Y Hacker News Books

Ask HN: What, in your opinion, are the greatest and most useful textbooks? ↗

The books people recommended

2020-06-11 · 189 points · 108 comments · 74 books named by at least one person here and at least 3 people overall. The number on the left is how many people named it in this thread.

  1. 15

    Calculus

    Spivak

    15 here · 99 all-time · #30 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 187 ratings on Amazon
  2. 9

    Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs

    Harold Abelson

    9 here · 316 all-time · #2 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 742 ratings on Amazon
  3. 4Introduction to the Theory of Computation

    Introduction to the Theory of Computation

    Michael Sipser

    4 here · 18 all-time · #363 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 600 ratings on Amazon
  4. 4Physical Chemistry

    Physical Chemistry

    Peter Atkins

    4 here · 7 all-time · #1053 overall

  5. 3Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective

    Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective

    Randal E. Bryant; David R. O'Hallaron

    3 here · 26 all-time · #220 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.2 out of 5, 682 ratings on Amazon
  6. 322 Immutable Laws of Marketing

    22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

    Al Ries and Jack Trout

    3 here · 8 all-time · #821 overall

  7. 2

    Sapiens

    Yuval Noah Harari

    2 here · 197 all-time · #4 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 133,705 ratings on Amazon
  8. 2

    The Selfish Gene

    Richard Dawkins

    2 here · 178 all-time · #7 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 8,966 ratings on Amazon
  9. 2

    Linear Algebra

    Strang

    2 here · 60 all-time · #62 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 48 ratings on Amazon
  10. 2

    The Feynman Lectures on Physics

    Richard Feynman

    2 here · 59 all-time · #63 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,049 ratings on Amazon
  11. 2

    The Art of Electronics

    Horowitz and Hill

    2 here · 33 all-time · #170 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 2,192 ratings on Amazon
  12. 2Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

    Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach

    Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig

    2 here · 29 all-time · #195 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.3 out of 5, 664 ratings on Amazon
  13. 2Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach

    Computer Networking: A Top-Down Approach

    Kurose and Ross

    2 here · 25 all-time · #242 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 660 ratings on Amazon
  14. 2Statistical Rethinking

    Statistical Rethinking

    Richard McElreath

    2 here · 19 all-time · #340 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 380 ratings on Amazon
  15. 2Introduction to Statistical Learning

    Introduction to Statistical Learning

    Gareth James, Daniela Witten, Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani

    2 here · 12 all-time · #534 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.8 out of 5, 1,937 ratings on Amazon
  16. 2On Food and Cooking

    On Food and Cooking

    Harold McGee

    2 here · 7 all-time · #1015 overall

  17. 2Electricity and Magnetism

    Electricity and Magnetism

    Edward M. Purcell

    2 here · 4 all-time · #1891 overall

  18. 2Computer Organization and Architecture

    Computer Organization and Architecture

    John L. Hennessy; David A. Patterson

    2 here · 3 all-time · #2418 overall

  19. 1

    Code

    Charles Petzold

    1 here · 147 all-time · #12 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 2,787 ratings on Amazon
  20. 1

    The Art of Computer Programming

    Donald Knuth

    1 here · 127 all-time · #14 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 203 ratings on Amazon
  21. 1

    Black Swan

    Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    1 here · 110 all-time · #19 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 8,277 ratings on Amazon
  22. 1

    Antifragile

    Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    1 here · 100 all-time · #29 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 8,430 ratings on Amazon
  23. 1

    Never Split the Difference

    Chris Voss

    1 here · 62 all-time · #60 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 51,660 ratings on Amazon
  24. 1The Elements of Computing Systems

    The Elements of Computing Systems

    Nisan and Schocken

    1 here · 58 all-time · #65 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 416 ratings on Amazon
  25. 1

    The Little Schemer

    Daniel P. Friedman, Matthias Felleisen

    1 here · 51 all-time · #81 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 185 ratings on Amazon
  26. 1

    Algorithms

    Robert Sedgewick

    1 here · 49 all-time · #89 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 876 ratings on Amazon
  27. 1

    Animal Farm

    George Orwell

    1 here · 48 all-time · #90 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 94,716 ratings on Amazon
  28. 1

    Concrete Mathematics

    Donald Knuth

    1 here · 46 all-time · #98 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 2 ratings on Amazon
  29. 1

    Refactoring

    Martin Fowler

    1 here · 37 all-time · #132 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 1,228 ratings on Amazon
  30. 1

    Homo Deus

    Yuval Noah Harari

    1 here · 35 all-time · #150 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 38,098 ratings on Amazon
  31. 1

    Seeing Like a State

    James C. Scott

    1 here · 33 all-time · #173 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 846 ratings on Amazon
  32. 1

    Factfulness

    Hans Rosling

    1 here · 32 all-time · #179 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 28,138 ratings on Amazon
  33. 1

    A Short History of Nearly Everything

    Bill Bryson

    1 here · 30 all-time · #187 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 19,783 ratings on Amazon
  34. 1

    The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

    Edward Tufte

    1 here · 24 all-time · #253 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 996 ratings on Amazon
  35. 1

    High Performance Browser Networking

    Ilya Grigorik

    1 here · 22 all-time · #281 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.7 out of 5, 213 ratings on Amazon
  36. 1

    Why Nations Fail

    Daron Acemoglu, James A. Robinson

    1 here · 19 all-time · #329 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 10,898 ratings on Amazon
  37. 1Behave

    Behave

    Robert Sapolsky

    1 here · 16 all-time · #387 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 9,783 ratings on Amazon
  38. 1Computer Architecture

    Computer Architecture

    John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson

    1 here · 16 all-time · #391 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.0 out of 5, 442 ratings on Amazon
  39. 1The Practice of Programming

    The Practice of Programming

    Brian Kernighan, Rob Pike

    1 here · 16 all-time · #398 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 176 ratings on Amazon
  40. 1Real Analysis

    Real Analysis

    Stein & Shakarchi

    1 here · 16 all-time · #404 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 107 ratings on Amazon
  41. 1Visual Complex Analysis

    Visual Complex Analysis

    Tristan Needham

    1 here · 15 all-time · #420 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 232 ratings on Amazon
  42. 1Introduction to Linear Algebra

    Introduction to Linear Algebra

    Gilbert Strang

    1 here · 14 all-time · #454 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 486 ratings on Amazon
  43. 1Hacking

    Hacking

    Jon Erickson

    1 here · 14 all-time · #461 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 1,602 ratings on Amazon
  44. 1Statistics

    Statistics

    Freedman, Pisani and Purves

    1 here · 13 all-time · #504 overall

    Buy on Amazon3.1 out of 5, 3 ratings on Amazon
  45. 1Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms

    Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms

    MacKay

    1 here · 12 all-time · #515 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 191 ratings on Amazon
  46. 1Skin in the Game

    Skin in the Game

    Nassim Nicholas Taleb

    1 here · 12 all-time · #524 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.4 out of 5, 7,179 ratings on Amazon
  47. 1The Story of Civilization

    The Story of Civilization

    Will Durant

    1 here · 12 all-time · #533 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.6 out of 5, 427 ratings on Amazon
  48. 1Calculus on Manifolds

    Calculus on Manifolds

    Michael Spivak

    1 here · 11 all-time · #571 overall

    Buy on Amazon4.5 out of 5, 144 ratings on Amazon
  49. 1Organic Chemistry

    Organic Chemistry

    Jonathan Clayden

    1 here · 10 all-time · #638 overall

  50. 1Unix Network Programming

    Unix Network Programming

    W. Richard Stevens

    1 here · 9 all-time · #696 overall

  51. 1Classical Mechanics

    Classical Mechanics

    John R. Taylor

    1 here · 9 all-time · #721 overall

  52. 1Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

    Introduction to Quantum Mechanics

    David J. Griffiths

    1 here · 9 all-time · #744 overall

  53. 1Functional Programming in Scala

    Functional Programming in Scala

    Chiusano and Bjarnason

    1 here · 8 all-time · #825 overall

  54. 1Campbell Biology

    Campbell Biology

    Lisa A. Urry; Michael L. Cain; Steven A. Wasserman; Peter V. Minorsky; Jane B. Reece

    1 here · 8 all-time · #854 overall

  55. 1Introduction to Electrodynamics

    Introduction to Electrodynamics

    David J. Griffiths

    1 here · 8 all-time · #880 overall

  56. 1Chemistry

    Chemistry

    Nivaldo Tro

    1 here · 8 all-time · #894 overall

  57. 1The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

    The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt

    Edmund Morris

    1 here · 7 all-time · #943 overall

  58. 121 Lessons for the 21st Century

    21 Lessons for the 21st Century

    Yuval Noah Harari

    1 here · 7 all-time · #1039 overall

  59. 1Molecular Biology of the Cell

    Molecular Biology of the Cell

    Bruce Alberts

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1104 overall

  60. 1Ecology of the Planted Aquarium

    Ecology of the Planted Aquarium

    Diana Walstad

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1105 overall

  61. 1Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques

    Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques

    Gray and Reuter

    1 here · 6 all-time · #1170 overall

  62. 1Psycho-Cybernetics

    Psycho-Cybernetics

    Maxwell Maltz

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1249 overall

  63. 1Analysis I

    Analysis I

    Terence Tao

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1250 overall

  64. 1Naive Set Theory

    Naive Set Theory

    Halmos

    1 here · 5 all-time · #1367 overall

  65. 1Alexander Hamilton

    Alexander Hamilton

    Ron Chernow

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1552 overall

  66. 1Computer Organization and Design

    Computer Organization and Design

    David A. Patterson; John L. Hennessy

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1553 overall

  67. 1Practical Electronics for Inventors

    Practical Electronics for Inventors

    Scherz

    1 here · 4 all-time · #1888 overall

  68. 1For the Love of Physics

    For the Love of Physics

    Walter Lewin

    1 here · 3 all-time · #1975 overall

  69. 1Developmental Biology

    Developmental Biology

    Scott Gilbert

    1 here · 3 all-time · #1976 overall

  70. 1Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming

    Mostly Adequate Guide to Functional Programming

    Professor Frisby

    1 here · 3 all-time · #1977 overall

  71. 1Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics

    Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics

    Gerald Jay Sussman

    1 here · 3 all-time · #1978 overall

  72. 1Concurrency in Go

    Concurrency in Go

    Katherine Cox-Buday

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2419 overall

  73. 1Digital Signal Processing

    Digital Signal Processing

    Alan V. Oppenheim; Ronald W. Schafer

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2420 overall

  74. 1Concepts of Programming Languages

    Concepts of Programming Languages

    Robert W. Sebesta

    1 here · 3 all-time · #2490 overall