Hacker News Books

The Art of Racing in the Rain was one of my favorite books to read!

A selection:

Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari, 2014 [English]) - A bit late to the party on this one. Mostly enjoyed it, especially the early ancient history stuff, but I felt it got a bit contrived in the middle - like the author was forcing it. Overall a good read though.

How to Invent Everything (Ryan North, 2018) - First book I've pre-ordered in a long time. A look at the history of civilization and technology through a comedic lens. Pretty funny and enjoyable.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Edmund Morris, 1979) - Randomly happened across this book while browsing a used bookstore for some stuff to read on a summer vacation. Loved it. It's big, but reads pretty quick for a biography. I've been a fan of TR since I first really learned about him in High School and I would recommend this for anyone interested in TR/The West/Americana.

Jaws (Peter Benchley, 1974) - Quite a bit darker than the movie.

Sharp Objects (Gillian Flynn, 2006) - I enjoyed Gone Girl (book and film) so I wanted to read this before the HBO series. To be honest...not my cup of tea. It was okay.

The Art of Racing in the Rain (Garth Stein, 2008) - Made me cry on an airplane. Thankfully my coworkers were on a different flight.

The problem is that Amazon treats books as a loss leader. Books are a somewhat unique business in general in that you have a huge number of products and thin inventory of most of them (most books at a bookstore will have 1–2 copies in stock with only a few dozen titles with larger inventories). To sell at Amazon discounts would mean in many cases losing money given that bookstores typically pay 60% of the cover price of the book. I did a quick check and saw that Amazon is claiming a 51% discount on The Art of Racing in the Rain although I notice that there are two paperback editions of the book with the same cover available at my local indie, one a trade paperback, the other mass market paperback (the difference is the latter is printed on smaller-sized pages) and the latter has a list price of $9.99. Interestingly, the latter edition, doing a search by ISBN shows up at the same price as the TPB which is—interesting and makes me wonder if they're doing inventory commingling with these two editions.

I'd recommend Reluctant Capitalists: Bookselling and the Culture of Consumption for a (somewhat dated) look at the unique economics of bookselling.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0226525910/donhosek

I have been in leading-edge programming since a good bit before you were born. I have been part of many startups, one very successful, another one on hold, a consulting firm that had a nice exit.

Very much in contrast what you have said in this post and in other posts that you have offered here, I find the demand for seasoned programmers, developers, architects at an all-time high. I have recently had to turn down two very lucrative engagements due to my apparent unclonability.

I have had low spots careerwise--a period of self-unemployment, but I was determined to not get into the negative thinking, as I am sensing in your posts.

My wife bought me a fiction book by Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain. One of the phrases in the book was "Your car goes where your eyes are." If your eyes are on the wall next to the race track, that is where the car will go.

To put it in non-racing terms, you are likely to fulfill your expectations.

Founders At Work, On Lisp, SICP, Idoru, The Art of Racing In the Rain (Garth Stein)