Books review

The language I used for book title is the language I read the book. Tên tác phẩm dùng ngôn ngữ nào thì tôi đọc cuốn sách bằng ngôn ngữ đó.

5⭐: awesome, loved it
4⭐: like it
3⭐: okayish
2⭐: bad, boring, not understand
1⭐: really bad, my not able to finish

0⭐ The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky [Free]

reading **

TODO

5⭐ Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse [Free]

finished 2020-02-02

Very poetic, insightful.

3⭐ The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells [Free]

finished 2020-01-25

Nice ending twist, this would be more amazing 100 years ago.

4⭐ The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells [Free]

finished 2019-12-08

2⭐ Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan [Free]

finished 2020-01-20

Nothing's special.

3⭐ Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

finished 2020-04-11

The first half is repeatitive things from Sapien book - which is sure 5/5. The remaining discusses religions such as liberalism, communism, democracy, humanism, dataism and list out future scenarious are more interesting.

3⭐ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain [Free]

finished 2020-04-12

A kid story, not so interesting until the very end.

2⭐ Heart of darkness by Joseph Conrad [Free]

finished 2020-04-19

Very dense, hard to read/grasp the meanings. Maybe read later.

4⭐ The Black Swan - The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

finished 2020-06-20

A mind changing book, a eye-opening way to reason about life that it is unpredictable, and how was it much harder to look back and find cause than guessing future.

4⭐ Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling

finished 2020-08-16

My first ever book in Harry Potter series. I expected much more as known this as top rated sci-fi series in human history. A bit boring at first half but becomes better toward the end. Except the very end part, the whole story is pretty "dry", emotionless. I was amazed how easy is it to read this whole book without a single time looking up word in dictionary. Finished in about 8 hours, spreading 4 days, it is good enough for 4.5/5.

5⭐ Sự im lặng của bầy cừu by Thomas Harris

finished 2020-08-31

Trilled, attractive.

3⭐ Great Expectations by Charles Dickens [Free]

finished 2021-01

ordinary, less good than expected due to its famous name and author.

3⭐ Mãi đừng xa tôi by Kazuo Ishiguro

finished 2021-01

nội dung u ám, phần dịch có thể đã làm giảm độ hay của tác phẩm, khi đọc đến gần trăm trang mới hiểu "người hiến" là người được nhân bản vô tính để thu hoạch nội tạng.

5⭐ The three-body problem by Liu Cixin

finished 2021-06-07

a page-turner, crazily attractive. With all science, astrophysic, quantum physics, environment issues, human/capitalism/religious... Finished in two days straight.

4⭐ The kite runner by Khaled Hosseini

finished 2022-08-01

a coloful, but dark story with people with real human characteristics.

3⭐ Để yên cho bác sĩ hiền by Ngô Đức Hùng

finished 2022-07-01

ngoài câu chuyện chính nói lên sự vất vả và bất công của các bác sĩ công (và ngành y) khá "mở mắt" cho người đọc (1 bác sĩ công phục vụ hàng trăm người 1 ca so với bác sĩ viện tư phục vụ 5 10 người, rõ ràng không thể luôn tươi cười chăm sóc tỉ mỉ như nhau). Phần còn lại không thực sự hấp dẫn và nhiều phần lặp lại.

4⭐ Anathem by Neal Stephenson

finished 2023-02-18

the longest book of 937 pages I have read, for ~5 months (not consecutive, but ~30pages/1hour per day). It took first 1-200 pages to learn the world, new words (math, avout, fraa, suur, extramurous, jeejah, bullshyte...), then a wild adventure to the cosmos... It's hard science, with math, quantum physics, parallel world but readable. Interesting ideas but not mind blowing twist like the three-body problem. A book in 2008 predicted the Internet (called Reticulum) of 2023 with full of AI generated content (ChatGPT) is impresive.

4⭐ Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein

finished 2023-04-30

what would a novel about when a Martian visit Earth (and raised by Earth people)? it's not same survival story like "The martians" novel/movie, but a great questions about human, religions, faith. The writing is funny, the plot is attractive. Much more humorous than many other sci-fi. Oh and this is the source of the word "grok" - which is very popular in tech people. "Grok" is to drink, do you grok? figuratively means "to comprehend", "to love", and "to be one with".

Viet Hung Nguyen (HVN)