Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?
Ofer Gal - Baroque Science. A highly academic history of the scientific revolution, not the most readable book. It focused quite a bit on mathematization, especially in optics (and Kepler&#x27;s optics revolution in particular), and also in observation via instrumentation like telescopes and microscopes.<p>Paul Nahin - The Logician and the Engineer. About Boole and Shannon&#x27;s work; I had already learned the material so i skimmed part of it and returned it to the library.<p>Ian Mortimer - The time traveler&#x27;s guide to medieval england. Talks about what daily life was like for different social classes in 14th century England eg towns &amp; cities, food, clothes, housing, employment, travel etc. I got about halfway through and lost interest in the subject matter.<p>Lucio Russo - The forgotten Revolution. A very readable academic history of the development of science in ptolomaic egypt (eg euclid, archimedes, etc). This was certainly the most surprising book I read all year. This time period has been almost completely deleted from history, which jumps straight from aristotle to the renaissance (with a quick stop in the islamic world if you&#x27;re being spoiled), and their achievements were <i>incredibly</i> impressive!<p>Jim al-Khalili - The House of Wisdom. A pop-history book about arabic science that i got from the library. I was wary because it&#x27;s written by a particle physicist and not a historian, and sure enough it is filled with so much nonsense that I through it down in disgust after a few chapters.<p>Colin Pask - Magnificent Principia. A brief tour of some of the highlights of Newton&#x27;s Principia, using both newton&#x27;s geometric diagrams and modern notation. Following the modern notation of course assumes some basic calculus. Highly recommended - it made me want to learn old fashioned celestial mechanics! Perhaps in 2019...<p>Randall Munroe - What if. A fun light read about whimsical scenarios.<p>Sigmund - Exact thinking in demented times. About the vienna circle, the philosophical group associated with logical positivism.<p>Newman [ed] - The world of mathematics vol 1. A varied Collection of mathematical writings, both contemporary and historical.<p>Richard J Evans - The Coming of the Third Reich. Evans has recently written a three volume treatment of the third Reich. this is of course the first and starts with the origins of the modern form of antisemitism in the late 19th century. I hope to read the next two in 2019!<p>Robert Harper - Practical foundations for programming languages. I&#x27;ve mostly just skimmed it so my understanding is quite superficial, maybe in a year or two I&#x27;ll go through and do all the exercises. I liked that he avoided &#x27;paradigms&#x27; and developed the subject more systematically. The book&#x27;s table of contents is absolutely irresistible!<p>Tolkien - the Hobbit. I finally got around to reading it... I didn&#x27;t care for it. I started the lord of the rings but i don&#x27;t think i&#x27;m going to finish it.<p>Michael Chriton - Jurassic Park. The movie was better.<p>Agatha Christie - Murder on the Orient Express. I think i just don&#x27;t like fiction. The few years before this I tried reading more fancy literature and i didn&#x27;t like that, so this year I tried more popular literature... Recently i heard someone say they thought that history spoiled fiction for them. I think I&#x27;ve suffered the same problem.<p>Findlay &amp; O&#x27;Rourke - Power and Plenty. (in progress) An economic history of the 2nd millennium, absolutely fascinating so far. The discussion of the black death was particularly memorable. It&#x27;s become something of a meme to point out how the peasant survivors were economically better off than their parents and grandparents. In fact that effect was limited to western europe. In eastern europe the economics were different and feudalism <i>deepened</i>, and in the arab world the reaction was different still: (if i remember my reading correctly) it was certain sects of military men who came out on top. I&#x27;m bringing it up because it is a perfect reminder that <i>reality is more complicated than memes</i>.<p>Robert Harper - Programming in Standard ML. (in progress) Online notes about functional programming.