Slashdot Asks: What Are Some Good Books You Read This Year?

As we inch closer to the end of the year, we will be running a couple of year-ender posts in the next few days. We're starting with books. What were some books you read this year that you would recommend to others? (It could be from any genre.) Second, what were some books from this year that you read that you would recommend to others? And third, what are you reading now, or planning to read soon?

Comments

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[mrflash818]

This year I read

Don Quixote - by Miguel de Cervantes

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[Anonymous Coward]

This book is awesome. The first part is silly, the second part is amazingly subtle.

And it's freely available.

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[spitzig]

I was surprised how funny this was.

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[azcoyote]

Awesome and hilarious book. I think it's sad that I wasn't introduced to it in high school.

Re:Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

[dgatwood]

On the topic of humorous books... well, I could be tactless and shill to try to get my own sci-fi/humor books into the double digits reader-wise (or, since it's Christmas, the historical-sci-fi short story involving a robot Santa traveling back in time to meet Saint Nicholas), but instead I'll talk about a different series of books containing Latin humor, the Liturgical Mysteries series by Mark Schweizer.

In the Liturgical Mysteries books, Hayden Konig is the chief of police and church choir director in the small town of St. Germaine, North Carolina. Saint Germaine, although normally a sleepy mountain town, also happens to have gotten a reputation as the murder capital of the state, so in addition to the usual music, Chief Konig keeps a handgun in the organ bench, both because of the ever-present danger and because he has "always found that tenors can use a bit of encouragement."

Each book in the series combines a traditional (but often humorous) murder mystery with tales of church disasters. From Christmas programs involving live animals that go horribly wrong to the church burning down, the absurd characters and situations will make you laugh so hard you'll cry. The Liturgical Mysteries series is a great read for anybody who has any connection to church liturgy or music or both.

Seveneves

[mobby_6kl]

It's not a new book but I just picked it out at random from my backlog to read on vacation. It's way easier to get into than some other NS books (looking at you, Baroque Cycle), and has really great emotional ups and downs throughout the first 2/3rds of the book with what I thought was a pretty interesting and satisfying conclusion.

Re:Seveneves

[Anonymous Coward]

I re-read the Baroque cycle every couple of years.
It's fantastic, assuming you can keep all the people and plot lines clear in your head.

Re:Seveneves

[mobby_6kl]

Yeah I have no doubt, I've started Quicksilver like five times in paper and audio form and while the setting and subject matter is fascinating, I just kept getting bogged down with the ton of infodumps, and I'm one of the people who enjoys his frequent masturbatory multi-page deep dives into Captain Crunch and what not. I need to give it another go with a clear head one day.

Re:Seveneves

[JaredOfEuropa]

Also read Seveneves, and I agree: an accessible and very enjoyable read.

I had opportunity to read a lot of other stuff. A few picks:
- World Without End by Ken Follet. This is a sequel to Pillars of the Earth. Both recommended
- The Three-body Problem by Liu Cixin. A great SF read even if it suffers a bit from pacing here and there.
- I recently found out that Cory Doctorow also writes fiction so I picked up a bunch of his novels and short stories. Walkaway, Pirate Cinema, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, For the Win and a few others. Easy reads, some are a bit better than others but all are recommended.
- Some fantasy too: I enjoyed the Legends of the First Empire series by M.J. Sullivan.

Re:Seveneves

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhg. I could not finish Seveneves. Thought I would like it. But it's all expository dialog, cardboard characters, and bad 1950's grade dialog. Was hoping for more from this Niel Stephenson. So far everything I've read of his since cypronomicon has been bloated, ponderous, and boring.

Re:Seveneves

[ErstO]

I did finish the book, but I agree, it was not one of his better works

Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

Finally read it. Learned how capitalism really works. How the bourgeois state perpetuates itself by exploiting the working classes, and saturating them cradle-to-grave with bourgeois propaganda.
Turns out the boomers were brainwashed, and communism really is the future.

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you remember the fifth of octember?
Empire of the sun

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

History (as taught in schools) is a total bourgeois fabrication, that arranges men into nations rather than classes-within-nations.
When nations go to war the working classes on both sides always lose by definition.

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

But what about the women? This is so totally patriarchy. Like, total unchecked privilege ugh!

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

Lmao

Marx was a terrible economic philosopher. I say this as a former econ student who was very critical of the teachings of every economist, so I read some Marx in my spare time.

He makes traditional economic theory look like rocket science compared to his bullshit.

Re: Das Capital

[nazsco]

what you recommend then?

Re: Das Capital

[Q-Hack!]

what you recommend then?

Not the gp, but I will take a stab at it.

People should absolutely read Karl Marx, but also read opposing views like Milton Friedman or Thomas Sowell. If one just reads Marx, one will remain ignorant of why he was so wrong on economics.

Re: Das Capital

[Cmdln Daco]

To be fair, Marx was a nineteenth-century political economist. Those are special critters, not modern science-based economists.

Political economy is whatever a dude like Stalin says it is, and the theory is valid as long as the gulag up and running so peer review can be conducted.

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

I am the GP. I would just look up notable

1) political philosophers (and philosophers in general) and

2) 20th and 21st century economists.

Use wikipedia for lists and then find reliable summaries/sources from there.

The important thing one should take note of when looking at any economic or philosophic statement is, is it positive or normative?

Positive economics relates to data and facts - x is y because z and here is some form of proof.

Normative economics relates to arguing an economic position - x should be y because z, proof is irrelevant as this is an argument about values.

Modern economists talk a lot of positive economics. Modern pop econ literature talks a lot of normative economics with some positive economics mixed in to strengthen their arguments. Marx was ALL normative economics, like most political philosophers of the time.

Re:Das Capital

[jellomizer]

Or is it you that was brainwashed?
Communism was a failed experiment, it falls apart after a few hundred people, and turns into more or a tyrannical system, where we see today, where the leaders exploit the working class even further under the guise of being for the public good.
While Capitalism has its problems and we should work on finding these problems and addressing them, vs just calling anyone who states such problems as a communist, it spans well to a larger community, of millions to billions of people. With its own forces more or less naturally keeping things in place.

Now that being said, while unbridled capitalism will work, it isn't optimal, because capitalism is inherently a brutal form of economic system, where paid of failure is the driving force to succeed. That is why appropriate controls and safety needs to be in place.

Re: Das Capital

[AmiMoJo]

I'd suggest that a more useful book to start with would be On Liberty by John Stewart Mill, and then Existentialism and Humanism by Sartre. Economics is a tool, and being right or wrong largely depends on what you are trying to do with it.

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd suggest that a more useful book to start with would be On Liberty by John Stewart Mill,

You need a hell of a lot of $$$ to exercise ANY of that freedom you whine about so much

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

Now that being said, while unbridled capitalism will work, it isn't optimal, because capitalism is inherently a brutal form of economic system, where paid of failure is the driving force to succeed. That is why appropriate controls and safety needs to be in place

So basically, you're advocating for Socialism..

Re: Das Capital

[Anonymous Coward]

For a great summary of Das Capital embedded in an engaging story line, "The Iron Heel" by Jack London. His protagonist summarizes Marx during an argument.

https://www.gutenberg.org/eboo...

Having read both, London is *much* more approachable.

Another great foundational text is Proudhon's. "What is property?"

https://www.gutenberg.org/eboo...

The Powers of the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Outstanding read. First in a series. It won the Prometheus Award for 2018.

Re: The Powers of the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Thatâ(TM)s better! :)

Re:The Powers of the Earth

[nospam007]

"Outstanding read. First in a series. It won the Prometheus Award for 2018."

OK, I'll believe you. I downloaded just now, because it's free on kindle unlimited, which I use because I read a book or 2 a day, being retired and there's nothing ever on TV.

Re: The Powers of the Earth

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry--who wrote it? Can't be arsed to look for it on this phone...

one

[Anonymous Coward]

Just reading an intro to Hegel on Stanford enc. Seems to imply that the determinate of something implies nothing. But if there was nothing it wouldn't imply something so we can be fair and expect that something doesn't imply nothing. So one equals one and any universe in which that isn't true does not exist. It's the anthropic principle, right?

Re:one

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong.

Re:one

[nazsco]

my mind is blown. (just adding resolution to this universe's entropy generator) :)

Energy by Richard Rhodes

[Anonymous Coward]

Capsule history of energy and the industrial revolution. Coal, steam, railroads, electricity.

He reaches some conclusions some will disagree with in the last chapters, he's not anti-nuclear as compared to coal, but even if that induces frothing rage the rest of the book is excellent vignettes on the various subjects. How we built this futuristic civilization on top of burning carbon.

Re:Energy by Richard Rhodes

[Anonymous Coward]

I will definitely put this on my list, thanks! Considering he won a Pulitzer for "The Making of the Atomic Bomb", it isn't unexpected he would favor nuclear power over coal.

An odd assortment

[CrimsonAvenger]

Last Stand of the Tin-Can Sailors by James D Hornfischer

The Night Land (again!) by William Hope Hodgson

The Lord of the Rings (for the umpteenth time) by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Sackett Brand by Louis L'Amour

The First World War by A.J.P. Taylor

The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss

The Greatest Knight by Thomas Asbridge

Re:An odd assortment

[shanen]

First matches on Tolkien and Wyss. I did read different books from L'Amour and Taylor, too. However most of them were so long ago I don't remember many of the details...

Frankopan's Silk Roads

[reanjr]

The Silk Roads: A New History of the World by Peter Frankopan. It's a world history from the view point of central Asia, book-ended by the rise of Persia and the important role Iran now plays in world events. Especially fascinating is how Europe barely registers until the mid 20th century, and how British adventurism in Asia had major repercussions for the Americas. The Muslims, Mongols, and Han are the dominant players.

The Testament of Loki

[reanjr]

The Testament of Loki by Joanne Harris. It's a sequel to The Gospel of Loki, a fantasy novel describing Norse myth from Loki's perspective, but goes pretty wildly off the rails, with Loki, Odin, Freya, and Thor inhabiting an awkward teenage girl, a wheelchair bound computer geek, a popular cheerleader, and a cocker spaniel, respectively.

Some SciFi / Fantasy

[DavenH]

Peter Watts' Blindsight, after which I read the sequel Echopraxia, and another of his works 'Freeze Frame Revolution.'

Also by popular recommendation I read Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and am in the middle of 'Fall of Hyperion'.

I re-read Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles books (4th time, I think), and the Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson.

Pretty much all of them were thoroughly enjoyable.

Re:Some SciFi / Fantasy

[shanen]

Match on The Fall of Hyperion , though I read it back in 2003 and was less impressed than by two of his books on Mars (if I'm remembering Illium and Olympos correctly).

The Hobbit and "How F*cked Up Is Your Management"

[Anonymous Coward]

I read "The Hobbit" to the kiddos and "How F*cked Up Is Your Management" but Johnathan and Melissa Nightingale because of start-up reasons.

Hosts file

[Anonymous Coward]

This year I read APK's hosts file.

Re: Hosts file

[Anonymous Coward]

Closed source. Sorry. It's a virus.

Read This Year

[tquasar]

Red Platoon by Clinton Romesha - A True Story of American Valor. Soldiers tasked with an impossible task, becomes how to keep the man next to you alive. Accessory to War. Tyson and Lang. Advances in science and technology are used by the military. It doesn't end well. Fear by Bob Woodward. "Trump is a fucking liar" 365 motorcycles you must ride. Published by Cycleworld magazine. The first book I read that wasn't required by school was The Godfather by Mario Puzo.

Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ha ha ha ha!

Yeah, that's funny.

I read man pages, Wikipedia and some other websites.
But book?
What is this, 1990?

Re:Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Meh, I read early pulp SF magazines on a tablet because they are out of copyright. Nothing like 100 year old fevered fantasies to give you some vivid dreams.

Fictional and non-fictional

[Nahooda]

- Neuromancer trilogy by William Gibson
- "Crime And Punishment" by Dostojewski

Non-fictional:
- "Krieger, Feldherren und Strategen - Krieg in der Antike von Achill bis Attila" (German) by Raimund Schulz. The title translates to "Warriors, Generals and Strategists - War in the Ancient World from Achilles to Attila". Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an english translation. For anyone, who's interested in the classical ancient world, it's a must-read. It's about how war formed societies and vice versa. Fascinating in-depth details about battlefield tactics, weaponry and logistics.

Re:Fictional and non-fictional

[shanen]

Hmm... Not sure I should count such easy matches as Neuromancer , though it was mentioned in another book I read just recently.

Wikipedia More Than Books

[BrendaEM]

I tend to read Wikipedia more than anything, often for hours at a time.

Re:Wikipedia More Than Books

[rtb61]

Pretty much done me in as well, not just Wikipedia of course but the whole interactivity of the internet in itis; entirety. Have no read a book in years, only in Doctors office waiting for the appointment I turned up on time for but somehow still end up waiting a very long time. Books were a great escape but I found I no longer need that escape, unless I am trapped bored somewhere and I know I will be trapped bored somewhere. I filled my phone with books from http://www.gutenberg.org/ specifically enjoyed http://www.gutenberg.org/ebook... the writing style takes a little adapting to but once you do it is quite entertaining.

So everyone show http://gutenberg.net.au/ or http://gutenberg.ca/index.html some love or http://www.gutenberg.org/, some love ;). Fill your phone and wish them a merry Christmas (for those who do not do Christmas and want to complain, what can I say but FOff don't be a misery guts, not that I am big on Christmas I certainly ain't but I recognise that others are and am content for them to have their fun).

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

I usually read an easily read fiction book every week or week and a half and non fiction stuff sprinkled in here and there.

I'm dyslexic. If I don't keep at it, it doesn't take long for me to regress and reading at a decent pace to get really really difficult for me.

So it isn't a question of having time for me. And I really don't see how people go through life not having that struggle. Couldn't pay me to be that lazy.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

You read Fake News all year.

All fiction

[Anonymous Coward]

Was after reliving my childhood so there was a lot of rereading things i first read over 20 years ago..

Arthur C Clark - Space Oddessey series: 2001, 2010, 2061, 3001

Dune Series - Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor? Heretics of Dune, Chapter House of Dune

Stephen King - It, the shining, Carrie, Salems Lot, Rage, the stand, The long Walk, the dead zone, firestarter, Cujo, The running man, The Long walk, The green mile, pet cemetery, four past midnight, the regulators , 11/22/63, the colorado kid - plan to do the rest of his next year

HALO Books: the fall of reach, the flood, first strike, ghosts of onyx, contact harvest, the cole protocol, cryptum, grasslands, primurdium, the Thursday war, silentium, mortal dictata, broken circle, new blood, hunters in the dark, last light, envoy, evolutions - still about 4 more to read

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon & half way through Broken Angels

Re:All fiction

[Hognoxious]

pet cemetery

You should read that one again - a bit more carefully.

Winners Take All

[Kethinov]

This was not only the best book I've read all year, but the best book I've read this decade:

Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas.

"An insider's groundbreaking investigation of how the global elite's efforts to 'change the world' preserve the status quo and obscure their role in causing the problems they later seek to solve."

Re:Winners Take All

[shanen]

Thanks, that Winners Take All sounds like a book I need to read, though it isn't yet available in any of the local public libraries... (I have about 20 library cards now.)

If I understand the summaries correctly, then I think the solution approach involves ekronomics. As it applies to governments, it's in terms of pro-freedom anti-greedom taxation principles.

Seems like the only thing I can do is send out the ILL request and see if they can drag it in from somewhere...

3 months of my life

[NeilAtWhartonSquare]

The cat in the hat - complex plot, but enjoyable

Re:3 months of my life

[iggymanz]

Strangely enough, no one has made a porn with a moss covered 3 handled family gradunza yet.

I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

... like:

NONFICTION

- Neanderthals Rediscovered: How Modern Science Is Rewriting Their Story (Revised and Updated Edition)
Dimitra Papagianni, Michael A. Morse (recommend)

- Almost Human: The Astonishing Tale of Homo Naledi and the Discovery That Changed Our Human Story
Lee Berger, John Hawks (recommend)

- The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Anil Ananthaswamy (recommend)

- Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum Randomness to Create a Unified Theory of Physics
Paul Halpern (recommend)

- The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality
Paul Halpern (highly recommend, 2017 publication)

- The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics
Leonard Susskind (recommend)

- Tales of the Quantum: Understanding Physics' Most Fundamental Theory
Art Hobson (recommend)

- Quantum Physics: What Everyone Needs to Know®
Michael G. Raymer (recommend)

- Just Visiting This Planet: Merlin Answers More Questions About Everything Under the Sun, Moon, and Stars
Neil De Grasse Tyson, Stephen J. Tyson (recommend)

- The Sky Is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist
Neil Degrasse Tyson (recommend)

- Merlin's Tour of the Universe: A Skywatcher's Guide to Everything from Mars and Quasars to Comets, Planets, Blue Moons, and Werewolves
Neil De Grasse Tyson (recommend)

- Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith (recommend)

- Welcome to the Universe: An Astrophysical Tour
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, J. Richard Gott (recommend)

- Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries
Neil deGrasse Tyson (recommend)

- The Muleskinner and the Stars: The Life and Times of Milton La Salle Humason, Astronomer (Springer Biographies)
Ronald L. Voller ( highly recommended. Humason was an "also mentioned," in a book about Hubble. What a guy! )

- Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
Neil de Grasse Tyson (recommend)

- Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
Carlo Rovelli (recommend)

FICTION

- 1984
George Orwell (recommend with reluctance. It's the most depressing goddam book I've ever read.)

- The Caves of Steel (The Robot Series Book 1)
Isaac Asimov (recommend)

- Dune
Frank Herbert (recommend)

- The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand (recommend)

- Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland
Dave Barry (don't recommend, boring description of Florida tourist locations)

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[AlanObject]

... like:

NONFICTION

- The Fountainhead Ayn Rand (recommend)

Not to pick a fight or anything, but..... why?

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

I don't view it as picking a fight. It's a valid question, and it's actually under FICTION.

The list I presented is for 2018. In late 2017, I also read, "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.

Like some of the other fiction and a shitload of Robert A Heinlein, back in 2017 I re-read some of the stuff I absorbed when I was a young lad.

The Fountainhead made for a good movie, as well, though it fast-forwarded most of the story line.

I also read Ayn Rand's "The Virtue of Selfishness," which is a fucked up idea, but interesting (and a tiring read), and informs her fictional work.

While Ayn Rand pushed an agenda, the story lines of her fiction made them entertaining. I recommend both books.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[AlanObject]

OK, good answer. I just asked because your list seems to be pretty well rounded and we encounter too many Rand readers regard her works as the Fount Of All Reason And If You Don't Agree You Are An Idiot Or Worse A Clinton Lover. In other words the opposite of well rounded. Recognizing fiction as fiction and not something else is an ability that is beyond too many people.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[shanen]

Interesting that I also read a lot of nonfiction but, near as I can tell (without a bunch of searches), I've missed all of your authors. However I've read (but not this year) all of the fiction you mentioned. Not sure about that specific Dave Berry, though I've read many of his books.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[JaredOfEuropa]

I agree about Rand, those two fiction titles make for decent reading, and present some interesting ideas. By the way, Atlas Shrugged was also turned into a movie (or rather a miniseries). I watched that this year. It's horrible, do not waste your time on that one.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Anonymous Coward]

- The Fountainhead
Ayn Rand (recommend)

You're hereby promoted to ColonelDork.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

Recognizing fiction as fiction and not something else is an ability that is beyond too many people.

Agree, as in Scientology.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

I steered clear of the miniseries. There's no way in hell of transfering that story to a screenplay.

Re: I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Rand's Anthem, Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged (88 page monolog aside) are all pretty decent books as long as you understand they are fiction. Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series is also good, though it starts to get too heavy handed a few books in, even if it is an obvious rip off of the unrelated one from Shannara.

Trump hater, since I read The Art of the Deal from the $1 discount bin when it came out, and watched him brag about lying to business partners to rip them off. Bernie guy, Clinton Voter.

Pro choice, pro gun, pro nuke, pro solar/wind. I don't think we should have invaded Iraq, but I also don't think we should have left Afghanistan. If you break a country, don't leave until after fixing it so that the neighbors wish you had invaded them instead.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[KermodeBear]

Maybe it presents some interesting ideas in an easy-to-understand way. You don't have to agree with a point of view in order to recommend reading about it... In fact, approaching beliefs that differ from your own, with an open mind, is the best way to learn about what you believe.

You're never going to learn anything if you only read material you agree with...

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Anonymous Coward]

In other words the opposite of well rounded.
 
And knee jerking when someone reads/likes Rand makes you well rounded? Let's be honest, that's really what you did.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Bite The Pillow]

Fountainhead is a lot better than people might think, based on the hate for Atlas Shrugged. In the world Ayn created, I side with her. Not necessarily in this world.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[anon208]

Damn you, Captin! If my karma wasn't so bad, I would up-vote the hell out of this post. These are some solid, contemporary books. Will check them out.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just Dune? There are like seven volumes or more ...

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

The only thing more irritating than those who say you should read Rand are those who say you shouldn't.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[phantomfive]

Ha! Well said.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

I didn't read Ayn Rand to get a point of view. I read, and enjoyed, the story line. For the most part, her fiction was not formulaic.

In the Fountainhead, her use of architecture as a vehicle was very unusual when I read it as a kid.

Atlas Shrugged was a spellbinder with unique perspectives.

I think of both books as period pieces.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

Like Cajun music, one Dune is quite enough. Thank you.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

Thanks. I particularly recommend "The Muleskinner and the Stars: The Life and Times of Milton La Salle Humason." In earlier works covering the life and times of Hubble, he was an "also ran," a footnote that fascinated me for YEARS.

The guy was nothing when he started, and progressed to one of the most sought-after spectrum analysts in the world. The book is well written and hard to put down.

Also, the books on quantum theory combine to explain why there will never be a super quantum computer. The small universe jiggles and Heisenbutg's Uncertainty Principle along with Plank's units combined with the laws of thermodynamics inform the limitations imposed by entropy.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, you're one of those people.

The first Dune book is the weakest of the series and you would know that if you had actually read any of the others. God Emperor is by far the best, followed closely by Heretics and Chapterhouse. I re-read all six books every year and enjoy them more each time.

Re: I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Anonymous Coward]

The parts where people dived into chapter long lectures on the authors pet theories were a lot of fun.

Re: I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

/s

I know. Some authors do that because they have an agenda (Rand) and some do it because they are poor writers. Rand was the former, so I just invoked a little speed reading.

But you're right.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[Bite The Pillow]

Atlas Shrugged was interesting until it devolved into a rant. I read it after Fountainhead, and I got the general point early on. You were young, most people with opinions are old.

Re:I read non-fiction mostly ...

[CaptainDork]

You were young, most people with opinions are old.

I should be impressed that you are a research scientist in the field of sociology of opinion and have concluded that "most," or over 50%, of people with opinions are old. Rather, my opinion, late in life is that I would have called bullshit much earlier, too.

Indians are trash and other facts

[Anonymous Coward]

Was a great read.

Skin in the Game - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

[Alan R Light]

Also recommend Antifragile, also by Taleb - but I read that one last year.

Also read most "Memoirs of Service Afloat" by Admiral Raphael Semmes, but haven't finished it yet. Good stuff though.

E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, only four books into it, but it's a rollicking good time and I'll probably finish it before year's end. Highly recommended, though some of the lingo can be dated. There are definitely some interesting parallels between the Lensman and Star Wars universes.

Re:E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series

[techno-vampire]

There are definitely some interesting parallels between the Lensman and Star Wars universes.

This is probably not a coincidence. I was told, years ago, by Bill Ellern that Lucas had wanted to film the Lenseman series, but that Smith's older daughter wouldn't give permission.

Re:E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensman Series

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, too bad that books aren't like movies where every generation or so a new version isn't published. Lensman was great pulp fiction, but its sensibilities are a bit dated. I think it would be easy to update without changing the core plot/arc. If you like Lensmen then also try the Skylark series. In some ways, A. Norton's best children's sci-fi/fantasy holds up pretty well, too, I think. Or maybe it's just I'm blind to its faults, IDK.

Tech History

[DaChesserCat]

The Friendly Orange Glow, by Brian Dear. Talking about PLATO and people who were chatting across timezones (and continents), playing MMORPGs (and flunking out of college from too much gaming, too little studying) and generally doing stuff that most people think was invented with the Internet, back in the 1970s (and no, this WASN'T running on the ARPANet). This history appears to be largely off-the-radar because it DIDN'T happen in Silicon Valley or at MIT.

The Theory That Would Not Die, by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. About Bayes' Rule and how it to helped break Enigma, find missing atomic bombs and completely turn the medical world in its ear. The part about an insurance company actuary predicting the first mid-air collision, a couple years before it happened ... priceless.

Battlefield Earth

[vadim_t]

I read Battlefield Earth out of morbid curiosity. It was horrible.

The first third of so corresponds to the movie, and is the part that reads the best. Not good by any means, but the least awful. From there, it's all downhill. First, there's the defeated Terl and some random handicapped jerk from Johnny's village vs Johnny, then it's Johnny vs Intergalactic Banking, which is about as exciting as that sound.

Hubbard apparently made some noise about writing good scifi with paying attention to the science, but the science is laughable. The plot relies on stupidity. The core idea is that an alien species that has zero concern for the wellbeing of anybody on Earth, planet killing bombs, teleportation, and autonomous surveillance and bombing aircraft for some reason needs to mine by hand, rather than say, using robots or just blowing up mountains and sorting out the rubble. There's also that the "devious" villain for some reason puts up with a rebellious slave and teaches him everything needed to fight a revolution.

Oh, and there's a guy named "Arsebogger" in it.

I don't recommend it at all, it sucks.

Re:Battlefield Earth

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

I read Battlefield Earth out of morbid curiosity. It was horrible.

The first third of so corresponds to the movie, and... Oh, and there's a guy named "Arsebogger" in it.

Now I wanna read it! >:-(

Mostly non-fiction

[smi.james.th]

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre

Freakonomics by Levitt & Dubner

How Not To Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Khaneman

Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute

I've still got The Black Swan by Taleb on my shelf waiting for me. Each so far has profoundly changed the way I think, in distinct but related ways.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does the Internet Research Agency pay well?

Collapsing empire

[Anonymous Coward]

Read the first two books in this series by Scalzi. Just meh. Not bad space opera but does not compare to past masters like Heinlein and Asimov. I will read the final third but not excited about it.

Reread Cryptonomicon after 20 years. Still holds up well and somewhat predictive of where we are today.

SciFi/Fantasy

[Camarillo Brillo]

I read everything I could find by Kian D. Vinge including Catspaw, The Snow Queen, and The Summer Queen. Really great writing with touches of commentary on the absurdity if our current, broken, American society.

Re: SciFi/Fantasy

[Camarillo Brillo]

Correction, That's Joan D. Vinge. ...

My own

[Oligonicella]

An unfortunate feature of writing is having to edit, re-edit and re-edit. I'm on the last four books of the series I'm working on. Not a lot of time to read other stuff.

Re:My own

[Anonymous Coward]

Stick with it - I 'just self-published my seventh novel. Sure, I've only sold about 3000 copies, but I meet with fans at book signings and get occasional fan email. I love all of it.

Grapes of Wrath

[Anonymous Coward]

the book seemed to be rushed through towards the end, to get it finished and out the door. I thought Tom Joad (the son) was the main character, but towards that very odd ending, it seems more likely the mother was the main character.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just as well as some other jobs plus you can close the web page if it starts to call you names

Liu Cixin

[Anonymous Coward]

The Three Body Problem trilogy.

A couple

[AlanObject]

My list is modest this year but I'll mention a few:

-> The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult. I read this because my stepmother was reading it. If you like Lifetime-TV-for-Women you will like this. Noble/naive/underappreciated woman up against Evil Man type of stuff. It gets into holocaust stories including a first-person narration of the conditions in Auschwitz.

-> Uncompromising Honor by David Weber. Like anyone else who is reading this we have followed the series from the beginning. I think it is still going strong even though I am sympathetic to the argument that the story has been played out too far. Now Manticore (that's a Star Nation) has the People's Republic as an ally going up against the immense Solarian League. Probably the best space opera currently on the market -- much more substantial than anything with "Star Wars" on the cover.

-> Into The Fire by Elizabeth Moon. Not bad but I suspect that I am not the only person who would have preferred she work on the Serrano books instead of this. The laws in this Vatta world are baffling.

-> The Complete Guide to Fasting by Jason Fung, MD. Yet another fad diet? Well maybe. Any lay book on diet/nutrition these days should be approached with a healthy dose of skepticism. However if you read only one for the year I would make it this one.

Re:A couple

[SuiteSisterMary]

I read Uncompromising Honor, it really suffered from 'wrap it up' syndrome, I thought.

The thing to remember about the Vatta universe is that it's Moon's Traveller campaign written down, much like Deed of Paksennarion is her D&D campaign written down.

I like Fung's work; make sure you read The Obesity Code too, for his take on the science and research into this stuff.

Re:A couple

[michael_cain]

I read Uncompromising Honor, it really suffered from 'wrap it up' syndrome, I thought.

Yeah, same thing with the last Safehold book the year before. I have heard that Weber has some serious health problems. I assume he's going to let Eric Flint do the heavy lifting to wrap up the Alignment aspects of the story using Zilwicki et al as protagonists.

Tragedy And Hope...

[mihaibu]

Tragedy And Hope by Carrol Quigley. The Evolution Of Civilizations, also by Carrol Quigley.

Facebook

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

That counts as a book, right? I mean it is called some book... right?

Re:Facebook

[shanen]

I'd give you the funny mod if I ever had a mod point to give, though there's also a bitter edge of insightful in there. Lot of very fractured reading going on these years.

I even have a theory that it's starting to affect the authors, too. For example, I read a couple of David Crystal's books this year, and I noticed that the older one had much larger chapters. (My swansong was teaching a course on technical writing.)

Re:Facebook

[angel'o'sphere]

Well, in German we have a kind of joke about "Mantafahrer", drivers of a certain car brand/model. I adapt it a bit:

A guy asks the other "What did you do last years?"
"Oh, 'Im reading a book!"

"You read? Oh I did not think you are into reading! How thick was it, did you like it?"

"Oh, only few dozen pages, yes I like it, I guess I finish it in a year or so."

"Whow, you are taking your time!"

"Well, the back cover says: from 6 to 99 years!"

Re:Facebook

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear this "book" is going to have a fire sale, real soon. Oh hang on, can you smell smoke?...

Russian Hackers, Trolls Helped Elect a President

[Anonymous Coward]

Cyberwar: How Russian Hackers and Trolls Helped Elect a President

30 minutes a day reading from textbooks

[Anonymous Coward]

I try to spend thirty minutes a day reading college level textbooks. That is usually enough to get through 9-11 pages.
Books I read, but did not work problems, are
1. Orgainic Chemistry
2. Molectular Biology of the Cell
3. The Molecules of Life.

Molecular Biology of the Cell was particularly good. I would say if you had chemistry and biology before 1990 you will be amazed at what all
has been figured out since them.

Same as last year

[Anonymous Coward]

Stacks of paper joined together at one edge with bits of thicker paper at the ends.

My list

[kencurry]

Notable from 2018
Hampton Sides "On Desperate Ground" - US Korean War battle, non-fiction
Delia Owens "Where the Crawdads Sing" - murder mystery, fiction
Brad Thor "spy master" - Scot Harvath novel, spy v. spy fiction

Notable reads, previously published
Stephen King "11-22-63" - Kennedy assassination, King Horror style: one of his best
Winston Churchill "The Gathering Storm & other volumes ..." Churchill's WWII memoirs
JW Rinzler "the Making of Star Wars" ebook edition - great bio of George Lucas, saga of how he got that movie made. ebook has a lot of outtakes, audio clips, early sketches of concepts

I've been reading more the past few years

[weilawei]

Here's a few recent books I've read:

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Koevoet! by Jim Hooper
Secrets and Lies by Marléne Burger & Chandré Gould
The Push by Tommy Caldwell
Five Past Midnight in Bhopal by Dominique Lapierre and Javier Moro
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
A Novel and Efficient Synthesis of Cadaverine by SA Scoggin

Re:I've been reading more the past few years

[shanen]

Me, too (regarding the Subject:). Over 100 this year (though that's down from last year and I still need to port that database to a more modern system). However, it's kind of hard for me to pick favorites. A few that are related to Slashdot are:

Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
Phishing and Countermeasures by Jacobsson and Myers
Mobile Suite Gundam: The Origin 1 by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz
Feynman by Jim Ottaviani
The Internet is Not the Answer by Andrew Keen
Payoff by Dan Ariely
Head in the Cloud by William Poundstone
Rock Breaks Scissors also by William Poundstone

And just for grins, Furasshu Memori no Himitsu by Katsuyuki Toda. The translated title might be Secrets of Flash Memory .

Didn't match any of your [weilawei's] titles, which is a bit of a surprise. However now I'll look through the rest of the visible lists and see if I find any matches to other books from the 4,000+ in my ancient database...

Re: I've been reading more the past few years

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow you are so smart please tell us more.

The Century Series by Ken Follett

[Anonymous Coward]

Great good fun, an easy read (except for being 3 900 page volumes). Lots of the
events are important to understand today. Do be aware this is pot-boiler fiction, not
history, with quite a lot of emphasis on details of um- interpersonal relationships.

Anyhow, didn't read much of anything else which is sad. Damn computer.

This year some of the books I read

[Anonymous Coward]

The Radetsky March --Joseph Roth
Death on the Installment Plan --Celine
Fire and Fury -- Michael Wolfe
No longer at Ease Chinua Achebe
Siddhartha --Herman Hesse
A Flag for Sunrise --Robert Stone
The Sun Also Rises --Hemingway
Farewell to Arms --Hemingway
Where Did you Get This Number --Anthony Salvato

Evolution of Beauty

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of Darwin's theory of evolution which had been rejected in the Victorian era is given a second look by Richard O. Plum. It's about the affect the mate selection has on evolution which has nothing to do with evolutionary traits for better survival. In fact some of the evolutionary changes which arose from mate selection had detrimental effect on survival. Peacock being a great example.

Re: Evolution of Beauty

[Anonymous Coward]

Hardly. You fail to understand it. Evolution is about reproducing an individuals genes. It is not about evolving to an imagined super being.

Re:Evolution of Beauty

[Anonymous Coward]

Darwinian natural selection can explain whether a gene might become lost forever, or if it persists inside a different species after being transferred there. It can even explain multiple copies of the same gene. But natural selection alone cannot explain the creation of a new gene. That step requires the careful coding of a designer. A machine lacking a part, or parts, is useless, and therefore cannot be favoured by natural selection.

Re:Evolution of Beauty

[Anonymous Coward]

When DNA is copied, sometimes a gene is duplicated. This gene isn't used and is free to mutate and may become useful in the future.

My list:

[Qbertino]

Fiction
- Walkaway (Cory Doctorow) ... reading this right now. Lightweight near-future post-scarcity cyberpunk. Nice. Recommended.

- The Windup Girl (Paolo Bacigalupi) ... fresh generation cyber/biopunk, got the print edition but started listening to the audibile audiobook. Recommended.

- Foundation Cycle (Isaac Asimov) - never read it, planning to finally catch up as per recommendation by Elon Musk and due to my desire to up my general education, on my list, just got the first one in paperback

Non-Fiction
- The 6th Extinction (Elizabeth Kolbert) - on my list

- The Messy Middle (Scott Belsky) - Heard about it in a Tim Ferriss show with Belsky. Got curious. Bought it. Up in 2019, I presume.

- The Lean Startup (Eric Ries) - On my shelf. Might finally get to it in 2019.

- War is a Racket (Butler Smedley) - an anti-war classic from roughly 100 years ago. Apparently still 100% spot on about the reasons and mechanisms of war in general, apparently a must-read - on my list

- The Ethical Slut (Janet W. Hardy) - Zero-bullshit non-contemporary feminism and womanhood. I.e. feminism for women who can handle the fact than women and men are actually different in a way or two. A very fresh and welcoming distraction from current-day whiny "MeToo MeToo" pseudo-feminism. - On my list.

- Guns, Germs and Steel: The fate of human societies (Jared Diamond) - How and why "western" society came to rule the world, for reasons that were mostly accident and sheer luck more than anything else. - On my list.

Re:My list:

[shanen]

Only a few matches in your list, but I've gotten too overwhelmed to comment... However, you did remind me that I forgot to mention this one:

Fire in the Valley by Freiberger et al. I was motivated to read it when Godbout was killed in the Camp Fire in California.

Re:The Holy Bible

[Anonymous Coward]

How was the ending?

The Invention of Hugo Caberet

[turp182]

It's a kid's book (8+), but it's an amazing story with incredible artwork (over 100 pages of black and white sketches, like a silent movie). It's also a bit sci-fi/tech with automated machines in 1931 Paris. The hardback edition is awesome.

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/...

Re:The Invention of Hugo Caberet

[omnichad]

It made a fantastic movie too. One of the few 3D movies where the effect is used as a proper cinematic tool. I still have yet to read it, but my wife owns the hardcover. Might happen in 2019.

Here is a few on kindle unlimited

[unity]

Fantasy:
Weaving Man: Book One of The Prophecy Series
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Unsouled (Cradle Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Western:
Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Sci-Fi:
30,000 B.C. Chronicles: Bordeaux
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Earth Fall: Invasion
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Teeth Of The Sea
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Action:
The Jakarta Pandemic: A Pandemic Survival Thriller
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Cartel: A Jason King Thriller
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Historical Fiction:
Longbow (The Saga of Roland Inness Book 1)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Q: Books?
A: LIBZ!!!111

Bet you're fun at parties.

Re:The Holy Bible

[Anonymous Coward]

How was the ending?

Of the Holy Bible? There is no "ending" since i always re-reading it because it is a constant revelation - something that i may have read many times and think it has nothing new to offer me... offers me something new!

If you mean "the way of a pilgrim" it ends like this: Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me the sinner

Greetings from Greece

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anything by Dickinson or Hemingway. Pure sunshine! :)

Inside the AS/400

[ArchieBunker]

A book written by one of the architecture creators. The AS/400 is totally alien compared to the computer architectures we've been using for decades. Definitely worth a read if you're into hardware.

"The World Is Quiet Here"

[phantomfive]

Murakami Harki - Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Riveting read and nice world-building (the cryptography tech is a bit dated, though).

Lemony Snicket series, including "Series of Unfortunate Events" and "All the Wrong Questions" - At first look, they are just children's books, but the world created by the author is clever, well-written, and slowly revealed. Sophisticated in its analysis of right and wrong, good and bad that is missing in the world.

I'm still not sure about that vague, flimsy, dispensing sugar bowl.

Re: Nonfiction

[Anonymous Coward]

Bibles and religious texts are mythology, which equals fiction.

Red Notice: ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I've been on a non-fiction kick as of late. Some of the books read in the past year are:

Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice by Bill Browder

Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact by John Cornwell

Death in Glacier National Park: Stories of Accidents and Foolhardiness in the Crown of the Continent by Randi Minetor

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh

Math with Bad Drawings by Ben Orlin

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird

The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age by Gino Segrè, Bettina Hoerlin

Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance

The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations by John McCain, Mark Salter

A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age by Jimmy Soni, Rob Goodman

I also discovered the Farnam Street blog (https://fs.blog) this year.

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & S. Baxter

[xpiotr]

I missed Terry Pratchett, and came across this collaboration with Stephen Baxter.
It was taking a new approach to Sci Fi, but I started with the Long Mars by mistake and I think it got even better
The Long Earth is the first novel in a collaborative science fiction series by British authors Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Moneyland by Oliver Bulloughs

[Anonymous Coward]

It's about money laundering and it's absolutely engrossing. Thoroughly recommend.

My Reading list 2018

[jwhyche]

Dennis E Taylor, All These Worlds, For We Are Many, We Are Legion

EmmA Newman, After Atlas, Before Mars, PlanetFall

Ian Douglas, Alter Starscape, Darkness Falling

Jack McDevitt, Coming Home, MoonFall, The Hercules Texts, Eternity Road

John Scalzi, The Collapsing Empire, The Consuming Fire, The Dispatcher

Briandon Sanderson, Calamity

Victoria Schwab, City of Ghosts

Vernor Virge, A Fire on the Deep

Bill O'Reilly, Killing the SS, The Day The World Went Nuclear, Killing Patton

Michael McCloskey, Trilisk Ruins, Trilisk AI, Trilik Hunt, Trilisk Superstructure

Jason Levine Miss Nucleus (Reading)

I reread Alan Dean Fosters The Spell Singer Series and The Damned

James S.A. Corey, Persepolis Rising

James Calvell, Shogun

This is just what I can determine with on my Ereader. There are probably a few that I missed and more short stories that I care to mention. I have subscriptions to Analog and Asimov's. I'm not really including the books that I've reread, except the Spellsinger and The Damned books, or audio books. So this is no where near a complete list.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nicolas Pineault - The Non-Tinfoil Guide To EMFs

Rupert Sheldrake - Science And Spiritual Practices

Mark Dice - The True Story Of Fake News

They Rule: The 1 Percent vs Democracy

Punishment Without Crime: How Our Massive Misdemeanor System Traps The Innocent

Red Rising series

[cdsparrow]

By Pierce Brown was a good read. One of the few books out there that actually kept me guessing on stuff.

Things a computer scientist rarely talks about

[Anonymous Coward]

Things a computer scientist rarely talks about

Donanld E Knuth

https://www.amazon.com/Things-Computer-Scientist-Rarely-Lecture/dp/157586326X

The Mythical Man Month

[bobbied]

Got to read that every few years, trust me, it's worth it.

Well...

[DontBeAMoran]

The most interesting thing I've read this year was the nutrition facts from a box of Rice Krispies. Didn't know it had so much sodium in it!

Akira

[Anonymous Coward]

This year I read Akira, like I do every year. Am waiting on arrival of "Nature of Code" by Shiffman.

Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell

[Anonymous Coward]

Still in the process of reading it. Thomas really does help make the complex understandable and explains things in ways I haven't been able to up to now.

Sometimes I feel like it should be mandatory reading in school given the ignorance on the matter I've seen all over social media and message boards.

How many female readers?

[DCFusor]

Like from Henry Rollins hates dating - funny, so I'll leave it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I am heartened to see how many readers are here - even this small amount is encouraging after seeing all the grammar and spelling errors usually here and obviously made by people who came along after dead tree media was cool...or maybe after seeming to know your own language became passe. For me, demonstrating ignorance and illiteracy pretty much means I won't hear your argument. Yes, I cut plenty of slack for people for whom English is not a first language, especially when the errors they make are natural constructs in their mother tongue.

Kim Stanley Robinson

[Anonymous Coward]

I enjoy his sci-fi more than Arthr C. Clarke's, 'nuff said.

River of Innocents, on human trafficking

[Anonymous Coward]

Good book.

Ralph Palmer Agnew

[Anonymous Coward]

Analytic Geometry and Calculus with Vectors
 
a golden oldie
 
more people should read it

Re: Ralph Palmer Agnew

[Anonymous Coward]

The ending was just too sad.

Though I might warp the the movie, when it comes to Netflix.

Re: Nonfiction

[Anonymous Coward]

Bibles and religious texts are mythology, which equals fiction.

Mythology is a Greek word that is used for things related to (usualy super-natural*) religious/cultural stories of the past that have gained a significant cultural status - it does not "equals fictions" (for example, from the Homer's Iliad and Odyssey epic myths, Heinrich Schliemann discovered Troy). source: i am a Greek!

* super-natural, as in Aristotle definition, is something existing beyond the natural world.

Re:Nonfiction

[Anonymous Coward]

I am a Greek Orthodox Christian (so by definition... everything worth reading has being writen originally in Greek!) but i intend this year to read C. S. Lewis "Mere Christianity" because being suggested so often (i suppose mainly from Protestans).

About Paul and arguments of authenticity of some of his Epistoles - enough critical examination from scholars has already be done by people creating the canon (yes, ok... mostly Orthodox and some Roman Catholics), so don't put so much trust to modern people desperately trying to publish in academia their "discoveries" (again, take it from a Greek: everything worth reading has being already writen centuries ago... and in Greek!)

House of Trump, House of Putin:

[Anonymous Coward]

The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia

Plot is coherent but the characters were absolute idiots throughout.

Neurotopia

[jasonharrop]

Neurotopia. Cyberpunk techno thriller. Started yesterday, I'm 40% of the way through. A well written page turner.

The Amazon blurb:

The government can read your thoughts. Improve them too. War, poverty, and crime are history. If you don’t like it, you can always try your luck on that orbiting stateless superpower known as Apollo (formerly The Moon).

When Earth’s neuronet is hacked with a suicide virus, a reclusive thought-scanner, Sky Marion, finds her mother slitting her own wrists. Her mom is not alone – over a million Earth citizens are infected.

Who is to blame? The usual suspects – synthetic telepath hackers hiding on Apollo.

With no known remedy on Earth and less than a week before the virus shuts down victims’ brains, phobia-ridden Sky must risk her life and sanity to infiltrate the lawless lunar colonies if she is to find a cure.

But in doing so, Sky will find herself in the middle of a hidden war, fought for ultimate control over our minds.

All the Birds in the Sky

[NicknameUnavailable]

Was a pretty good one.

Re:All the Birds in the Sky

[Anonymous Coward]

You do realize that 'All the Birds in the Sky' was actually the first novel written by an AI? They fed it nothing but old slashdot articles and Make magazines. Offhand I don't remember which AI it was, not Watson...maybe Joshua

history of science

[Anonymous Coward]

A couple of books on how science got started:

* https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Early-Modern-Science-Islam/dp/1107571073/
* https://www.amazon.com/Intellectual-Curiosity-Scientific-Revolution-Perspective/dp/0521170524

Worth reading

[Anonymous Coward]

How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett
Merchants of Doubt by Naomi Oreskes & Erick M. Conway
Yoga As Medicine by Timothy McCall M.D.

Into tech?

[AHuxley]

got some free time?
Go back over the years of Snowden documents.

Political

[Lord_Jeremy]

Best thing I read was The World as it Is by Ben Rhodes

the good ones this year

[jemmyw]

The Expert System's Brother
Adrian Tchaikovsky

Salvation: A Novel
Peter F. Hamilton

Elysium Fire
Alastair Reynolds

The Green Child
Herbert Read

Robots Have No Tails
Henry Kuttner

I've also been rereading all of the discworld novels to my kid.

Lady Astronaut novels

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd recommend the Lady Astronaut novels by Mary Robinette Kowal - The Calculating Stars and The Fated Sky. They cover an alternate history of the space race, happening in the 1950s - earlier and faster than in our timeline, due to a meteoric disaster that hits the US east cost on page 1 of the first book. They also cover things a lot more progressively than our history - covering issues of racism and sexism that obviously existed back then - but with results more like the 21st century than the 1950s. Highly entertaining, and makes you wish that our own space travel programs were more advanced than they currently are.

Software Engineering books

[Anonymous Coward]

I read "Building Great Software Engineering Teams: Recruiting, Hiring, and Managing Your Team from Startup to Success", by Joshua Tyler; Apress 2015 (ISBN: 9781484211342) in preparation for a major Embedded Software Engineering interview to know what the interviewers were (or should be) looking for, and I think it helped me a great deal!

I'm currently reading "Beginning C++17: From Novice to Professional", 5th Ed., by Ivor Horton & Peter Van Weert; Apress 2018 (ISBN: 9781484233658) to brush up my C++ skills and get current with the standard in anticipation/preparation for the aforementioned job offer. Also reading "Harnessing the UEFI Shell: Moving the Platform Beyond DOS", 2nd Ed., by Michael Rothman, Vincent Zimmer, & Tim Lewis; De Gruyter 2017 (ISBN: 9781501514807) because I think I'll need it if I want to get a Titan Ridge AIC to work in a Threadripper system any time soon.

Also on my reading list is "Real-Time C++: Efficient Object-Oriented and Template Microcontroller Programming", 2nd Ed., by Christopher Kormanyos; Springer 2015 (ISBN: 9783662478097), because it will be highly relevant if I get that job.

A solid history of American capitalism

[shmorhay]

The book "Capitalism in America" by Alan Greenspan and Adrian Wooldridge has been a pleasant surprise. Good overview of the railroad robber-baron era, enabling you to connect the dots to our present corporate data oligopolies. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

For me, I usually do 10-12 hour workdays on weekdays and work some weekends too when needed. My work involves reading and writing scientific papers, reading and writing code, reading and writing emails. So basically, my whole workday revolves around reading and writing, and the part of my brain that does that is exhausted by the time I get home from work. When I'm off-duty, I therefore prefer to relax with movies, TV-series, or social activities, instead of spending even more time reading when I'm exhausted. Thus, I rarely read fiction except during long vacations, which is the only part of the year where it feels like more pleasure than pain.

Masters of DOOM

[Anonymous Coward]

Itâ(TM)s good

Re: Read Books?

[pslytely psycho]

That indeed sucks. I have a friend with the type that turns letters into jumbles. He has found if he uses red letters on a yellow background he is able to read at nearly normal rates.
This has been life changing for him, and turned him into quite the bibliophile.

Good luck, and may you as well find a simpler workaround.

Epic Fantasies

[Anonymous Coward]

Undying Mercenaries series. Humans trying to survive their place as a low level civilization in the galactic empire. Heroes are heroes though crazy, unlikely chains of events. Lots and lots of death since growing a new body and transferring your mind into it is easy for the troops, so think of Starship Troopers.

The Sword Of Truth series. A magical, epic fantasy. Explores some concepts like when is torture and slavery justified. How should people live their lives.

Magic 2.0 series. Randomly located, nerdy programmers uncover the code to the universe and flee back in time to pose as wizards by messing with the code.

Galaxy Outlaws. It's Firefly with wizards!

Expeditionary Force series. Humans get invaded and forced to serve as troops (like many other low level worlds). A few escape, gain access to high level tech, and wreak havoc trying to protect our species while staying hidden.

Omega Force series. Similar idea to Farescape. A single human ends up off world and bands together with aliens to be good guys.

Get the audio books and listen while you do chores. These can be 80+ hour series. Worth it.

Re:Epic Fantasies

[unity]

Thanks, added some of those to my queue.

From the sounds of some of those, you might like the Legend of Zero series. I did, but read them last year so I didn't mention them.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/prod...

Re:Epic Fantasies

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks.

Change Agent

[btroy]

Change Agent by Daniel Suarez -- fictional story that highlights the elements of genetic editing. You'll see CRISPR edits referenced in modern times.

The Code Book by Simon Singh -- history of Cryptography

Click Here to Kill Everybody by Bruce Schneier

many others.

My short list

[CyclistOne]

Isaiah Berlin: A Life, Author: Ignatieff, Michael

Escape into Darkness: The True Story of a Young Woman's Extraordinary Survival During WW II, Author: Games, Sonia

Who Owns the Future, Author: Lanier, Jaron

Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality, Author: Lanier, Jaron

Waking Up White, Author: Irving, Debby

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now, Author: Lanier, Jaron

Three Body Problem, Dark Forest

[Alan R Light]

Excellent choice with The Three Body Problem. The Dark Forest trilogy might just be the best science fiction of the 21st century.

If we knew how to read females we wouldn't be here

[Alan R Light]

Seriously, you know this is Slashdot, right?

Andre (Alice) Norton

[angel'o'sphere]

From Gutenberg.org or other free sites like free-ebooks.com

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

The Time Traders (1958)
Galactic Derelict (1959) - here at the moment
The Defiant Agents (1962)
Key Out of Time (1963)

Actually I read everything from her, till I switch to the next author, but likely intermix one or two their books that i have started but not finished.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for that. I have found it easier to read things when it isn't black lettering on a white background. I haven't much more than green on black though. I am going to try your suggestion. I am also color blind so hopefully it helps me too!

Read Books, Rule World

[Anonymous Coward]

ones from this year that I highly recommend:
Fiction:
The Great Believers (Rebecca Makkai)
This Is How It Always Is (Laurie Frankel)
The Power (Naomi Alderman)
Non:
Sapiens (Yuval Harari)

Rationalfic

[mentil]

Last time we did one of these, a few people recommended 'Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality'. It's longer than 'War & Peace' but I wholeheartedly recommend it; it's by far the most brilliant work of fiction I've ever read. Even if you don't normally read fanfiction, you'll like it if you've ever felt dismayed at fiction being written to be conveniently dramatic, with unrealistically-written characters that act in such a way so as to enhance the drama.

On that note, I've read other 'rationalfic' as it's called, that I've enjoyed. 'Branches on the Tree of Time' is a Terminator fic that makes Sarah Connor an AI researcher who uses the power of time travel to fight Skynet. Events play out nothing like an action/thriller movie.
'Friendship is Optimal' is another fanfic where the world's first strong AI creates a virtual world based on the 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic' franchise, and makes it a utopia for all of humanity to live in. A recursive fic called 'Heaven is Terrifying' more deeply examines the philosophical implications of this. Familiarity with the FIM universe is not required.
Rationalfic is now my favorite type of fiction, and has gotten me back into reading, after ~15 years of being meh about fiction.

I only started it, but the author of the latter work recommended another FIM fanfic called "Trixie's Magic Bit", which is, yes, erotic pony fanfic...
However! It has surprisingly excellent prose, by any standards, and is inspiringly sex-positive, with the most in-depth and (relatively) realistic handling of sexual relationships I've seen in fiction anywhere. Not that I've read any romance/erotic fiction before, so I guess I'm just comparing to film and more typical fiction.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Black males are 117 times more likely to commit murder than white males.

Facts are not racist.

Neal Asher

[cerberusss]

I haven't seen him mentioned so far, but this year I'm reading the books from Neal Asher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

This is hardcore science fiction: basically a paradise of a million planets called the Polity, where humans are ruled by AI. When shit hits the fan, problems get solved by boosted humans working together with good-natured war drones and humongous space ships captained by AI.

Re:Neal Asher

[mentil]

How does this compare to the Culture novels, given these sound similar?

Re:Neal Asher

[Anonymous Coward]

They definitely feel similar. Culture novels always felt somewhat philosophical (e.g. examining the moral ambiguity of SC), whereas Polity novels read a bit more like an action movie (guns, explosions, mad killer robots, deadly megafauna etc).

Re: Neal Asher

[cerberusss]

Anonymous Coward already gave an answer and I pretty much agree with it. The Culture novels are much more paced, there are more characters and they are described more thoroughly and the scenarios more encompassing. The Polity novels have more up and close action, more humor (sorry humour), the storyline is more to the point. However since there are more Polity books, the world feels bigger to me.

Seriously, they're both pretty awesome. If you like Banks, you like Asher.

Good books read this year

[Anonymous Coward]

I've read all kinds of business books and some technical, but the for-fun I'd say:

New: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)

Re-read: "Dr. Adder" and "The Glass Hammer" both by K.W. Jeter.

Re: Nonfiction

[Anonymous Coward]

If there is magic, then magic can do anything reality can do. So if magic does reality, then reality is magic and there is no reality. Makes sense, why should there be two systems? Why not three or fifty? If you don't like there being nothiing but magic, you can always understand there is nothing but reality. The beliefs can be seen to be only mythologies or dreams or allegories, etc., all reality based.

Re:Read Books?

[mermeid007]

Then read comic books - POW! KRAK! BOOM! BANG! Is that more your speed jk ;)

Them: Why We Hate Each Other

[davide marney]

A good non-fiction policy/essay book by Sen. Ben Sasse. Wish they were all this thoughtful in Congress.

"Endurance"

[dpilot]

By Scott Kelly

LUL

[Anonymous Coward]

LUL. Who has time to read anymore? Work, dinner, sleep, work, dinner, sleep.

Good 2018 Books

[bnemer]

Just reread and truly enjoyed The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux. Also, I enjoyed The True Adventures of Joey and Rocky.

Computer Security and Privacy for Windows 10

[Anonymous Coward]

I have been reading about Windows 10 data slurping for a while.
This book show me how to make Windows 10 more secure and private.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus is coming and boy is he pissed.

No computer or tech books - no monomania

[Anonymous Coward]

Haven't read a single computer or technology book this year - no more programmer monomania.

1984 - Read before Brave New World
Brave New World
Fatherland by Robert Harris
The Hanging Man - Phillip Dick - public domain
The Horror From The Mound - Robert E Howard
March Violets - Phillip Kerr
Nightmare in Pink - John D MacDonald
The Riddle of the Sands - Erskine Childers - public domain
The Battle of Dokering - George Tomkyns - public domain
The man in the high castle - Much better if it was a novella
Lombard Street - Walter Bagehot - public domain - thick dense financial history book tracking the Bank of England from early times up to the late 1800s.
Holes - Louis Sachar

Lots of public domain short stories at the rate of one story per day.

Re: No computer or tech books - no monomania

[Anonymous Coward]

If you liked The Riddle of the Sands, I recommend The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim. Public domain also.

Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein

[Anonymous Coward]

This revolutionary book by the greatest philosopher of the 20th century is not hard to read. It does not use specialized terms, and it does not assume any understanding of philosophy. But in in its quiet, brilliant, aphoristic way, it pushes the reset button on some very deep assumptions about language and reality.

Slow reader

[The Evil Atheist]

I managed a few books, thankfully all good.

The Book Smugglers of Timbuktu - the (ongoing) story of the history of Timbuktu and all the intrigue around its famed manuscript collection, and the threat from Al Qaeda.

The Water Kingdom - an analysis of China as a civilization revolving around water and flood managment, written by Philip Ball who was an editor for Nature at one point.

I Contain Multitudes - fascinating look at just how much we don't know about the role of bacteria in all aspects of life. The things we truly don't know about how microbes really work makes modern medicine look like folk remedies. His Royal Institution talk is a good taste of what the book goes into.

The Dark Forest - interesting where he went with it. Totally not expecting the direction of the story from where the Three Body Problem left off.

A Murder is Announced - getting around to reading Agatha Christie. It's a good one to start on.

Turns out I read more than I think I did.

Just starting on "A Mind for Numbers", and after that would be "Beyond Weird", also by Philip Ball.

one "old" one new

[nightcats]

I've recently taken my third or fourth journey through Pirsig's classic from 40+ yrs. ago, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. He had a vision of the future beyond binary -- for tech, art, and philosophy -- that we are so urgently being called toward by our current evolutionary moment.

New book about an author with a similar perspective: Decker's bio of Hermann Hesse, just published by Harvard U. Press. If like me you grew up reading Steppenwolf and Siddhartha and Demian and Magister Ludi, this bio may have some meaning for you.

Re: Read Books?

[fortfive]

That's a long title for a book. Who is the author?

Game Enginer Black Book series

[Anonymous Coward]

Last year Fabien Sanglard started his "Game Engine Black Book" series with "Wolfenstein 3D". At the top of December he released his second book on "Doom".

Both of these are great reads for geeks who great up in the early 1990s with these games and want to know how iD created these amazing games on hardware setup to do little more than office work. (Less true with Doom when the VESA bus is introduced.)

They're a fast read and it helps if you know C and 8088 ASM but the comments around each code block really help.

Been busy writing a book

[MrKaos]

On the topic of using Systems Analysis techniques to resolve psychological abuse from Sociopaths.

Those people are on the cusp of being anti-social or what we commonly know as psychopaths and they use an array of psychological techniques to abuse high functioning people with high I.Qs. It was the most sobering experience because my own personal experiences with someone who liked to make the people around me suffer, until I figured out how they play their game.

I recruited a small team of psychiatrists and psychologists to review what I wrote, which they called genius and I called utter desperation. The book is 650 pages and 180,000 words. With the material I supplied the psychiatrist they were able to give me a professional opinion that I was dealing with a Narcissistic Sociopath by simply reading the behavioral analysis.

If there is a Christmas gift I can give to all /.rs is that sociopaths are more common than you would think and that once you address the system of abuse they install into you everything in life changes for the better. It seems to release massive amounts of fluid intelligence. I developed such a system to use on myself because the psychiatrists we good at telling me what was wrong, but not what to do about it . Well I did.

This is the first time I've ever done anything like this and I wouldn't have a clue how to publish the system I've developed. I hope that no one here has the misfortune of experiencing a Sociopath, especially a Narcissistic one, however I want people to know there is a way out of their abuse system.

I wish you all the best for Christmas.

Ulysses

[Anonymous Codger]

I read a number of books this year, but one of the ones that stayed with me was James Joyce’s Ulysses. I found Mr. Bloom to be a compelling character, the picture it gave of 1904 Dublin and its residents was fascinating, and the writing was engaging. I didn’t understand a lot of it so I’m going back and rereading it with some reference materials.

Before I started rereading Ulysses, I read the Odyssey for the first time in decades. I was captivated by the intimate look at a culture and physical world that were utterly alien to our own.

Re:Ulysses

[Anonymous Coward]

The Odyssey holds amazingly well. After that, it is worth giving a read to the Iliad, before diving in Dan Simmons' Ilium/Olympos.
But as for Ulysses, I stopped at 3-4 pages. And I have read "hard" books, e.g. I finished Nabokov's Ada or Ardour (and loved his - in comparison - much more accessible Pale Fire), but Joyce's book at least at the start seemed like a waste of effort.

Boat?

[show me altoids]

Whose Boat is This Boat by Donald J Trump.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

I live on Chemin de la Ferme des Six, nearby Nigger Rapids, Canada. Why is Slashdot trying to censor the name of my area?

Re: Read Books?

[snakeplissken]

Yes, but at whom?

Unf*ck Yourself

[Anonymous Coward]

Unf*ck Yourself is a really eye opening book to help you see better ways to think and run your life. I really enjoyed it and it's given me a lot to think about.

1,000,000 words

[Anonymous Coward]

9 and a half of the first 10 malazan books. Stalled halfway through The Crippled God. I can't recommend this series enough.

Two I liked

[Anonymous Coward]

"Heretics" Leonardo Padura Read the NPR review There are passages to good you read them several times.

"The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" Arundhati Roy I've been waiting twenty years for her second novel. Her first, “The God of Small Things" won the Booker Prize. Worth the wait.

Bobiverse

[Anonymous Coward]

The Bobiverse series by Dennis E. Taylor: http://bobiverse.wikia.com/wiki/We_Are_Legion_(We_Are_Bob)_Wiki

The Tree Body Problem Trilogy by Cixin Liu: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)

The Footprints of God by Greg Isles: https://www.amazon.com/Footprints-God-Novel-Greg-Iles/dp/1416564098

The Case for Mars by Robert Zubrin: https://www.amazon.com/Case-Mars-Plan-Settle-Planet/dp/145160811X

en Français

[miles zarathustra]

Currently:
Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

2018:
Courrier Sud - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Vol de Nuit - Antoine de Saint Exupéry
Maigret - Georges Simenon
Vingt mille lieues sous les mers - Jules Verne

Re:en Français

[vikingpower]

Wow! A slashdot commenter who read "Vol de nuit". To me, it is one of the most moving books in all of French literature. I must have read it ten times at least. In my imagination, that pilot is still somewhere over the southern Atlantic, his engine humming away above the clouds, the aircraft forever drifting in moonlight.

Books of note from this year

[Anonymous Coward]

The Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan

Waking Up - Sam Harris

The Log of the Sea of Cortez - John Steinbeck

The Three Body Problem Trilogy - Liu Cixin

Dracula

[omnichad]

It took me over two months of before reading to get through Dracula. It's good, but full of archaic language and very slow plot movement. Literally finished reading it last night. Going to satay a round of non-fiction because I have a huge backlog thati never get to.

This year's Sci-fi

[eriks]

Becky Chambers: Record of a Spaceborn Few
Emma Newman: Before Mars
Kim Stanley Robinson: Red Moon
John C Wright: The Golden Age
Lois McMaster Bujold: The Flowers of Vashnoi
Nnedi Okorafor: Binti - The Night Masquerade
John Scalzi: Head On An Novel of the Near Future
Scott Meyer; Fight & Flight
Aliette de Bodard: The Tea Master and the Detective
Nathan Lowell: Suicide Run

Re:The World in 2019

[CaptainDork]

Looking at my list, do you see your suggestion being even somewhat related to my interests?

The Overstory by Richard Powers

[Anonymous Coward]

Imaginative yet factual, a great read.

Re:If we knew how to read females we wouldn't be h

[DCFusor]

Yeah, oops ;~)

It was a good year...

[sandwall]

In no particular order (other than memory):

Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb (he's kind of a jerk, but gifted)

Sapiens - Yuval Noah Harari (beautiful, at the end I felt like i stared into the abyss of man)

The Idea Factory - Jon Gertner (great history of Bell Labs)

A Mind at Play - Jimmy Soni and Rob Goodman (interesting biography of Claude Shannon)

The Jungle - Upton Sinclair (first time, great book)

Dune - Frank Herbert (second time, great book)

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein (first time, great book)

Tribe of Mentors - Tim Ferriss (where I found out about lots of good books)

Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman (beautiful, poetic)

The Nature of Time - Carlo Rovelli (same as above, but a little less imaginative; i.e. fact based)

The Daily Stoic - Ryan Holiday (almost done, again)

American Gods - Neil Gaiman (first time, great book)

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (read before the movie, really enjoyed it -- but i'm an 80's kid)

            Not all the books I read this year, but those that stood out as good.

“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.”
  Mark Twain

3 Body Problem

[wolf12886]

I cant believe I havent seen 3 Body Problem on here. It starts as a weird very chinese sci-fi about physics researchers, and then grows into an incredible epic tale about all of humanity. I cant recommend it enough, its absolutely mind blowing.

Re:3 Body Problem

[vikingpower]

Indeed. I read all three volumes in the series. Couldn't put any and each of them down until the last sentence. Especially Dark Forest Deterrence hooked itself into my thoughts, I'm still gnawing at the subject, its necessity and the likelihood of its necessity. Cixin Liu is a master.

The Last Temptation of Christ

[CranberryKing]

by Nikos Kazantzakis. Merry Christmas.

The Wealth of Nations by Smith, Adam

[mrcoder83]

"The Wealth of Nations" by Smith, Adam. Why workers are most often compensated per hour rather than per unit of work done? Why it was not easy to live as a free man in antique era? Was it better for a medieval serf to live in Church-owned or a noble-owned lands? Was it cheaper to own a slave or hire a worker in American colonies? Is it better to get most of your calories from bread or potatoes? How strict trade policies negatively impacted European states? Why not being allowed to public universities lead to better level of education for woman sometimes? Were all colonies managed equally well? How did the world look like on the brink of American Revolution? A lot of people, often well educated, keep repeating fringe and dangerous economic ideas (like Universal Basic Income, direct taxation of the capital or even communism) without understanding what makes the economy really work and without knowing any examples of bad economic policies ruining economies in the past. Most people, unless it is their profession requires it, don't have a natural source of reliable information on that matter and the mass media are full of myths and simplifications. This book is a wonderful journey though countless examples of how economy actually works up to the middle 18th century. By starting from a large number of observations it is very much an "Origin of Species" of the economy. Everybody should read it. Very eye opening. Sadly, it is also one of the longest books I've ever read and it takes endurance to eat thought all the references. It is much easier to read few pages of the Communist Manifesto, post class struggle rants on Facebook, join Black Lives Matter and block street traffic.

Re:The Wealth of Nations by Smith, Adam

[Anonymous Coward]

dangerous economic ideas (like Universal Basic Income, ...) without understanding what makes the economy really work

Dangerous to whom, the people monopolizing the benefits of productivity increases, concentrating wealth, and leaving poverty in their wake? Something like UBI is needed, and dismissing the idea is even more dangerous. It is past time we had a conversation about what sort of economy policy works for the people, but that is only half the problem.

There are at least two crucial elements underlying a functioning and prosperous economy: 1) people need access to money, and 2) affordable goods available for purchase. While UBI helps with the former, there is almost no focus on what enables the latter: affordable energy, which is the true spring of modern prosperity. Unfortunately, stretching the unsustainable fossil fuel supply by supplementing it with expensive "green" energy, will accelerate the growing poverty independent of economic policy, so rational energy policy is also essential.

The low-energy future of sacrifice that wind and solar advocates are trying to guilt us into is a ruse for anti-human ideology. It is supported by powerful entrenched interests, concerned that their fossil assets will be stranded, and recognizing that unreliable wind and solar will forever depend upon their increasingly scarce product. The problem with nuclear energy, is that it can rapidly and completely replace fossil energy, while offering a guilt-free future of abundance with minimal environmental and health impact. A nuclear-powered future is the only one in which common folk may prosper. Those seeking to exclude our most scalable emissions-free energy source care nothing for people or the environment.

Classics

[azcoyote]

I like classic, well-aged literature. This year I read Middlemarch by George Eliot, expecting it to be something my wife would like because of its similarity to Jane Austen. But I loved it so much and found it so theologically deep that it's probably one of my favorite books ever now--I even bought a hardcover to peruse for good quotes. My wife, however, hated it.

For a shorter, more casual read I also read Dracula, which I liked a lot more than I thought I would. The best part is at the beginning, though, and it starts to drag on after halfway. It is also not very deep.

Re:Classics

[spitzig]

Nowhere near deep enough for me. I was surprised how boring it was. To me, it was mostly Victorian Era politeness(like Jane Austen).

I thought Frankenstein was MUCH better.

'The Rook' and 'Stiletto'

[hodagacz]

by Daniel O'Malley. Urban fantasy with considerable comedy set in the UK.

Software Engineering books

[Cathy344]

"Building Great Software Engineering Teams: Recruiting, Hiring, and Managing Your Team from Startup to Success", by Joshua Tyler; Apress 2015 (ISBN: 9781484211342) "Harnessing the UEFI Shell: Moving the Platform Beyond DOS", 2nd Ed., by Michael Rothman, Vincent Zimmer, & Tim Lewis; De Gruyter 2017 (ISBN: 9781501514807) "Beginning C++17: From Novice to Professional", 5th Ed., by Ivor Horton & Peter Van Weert; Apress 2018 (ISBN: 9781484233658) "Real-Time C++: Efficient Object-Oriented and Template Microcontroller Programming", 2nd Ed., by Christopher Kormanyos; Springer 2015 (ISBN: 9783662478097)

Recommend

[raind]

The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government.

A disturbing read.
https://www.amazon.com/David-Talbot/e/B0034Q2618/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

My two ...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Insane Clown President" by Matt Taibbi - actually presented a lucid explanation of why Trump won. Helped to restore my sanity.

"The Found and the Lost" by Ursula K. LeGuin - a collection of her novellas. You know how a good Jackson Browne song can make you feel homesick for growing up in Southern California ?? Except you didn't grow up in Southern California. Several of these Ursula stories give you the same quality of heartbreak, a longing for the planet Hain that you can never return to. We'll miss you ...

Behave. The biology of humans at our best & wo

[anadem]

By Robert Sapolsky [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Sapolsky], professor of biology and neurology at Stanford. It's a marvelously deep but excellently and entertainingly readable discussion of causes of behavior, ranging from molecular processes in neuron synapses in the brain to societal and environmental factors.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Mr. Court Records

Mostly books I keep rereading

[jd]

Doctor Who - The Dalek Masterplan I, II
Katharine Kerr - Daggerspell/Dawnspell
Fred Hoyle - The Black Cloud
Terry Pratchett - Pyramids
Alan Garner - Weirdstone of Brisingamon

Harvard - A Grammar of Akkadian
Edward de Bono's Thinking Course
1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed
Kurt Jensen - Coloured Petri Nets
Program Logics for Certified Compilers

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, I'm sure he will ride in on a unicorn with Nessie, Bigfoot, Elvis and a leprechaun at his side.

Good read

[Anonymous Coward]

A Confederacy of Dunces

two books from a slow reader

[Anonymous Coward]

* How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and J. Rosenberg
* The Martian by Andy Weir

the rest of the year was eaten by JavaFX for dummies (->) -- that is the challenge...

Andre (Alice) Norton - The Last Planet

[mykepredko]

Just finished her "The Last Planet" 1953 - really quite enjoyed it.

You'll probably have to find it as a used book.

Personally, I find her stuff hit and miss, she tells a great tale of journey, but often the ending/conflict leaves much to be desired.

The Last Planet is one of the best and well rounded books of hers that I've read.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yet white males are 65 times more likely to commit rape. Statistics are great. We can all make them up.

Best Book of 2018 for me...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is going to seem like a shitty pick, but despite my BS in Finance, I still needed to read the Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey to get my shit together. (I gave out 4 copies for Christmas to family members.) If you're dealing with debt of any kind and don't know what to do, just read it, follow the baby steps, and it'll help you. Finances are often less about academic knowledge and more about finding ways to win and reinforce your plans, and the baby steps offer a basic framework that just works.

I've gotten through $20,000 in debt in 2018, so it's got some merit. So far 2019 looks even brighter, as my current plan puts that debt payment around $30,000-35,000 within the year. Not only will that mean I have no consumer debt left (credit cards, car loans, etc), but I'll also be chipping through student debt by mid-year at a dramatic pace.

Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much For Health

[Anonymous Coward]

Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much For Health Care by by David A. Hyman & Charles Silver

I had no idea how messed up health care is. Pharma, surgery, & equipment Mostly due to wrong incentives by 3rd party payers including Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance.

Just send an email

[Anonymous Coward]

Anti-patterns for email-centric organizations
by Cesare Pautasso

my 2018 reading

[Anonymous Coward]

* How Google works
* The Martian
* JavaFX for dummies (that is the real challenge to finish).

My List for 2018

[Anonymous Coward]

In order from most recently completed (thanks Audible):

The Fifth Season (NK Jemisin) - Okay, didn't live up to the hype. Decent fantasy novel, probably won't read the rest of the trilogy.

A Walk in the Woods (Bill Bryson) - Funny, but too short. The movie was arguably better.

Steelheart (Brandon Sanderson) - Finally found a Sanderson novel I didn't really care for. I just don't dig superhero stuff, I think.

Thrawn and Thrawn: Alliances (Tim Zahn) - Good canon additions for Thrawn. If you like Star Wars novels, I'd recommend these.

Aftermath: Star Wars (Chuck Wendig) - Awful. Don't bother.

Hard Magic (Larry Correia) - Good, but not as good as his MHI series. Similar to Steelheart, I don't dig the superhero vibe.

The Absent Superpower/The Accidental Superpower (Peter Zeihan) - Very good. His predictions are interesting, though it's the historical geopolitical perspective that I found made these books interesting reads. Would definitely recommend for anyone that likes a history of why we're in the political place we are, told from a geopolitical viewpoint.

Galaxy Outlaws (J.S. Morin) - Pretty good Firefly-esque space western/drama. Each book is short, and it copies the feel of Firefly pretty closely.

Her Brother's Keeper and Sins of Her Father (Mike Kupari) - Okay sci-fi. Would recommend, but didn't blow my socks off (We are Legion (We are Bob) did, for comparison)

A Storm of Swords (GoT book 3, G.R.R Martin) - Say what you will about Martin, I think he writes well and tells a good story. I'm taking the books in sips, though...they're bloody long, fairly dark, and a little thick.

Catalyst: A Rogue One novel (James Luceno) - This was like reading the Silmarilion for me...a little dry, but good back story for the interesting fiction.

All These Worlds and For We Are Many (Bobiverse books 2 and 3) - Good sequels, little short, not as good as the first book. Still good reads; get the whole series.

Oathbringer (Brandon Sanderson) - I think I technically read this at the end of 2017, but whatever. Sanderson is great; I didn't like this one as much as the first two, but the whole Stormlight Archive series is phenomenal. Epic fantasy at its best right now.

Re: Read Books?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sheldrake is such a hack

Source: am biologist and philosopher

books

[campuscodi]

From my Goodreads, these are the 2018 books that I gave 5 stars: Fire & Blood - George RR Martin Iron Gold - Pierce Brown

Philosophy, and Elena Ferrante.

[vikingpower]

"My Brilliant Friend", by Italian (pseudonym) author Elena Ferrante. I read it in the original Italian (yes, it's a blessing to know that language well enough to read literature in it), and the book's beauty made me stop dead in my tracks, taking my breath away several times.

"Process and Reality", originally appeared in 1929, by philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, who arguably was the last of the System-Building philosophers. He stands at a scarcely-populated height, together with Leibniz, Malebranche and Spinoza. I needed Sherburne's "A Key to Whitehead's 'Process and Reality'" to see the hidden order in Whitehead's magnum opus, as "[it is a] book that in richness and suggestiveness is unsurpassed... but in opacity is monumental".
 
"The Road to Relativity", but Guttfreund and Renn, on the coming-into-being of Einstein's theories.

"The Meaning of Relativity", by Einstein himself. No comments needed.

In total around 100 books, including large swaths of the Russell and Norvig classic on Artificial Intelligence.