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

Posted by msmash on from the slashdot-book-club dept.

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?

5 of 255 comments (clear)

  1. Seveneves by mobby_6kl · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

  2. I read non-fiction mostly ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ... 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)

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  3. Inside the AS/400 by ArchieBunker · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
  4. The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & S. Baxter by xpiotr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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/...

  5. Re:Das Capital by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.