Books Recommendations Thread

[Vijy]

On 8/30/2019 at 2:46 PM, Stradlater said:

I would recommend The third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond if you like reading about human evolution. 

generally, people liked "Sapiens" by Hariri which also deals with human evolution. However, as I have worked/studied adjacent fields, I can say that it has a fair number of flaws, although it can be commended on its scope. I must say that I prefer morris or diamond, even if some of the empirical results they discuss are partly outdated.

[Gollum]

@Stradlater I never developed the taste in reading books as leisure/hobby, unfortunately. The number of non-subject related books I have read in the last 10 years (post HP phase) can be counted on my fingers...sports, AI, environment/wildlife/forestry, a couple history related . Eager to develop the habit but atm I can't even get past my monthly quota of research papers and magazines. But if I ever want to get serious about developing this hobby I will bump this thread and tag you and the others who posted here.

 

But since you asked I will firstly recommend a couple from the field you take a lot of interest in...presumably history? Both by Philip Freeman, 'Julius Caesar' and 'Alexander the Great'. His website LINK, AMAZON......found both of them awesome, really pleasant and stimulating reads. 

 

Also a Kasparov fan here, he and Mig Greengard (his assistant, chess author and journo) co-wrote a book 'Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins'. Addresses his famous match against Deep Blue (Man vs Machine) 20 years after he lost under controversial circumstances. Don't need to be a chess player to understand, also explores AI and its role, scope, future, programming, philosophy etc. Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins

Don't waste time on his political views and books along those lines, merely rabid anti-Kremlin propaganda. His chess books (eg My Great Predecessors, Kasparov vs Karpov) are too technical and only for strong chess players (like @Mariyam ). If you wanna appreciate Garry's genius, take a look at his Deep Thinking book, insights into the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of modern history. 

 

The Hidden Life of Trees by a German forester, recommended to me by @zen, enjoyable read. Thanks zen bhai...

 

Post DEMO I read (incidentally another strong chess GM and pal of Kasparov ) Kenneth Rogoff's The Curse of Cash....he was the inspiration behind our govt's move. He was quoted a lot everywhere and so many interviews, I thought why not? Good read, some economics background will help, you may disagree with him but thought provoking for sure. 

 

These are some of the books I have read recently, very limited. Others are sporting autobiographies. 

Edited September 1, 2019 by Gollum

[Gollum]

@Stradlater if you take interest in environment, natural history, anthropology related subjects I endorse Tim Flannery's works. 

I read a couple of his books, would recommend. 

The Weather Makers

The Future Eaters

Edited September 1, 2019 by Gollum

[Vijy]

8 minutes ago, Gollum said:

@Stradlater if you take interest in environment, natural history, anthropology related subjects I endorse Tim Flannery's work. 

I read a couple of his books, would recommend. 

The Weather Makers

The Future Eaters

yes, he is very good. although these books are accessible to scientifically-literate laypeople, they are also quite well regarded and cited in academia from what I remember when I read them some yrs ago.

[Stradlater]

On 9/1/2019 at 10:31 AM, Gollum said:

@Stradlater if you take interest in environment, natural history, anthropology related subjects I endorse Tim Flannery's works. 

I read a couple of his books, would recommend. 

The Weather Makers

The Future Eaters

I would be sure to check them out in the future. Thanks. 

I have set a target of reading at least 40 books a year. On my 22nd book atm. Although most of the works I read this year were fiction, I hope to read more and more non fiction literature with a strong emphasis on History and biology. 

[Stradlater]

On 9/1/2019 at 8:56 AM, Gollum said:

@Stradlater I never developed the taste in reading books as leisure/hobby, unfortunately. The number of non-subject related books I have read in the last 10 years (post HP phase) can be counted on my fingers...sports, AI, environment/wildlife/forestry, a couple history related . Eager to develop the habit but atm I can't even get past my monthly quota of research papers and magazines. But if I ever want to get serious about developing this hobby I will bump this thread and tag you and the others who posted here.

 

But since you asked I will firstly recommend a couple from the field you take a lot of interest in...presumably history? Both by Philip Freeman, 'Julius Caesar' and 'Alexander the Great'. His website LINK, AMAZON......found both of them awesome, really pleasant and stimulating reads. 

 

Also a Kasparov fan here, he and Mig Greengard (his assistant, chess author and journo) co-wrote a book 'Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins'. Addresses his famous match against Deep Blue (Man vs Machine) 20 years after he lost under controversial circumstances. Don't need to be a chess player to understand, also explores AI and its role, scope, future, programming, philosophy etc. Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins

Don't waste time on his political views and books along those lines, merely rabid anti-Kremlin propaganda. His chess books (eg My Great Predecessors, Kasparov vs Karpov) are too technical and only for strong chess players (like @Mariyam ). If you wanna appreciate Garry's genius, take a look at his Deep Thinking book, insights into the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of modern history. 

 

The Hidden Life of Trees by a German forester, recommended to me by @zen, enjoyable read. Thanks zen bhai...

 

Post DEMO I read (incidentally another strong chess GM and pal of Kasparov ) Kenneth Rogoff's The Curse of Cash....he was the inspiration behind our govt's move. He was quoted a lot everywhere and so many interviews, I thought why not? Good read, some economics background will help, you may disagree with him but thought provoking for sure. 

 

These are some of the books I have read recently, very limited. Others are sporting autobiographies. 

Thanks. I once tried to read Decline and fall of Roman Empire by Gibbon but it turned out to be so massively convoluted and confusing that I had to stop after a couple of chapters. 

 

Thanks for the other recommendations as well. I will try to fit them in my bucket list for this year if I can. 

Edited September 3, 2019 by Stradlater

[Stradlater]

On 9/1/2019 at 4:36 AM, Vijy said:

generally, people liked "Sapiens" by Hariri which also deals with human evolution. However, as I have worked/studied adjacent fields, I can say that it has a fair number of flaws, although it can be commended on its scope. I must say that I prefer morris or diamond, even if some of the empirical results they discuss are partly outdated.

I think one of the things that worked so well for Sapiens was that it was really engaging from a layman's perspective. 

Diamond and Morris can be a tad bland if you are a complete novice even though the former is probably my favorite author of all time. 

[Vijy]

4 hours ago, Stradlater said:

Thanks. I once tried to read The Rise and fall of Roman Empire by Gibbon but it turned out to be so massively convoluted and confusing that I had to stop after a couple of chapters. 

 

Thanks for the other recommendations as well. I will try to fit them in my bucket list for this year if I can. 

Yes, Gibbon is a classic but not easy going at all.

[Tibarn]

Does anyone have a good C# book to recommend for someone who wants to learn to code in Unity? I have had an intro course in C++ before, but otherwise I am a noob. 

[velu]

13 minutes ago, Tibarn said:

Does anyone have a good C# book to recommend for someone who wants to learn to code in Unity? I have had an intro course in C++ before, but otherwise I am a noob. 

let us C# - yeshwant kanetkar

[Tibarn]

7 minutes ago, velu said:

let us C# - yeshwant kanetkar

Looks to expensive to import into the states; it says 90 USD on Amazon 

[Turning_track]

25 minutes ago, Tibarn said:

Does anyone have a good C# book to recommend for someone who wants to learn to code in Unity? I have had an intro course in C++ before, but otherwise I am a noob. 

Check Programming in C# by E. Balagurusamy.