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Stories of your life and others is a must read - truly beautiful, deep and thought provoking writing that I can highly recommend. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/223380

I've been a huge fan ever since I stumbled upon one of his stories here on HN 5 years ago. "Stories of Your Life and Others" is one of the first Kindle books I bought.

Yeah, Ted Chiang is great. I really enjoyed "Stories of Your Life and Others" this winter. Thanks for the recommendations, they're on my list!

Stories of your life and others - Ted Chiang, this book taught me about compassion.

Animal Farm - George Orwell The character Boxer made me rethink about authority, change in view for the better.

He only has two collections published so far. I thought the first one (Stories of Your Life and Others) was slightly better than the second (Exhalation), but both are good.

The author, Ted Chiang, recently released his book of short stories, Exhalation. This story is included in the book.

It's good, but not as good as his first book, imo, "Story of Your Life and Others". Story of Your Life was the inspiration for the movie "Arrival". That book was amazing.

His first collection, Stories of Your Life and Others is also excellent. They don't technically fit the description of hard comp-fi, but they have a similar sensibility, even when they're dealing with magic and religion (which makes sense--his day job is technical writing).

After decades of reading many authors who I love, Ted Chiang jumped right up into the top few before I was even finished reading Stories of Your Life and Others.

If you haven't read "Liking What You See", a short story by Ted Chiang, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is one of the most interesting works of fiction focused entirely on this subject. It is part of the book "Stories of Your Life and Others".

Deep Thinking really sounds fun! I agree, The Dictator's Handbook is really good, but sometimes really repetitive and it takes a bit of dedication to finish it.

As for my current one, I'm really enjoying Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others.

That story is in Stories of Your Life and Others; I'd recommend the whole collection: http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Others-Chiang/dp/193...

Ted Chiang's short story collection, "Stories of your life and others", contains some of the best writing I've read in my life.

In any case, thanks for mentioning it. Thoroughly enjoyed Story of Your Life and Others and had no idea he released a second short story collection a few months ago.

It's going straight to the top of my to-read list.

"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Tom Wolfe (RIP). One of my all time favorite book, one of my all time favorite authors.

"The World According to Garp" by John Irving. Again, one of my favorite authors, one of his best books, but I really recommend almost all of his books.

"Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein. Just read this a couple weeks ago, highly recommended.

"A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson. Just another of my favorite authors, I recommend any of his books if you like travel books. Very witty and well written stuff. A Walk in the Woods is probably his best known book about his attempt to thru-hike the AT.

"Story of Your Life and Others" - Ted Chiang. Really really good sci-fi short stories. Some great stuff. The movie Arrival is based on the title short story, Story of Your Life.

Honorable Mentions (from things I've read in the past year):
"Meddling Kids" by Edgar Cantero
"The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H.G. Wells
"Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson

I could keep listing books, but this is probably already excessive.

Just get his two anthologies: Story of Your Life and Others, and Exhalation. They’re not long, but you’ll find that his stories are worth rereading.

I’d recommend starting with Tower of Babylon or Understand, then jumping into Story of Your Life.

> What types of books have you read that you've found helped the most with your critical faculties and such?

In this area, I feel I've learned the most from reading commentary in the New Yorker.

For enjoyment, I've read:

* Stories of Your Life and Others by Chiang

* The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson

* What The F by Bergen

* Blindsight by Watts

> The problem is that removing idiocy doesn't automatically make a piece of fiction good.

Completely agree with your post, and especially this. I also second the Ted Chiang recommendation: as far as I can tell he's in a class of his own (and if there's anyone else out there like him, I'd love to know!). "Stories of Your Life and Others" is a good place to start and available on Kindle.

On the topic of rationality generally, I do find some author's have such a precise, rational voice that it's actually almost a relief to read them. I can think of a few non-fiction authors in particular, all somewhat controversial, but they also all speak with a refreshing clarity. It would be nice to see that more in fiction too.

Another contemporary author I haven't seen mentioned is Ted Chiang. I've read 'Stories Of Your Life and Others' by him, a collection of short stories. While I've found them to have unsatisfying endings, the ideas they explore are great.

Especially liked 'Division by Zero', 'Story Of Your Life', and 'Seventy-Two Letters'. Definitely worth a read.

a couple favorites:
classic: The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brian
recent scifi: Stories of your life and others (short stories) by Ted Chiang

Ted Chiang's Stories of Your Life and Others is the best, single-author collection of short stories I've ever read. If you like that, you might also enjoy The Lifecycle of Software Objects, an absolutely heartbreaking novella about simulated children, and his follow-up collection Exhalation.

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game is fantastic, and it's follow-up, Speaker for the Dead is even better, and my favorite science fiction novel of all time. They won back to back Hugo and Nebula awards. Card is a polarizing figure for his outspoken political opinions, but if ever the art should be separated from the artist, it's Speaker, which is an incredible exploration of empathy and responsibility, in addition to being a gripping, action-packed, science-literate read. Many more in this series, if you get into it.

John Scalzi's Old Man's War series is fantastic, if you're into military science-fiction, or even if you're not. Smart, funny, engaging and accessible, and reminiscent of Heinlein at his prime, minus the weird incest fetish. Redshirts, a Star Trek parody, rivals Galaxy Quest and only falls short because Galaxy Quest is so goddamn brilliant. Agent to the Stars is less appreciated, but in my opinion his finest novel, rising way above its goofy premise by taking it seriously, exploring the consequences and treating the characters with empathy and respect. Also hilarious.

Seconding Dune, which is a classic for a reason, and Stranger in a Strange Land (though I think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is a better place to start with Heinlein). Also Neal Stephenson, though I'd suggest Cryptonomicon over Diamond Age.

Leisure Stuff:

Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga Of Oklahoma City, It's Chaotic Founding... by Sam Anderson

Midnight In Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham

Dune by Frank Herbert

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu (tried it this year and stopped, want to give it another go)

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang (just finished Exhalation and I think it's great)

An Ursula K. Le Guin novel, have not picked one out yet

A book related to basketball (possibly Dream Team, but IDK yet)

Less Leisure Stuff:

Locked In: The True Causes of Mass Incarceration and How to Achieve Real Reform by John Pfaff

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond

The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale

Either Manufacturing Consent or Understanding Power by Chomsky

The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold

Work:

Code Complete 2 by Steve McConnell

The Web Application Hacker's Handbook: Finding and Exploiting Security Flaws by Dafydd Stuttard, Marcus Pinto

Finish Writing An Interpreter In Go by Thorsten Ball

If I can get through all of these, I will be very pleased. Throw in a book or two at recommendation from friends and I think I'm full for the year.

Nice, I had no idea Arrival was adapted from a Ted Chiang story. Maybe I'll have to check it out.

For those who aren't familiar with his work, I highly recommend Stories of Your Life and Others. It's perhaps the most amazing collection of SF short stories I've read. It's hard to describe it, but there's something about his work that makes it feel both simultaneously more real and more mind-bending than other SF fare. I think it's the combination of his completely outlandish premises (which I can't figure out how to describe without spoiling things) and completely matter-of-fact, mundane way he writes about them.

I read Stories of your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. It features a bunch of stories that intersect a lot of science and philosophy.

There is a story that is about humans having a finite germ line. There is a story about a future scenario where humans can turn off their conception of "beauty" when looking at others. Then there is a story that turned into the movie Arrival, but the story is much better because it brings in a lot more physics (principle of least action equated to foresight).

Definitely the most thoughtful and inspiring book I've read this year.

Fates and Furies - Lauren Groff
Brilliant. It's considered "literary fiction" but I found this book to be an absolute page-turner, much more so than what is usually described as a "page-turner". The summaries / back-cover marketing copy can't do it justice.

Florida - Lauren Groff
Sublime, poetic, haunting collection of short stories.

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang
Exhalation - Ted Chiang
Being released in May 2019 (I got an advance copy), but many of the stories are previously published and/or available online. "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" is just wonderful. Ted Chiang's work is the definition of economy in storytelling. Absolutely quality over quantity.

The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, Death's End - Liu Cixin
I’m not sure how fulfilling it would be to just read the first one. They really feel like a single (big) novel. Worth it.

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O - Neal Stephenson, Nicole Galland
Kind of Stephenson-light(?). Smart, entertaining and seems destined to be a TV series.

The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A bit slow to get going. Lots of Greek, snow, and booze at a private liberal-arts college in Vermont.

The Grownup - Gillian Flynn (short story)

I've given out several copies of "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson and "Stories of Your Life and Others" by Ted Chiang.

"Liking What You See: A Documentary" is an excellent short story by Ted Chiang (these days best known for the story behind the film "Arrival") about this topic.

In the story, a highly-targeted brain treatment exists that can make it so that one is unable to perceive physical attractiveness. The story explores the ethics of such a treatment.

Here is a pdf, but if you like it, I highly recommend supporting the author and getting both of his collections, "Stories of Your Life and Others" and "Exhalation". You won't regret it.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:vSPLnv...

Stories of Your Life and Others (Ted Chiang)

"Stories of Your Life and Others" Ted Chiang

Someone who never appears on these list but is one of the rising stars in Scif-Fi isis Ted Chiang. He's not written a full length novel yet but his short stories and novellas are mind blowing, best stuff I're read since early Egan. Check out:

Stories of Your Life and Others
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Your-Life-Ted-Chiang/dp/193152...)

The Lifecycle of Software Objects*
http://www.amazon.com/Lifecycle-Software-Objects-Ted-Chiang/...

*if there's a more HN title for a novella ever I haven't heard of it!

Stories of Your Life and Others is a collection of short stories by Ted Chiang. The stories explore wildly different topics, but every one of them is amazing.

Someone on HN had recommended The Box by Marc Levinson. It's a history of the shipping container. That sounds dreadfully prosaic, but the book is well written and the shipping container's influence on our modern global economy cannot be overstated.

Not reading per se, but Dan Carlin's WWI podcasts on the Hardcore History blog are well worth listening to. http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

Most recommended:

- Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others.

- Lawrence Weschler - Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees. A quality biography of Robert Irwin based on interviews over decades, and helps you learn to appreciate minimalist art to boot.

- Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice

- Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions

- Burton G. Malkiel - A Random Walk Down Wall Street

- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - Americanah. Saw myself in several of these characters

- Nikos Kazantzakis - Zorba the Greek

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Also good:

- Jack London - John Barleycorn: Alcoholic Memoirs. Illustrates all of the interesting ways in which a person is tempted to drink: when someone else buys you one, when it's cold outside, ...

- Danny Bowien - The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook. Lots of stories between the recipes.

- David Byrne - How Music Works

- Meg Jay - The Defining Decade

- Ernest Hemingway - A Moveable Feast

- Magdalena Droste - Bauhaus 1919-1933

- Arimasa Osawa - Shinjuku Shark

- Zadie Smith - Changing My Mind

- Chinua Achebe - Things Fall Apart

- Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Gray

- Marie Kondo - The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

- Haruki Murakami - The Strange Library. A fifteen minute read.

- Tim Ferriss - The Four-Hour Workweek. Good tactics for saving time; bad business advice.

- Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle

- John Berger - Ways of Seeing

If you want smaller, quicker payoffs (but in no way cheaper!), consider the anthologies of short stories by Ted Chiang. Most of them are 15-45 minutes to read, with a couple longer (1-2 hours).

I've read both "Stories of Your Life and Others" and "Exhalation" in the last month and I turned to my wife and said "that story just blew my mind" for probably 75% of the stories.

You can find a few online. Here is a very short but brain-tickling example: https://www.nature.com/articles/35014679

I read "Stories of Your Life and Others" this year and it was for me the best fiction in a few years. Cognitive sci-fi, sometimes with religious themes (e.g. what if Kabbalah were a basis for the industrial revolution).

Also, quite a few stories by Ted Chiang are available online, see links in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Chiang.

EDIT: Freely accessible stories converted to mobi (the Kindle format): https://www.dropbox.com/s/wbhdyer9qfpexcm/Stories%20accessib...