really, I mean really damn good. Very readable.
Books 1 & 2 of The Gulag Archipelago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago
An expansive history of the Soviet prison camp system, almost a folk history.
Petersburg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petersburg_(novel)
Think Joyce writing about a revolutionary plot in the Petersburg of 1910-something, involving patricide and a time-bomb set for 24 hours from now. Yeah.
That and slowly working through Proust (book 5). I'm not sure if I really recommend it, but I'd be interested to hear thoughts from other smarty-pants HN people.
[+] [-] yolesaber|14 years ago|reply
Which translation would you recommend?
Also, if you enjoyed the darker parts of The Master and Margarita, I highly recommend Blaise Cendras' Moravagine (http://www.amazon.com/Moravagine-York-Review-Books-Classics/...).
[+] [-] jnorthrop|14 years ago|reply
It changed the way I think about pricing, among other things, forever. He makes some wild conclusions then backs them up with scientific experiments. Its a fun read to boot.
[+] [-] steventruong|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mixonic|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mindcrime|14 years ago|reply
The Four Steps To The Epiphany - Steve Blank
Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Business Model Generation - Alexander Osterwalder
[+] [-] pg|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DanBC|14 years ago|reply
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-Is-Not-Your-City/dp/1932511911)
"The Psychopath Test" by Jon Ronson - he's really good journalist and writes well. This is an interesting read about the newish "psychopaths everywhere" meme.
[+] [-] brudgers|14 years ago|reply
I was prompted to do so by another book discussion. Not his best book - I think Blood Meridian and The Road are better - but McCarthy is a great writer.
For nerd non-fiction, I just read Jim Lovell's Lost Moon which though not a great book, is a good solid book about greatness.
[+] [-] omgsean|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dtbx|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] klaut|14 years ago|reply
Accidental Genius - Mark Levy
[+] [-] semira|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aorshan|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] latch|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robotmay|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brudgers|14 years ago|reply
Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson
[+] [-] blrsk|14 years ago|reply
Discours de la Methode - Descartes
[+] [-] tchock|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gyardley|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdelard|14 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tiplus|14 years ago|reply
freedom - daniel suarez
[+] [-] peterwiese|14 years ago|reply
A biography of Paul Dirac. Very good.
---------------
The Fabric of the Universe - David Deutsch
What picture can we paint of the universe if we take together the best theories we have about fundamental things like time, life, virtual reality, cosmology etc. Easily the best book i've read in recent years. Consider that Deutsch is a very distinguished scientist in the field of quantum cryptography/computing. He is really good at explaining things in terms that non-physicists and experts alike can learn a lot!
---------------
Roadside Picnic - Strugatzky
Soviet Science Fiction book about the first and only visit of earth by aliens. The approach is very unusual since there is never any direct contact between humans and the extra terrestrial intelligence. The book is more like a study of human society and how it could develop if suddenly there was some extremely advanced technology available to us which we are too primitive to understand/control.
[+] [-] xxiao|14 years ago|reply
seriously though, i use books as a reference and just hack along, i mean technical books, for non-tech books, i have not read them for years.
[+] [-] bugmenot|14 years ago|reply
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