Top Books on Amazon Based on Number of HN Users Linking Them in Comments | Hacker News Reader

Top Books on Amazon Based on Number of HN Users Linking Them in Comments

ramiro.org

294 pointsq-_-p39 comments

Surprised SICP isn't in there. Also surprised to see the Code book is ranked so high, I personally didn't get much out of it though it's probably a great introductory book to people who are new to the field.

On a related note, my favorite book this year was "Designing Data-Intensive Applications" by Martin Kleppmann. It's a great overview of modern database systems with a good balance between theory and practice.

Sicp isn't in there because it's almost a common noun on this forum by now. People don't link to the amazon page for it, just like they don't link to the bible :)

Example: your comment.

Hmmm, and I cite books a lot, but I often link to their Wikipedia page, since good ones can give the reader a better idea if one is worth reading, and they include ISBNs so it's really easy to find the exact book on Amazon (just search using the ISBN excluding the dashes).

>Surprised SICP isn't in there.

I'm sure people are more likely to link to the actual SICP page [1] rather than the Amazon page, especially as it's free on the website. If the discussion was in the context of buying the book, I would personally still link the MIT Press page [2], rather than the Amazon page.

Searching for "https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/" on Algolia's HN search engine results in 72 hits [3].

----

[1] https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/

[2] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/structure-and-interpretation-...

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?query=https://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/...

I was about to check out Kleppman's book on Amazon, but it's not available there yet :(

I hope it comes to Kindle soon.

Yes, it's only available as a preview at http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920032175.do but it's almost complete.

Similar: http://hackernewsbooks.com/

I really enjoyed listening to: 2. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

With this alternate list having more books listed, it gives me (totally unscientifically) the sense that it represents the general style or ethos of Hacker News little better

RSI books ranking top 10, lol

RSI is a common problem among programmers, etc, so you would expect it to be discussed. You'll find someone blogging about their RSI every few months.

https://github.com/melling/ErgonomicNotes

This story always gets the point across:

http://www.looknohands.me

Obviously this is biased towards older books, because simply books that have been around for a long time can be mentioned.

Let me get across a book with unusual conclusions that deserves to be known more.

"The Ghosts Of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms"

https://www.amazon.com/Ghosts-Evolution-Nonsensical-Ecologic...

"A new vision is sweeping through ecological science: The dense web of dependencies that makes up an ecosystem has gained an added dimension-the dimension of time. Every field, forest, and park is full of living organisms adapted for relationships with creatures that are now extinct. In a vivid narrative, Connie Barlow shows how the idea of "missing partners" in nature evolved from isolated, curious examples into an idea that is transforming how ecologists understand the entire flora and fauna of the Americas. This fascinating book will enrich the experience of any amateur naturalist, as well as teach us that the ripples of biodiversity loss around us are just the leading edge of what may well become perilous cascades of extinction."

I'm not sure how that book is particularly related to Hacker News, so I am not seeing it getting that much traction.

We can write about anything that would be interesting to hackers, preserving the environment is generally a topic we respond well to.

The second book ("The Four Steps to the Epiphany") has a score of 31 links, yet the HN search can only find 21 comments. Why the discrepancy?

> Results may differ because of links posted after Oct 2015 and additional fields being searched.

"Links posted after Oct 2015" could justify more links on search vs the static dataset, not less.

The additional fields may be the answer, but my question stands: is that the reason in this particular case? Which fields besides comment text could produce this result?

Pretty surprised to not see Hackers and Painters: https://www.amazon.com/Hackers-Painters-Big-Ideas-Computer/d...

I've read a few of these books and can definitely recommend the following:

- Working effectively with legacy code

- The design of everyday things

- Don't make me think

In the mean time, it seems it's time to put in a new amazon order :)

It's quite out of date as well: from Oct 2006 to Oct 2015

This made me a little sad. Before our house burned down due to arson, I used to have the majority of them.

I guess that's one grim argument for e-books.

Surprised Code Complete isn't there, nor mentioned here in the comments as being missing!

I am not. I think CC is a dated book and should become obsolete.

It propagated a couple of myths without solid evidence that should be discarded from the software culture (e.g.: 10x productivity of good programmers, the cone of uncertainty).

Also it advocates an approach that, although valid for some areas (NASA labs, embedded systems), is not valid for a lot of the software culture (web development, startups).

"Pragmatic Programmer" and "Clean Code" are much better readings, IMHO.

"Three Felonies a Day" is an interesting choice.

Strange that Feynman lectures on physics aren't on here - thought I saw them referenced a bit. At least surely you're joking is up!

Like SICP, the text of the book is online (http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/ if you didn't already know), so people more likely link to that than to Amazon.

Is The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Successful Strategies for Products that Win as useful for B2B as this ranking suggests?

Surprised "mythical man month" didn't make the list. I feel like that book gets quoted around here frequently.

Well, you didn't actually link to it ;) Seriously though, that is a shortcoming of the study. If a member mentions it without the link, it does not count.

It is a shortcoming, but not one that can be addressed any time soon

You can create a candidate list of titles for those books that do get linked then check for those titles in the body of each comment - not too computationally expensive and embarrassingly parallel.

I hope it's clear that I was not saying that I could have done better. It's a great example of low-hanging fruit. Thank you, Ramiro, for doing this and sharing it with us all.

This is one of those sites that won't let me command-click to open a new tab. Why do people do that?

My score is 6 (4). I have 6 and read most of 4 of those.

Interesting - I don't think I ever bought a book that I didn't read later. Did you receive them as a gift? Genuinly curious.

It's extremely[0] common[1], there's even a Japanese word for it: tsundoku[2]. My guess is you are in a tiny minority.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/36omj9/what_percenta...

[1] http://www.digitalbookworld.com/2015/if-you-sell-the-book-wi...

[2] http://www.openculture.com/2014/07/tsundoku-should-enter-the...

Apart from novels it's pretty unusual for me to read all of a book. It's laziness a lot of the time I'd have to admit.

No I'd have bought many books that I have never gotten around to reading, sometimes they were bought on a whim. Other times I'd start a book and then start another and leave the first one.

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