* A Guide to the Good Life: The Anicent Art of Stoic Joy

* Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality

About the last, I typically abhor fanfic, and I admit, I started reading this one in a fit of ironic pique. However, it's actually quite damned good. Reimagine the world of Harry Potter if Harry grew up in a happy, rationalist houehold and was an exceptionally bright young scientist. When inducted into Hogwarts, he swears he will use his scientific training to learn the Rules Of Magic in a fashion that no wizard before has ever done, because no wizard before has HAD the scientific background he's had.

The author is well-versed on physics, math, psychology, philosophy, and many other scientific pursuits, and manages to wrap them all up in an entertaining-as-hell story that is on chapter 56 and still going strong.

Here, let me save you a Google search:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_M...

The most interesting math book I've read as a computer programmer. It covers graph theory, combinatorics, boolean algebra, trees, complexity theory, etc. I already knew a good chunk of this, but this book let me connect many dots and discover real life applications of mathematical concepts.

Histoire d'O by Pauline Réage

My Life in Art by Constantin Stanislavski (This one seems to be taking me forever, even though it's entertaining. Biographies are not really my thing.)

My only complaint is it does completely skip over theory. That makes it accessible to a wider audience (I have a degree in literature) but he misses the opportunity of helping out people who are trying to build a better theoretical foundation or are learning higher math / mathematical notation.

  - *Built to Last* - Collins and Porras
  - *The Ruby Programming Language* - Flanagan and Matz
  - *_Whys Poignant Guide to Ruby* - _Why the Lucky Stiff

I'm currently reading Revelation Space. It's a science fiction space opera novel by Alastair Reynolds. Pretty immersive. A good read!

    Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid — Douglas Hofstadter
    Logic for Mathematicians – A. G. Hamilton
    The Black Prism — Brent Weeks

Read when you'd instead be surfing HN or Reddit and when you're done coding/working on homework. Reading takes the place of procrastination very nicely—the same relaxation, but less guilt and more benefit.

It's been on my 'to-read' list for awhile, finally got around to reading it. Really enjoying seeing into the origins of a lot of the big companies these days, and how that shaped what they do today.

A few days ago: "Iron Sunrise" by Charles Stross. Solid space opera, buy not my favorite Stross.

Charlie Stross, Halting State.

Jacques Barzun, An Essay On French Verse: For Readers of English Poetry.

Recently finished:

James Shapiro, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? (nonfiction, highly recommended; more about the history of the Shakespeare authorship controversy than a salvo in it)

Ian Banks, Consider Phlebas (first book in the Culture series, well-written but way way longer than it should be, which is annoying)

John le Carre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (re-read this spy classic, for Le Carre's style)

Junot Diaz, The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao (peppered with nerdy references from the 80ies and 90ies, the style is annoying at first, but grows on you, and the novel only gets better. A great novel)

I was where you are a few years ago: realized that I thought of myself as still reading, but in reality I was reading very little. Then I decided to adopt a very simple system: I try to read about 40 pages every day. If I read more, great. If I read less, I don't punish myself or carry debt (this is crucial), I just try to make 40 pages next day. The point here is simply to have reading on my mind as a desirable activity. I found that if I don't consciously remember that I want to read, it's very easy to spend all free time in other activities (browsing the web, reading long HN/reddit threads, etc.), which I don't actually prefer to reading; they're just there in the foreground, in my browser. Just remembering the I want to read ~40 pages per day makes reading occupy part of my conscious foreground, and helps me read more without other important stuff really suffering.

I find after long days of technical thinking I really enjoy a lighthearted funny piece of fiction to help me unwind and get to sleep. At this point I don't think I could handle much more math or computer science and stay sane.

Types and Programming Languages

6 dozen students' homework

Probably going to start Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said sometime soon (or some other novel... I can't currently remember what I have waiting on my shelf).

Interestingly, I've also read SICP in parallel -- currently reading the last chapter -- and there's some overlap in the topics treated in the two books. I'm also walking through CLRS and TAOCP at the moment, albeit reading the latter with a slower pace compared to the former.

On the non-technical side, I'm reading ``Drawing with the right side of the brain'' by Betty Edwards. I've picked up this book since I've decided to resume drawing one year ago. I highly recommend it if you struggle to draw a realistic rendering of a real life object or a landscape.

Compilers, Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd ed ("The Dragon Book") by Aho, Lam, Sethi, and Ullman.

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, by Eliezer Yudkowsky

I tried Godel Escher Bach but after a few pages of his pq system I couldn't take it any more and walked away. Is this something I need to endure or am I not "getting it"?

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us -- Dan Pink (http://www.amazon.com/Drive-Surprising-Truth-About-Motivates...)

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? -- Seth Godin (http://www.amazon.com/Linchpin-Are-Indispensable-Seth-Godin/...)

The Laws of Simplicity -- John Maeda (http://www.amazon.com/Laws-Simplicity-Design-Technology-Busi...)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -- Robert M. Persig (http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Art-Motorcycle-Maintenance-Inquiry...)

Invisible Man -- Ralph Ellison (http://www.amazon.com/Invisible-Man-Ralph-Ellison/dp/0679732...)

How to Win Friends and Influence People -- Dale Carnegie (http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/06...)

The Kindle app has really got me buying a lot of books that I now need to finish...

Now I'm trying to tackle Infinite Jest on my iPad. I've never been much of a reader but I'm trying my damndest to break that non-habit. I have no idea what's going on in this book but I feel I'd be totally screwed with out the built-in dictionary function of iBooks. I'm certainly expanding my vocabulary if nothing else!

I'm not even a fan of bios and seriously this is one of the best books I've read this year (so far, I'm halfway through).

I am also reading The Brothers Karamazov on my Kindle. I kept seeing so many references to it in other things I was reading and I took that as a sign.

Also just started reading Being Geek by Michael Lopp (of the "Rands in Repose" blog). O'Reilly had the ebook on sale the other day and I couldn't pass it up!

I just finished Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson. That was an intense book! If you like deep sea adventure or anything U-boat, it's a worthy read.

- La Zone du dehors by Alain Damasio, a french author. I must admit I liked his more recent book, La Horde du Contrevent, a lot more. Sadly, it is not available in English. Read it if you understand French and like SF.

- Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (finishing the 9th book). It's a good story, but not a must-read.

- The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. Liked the first 150 pages I read.

- Cryptography Engineering by Niels Ferguson, Bruce Schneier, and Tadayoshi Kohno. I'm learning tons about cryptography.

- The Non-Designer's Design Book (3rd edition) by Robin Williams. Only read a few chapters, but I'm learning a lot about design. Very simple principles that change everything.

- Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests by Steve Freeman & Nat Pryce. I decided to go with this book instead of reading Beck's book on TDD. I'm learning / revisiting a lot of best practices from TDD masters. I recommend it to Java Developers (once they have read Effective Java, of course).

I still have a lot to read ( http://i.imgur.com/lgpjf.jpg and http://www.google.com/buzz/neveue/Kc4GhaSSoLE/Un-weekend-pro... ), and am looking forward to it :)

I anyone is interested, I've spent some time researching (on HN, StackOverflow, and other communities) about design & UX, Linux & System administration, and programming. Here's the list I ended up with: http://www.google.com/buzz/neveue/NBBSEryBonS/Woot-ordering-...

Accelerando (Charles Stross -- our HN buddy) Mainly to remind myself how fucking awesome British sci-fi can be. It is.

The Consolations of Philosophy (Alain de Botton) I'm a mathematician who should have studied philosophy. Alain writes superbly insightful, unpretentious, and accessible books on philosophy.

Raising Venture Capital for the Serious Entrepreneur (Dermot Berkery) In case my bootstrapping fails. It's as dry as you'd expect and USian, but good background.

A Guide to the Good Life (William Irvine) An overview of Stoic philosophy and how to apply it as a philosophy of life. William writes beautifully, which makes this a very pleasant journey.

Blood and bloody ashes.

I find that reading recharges my creative thinking. I used to think it was purely relaxation, but now consider it as essential as sleeping / eating well.

The Art Of Probability , Richard Hamming. I find prob/stat frustratingly hard to master. This book is clearing up my confusion chapter by chapter. As an engineer this book appears to be written for someone with exactly my level of knowledge which helps a lot.

Conspiracy of Fools , Kurt Eichenwald. Very entertaining ... shining examples of what not to do.

Security Analysis, 1934 Edition, Graham and Dodd. They authors are exquisitely clear thinkers. I don't know how useful the financial information is because it is 80 years old.

http://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Produc...

So that I can read more and do other things :)

Also watching the Messenger Lecture series Nima Arkani-Hamed gave recently https://smackernews.com/item/1851016 HN

Peter Norvig's Paradigms of AI Programming which is quite dense (in a good way) and extremely interesting.

I just bought and started the Land of Lisp for something light to pair with PAIP.

I'm also off-and-on reading Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (which needs no introduction), GEB (the same), and Coders At Work (which is humbling).

And Erik Larson's The Devil In The White City which is pretty entertaining.

One-paragraph pitch:

In order to win, we should operate at a faster tempo or rhythm than our adversaries--or, better yet, get inside the adversary's Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action time cycle or loop. ... Such activity will make us appear unpredictable thereby generate confusion and disorder among our adversaries--since our adversaries will be unable to generate mental images or pictures that agree with the menacing as well as faster transient rhythm or patterns they are competing against.

Nisan and Schocken's _The Elements of Computing Systems_ (http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/), which is about how the whole modern computing stack works, from NAND gates on up.

Jon Bentley's _More Programming Pearls_. Again.

Wind-Up Girl - Great postapocalyptic novel where the scarcity of 'calories' drives innovation and economy. A cool take on cyberpunk... biopunk?

The Shallows (What the internet is doing to our brains) - Great book, though a few chapters are kinda slow. Whether you believe the studies or not, it's full of excellent anecdotes about the history of book publishing, tv, etc.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Great story of post-wwii england written entirely via letters.

The Secret Lives of People in Love - Extremely beautiful prose. Each story is 5-6 pages.

http://www.amazon.com/Fooled-Randomness-Hidden-Chance-Market...

A fictional story told, in part, from the perspective of a tattoo parlor apprentice living in Los Angeles, who stumbles upon a monograph of a documentary film, authored by the late, blind neighbor of a friend, about a family who moves into a house in Virginia that is ≈ ¼" bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Leaves

Currently reading the 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene (Author of the Art of Seduction). I quite enjoy the way he writes, it's filled with historical examples and the sidebars on each page are filled with quotes from all the ages. Similar style to "Think and Grow Rich"

Summary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_33_Strategies_of_War

They're both historical fiction centered around the coal mining industry in West Virgina. Storming Heaven covers the years during the WV mine wars/Battle of Blair Mountain, and Unquiet Earth spans years beyond that, up into the 1980's.

Another good one along the same vein is Strange as the Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake.

I've been restricting myself to fiction these days, since I get way too engrossed by non-fiction and want to keep it light and fun for a bit :)

Excellent science fiction.

I hope it will be a good way for me to improve my math, while learning about our history and the universe all at the same time.

Currently reading:

Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman - Yvon Chouinard (founder of Patagonia) - traces his journey from lifestyle business to super fast growth. Some excellent thoughts on leadership in there.

Also re-reading The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. Highly recommended.

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/1439182450

Getting some interest in building teams that makes an organization be more productive, efficient and at the same time, a nice and fun place to be in. I wanted to start with our IT department and perhaps, when permitted, expand to other sectors in the company I am working for.

I highly recommend the Teaching Company Lectures on any historical topic, but esp. the Italian Renaissance. The lecturer is really awesome.

Fractals. They're pretty awesome.

The first few chapters were invaluable to me with discrete maths - it was far easier to think inside a fixed formal system when I had experienced it within the book first.

The remaining chapters are all fascinating as well. Only bad point is I find it very tiring to read, I can't manage more than a couple of chapters in one sitting.

EDIT: Not necessarily trying to say that this shouldn't be here, just that the audience for these two threads is probably pretty close, so people here might find the info there interesting/useful.

Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky - great nuts & bolts conversation on moving ideas into execution

Comfortable With Uncertainty (re-reading for the Nth time) - 108 short meditations and stories on finding peace in the context of constant change

  The Machine of Death - Anthology
  To Mock a Mockingbird - Raymond Smullyan
  Scott Pilgrim - Bryan Lee O'Malley
  Zero History - William Gibson

Also started The Land of Lisp as a total Lisp newby and got royally confused at the end of 1st section with cons, car, cdr, cadr… what?

Before that I just finished Clavell's Shogun and I liked it, I just wished I had read it when I was in my teens.

Some of Jakob Nielson's usability stuff.

Also Design Patterns in Ruby, which is rather entertaining for a programming book.

I'm also:

1) slowly working through F. Copleston's History of Philosophy Volume 1: Greece and Rome while reading selections of the philosophers he discusses

2) reading daily an article or piece from Lapham's Quarterly, and

3) reading almost daily 0.5-1 law from Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power

The Koran (Just five minutes here and there. Honestly, I find it excruciatingly boring.)

The Elements of Statistical Learning (Just started.)

Plus fun stuff. I have a Simenon on my bedside table plus The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Not sure which is next.

I also look at The Book of 5 Rings and The Art of War on a regular basis.

Just finished Refactoring in Ruby by Wake & Rutherford (a quick read, but had some good tips), and Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (fantastic).

If you work in a UI/UX/Product/Front-end role do read this book some time.

1) G.E.B 2) Mind Hunter - John Douglas 3) Whoever Fights Monsters - Robert Ressler 4) End the Fed - Ron Paul

I leave each book in a different place that I know will be "downtime" for me. i.e - bedroom, bathroom, office, and car.

and re-reading

How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2274

Loving them both - excellent books.

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Swarm Intelligence - James Kennedy & Russel C. Eberhart

How The Mind Works - Steven Pinker

A History of Western Philosophy - Bertrand Russell

Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

* Set Theory and the Continuum Problem by Smullyan and Fitting

* The Calculus Lifesaver by Adrian Banner

* Discrete Mathematics with Proof by Eric Gossett

* Unix and Linux System Adminstration Handbook by Nemeth, Snyder, Hein, and Whaley

As far as non-fiction goes I'm reading Backgammon by Paul Magriel and Beginning iPhone Development.

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/neurobiology/labs/ahissar/new_page...

http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Book-Living-Dying-Internationa...

Also reading "1453: The Holy War For Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West" by Roger Crowley. More of an action book than a historical one.

"Long Walk to Freedom" - Currently reading.

"Good to Great" - Up next.

It is essentially a guide on how to reduce complexity in your life so you can have more success with the essential things. I like it so far but I'm only half way through it.

I was just wondering whether anyone else experiences the problem I do when I read books: falling asleep after about 15 minutes. Any suggestions?

#Recommend on HN:

--Infinite Jest - DFW

--A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again - DFW

--The Web Application Hackers Handbook - Marcus Pinto

#Recommended Elsewhere:

--On Intelligence - Jeff Hawkins

--Refactoring - Martin Fowler

--The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (re-reading/skimming)

I am reading it very slowly and savoring it. I felt I read his last three books too quickly and found myself wishing I could read them again for the first time.

A few others have mentioned fiction by Haruki Murakami. All of his work is fantastic.

* Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay (kindle)

* Erlang Programming by Francesco Cesarini (rereading mostly because of the excellent exercises)

Random tales of the Grateful Dead, Shamans, percussion, and (most interesting to me) a conversation with Joe Campbell.

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness - Thaler & Sunstein

Factorization Methods for Discrete Sequential Estimation - Bierman

Edit: I'm also reading this book called "Hold Nothing Back" by Mike Jones, it was gift from a good friend of mine.

btw kudos on an awesome question

A classic in good UI design for webpages.

Being written in Scottish slang for the large part enhances the humour and character greatly.

- (AIMA) Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

- Javascript : The Good Parts

Starting on:

- Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript: Making App Store Apps Without Objective-C or Cocoa

* Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

* Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor E. Frankl. This one was very good. Psychology can actually be logical and accessible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_White

http://amzn.to/b24sCC

My first foray into the world of sci-fi books, spurred on by my new Kindle. I have to say I'm impressed so far

Working my way through the "Sprawl trilogy" :)

Also, Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin.

The Millenium Series (Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series) by Stieg Larrson

* Et Tu Babe by Mark Leyner

* The Road to Reality by Roger Penrose

* Visual Complex Analysis by Tristan Needham

Beginning iPhone 3 Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK by David Mark and Jeff LaMarche

Kind of slow to get going, but absolutely fascinating and real characters.

Next up: Murakami - "Norwegian Wood"

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

Chess Openings for Black, Explained

- Zodiac by Neal Stephenson (rereading for the nth time)

- The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

Very interesting interviews with hackers and/or computer language inventors.

http://www.danpink.com/drive

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_Faber_(novel)

Interesting Times - Eric Hobsbawm

The Great Crash, 1929 - John Galbraith

Algebra - Artin

Of Human Bondage - Maugham

Malware Analyst's Cookbook - Ligh et al.

Practical Palm Pre WebOS Projects by Frank Zammetti

"The Algorithm Design Manual" by Steve Skiena

Cadence & Slang by Nick Disabato

Consider The Lobster - David Foster Wallace

The Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy

- Security On Rails

- Walt Disney: An American Original

Godel, Escher & Bach (round 2!)

Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith

Lisp in Small Pieces by C. Queinnec

Rails 3 guides

The Psychology of Humor: An Integrative Approach (textbook, via kindle)

The Nicomachean Ethics (kindle)

Date Hotter Girls (PDF, kindle)

I went on a reading binge earlier this year, but I've since slowed down. This thread may or may not inspire me to get back on it.