Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021?

I read a lot of books, and this is one that caused a change in my life. The succinct summary is that psychedelics are misunderstood and there is more and more research showing their potential, especially in the treatment of trauma.

I had a difficult childhood. It’s something I still struggle with personal interactions because of this, even after years of therapy. After reading Michael Pollen’s book I thought this might be something that could move the needle on my day-to-day quality of life.

I found a shaman and did an 8 hour blindfolded mushroom trip. Similar to what’s outlined in the book. Previously I’ve never done anything more than weed occasionally.

It had a profound impact on me. The way I describe it is like jumping off a diving board into a deep dark pool, and the pool is you. Then spending hours there.

I don’t know if I’d do it again but I learnt a lot about myself. I won’t proselytize here either, because the research is still early. There’s also risk because you put a lot of trust in someone who’s there with you while you’re high. But I do recommend at least reading the book.

I recommend only doing mushrooms once or twice a year at most for larger dosages and once or twice a month at most if doing 2g or less. If you do it more regularly you may have diminishing returns. Cannabis I'd do at most once a month if at all. San Pedro can also be extremely good at low dosages. Alcohol is a no go.

Please be careful with dosages, set & setting, what you ate the previous weeks, how rested you are etc. Try to source good/clean mushrooms/cannabis. Always know exactly what you put into your body. Respect those plants and their power. When feeling the effects kick in, say hello to the "spirit" and welcome him/her for visiting you, like an old friend.

I feel like people need to start talking about bad trips in a more helpful and realistic way. The info I got about put me off to tripping for years. I avoided them until my late 20s, wish i did them sooner.

I think bad trips are mostly just people who mix psychedelics with other drugs (weed is common) and freak out or aren't used to introspection (so is this really bad then?) or use irresponsibly. Like if you take 15 shots of vodka you're going to have a bad time, why is lsd any different? Or if you drink with assholes that ruin your night out why would you trip with them?

Respectfully: this is dangerous speculation. You can have a bad trip even if you do everything right, and it’s an important risk that we should highlight rather than minimize.

I believe that many psychedelic experiences are net positive, but some can be very negative for a very long time.

But if you can be clear about the risks and how to avoid them I think you'll come out fine. I don't think if psychedelics were playing some game of russian roulette like you suggest they would actually be useful in therapy.

I've had to calm people down off of bad trips. Unlike what you say, it's something that totally happens with single drugs and non hallucinogenics. Hell you can have a bad trip on alcohol.

It's all about the state of mind, and having an altered state of mind can make it much easier to start spiraling. This can happen even if you haven't taken drugs too, let's say from stress or lack of sleep. Again it's just about your mind being in a state it's uncomfortable with.

Specifically I've had friends on weed who've had anxiety attacks and deep paranoia till I calmed them down. They were completely non functional in the same way someone having a sober anxiety/panic attack would be.

I've had to help people on just E at parties who've started hyper ventilating and started having stressed delusional visions.

That's not even getting into being there for someone who's on psychedelics, where I've had friends who've suffered fairly longer lasting bouts of out of body syndrome, even after the drugs wore off because of how it affected their perception of self.

Drugs aren't the cause of a bad trip. They just increase the chances of one, and for many psychedelics, you therefore want to make sure you're in a calm, happy place. If someone is trying it for the first time, do it around people who will look out for you, and preferably those who can responsibly look after you if things do go sour.

Also I don't think you understand what im saying. bad trips aren't some mystical weird thing like people suggest. If your clear about what a bad trip is going into the experience they're avoidable and it won't scare people off. How many people are scared to trip because of a "bad trip" but will go ahead and overdo it with other substances. But people don't talk about psychedelic experiences well at all.

Even your examples with panic attacks from various sources. Its better if people drop the "bad trip" thing and inform people if you overdo it you might have a panic attack. People will say this about weed, or even caffeine but I'm not having a bad trip because i had to much coffee. Why think of psychedelics as different.

edit: i see your not fond of drugs in another post? what is your experience with psychdelics?

My understanding is that psychedelics work by disinhibiting certain self-regulatory mechanisms in the brain. This means a bad trip can come simply from a person's past, e.g. if they have some unprocessed trauma that's usually repressed, the result can easily be ugly.

I agree with you that people who already know themselves well don't need to be afraid. It's the grey area of people who don't know themselves well but perhaps want to know themselves better that can get tricky.

Psychedelics amplify your current emotions. If you feel love for the world you'll feel that 10x or 100x. If you have a panic attack, then it's the same amplification. You are correct that mixing and overdoing it are great ways to cause panic and bring on a bad trip - but bad trips really can happen if your set and setting is off. This is why people talk so much about being careful with set and setting - it is the most effective way to not play Russian roulette as you say. This is why in therapy there is always a guide - it is always in a calm place, and a therapist isn't going to recommend it for you if they see you're in the wrong mindset. But even then its not as if set and setting can somehow be measured to ensure the trip is good.

As negative as the experience was, in some ways I am glad I had it, because it gave me a much deeper understanding of where my mind could go - both positive and negative.

so true. Even weed does this to an extent. if you're comfortable within yourself you'll have the time of your life but if you're not in the right head-space, or have fear of the drug (or fear a bad trip) you'll likely have a bad trip. Even so I think it's possible to steer yourself out of it with some practice of mental exercises (while sober)

With psychedelics it helps to have experience with lower dosage or even a weaker drug (weed) where you learn how to escape "a paranoia" and steer yourself to "happier thoughts".

When I was young I've seen one of my exes, who was a cop in Singapore, have a horror trip on weed in Thailand. She really wanted to smoke but never tried anything other than alcohol and her environment was also exactly what one would expect from a cop in SG. It was a nightmare for both of us. She even wanted to try it a second time a few days later and experienced a weaker paranoia as the first time (still not a happy time). It led me to the hypothesis that she'd need many such sessions over a longer time where she could re-integrate these experiences and also that she didn't get addicted into her worldview. The amount of brainwashing she went through from her society about what drugs do and how weed will make you switch to heroin and rob banks etc ... if she was ever going to feel great on weed it wouldn't be just a few times trying. (we never smoked after the second time because why on Earth would she when it only made her feel terrible).

My brother was in an even more extreme situation doing shrooms in Sumatra with his then gf. She never wanted to take anything (other than booze) but then decided to do shrooms with him after getting very drunk (I think he also talked her into it and she might have just said yes so she could have a bad trip in order to tell him "I told you so" ... at least that's the person she was). As predicted she had the ultimate horror trip, with visuals similar in to what got peddled by anti-drug propaganda in the 70ies. A zombie or elephant face stares back from the mirror, ants and spiders all over the ceiling ready to drop on them, walls closing in, etc ... By brother panicked and suggested the only thing he knew: "smoke yourself down from a bad trip", and proceeded to "roll one" for them. She hated the idea of adding another drug on top of the first drug, because she never took anything until then (and clearly this meant that by the time she was sober she would be a junky craving crack. The idea of another drug "as cure for a bad trip for the first drug" was an outrage for her.

She eventually did agree to smoke because the visuals were so horrific. From his account of the story it did make her better. But she would never admit it when they brought it up even years later. What she remembered was both drugs had caused her major distress. She used these experience to harden her believe further that drugs are always bad 100% of the time, and there can not be any medical value for anyone. (oddly she was so psychotic and manipulative, and never learned how to communicate without resorting to drama. In hindsight it's sad because drugs could have shown her that real self so she could address these issues).

What both stories taught me is never talk anyone into taking drugs or be too quick with "offering guidance" based on my own experience. Secondly be there for them to say no, when they're drunk and ask to go "score some weed" because they're on vacation and drunk enough to try (they can still do so the next day and then turn it into a proper event/memory).

Setting and preparation is key to get something out of it. if the people you surround yourself with aren't sensitive to your feelings you're better off doing it alone or not at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Teachings_of_Don_Juan <-- I really enjoyed this (because it puts so much emphasis on preparation and respect (in yourself _and_ the drug).

Many therapists and scientists have documented their personal experience guiding hundreds, sometimes thousands of trips with strong psychedelic doses (e.g. 20mg+ synthetic psilocybin, 200mcg+ lsd). They've written entire chapters on bad trips in the context of specifically psychedelics, what are their cause, how to avoid them, and how to handle them when they occur. Research papers, books, articles, etc. It's all in there. Sometimes, even reading just a single chapter from a single book is enough (James Fadiman's The Psychedelic Explorer's Guide is quite accessible. https://tripsafe.org/ also offers good advice)

Acquiring that knowledge requires to actually sit down and read the stuff. Sadly, what we have around us is people usually just spewing anecdotes and opinions.

If you're considering taking the journey, do yourself a favor and research the topic a bit before. You might be surprised at the amount of misinformation that's out there (and in these very threads).

Just for interest sake, my medical aid has paid around $2000 dollars worth of mental healthcare bills in total over three years (it's a lot for my country, but a fraction for Americans). I'd say the value/progress received from the mental health route has been utterly slow where a handful of mushrooms has had the best effects of my life. Going the shaman/Aya route is like pouring paint stripper on your soul, where you can then have a peek at your inner workings - its is not for the faint of heart. I do not regret doing it but I also advocate caution. You cannot unsee/unfeel the things you experience, some of it is positive and some might be negative.

So yeah, all round worth it to do it via a shaman. Especially if you have tried normal mental health care and you aren't making progress. I feel all adults should do it as a rite of passage of sorts, especially anyone in positions of power.

As to shamen part, I do recommend reading the book. There’s a lot on “set and setting” which goes into this.

I never really knew it was that hard to find/source said items. They aren't marketed publicly, but if you're in the right community they're available, usually for free.

Psychedelics have a powerful community online from numerous forums, to websites such as Erowid and Psychonauts, which have their own discords. You can also find like minded people on meetup, or facebook groups.

Or, what all the cool kids do - music festivals and camping.

Is the shaman really that necessary? AS for doing it again, more and more psychdelics and chemicals with neuro effects are being legalized such as Ketamine IV treatment.

There's also a whole semi famous association with it, MAPS.org, which has been increasing in membership, and governance creation and paid studies that show that psychedelics time and time again have a positive role in society.

Then again, maybe Shaman isn't so different from a Doctor or N.P.

Just curious information, ever since Barnes & Noble highlisted this book when published, it really took off and this small world now seems to be mainstream.

I don't like drugs personally, but my closest social group has always been heavy drug users during my teens and early twenties (dealing with them is probably why I don't like drugs myself). I've always known where to go get stuff even though I don't partake in that lifestyle myself.

Now when I describe that time in my life to my wife and more straight laced friends, they're surprised because they assume finding drugs or a "shaman" is difficult, or part of some seedy underbelly of society with crimelords etc... But really it's no different than knowing someone who is into any other niche.

Also the idea of a shaman eludes me. Most "shamans" I've met are hucksters. They basically serve the purpose of guiding you in a trip, being a hype person and (assuming an experienced one) knowing how to deal with any issues that arise.

A "shaman" can just as easily be replaced by a good friend at home. Most people just do it for the experience IMHO, but there's nothing special about one.

Taking 1 gram of cubensis and taking 5 grams will not have the same effect.

Traditionally, strong psychedelic doses tend to be administered for therapeutic/spiritual journeys. It's preferable that it would be in the presence of someone who's truly knowledgeable about that process (shaman, guide, therapist, etc). It's true in practically any culture, whether in Africa, in the Americas, or elsewhere. And there are reasons why it is so, which is all explained in those books and papers.

- The Case against Education by Bryan Caplan, discussing the merits of signalling theory (the point of education is to signal your intelligence and conscientiousness) as opposed to human capital theory (education genuinely makes you a better worker with more skills). Didn't find it totally convincing but it was a fun and interesting read.

- The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality by Kathryn Harden, a wonderful book on how hereditary IQ is, and why that is a good case for redistribution, given that IQ is so predictive of wealth/income

- The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson, a biography of Jennifer Doudna, the woman who founded CRISPR and won the Nobel prize. Great read, thrilling.

- My Struggle book 1, by Karl Ove Knausgård. Haven't finished this yet, just started it a few days ago - about 300 pages in. Great, great novel, one of the best I've read in a while.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48890486-breath

I have previously taken courses in the Wim Hof Method and marvelled at the dramatic increase in energy that it gave me, not to mention an increased ability to be warm when I want to be and to tolerate the cold, something which being a relatively stationary software developer has negatively affected over the years.

This book touches on Wim Hof but covers the approaches and results of many other practitioners as well as traditional methods, blending together science writing and reporting of results with engaging storytelling, making it a fun, light and quick read.

As someone who likes to experiment with this kind of thing I went ahead and tried things like lightly taping my mouth shut while sleeping and was amazed to feel the difference when I didn't do it. Meanwhile I've experimented with only breathing through my nose when exercising (including exhaling) and have observed that my heart rate has stayed lower and my thinking clearer when under pressure in a jiu-jitsu class.

In the same week that I started reading the book I had a grading, and the instructors repeated again and again the reminder to breathe in through the nose, advice echoed in the book. To them it is common sense that if you start panting (breathing hard in and out using your mouth) that you won't be able to perform well in that kind of high-pressure scenario.

If you are looking for a light read over the holidays and are interested in health/wellness then I can thoroughly recommend this book.

The book is even freely available on the author’s site! I wish I’d found this years ago.

0: https://dspguide.com

I like that the author takes time to actually explain the concepts with words before getting into the mathy stuff, whereas it seems like a lot of books on topics like this will lead with "The <whatever whatever> is defined as <math equation with 17 symbols in it>. Thus, we can <do complex next-level thing> and <I will never explain what any of those symbols mean>"

I mean, if you're using your CS degree for Haskell, I'd recommend something like O + S instead!

https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=MoIOAwAAQBAJ

I've never been sure how to sum up these books. They're thoroughly strange fantasy books, oddly written and frequently chewy reads. They have an interest in politics and metaphysics; but they also have magical railguns, the sorcerous application of FOOF [1], and a five-ton battle-sheep named Eustace.

The first book is fairly straightforward: A quiet backwater of the Commonweal is under threat, and its only defense is an understrength territorial battalion, a handful of experimental artillery pieces, and three of the mightiest sorcerers of the age.

Then the second book (A Succession of Bad Days) isn't at all about the military, and is more like the weirdest going-to-sorcery-school book I've ever read. It also has an extended, detailed section on using sorcery in canal construction. If you ever wanted a book about the best ways to use magic in the service of civil engineering, this series is your jam.

These books really aren't for everyone, but I kind of love them, and they aren't widely known, so I'll always take an opportunity to shill them.

[1] https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/things-i-won-t-wor...

A delightful, completed serial that tells an alternate story of the world since 1968, when Apollo 8 crashed into the crystal fabric of the sky and fundamentally broke the machinery of the universe. Now science no longer works, the old ways have power and sometimes people go to bed on Monday to wake up on Wednesday.

I loved the way the fiction intertwined with reality.

Exodus 15:3 says “The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is His Name.” But this verse is ambiguous: “man of war” can mean either a type of Portuguese jellyfish or a type of British warship. Which one is the LORD? I suggest that He is the latter. A jellyfish is a primitive and ignorant animal, unworthy to be compared to the glories of God. But a warship is mighty and inspires awe, and divine comparisons are entirely suitable; indeed, God may be the only thing worthy of being compared to it. For it is written, “The LORD alone is worthy of warship.”

Relevant quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8050527-please-asked-the-gi...

“Please?” asked the girl.

“I AM BUSY. I AM TRYING TO FIX CONTINENTAL DRIFT.”

“I…didn’t know it was broken.”

Uriel’s face became more animated, his speech faster.

“IT HAS BEEN BROKEN FOR FIVE WEEKS AND FIVE DAYS. I THINK IT BROKE WHEN I RELOADED NEW ZEALAND FROM A BACKUP COPY, BUT I DO NOT KNOW WHY. MY SYNCHRONIZATION WAS IMPECCABLE AND THE CHANGE PROPAGATED SIMULTANEOUSLY ACROSS ALL SEPHIROT. I THINK SOMEBODY BOILED A GOAT IN ITS MOTHER’S MILK. IT IS ALWAYS THAT. I KEEP TELLING PEOPLE NOT TO DO IT, BUT NOBODY LISTENS.”

- The Hail Mary Project by Andy Weir (of the Martian). Nice page turner and he's back to form with his third novel.

- Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Enjoyable and fun; though arguably not his finest work. I might pick up his earlier work for re-reading over Christmas. Anathem probably, which I would recommend to anyone.

- Leviathan Falls (part 9 and the last one of the Expanse series). James S.A. Corey (the writer duo). The whole series was quite enjoyable and this is a fitting end to it.

Thanks for pointing out the new book by Neal Stephenson, I didn't know he'd released that and will probably check it out.

I also read the hail Mary project which I thought was an enjoyable light read, but nothing too special.

[1]: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/1471168495312420877

It identified so many of the "edges" of society and how I think about and interact with the world, on a daily basis.

Without a doubt one of the best books I've ever read. Maybe even the best.

The only other book that came close this year was Robert Sapolsky's A Primate's Memoir.

Tony said that first and last sentences in her books were very important to her. To this day I remember that the book begins “There was a wall.” And at the end: “His hands were empty, as they had always been.”

Her writing style exemplifies St. Exupery's quote about perfection being "...when there is nothing left to take away."

Very nice to read science fiction that is about people rather than things.

Insanely nice book and it was easy to read!

It's a bit depressing that academia works the way it does, but in a twisted way it gives me hope that I could make a significant contribution somewhere by just tinkering or following what feels interesting. Even if there are tens of thousands of people working in an area like AI, most of them are just making incremental improvements to what already exists, so there could be an opening for independent people to do something interesting still.

Honorable mention to Children of Time and its sequel. Gripping sci-fi story about transforming, interactions between humans and computers, and other beings. Imaginative world about cultures very different from own own, and how they might evolve under different evolutionary conditions.

Also, honorable mention to Project Hail Mary.

Such a marvelous trilogy.

I'll be honest, the first read of the Baroque Cycle took me some time and I came close to putting it down. I've since re-read it about six or seven times. Most of his books get better when you re-read them.

I'm looking forward to re-reading Termination Shock probably some time next year.

- several William Gibson novels between 1995-2008 - Most of the ender's game series and home coming from 80's to 2008. - Between 2008 and 2018 I read only 1 novel, which was Ready Player One. - From 2019 to today I've ready 40+ novels: The Expanse, Red Rising, Bobiverse, Planetside, Magic 2.0, Singularity Trap, Vicarious, NPC, Childeren of Time, Project Hail Mary, Fuzzy Nation, Space Between Worlds, The Salvage Crew.

I feel like I've exhausted sci-fi and have been checking out fantasy novels like Riyria. I've been having a hard time finding something new to sink my teeth into. Piranesi was weird but good.

It’s just so small in scope compared to the following books that I forget that its entire appeal is just how unknown the unknowns are and how much potential it sets up for the rest of the story.

A few years later and I read Seveneves. Absolutely fall in love, and read Anathem right after. Loved it too.

To this day I still don’t understand why the first book felt so boring and the others didn’t. To make it worse, when you go looking for a synopsis of Cryptonomicon, everyone is so vague!

That said, maybe I was expecting something very different. I enjoyed Snowcrash and I enjoyed various sections of Cryptonomicon’s prose, it was just sooooo boring in the end.

This year I read Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity' by David Graeber and David Wengrow [0]. And found it much more nuanced, interesting and believable. Harari's narrative is just too slick.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29316008

I’d suggest reading both books. One for the scaffolding and the other for color.

I received this book as a gift earlier this year and I thought it might be one of the most incredible books I've ever encountered.

What I liked about it is how it paints everything in very broad strokes so that you get to see humanity's place in the big picture.

It did have the side effect of leaving me very cynical afterwards, though. I'd think to myself "We're all apes"; All those accomplishments I'm so proud of are rather silly, and had things turned out slightly differently we'd still be hanging around under trees and scared of predators.

It also had the side effect of getting me to go play Far Cry Primal afterwards, just to get a little taste of what our ancestors might've experienced.

This particular story with large mammals is a good example. The assumed causality does not hold closer scrutiny. Climate was also changing into something that works better for humans, and into worse for large mammals. There were many things at play. Humans may had or may not have had a role. However, it is very unlikely that humans had a defining role.

Good read nevertheless! Changed my mind how I view humans as mammals, and made me dig deeper into the topic.

https://books.j11g.com/search.php?log=3

Three books from 2021 stick out:

- If This Is a Man by Primo Levi. I would urge everyone to read this. This history should be known to everyone.

- Defying Hitler (the story of a German 1914 - 1933) by Sebastian Haffner. Masterfully written autobiography that explains the rise of nazi Germany more than any other history book I ever read.

And one more for the HN crowd:

- The hard thing about hard things by Ben Horowitz. Often tipped, but it really is an insightful book, and a fun read.

I am also reading JFK by Logeval, which describes the same events as seen (or unseen) from the outside of Germany. Being able to watch events unfold from those two perspectives is just fascinating.

A couple of the issues I had: - The story is a bit contradictory in that "Psychohistory can't predict the live of 1 person" and then the story repetitively relies on a single person to pull people through Seldon Crises.

- The entire story is a stereo typical "battle of wits" and you can instantly predict who will win/lose by their emotionality (if they are emotional, they will lose, if they are calm, they will win).

It’s like Asimov’s entire timeline, a series of visionaries steering the world in the direction they want. Except there’s an additional challenge, in that they have to act without derailing Seldon’s goals. I think the books do a great job of showing that conflict.

Edit: agreed about the battle of wits aspect, but that’s also just Asimov being himself.

After reading "the Phoenix project" a couple of years ago a good deal of it was predictable but that doesn't prevent it from being very interesting.

(To be completely honest I listened to it instead of reading it myself, but I still think it counts.)

Another interesting audiobook is "The Minuteman" maybe only available through Audible. It is a story of part of the fight against nazism in America.

Only annoying thing about it is the author at a couple of places tries to equate that fight with todays antifa, which leaves a rather sour taste there and then but is forgotten a minute or to later because the book is otherwise really interesting and I enjoy stories of nazis getting punched and otherwise punished and people getting away with it.

The one take-away I'm still thinking about is how the Tor Onion Router system works, and if the primary purpose behind Tor was to allow spies in various locations around the planet to communicate with known headquarter locations without leaving any traces. That's what Levine implies, anyway, and Snowden sort of confirms that, as I read things.

Overall, some people believe putting advanced technology in the hands of individuals is a solution to authoritarian control, some people believe political reforms are the solution to authoritarian control. Interesting debate certainly.

It's a great business book in the form of an ok novel, and everyone who cares about management or has consistent stress at work should read it.

A lot of writers try to set their own rules, but according to the best, you need limitations to be creative. Just like you would play sports with rules. That rulebook is Poetics.

It's the kind of book that's so information dense that you have to read it slowly. Summaries are often as long as the book itself.

There's some aging in there. Notably the concept of hamartia has changed from "mistake" to "sin" over a few hundred years. Good stories were all tragedy back then, where a noble person makes a mistake. And the audience is fearful because if this superior person can make mistakes, what about me?

Since Christianity, the philosophy has been that everyone makes mistakes, but repenting for it saves you from tragedy. And more popular now is a reversal. Some tries to slay a monster, but the monster is too perfect. But eventually the monster suffers from hamartia (missing the mark, making human sins) and the hero exploits that to win.

Besides drama, the book also covers actual poetry and music, both of which have their own limitations, but that part was all Greek to me.

So did it just take 1,600 years for that critical advance to express itself, or something? I judge Greek technology (and all technology is the result of scientific failures) to be greater than Medieval technology. Maybe you mean a "Protestant forgiveness?"

Specifically, David Mamet and Aaron Sorkin, who directly tells everyone to read Poetics. But also anyone who engages in poetry and lyrics; the whole idea of poetry is adding limits and seeing what you can do with it.

Think of it like chords in music, or moves on a game. If you play tennis and anyone can just kick or throw the ball, that's not very fun.

It's actually opposite to adversity, the constraint is supposed to _help_ the creative process.

Those who have a computer science background will almost definitely love the book. It connects many dots that are previously seemingly unrelated. My jaw dropped for literally every few pages of most chapters.

"A Mind at Play" is a good book on Shannon's life and "The Bit Player" is a good partner movie to watch :)

"A Mathematical Theory of Communication" and "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits" paved the way for much of modern computing.

"The Lies of Locke Lamora"

I found this book because I just finished playing Dishonored 2 and I wanted to read a book with a dystopian steampunk alternative-Victorian vibe.

The events take place in a gritty, corrupt city of waterways and canals controlled by different factions. The factions represent either the legitimate nobility or the extensive underground criminal empire. A charismatic leader of a small young group of thieves and pickpockets comes up with an epic, layered con that will break sacred agreements and make him enemies with everyone - and pulls it off.

What an odd critique: Lincoln did this great thing, but he didn't invent it, so who cares?

Beyond that being an odd critique, I've read that book twice and although Goodwin highly praises Lincoln's leadership style, I don't recall her assuring us that that was an "innovation" at all. Of course, like most book critics, this writer spent more time on snark than citations.

Completely tears apart recent trendy anthro books like Sapiens for ignoring both old and very new research and tries to set a new framework for understanding humanity’s potential

https://srslywrong.com/podcast/242-the-dawn-of-the-dawn-of-e...

It made me reflect on our current state of affairs.

Covid was and still is a test of the value systems of the so called "Western" or "first world" societies.

We have failed this test through and through.

On a local level, many people didn't care about their communities enough to mask and vaxx and in turn the communities had no way to pressure them. Many, many people have mental health problems -- and I only mean the pandemic induced ones -- and are suffering alone because we do not help each other. Parents were forced to navigate this modern life with kids suddenly at home trying to distance learn. And, again, there was no help.

On a global level, these richer countries didn't supply the poorer countries with vaccines and help to distribute them. More than 80% of the population of Africa is not vaccinated. As humanity, we didn't help each other.

Complete failure.

> As humanity, we didn't help each other.

This was one of the aspects that has stuck with me. Where an indigenous leader visiting Europe comments on affairs of the French society. He says how can you (French) completely ignore the destitute sleeping on your city streets and call yourself a civilized society?

If I introspect, it’s clear that, at least in the cities, helping other humans has completely vanished. It’s literally every human for themselves. Community support has completely vanished.

1. The Suburban Experiment in America [0]

2. The decrease of church membership throughout America [1]

I can speak to my second point a bit more in depth. Churches historically were centers of communities and social places. And as time moves on we as a society are (rightly so) becoming very suspicious of religion and churches in our lives (I grew up _very_ religious but I no longer am).

In my eyes, modern 21st century Christianity is very very different than it was even before the 1960s. It seems the cultural ideologies have shifted from service oriented to worship oriented. In my evangelical church the focus was on putting Jesus (the symbol) higher than literally everything else in your life in order to achieve "eternal salvation" in heaven. The main focus was just believing that Jesus came back to life after being crucified was the only way to get to heaven. There was less focus on service, empathy, and equality. People are leaving in droves because of this. I can go on about more changes that I've noticed, but I'll spare details.

We need to build new in-person social centers that are not built on mythologies and symbolism but instead more focused on society itself like the churches of old were.

[0] https://www.strongtowns.org/curbside-chat-1/2015/12/14/ameri...

[1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/248837/church-membership-down-s...

I recommend “Against the Grain” and also “Pre Industrial Societies.” They give a really good perspective on human life and the structures we create. One of my favourite quotes is: the hallmarks of a state: appropriation, inequality and hierarchy.

Grains are the only agricultural product that can grow an early state, because it can be easily taxed, it’s fungible so you can pay with it, and people can’t run off with their field and canals to somewhere else.

It’s kind of a wonderful point that without the taxman there would be no civilisation.

I'm prone to bursting into laughter with that book, and my kids quickly found it very funny as well. They could almost immediately divine the next contradiction in the narrative.

- The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee - A very well written narrative of medicine's fight against cancer (though the author also goes into detail into other aspects of pre-modern medicine) that really executes on explaining how modern day cancer treatment came to be and what are the probable next steps towards a cure.

It's chock full of ideas that any technologist would find fascinating. A post-singularity society in which those who "got there first" ascended to technological godhood, and the rest mostly fight for comparative scraps. Those scraps are phenomenally interesting though, and the many ways the book assumes and implies generations of growth in technology make for some truly out-there settings and cultures. If you liked the part of Anathem where you had no idea what was going on at first, but slowly learned the ways of the world as you read on... you'd love this book.

I’ve been stuck in sci-fi for 3 years straight and thought I was finally going to read something else before 2022.

Bah humbug!

From my level of background knowledge, it was really well-written. He talks about how to think about emissions, and breaks down global emissions into its biggest categories (eg. transportation, electricity generation, etc). As well as promising methods for decreasing emissions in each of these classes. I think the style would really suit a HN audience.

In the same vein, not books but documentaries, I learned a lot from three Andy Warhol documentaries on YouTube: "The Life of Andy Warhol", "Andy Warhol - The Complete Picture", and "BBC Modern Masters 1of4 - ANDY WARHOL"

From those I learned about the art business, how much Warhol loved money (he left an estate or around 400 million dollars) and how much of this applies to today's world of art related NFT speculation.

Its main thesis is that the main driver of megapolitical change are shifts in the risk/reward payoffs of violence. Was written in '97 but still talks about cryptocurrency and things like that. Interesting book.

The ideas Isaac Asimov put forward in I, Robot (written in the 1940/50s!) juxtaposed with a factual description of the current use of AI and the unusual side effects was really cool.

0: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44286534-you-look-like-a...

1: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41804.I_Robot

It has a completely different feel than Tolkien's writing, and sort of stuffs something resembling Cold War politics into Middle Earth. It's obsurd, but somehow makes perfect sense.

I originally saw it recommended on hn, so thank you whoever you were!

Recommended!

I went out and bought The Road but for some reason or another haven't yet started it (have watched the film though).

I read The Road, and it was so sufficiently “effective” in its descriptions and it’s setting that I’m happy never reading another McCarthy book again. Glad I did once.

I will watch the movies though!

It's an insightful book into geopolitics, looking at the present through analysis of the past and the geography that influences it. In much the same way, it discusses the future and what might come next. If you're already engrossed in geopolitics literature you might not learn much, but if not - and you're interested - I recommend it. It gives a level of analysis that news reports don't go anywhere near, and it's given me a much wider perspective of the world and more nuanced view of current events. Its also well written.

Being You - A New Science of Consciousness by Anil Seth (2021). A clear and readable account of approaches to dissolving the hard problem of consciousness.

Open Society and its Enemies by Karl Popper (1945). Plato, totalitarianism, and why democracy is good.

These are available as audiobooks.

I read this book for the second time this year, the two hundredth anniversary of its publication. It was a bestseller in the nineteenth century and led to many spinoffs, but nobody seems to read it anymore. A scan of an 1869 reprint is at [1]. The Wikipedia article is at [2].

I don’t know if this is a good book—the characters and plotting are thin, and the obsolete slang and topical humor make it difficult to read—but there seems to be a premodern masterpiece of postmodernism lurking in its self-referentiality and its dense, rambling prose. Even the footnotes have footnotes [3].

[1] https://archive.org/details/tomjerrylifeinlo00egan/page/n9/m...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_in_London_(novel)

[3] https://archive.org/details/tomjerrylifeinlo00egan/page/64/m...

Speaking of unread books, this year I compiled a list of fifty nineteenth century novels that nobody seems to read anymore [1]. I’ve read a couple of them myself, and they were reasonably entertaining. Maybe others on the list are as well.

[1] https://blog.archive.org/2021/07/14/forgotten-novels-of-the-...

NB: Dylan Moran

This book changed my thinking on so many different topics - the US healthcare economy, the rise of Trumpism, and the erosion of the industrial Mid-West. This book really opened by eyes to those communities that have never recovered from the Great Recession and explains so much of what we have seen politically since 2016, including the current left-right Covid split. Highly recommend for anyone who wants to get even more angry at the current state of our healthcare system.

* Chronicles of My Life by Donald Keene. If you ever read much Japanese literature in translation (at least before a particular era) you'll recognize the name, and Keene's life was fascinating. Breezy, fun read.

* The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. I was skeptical, and had unfavorable views of this book based on impressions I'd formed by reading reviews, but once I read it and gave it a try... she was totally right about nearly everything she wrote and it literally was "life-changing." I got rid of a ton of detritus and ultimately going through the process of purging my things gave me the boldness to accept a job offer on the other side of the country and take off. The process also drastically changed my shopping habits -- I simply buy much less than I used to, not out of a conscious desire to be "minimalist," but out of recognition that I don't necessarily really want things all that much (though thinking about how much trouble it was to throw things away doesn't hurt).

* California: A History by Kevin Starr. About all you could ask for from a one-volume history... nice little primer to my new home state.

I was searching for the meaning of happiness, what makes me happy and how to maintain it.

Before reading the book, my mind was wired that programming is my passion (as I've been doing it for 20+ years now). While reading and reflecting, I discovered that DIY is my passion! I love create things and programming was the tool that allowed me to enjoy that satisfaction.

- The Story of My Experiments with Truth, the autobiography of Mohandas K. Gandhi (English Version)

- Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford

- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

- Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

- The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

- Ego is the Enemy, Stillness Is the Key, and The Obstacle Is the Way; all 3 books by Ryan Holiday

- Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls by Mary Pipher[2]

1. https://brajeshwar.com/2021/books-of-2021/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reviving_Ophelia

Bit of feels near the end.

The short answer is that the first book was inspired by an idea he had while talking to a professor about the rise and fall of civilizations.

The others were inspired by pressure by publishers to repeat success, and so he tried to improve and continue the story. This lead him to try and carry the story with characters, which was ironically not why people liked the first book.

The Mule was alright though, even if a little forced.

But of course, part of the enjoyment should come from the book itself. I'd say that the book does get better as new threats to the Foundation appear, but the premise largely stays the same throughout the trilogy: will the Seldon Plan succeed?

(NOTE) The reading sequence for me went something like: 1. Caves of Steel 2. Naked Sun 3. I, Robot 4. Robots of Dawn 5. Foundation Trilogy

EDIT: remove redundant last paragraph

Certainly not anywhere near as bad as the Three Body Problem, as far as HN recommended books go, but I think I’m still going to have to start avoiding books recommended here.

To answer the original question (and remain within sci-fi), then new Andy Weir book Project Hail Mary was pretty good. Not quite on the level of The Martian, but good enough to recommend to others.

In any case, I've read "Mantel Pieces" which is a collection of Hillary Mantel's reviews for the London Review of Books, and it's an insane display of powerful language. Mantel has a brutal clarity coupled with restrained playfulness that just blows me away.

Take this picture of what it must feel like to be a small child:

> “For some time now you have been able to take your eyes off your own feet without the general danger of falling over; that’s the stage of walking you are up to.”

> “I’m sticking by my joke. I know it’s ridiculous, but it’s the only joke I’ve got.”

or on Robbespierre:

> “For most people, the era of selfless risk-taking is a phase. It irritates their elders while it lasts; though sometimes, in political movements, those elders find a way to exploit it. But then, if young persons survive their ideals, something happens which surprises them: they learn a trade, they develop ambitions, they fall in love, they get a stake in life. Or simply time passes, and middle age beckons, with its shoddy compromises. But for the Incorruptible, idealism was not a phase. He kept his vision carefully in his head through his twenties and carried it carefully to Versailles, where he arrived a few days before his 31st birthday.”

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56269270

And yet, I did. Whenever I had a free moment, a household issue I didn't want to solve, etc, I grabbed after this book to simply get lost.

I'm not sure if one can consider it a literary masterpiece, but it sure was impossible to put down. In one of the back-cover blurbs, a critic said something like that: this series makes it clear that a person's life is actually by no means a story.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Struggle_(Knausg%C3%A5rd_no...

I'm looking forward to reading some of his fiction–I'm interested to see what it's like to read the work of someone I already feel like I know so much about. Received The Morning Star as a gift this holiday season. I'm honestly a bit afraid it won't live up to what I've already read by him.

The original reason I picked up his autobiography was simply that I saw a book review about it and it filled a spot in a larger goal I have: to read a book by an author from every country. I hadn't read Norway yet, and I also was on an autobiography kick.

In a way, it's like the Perl programming language, lol: often times impossible to read, and often times impossible to not read. Easy to get immersed in all that mess.

But I'm not entirely satisfied with that answer.

(Though, wow, man, grabbing in Perl -- this sure has to be the best ever metaphor used to describe the style of Knausgård's book.)

It's SF. But written in a conversation with Enlightenment era philosophy and plenty of bits of mythology. Lots of exploration of what could be and what should be, and the interplay of politics and war and ambition and murder.

(A note though, if the style and language of the first chapter put you off, then ... You're not going to like the rest of it)

I went into the last book with two questions:

  * Who is on Who's side?
  * Who _is_ Mycroft Canner?

It took a long time to get through (very dense, academic) but was a sprawling look at a powerful indigenous culture that I knew nothing about.

Plus, it was enlightening and a bit foreboding to learn how an empire could be at the very height of its power and then, through circumstance, climate, demographics, and imperial expansion be exhausted and destroyed in essentially a decade.

My library has that one not, your suggestion.

Highly seconded.

This is a book about the Colombian Caribbean, but also the whole country and the region. At the end it is a book about life. I have always noticed that Anglo readers get too caught up on minor details (the number of Aurelianos, who did this or that) but that is missing the point, this is about the flow of life, the absurdity of human struggles, the magic and terror of being alive, love, senseless violence, hope, all of that expressed in a brilliant prose.

I could continue but this short youtube review has pretty animations and touches some other points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2zhLYz4pYo

The amazing video game "Kentucky Route Zero" is impossible to describe, but it touches on this genre in video game form and poverty in America with many references to this novel with characters named "Marquez" and so on. What an experience.

Great intro to particle physics even for an ordinary, non-science person. Blew my head by the very basics of reality is literally a simple formula. Like a codebase.

“Gallantly, ceaselessly, quietly, man must fight for inner liberty” to remain independent of the enslavement of the material world. “Inner liberty depends upon being exempt from domination of things as well as from domination of people. There are many who have acquired a high degree of political and social liberty, but only very few are not enslaved to things. This is our constant problem—how to live with people and remain free, how to live with things and remain independent.”

Dune, to prepare for the movie, I love this book but I could see some of the flaws now that I'm older. The book's recognition that politics is an art and cam be studied, mastered and manipulated brought some of recent history into sharp relief.

Ah, found the post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27593462

If you read any of that and think it feels really familiar, I can't suggest Delivered From Distraction enough.

Essentially a book on how the best in the world structured their learning to master their skill, and how you can incorporate to what you want to master.

Lulu Miller, a host of the Invisibilia podcast, turns what at first is a simple story about an obsessive taxonomist, David Starr Jordan, into a deeply personal and poignant exploration of the chaos that rules are lives. This part-historical non-fiction, part memoir brilliantly sets itself up for a grand reveal at the end that will stick with you long after you finish. By far my favorite of the 62 books that I read and one of the best books that I have ever read.

This is the only book I know that discusses that there are several styles of writing and that exhibits one particular style that the authors call "classic style".

They also discuss differences from other styles ("practical style" as taught by Joseph Williams – my other favorite book about writing, that I like even more).

The book is split into three parts: an essay part that talks about the style, "The Museum" with examples of the style from other publications, and "The Studio" with practical tips and exercises.

Nonfiction: To Pixar And Beyond. The former CFO of Pixar, Lawrence Levy, tells the story of Pixar's IPO and the making of Toy Story. Very interesting reading for anyone interesting in Steve Jobs, Pixar, or the business of movies and tech.

Although the writing techniques the author presents sound obvious in hindsight, having them all-in one place as an comprehensive framework you can follow helped me a lot for the writing and research in my work

Fiction: The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries

A curated and annotated collection of locked-room mystery stories. All the stories are accompagnied by a small introduction into the author and the main character written by the curator. His enthousiasm shows in these small introductions, making the stories themselves even better.

  - the blacktongue thief ; if you love rothfuss, then you’ll love this. 
  - between two fires ; same author. Really great book about the Black Death but also demons. 
  - hench ; a normie uses Zersetzung against the alter egos of superheroes. It’s great
  - five decembers ; great read, and a clever take on the traditional noir genre

  - against the grain
  - pre industrial societies
  - the other face of battle