<story><title>Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;m finishing the Art of War by Sun Tzu and I&amp;#x27;m looking for some book suggestions, so I&amp;#x27;m curious to know which books are being read by the members of the HN community.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>GregBuchholz</author><text>&amp;quot;Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths &amp;amp; Others 
who Heat Treat and Forge Steel&amp;quot; by John Verhoeven 
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.feine-klingen.de&amp;#x2F;PDFs&amp;#x2F;verhoeven.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.feine-klingen.de&amp;#x2F;PDFs&amp;#x2F;verhoeven.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
  An interesting technical introduction to metallurgy, without being overly tedious.  Congratulations to the author, for what sounds like it could be a dry subject.  I am pleasantly surprised by how ignorant I was about such a common everyday material, and about the fascinating changes that take place in the crystal structure of steel with mere temperature changes.  I&amp;#x27;ve got no plans to forge steel, or make blades, but found this book very good so far (although I have been interested in metalworking in general lately).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Basic Lathework&amp;quot; by Stan Bray.  This is the best of the beginning lathe books that I&amp;#x27;ve been reading recently, covering the parts of the machine and accessories, techniques, and cutting tools.  Very minimal pre-requisites.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Metals in the Service of Man&amp;quot; by Arthur Street and William Alexander.  A very light read about industrially useful metals, a little history about them, and their uses.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Measurement&amp;quot; by Paul Lockhart.  I finally got this book after reading his &amp;quot;A Mathematicians Lament&amp;quot; from a while back.  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.maa.org&amp;#x2F;external_archive&amp;#x2F;devlin&amp;#x2F;LockhartsLament.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.maa.org&amp;#x2F;external_archive&amp;#x2F;devlin&amp;#x2F;LockhartsLament....&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How Round is Your Circle&amp;quot; by John Bryant and Chris Sangwin.  Just started this, but it sounds interesting, the pictures are intriguing, and it pushes a lot of my &amp;quot;interesting&amp;quot; buttons.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>joekrill</author><text>The Metallurgy book sounds very interesting, definitely going to check it out. Along those lines, but I think &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; more simplistic, is a book I just read called &amp;quot;Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World&amp;quot; -- one chapter each devoted to a common everyday material. You may like that one based on why you liked the Metallurgy book.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Which book are you reading these days?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;m finishing the Art of War by Sun Tzu and I&amp;#x27;m looking for some book suggestions, so I&amp;#x27;m curious to know which books are being read by the members of the HN community.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>GregBuchholz</author><text>&amp;quot;Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths &amp;amp; Others 
who Heat Treat and Forge Steel&amp;quot; by John Verhoeven 
&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.feine-klingen.de&amp;#x2F;PDFs&amp;#x2F;verhoeven.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.feine-klingen.de&amp;#x2F;PDFs&amp;#x2F;verhoeven.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
  An interesting technical introduction to metallurgy, without being overly tedious.  Congratulations to the author, for what sounds like it could be a dry subject.  I am pleasantly surprised by how ignorant I was about such a common everyday material, and about the fascinating changes that take place in the crystal structure of steel with mere temperature changes.  I&amp;#x27;ve got no plans to forge steel, or make blades, but found this book very good so far (although I have been interested in metalworking in general lately).&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Basic Lathework&amp;quot; by Stan Bray.  This is the best of the beginning lathe books that I&amp;#x27;ve been reading recently, covering the parts of the machine and accessories, techniques, and cutting tools.  Very minimal pre-requisites.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Metals in the Service of Man&amp;quot; by Arthur Street and William Alexander.  A very light read about industrially useful metals, a little history about them, and their uses.&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;Measurement&amp;quot; by Paul Lockhart.  I finally got this book after reading his &amp;quot;A Mathematicians Lament&amp;quot; from a while back.  &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.maa.org&amp;#x2F;external_archive&amp;#x2F;devlin&amp;#x2F;LockhartsLament.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.maa.org&amp;#x2F;external_archive&amp;#x2F;devlin&amp;#x2F;LockhartsLament....&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;How Round is Your Circle&amp;quot; by John Bryant and Chris Sangwin.  Just started this, but it sounds interesting, the pictures are intriguing, and it pushes a lot of my &amp;quot;interesting&amp;quot; buttons.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>grkvlt</author><text>&amp;quot;How Round is Your Circle&amp;quot; is awesome. I finished that and immediately lost a huge amount of time investigating all the papers referenced by them, and reading on planimeters and measurement theory. I still have to get a copy of &amp;quot;Measurement&amp;quot; by Lockhart though.</text></comment>