Top Hacker News Book Recommendations in Science & Math (all time)

All Time Past 6 Months

Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist

Diana Walstad

4.7 on Amazon

4 HN comments

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

Malcolm Gladwell and Hachette Audio

4.5 on Amazon

4 HN comments

Reinventing Your Life: The Breakthrough Program to End Negative Behavior and Feel Great Again

Jeffrey E. Young , Janet S. Klosko , et al.

4.6 on Amazon

4 HN comments

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

Merlin Sheldrake

4.8 on Amazon

4 HN comments

The Conversation: How Seeking and Speaking the Truth About Racism Can Radically Transform Individuals and Organizations

Robert Livingston

4.7 on Amazon

4 HN comments

The Upside of Stress: Why Stress Is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It

Kelly McGonigal

4.6 on Amazon

4 HN comments

Python Data Science Handbook: Essential Tools for Working with Data

Jake VanderPlas

4.6 on Amazon

4 HN comments

The House of the Scorpion

Nancy Farmer

4.6 on Amazon

4 HN comments

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America

Annie Jacobsen and Hachette Audio

4.7 on Amazon

4 HN comments

Proofs: A Long-Form Mathematics Textbook (The Long-Form Math Textbook Series)

Jay Cummings

4.7 on Amazon

4 HN comments

UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record

Leslie Kean and John Podesta

4.5 on Amazon

3 HN comments

False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet

Bjorn Lomborg

4.6 on Amazon

3 HN comments

How To Brew: Everything You Need to Know to Brew Great Beer Every Time

John J. Palmer

4.8 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Thinking Mathematically: Integrating Arithmetic & Algebra in Elementary School

Thomas P Carpenter , Megan Loef Franke, et al.

4.7 on Amazon

3 HN comments

Data Science for Business: What You Need to Know about Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking

Foster Provost and Tom Fawcett

4.4 on Amazon

3 HN comments

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stickhandleonJune 10, 2010

The way to "read" Gladwell is to get the talking-book and have him read it to you as you commute to work/home. He's a great storyteller - in both word and voice. And he delivers his own material extraordinarily well. I've listened to all 3 of the books mentioned and am currently enjoying his collection of NYer essays "What the Dog Saw". His essay on Ron Popeil was terrific. Word of warning though ... you might find yourself sad to arrive at your destination and just sit in the car an extra few mins to finish a section!

paulgbonJan 2, 2010

The best book I read in 2009 was The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. It's surprisingly accessible (I've never taken a biology class), and talks a lot about evolutionary game theory which I found fascinating.

Some other books I read last year:

How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker. It was a great book, Pinker's writing is accessible and entertaining. Much more so than On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins.

More with Less: Paul MacCready and the Dream of Efficient Flight by Paul Ciotti. I really enjoyed this one, it was the story of the first team to cross the English channel with human-powered flight.

What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. I liked this one better than Gladwell's other books. There is less theorizing and arguing a point and more telling stories, which is what Gladwell excels at.

The Mind's I by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett. If you are patient with what is sometimes (in my humble opinion) pointlessly arguing semantics, some of the sections are interesting.

meroesonJune 16, 2021

Personal anecdote about a book of his: I had a lunch interview and the CEO winced when I quoted What the Dog Saw, and corrected me using their actual experience running a large corporation. I think about not having to get along with coworkers, and the CEO said that was nonsense.

*No I didn't say I don't get along. They asked what books I was reading

dreneionJan 27, 2010

A link to the table of contents, rather than the 5th chapter: http://westsidetoastmasters.com/resources/book_of_body_langu....

I'll save this to read for later - the topic fascinates me. I was reading Gladwell's recent collection, What The Dog Saw, and found the article on The Dog Whisperer very interesting because of its discussions on body language.

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