Ask HN: What are you reading?

Thinking In Systems: A Primer by Donella MeadowsMy 17 year old son bought it for me for my birthday. I've been enjoying it a lot. I do in fact like thinking in systems and learning more about it, and reading it in a more generalized fashion than I tend to in the computer science world has provided a refreshing perspective. It's all very approachable, nothing very complex, but gives names and discreet patterns to things I intuitively understood but previously wouldn't articulate easily. Definitely one of my favourite gifts in a long time.Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted ChiangI read bits of this to my wife at night occasionally. One of the first trips we went on together was camping on a little island, and I had Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami) with me which I suggested I read to her in the evening. She really liked it and I've done it since. I wish I did it more often. Anyway, Stories of Your Life and Others is a wonderful collection. I've read it a few times, not always completely, and I enjoy it. Story of your life is the standout. It's what the movie Arrival is based on, which I consider one of the best scifi movies of all time. It's a beautiful story.Silo series by Hugh HoweyI've been watching the show and decided the books deserve a shot. If the show is as good as it is, the books must be great, right? Can you tell me more about reading to your wife? Is she listening intently, or like falling asleep? or is she doing something and listening in the background? (knitting / on her phone) 1. I love this question and not just on HN, but the answers are very high quality here. At a house party, at a baseball game, on a hike, whatever ... if anyone asks out loud to a group, "what are you reading?" I get ready to scribble down a new list!2. Obvious (?) observation: Today's list consists of human-authored books. Will that trend hold? Can you imagine this question being asked in X years with predominantly AI-authored books as the answers? Novels or nonfiction. I get a thrill out of a good book, partly, because it lets me into the head of a lucid or genius or maniacal fellow human. I am always afraid to share what I am actually reading right now because I am afraid that people spoil it for me. I am highly sensitive to spoilers, so even things like "I loved that it was so funny" or "The ending was great" or something just ruins the experience, at least somewhat.So I'd usually share what I read before this. Just finished: "Lonesome Dove", by Larry McMurtry. From the name, I'd somehow assumed it was a romance novel. No, it's absolutely not. If it were released today, I think I'd describe it as "horsepunk": instead of cyberpunk's high tech low-lifes, it's basically horseback low-lifes. That's not entirely fair because there's a lot of moral strength in some of the characters, but they're all living on the brutal edges of a society where any random event might bring death, or worse.Now reading: "null: $cat /dev/null_", by Dienw Neb[0]. I don't know what it's about yet. I heard about it in an ad in the back of "2600 Magazine" and it caught my attention. Initial impressions are that 1) Neb is really good at dialog, and 2) their recreations of IRC chats is so perfect that I know they had to've spend many hours online in the middle of the night. Basically, the author knows how to write things I want to read. I do so hope they stick the landing and that the story turns out as wonderful as the writing.[0]https://nebulaofbooks.com/books/null-cat-dev-null_/ "Lonesome Dove" was the most surprising book in years for me - I do not like westerns, and that book is a western - but guess what: I loved it!One of the best books and simply the best imho in its genre. Well, sure! But most westerns don’t give you that much insight into each person’s motivations and inner lives. And others tend to be more optimistic, with a common theme that truth and justice are destined to win out. Lonesome Dove’s freaking grim. The world seems out to get them, but it’s worse: the world just doesn’t care.People who haven’t read it: Lonesome Dove won a Pulitzer for a reason. It’s very good. I just finished my umpteenth reread of AFUtD. It’s one of those books I can pull off the shelf every few years and enjoy from beginning to end.The Cradle series by Will Wight, starting with Unsouled. Kind of hard to describe, but it’s an sci-fi/Asian fantasy martial arts cultivation epic. If you liked Dungeon Crawler Carl, it may be of interest. If you haven't read about his (technical) system for writing, do so. Very geeky. He described it (including notes) in my ebook copy of Fire Upon The Deep They have a special place in my heart.I recently described finishing Fire Upon the Deep as saying goodbye to a very dear friend. A great book. Oh I've got some recs for you if you want meaty! I've been reading classics this year. It started with East of Eden; if you've got a philosophical leaning and appreciate your characters deeply fleshed out, you owe it to yourself to read this book.The next one was Lonesome Dove, this was my first time reading a western and I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. The book is also absolutely hilarious and has one of my favorite characters in a book(shoutout to Gus).I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cresto and, boy, it's turning out to be quite the epic tale of revenge(no spoilers please!). I started the year reading Demons by Dostoevsky. Seemed prophetic in a lot of ways about what was coming about 40 years later in 1917.At the beginning of the summer I read All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy. I'm not into westerns, but I really liked that one. A modern classic.Just finished The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry. Such a gorgeously written book. > I'm currently reading The Count of Monte Cresto and, boy, it's turning out to be quite the epic tale of revenge(no spoilers please!).Once you get done, try The Three Musketeers. It's both romantic (like Monte Christo) and also really funny, not dark at all. Dumas was an amazing writer, backed by August Maquet, who wrote the first drafts on both novels. I don’t know if this is considered a classic, but I recently read and thoroughly enjoyed Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca”. I think I might have read it in a single sitting.I was lead to Rebecca after I found and read a discarded copy of Donna Tartt’s “The Secret History”. I wanted more and Googled “books like Rebecca”. Sadly, I thought Tartt’s “The Goldfinch”, which lots of people raved about, was not very good. Last night, I dreamt I went to Manderley again...I first read _Rebecca_ as a teen, years ago. Still recall the thrill of the book. Few writers wrote so engagingly as Du Maurier. Hitchcock's movie was fine, but the book is the real deal. I tried multiple English translations of The Count of Monte Cristo, and the Robin Buss translation was the only one I enjoyed. (Unfortunately, there is no audiobook of this translation, but I had Codex create one for me.If you're unconvinced, try comparing a few random passages to see which one you prefer, or just check the beginning of Chapter 1. You could also show a few translations of a passage to an LLM and ask it which one best conveys the nuance of the original French. I'm also reading The Count of Monte Cresto. It's taken me forever! I made the mistake of reading the public domain version, which uses Victorian English. Switching to the Penguins classic version has been a lot easier for me to read. But I'm also listening to the Victorian audiobook while I work out narrated by Bill Homewood, and it's fantastic!I'm going to need a nice, short book after this one. ... how did you both misspell the title? It's the Count of Monte Cristo .. unless this is a different language. This was eerie to read, you just named my 3 favorite works of fiction in the reverse order that I read them. All brilliant books. Kindred spirits or these are just about the top 3 most often recommended books on Reddit and similar platforms. Nothing wrong with that. Apparently! I'm mostly a non-fiction reader but a few fictions I really like:- The Friends of Eddie Coyle- A River Runs Through It- Stoner- The Tartar Steppe- SiddharthaAnd a very cliche recommendation but will still make it, the first 3 Game of Thrones books. I also like the Dark Tower series. Also read Lonesome Dove this year, also my first Western. I'd watched the amazing miniseries I thought it was great. I'm honestly not sure the book has much over the miniseries which is a rare statement.If you liked Lonesome Dove and attempted to read the prequel and sequels I strongly recommend against it. Dern! I was really looking forward to reading the prequels, in no small part because how much I love Gus's character. Wow, Instarted the year reading that as well. Truly a good read, although after finishing it I was craving some more family friendly stuff I like a good thick book but I could not finish Monte Cristo. After about the 40th character introduction I just had to put it down. The problem is me, not the book. I am also reading the Count of Monte Cristo -- I suggest reading up on its origin, it's fairly interesting. Some pretty cool recommendations here!I've personally neglected national (Portuguese) authors for about a decade now, so I've started focusing on that; I'm currently reading "Livro do Desassossego" by Fernando Pessoa.For the few months before that, I'd focused on some classics:- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky- 1984 by George Orwell- The Village by Ivan Bunin- The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov- Siddharta by Hermann HesseI read quite a bit and love it; if only I could be paid to do it at my own pace and rhythm! Fiction:I'm on Book Two of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series.Non-Fiction:More than I can count, as far as "I've read at least some, put a bookmark in it, and intend to finish it eventually." But in terms of the books I'm really actively engaging with right now, the top one