Ask HN: What is the best book you read in 2020?

Two books that describe what it's like to be somewhere else, living a different kind of life. I love these books that really transport you there, like having a really good friend explain things to you casually.

First of these is "Street of Eternal Happiness: Big City Dreams Along a Shanghai Road". What it's like to grow up while having family in a labor camp. What it's like to have your entire business or house confiscated. How hard it is to be a student. Also just plenty of interesting little tidbits on day-to-day life.

Second one is "The Empty Mirror: Experiences in a Japanese Zen Monastery". It's about a foreigner who leaves his life behind and joins a zen monastery in Japan. It covers in detail the day-to-day experience of it, such as collapsing on temple grounds from lack of sleep during particularly demanding meditation sessions. But monks are human too, and on some occasions sneak over the temple walls for some fun outside.

Both of these transfer to you the "feel" of these places.

I'm about halfway through both of these, but I think they're both great.

Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (Book 4 in the Stormlight Archives series)

Love him, or hate him, BS is prolific. He somehow maintains a superhuman level of efficiency in writing. This is the 4th of a planned 10 book epic fantasy series. I can't possibly summarize the 3.5 books I've read in the series so far, since each is approximately 1200 pages. Really they're about 3-4 of an average sized trade paperback each. That's not to say they are too long either, with the exception of the first book (a common/unavoidable problem the with epic fantasy genre, there's just a lot you need to say to get people fully invested), they pick up from the first word on interesting storylines and just keep churning.

and

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert (Book 3 of the Dune series)

Dune is one of my favorite books of all time. SOmehow, I've never read the rest of them. I re-read Dune this year, and decided to continue the story. I really wasn't a huge fan of Dune Messiah. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but let's just say it's probably because flaws of the main character are too humanly frustrating to watch unfold. Children of Dune is, so far, as good or better than Dune in my opinion.

mrfusion · 5 years ago

I want to read rhythm of war but I completely forgot what happened in the prior books :-(

squadm-nkey · 5 years ago

Hate brando sando? O.o

I also read Dune this year and loved it and gave up on Dune Messiah. Will power through if things get better.

I really enjoyed Asimov's Foundation Series and Le Guin's Hainish books (specifically Dispossessed and Left Hand of Darkness) this year, check them out of if you haven't yet.

JHonaker · 5 years ago

I don’t know. Some people don’t like Sanderson. I love him. I still need to get around to finishing Wheel of Time just so I can get to his parts.

I really wasn’t crazy about Dune Messiah. It was just okay. The whole prescient man that can’t accept the future is changeable is so frustrating. The thought it got much better toward the end though. Children of Dune is great so far. His kids are the manifestation of the answer to all my grievances with Paul in DM. I think DM will be one of those books that’s good in retrospect when contextualized within the entire story. On it’s own, it’s pretty meh. It’s short though.

And Foundation is great!

bemmu · 5 years ago

NotPavlovsDog · 5 years ago

1) Non-fiction: Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/LispBook/

Entire e-book available free online. The recursion part is especially fun. If you haven't tried Lisp, this is a great book to start with, and it will open your mind to new approaches to computing without the tough academic grinding of SICP.

2) Fiction: The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie.

It's dark fantasy. Emphasis on dark. Feels like real life, except less victimology. I find the darkness a palate cleanser, excellent for when I have to deal with the realities of people and their burning desire to avoid responsibility for their own actions.

You can read some short bits by Joe free at the publishers site

https://www.tor.com/2016/01/12/twos-company-joe-abercrombie/

asicsp · 5 years ago

I mostly read fiction books (particularly fantasy and sci-fi). Best for me this year was Wintersteel by Will Wight [0]. This is a progression fantasy book (think anime like Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, etc but without fillers, harem, etc). Power-ups, training and fights are the major draw of such books, and Will manages to deliver them nicely along with interesting characters, awesome humor, twists, etc.

See my blog post [1] for other books I enjoyed this year.

[0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52135463-wintersteel

[1] https://learnbyexample.github.io/2020-favorite-fiction/

yamrzou · 5 years ago

Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It by Chris Voss

I read it after seeing it recommended here on HN. It paid off :)

jurgenwerk · 5 years ago

An interesting phenomenon about this book is when you read it, you start noticing who else read it too.

How so?

atsushin · 5 years ago

Regrettably, I only read a total of three books in all of 2020, but for me it was the Autobiography of Malcolm X. I didn't know much about his life beyond basic knowledge of his work during the civil rights movement and the fact that he had been a reformed criminal. Reading about his circumstances in detail and the whirlwind of a life he lived definitely gave me a better appreciation of him and his evolution. Malcolm's story was that of changes, as he put it (with much better phrasing) to his collaborator Alex Haley, and he being a late bloomer (in some aspects) like myself gives me some hope about my life.

stevesycombacct · 5 years ago

I can narrow it down to a top 4, if that's permissible.

* The Man Who Was Thursday, by GK Chesterton

* The Oresteia, by Aeschylus

* Cyrano de Bergerac, by Edmond Rostand

* The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

doonesbury · 5 years ago

Oresteia - Aeschylus: is great read!

mguerville · 5 years ago

I did like Range (and am biased because I'm a generalist myself so I "wanted" to like it) but found it a bit belabored after the first few chapters, like most non-fiction books.

My pick would be Intrapreneurs by Gib Bullock, a first person perspective of building a new venture in a large business while challenging whether large businesses are good for the world, and ending up in a mental ward from the stressful introspection https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39730555-the-intrapreneu...