Hacker News Books

The book Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World has a chapter on concrete. The self-healing concrete was completely new to me. Definitely worth a read, and not just for the concrete chapter:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18222843-stuff-matters

Another interesting book on material science is

'Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World' by Mark Miodownik
http://www.amazon.com/Stuff-Matters-Exploring-Marvelous-Mate...

actually here is a sample chapter

http://www.hmhco.com/~/media/sites/home/educators/webinars/s...

The author has also an interesting lecture on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEWFJiMK6CE

The Metallurgy book sounds very interesting, definitely going to check it out. Along those lines, but I think much more simplistic, is a book I just read called "Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World" -- one chapter each devoted to a common everyday material. You may like that one based on why you liked the Metallurgy book.

1. Sapiens - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23692271-sapiens

2. The Gene: An Intimate History - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276428-the-gene

3. I Contain Multitudes - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29083367-i-contain-multi...

4. Stuff Matters - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19553030-stuff-matters

5. Rework - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6732019-rework

Stuff Matters - Mark Miodownik

This is a really casual Material Science book. It's sub-title is "Exploring the marvelous materials that shape our man-made world." I am about a quarter of the way through and am really enjoying it. I really knew nothing about materials, this book served as a fun/interesting introduction to modern materials. The first chapter (my favorite thus far) was about metals. It goes into how different types of alloys are created and into sword making; what makes a good blade vs a brittle blade that will fall apart in combat(hint: it has to do with the amount of carbon in the blade. Too much and it is brittle. You want about 1% in the entire blade.)

For someone who didn't read at all for the longest and started a couple of years back, I'm glad I read 20 books this year. Here are the few that stuck with me -

Bad Blood (John Carreyrou) - Story of Theranos, its founders and the conception of terrible ideas. Great record of their actions based on subjective ethics and morals, how they can lead you to going insane.

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Susan Cain) - Fun read for functional introverts like myself.

Stuff Matters (Mark Miodownik) - I wish every science lesson is taught like this

Em and the Big Hoon (Naresh Fernandes) - Fiction, but based closely on the author's mother, her control over the English language, poetry and the mental illness' control over her and their family here in Bombay.

Born a Crime (Trevor Noah) - A biography of the Daily Show host. He's seen a lot of terrible situations and come out unscathed!

Being Mortal (Atul Gawande) - Hospice care - all its good and bad.

A Man Called Ove - Fictional and funny book about a man with a strict code, who lost his beloved wife and still dislikes everyone.