Easter 2024 reading recommendations from the European Clojure community: from WW1 history to implementing logic programming in Scheme

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I often get to spend some time reading in my Easter holiday (after a daily dose of cross country skiing). I could have picked the next unread title on my Kindle. But … how do I know that title is worth reading?

I don’t trust the recommendations I get from Amazon. Those recommendations are similar to books I have read. But I don’t want to optimize for “looks the most like something have read”. I want something good.

To solve for this, I asked for reading recommendations. And I got so much more than I asked for. To make those recommendations last, I put them into tables and shared those tables on the Internet.

I believe curation is valuable, and I believe curation should be done by humans. Matthias, Ben Sless, Mario Trost, Denis McCarthy and Jack Rusher: thanks a lot for your recommendations! Also, this site (play.teod.eu) would not have existed without Babashka (by Michiel Borkent), Pandoc (by John MacFarlane) and Org-roam (by Jethro Kuan), thank you!

Here are the recommendations:

Recommendation by title

Title Published year Author Type Genre Recommended by
A Unified Approach to Solving Seven Programming Problems (Functional Pearl) 2017 Byrd et al paper computer science Ben Sless
Ancillary Justice [talk] 2013 Ann Leckie book science fiction Mario Trost
Backtracking, Interleaving, and Terminating Monad Transformers 2005 Kiselyov et al paper computer science Ben Sless
Ciaphas Cain 2003–2023 Alex Stewart book series science fantasy Ben Sless
Communicating Sequential Processes 1978 C. A. R. Hoare paper computer science Ben Sless
Communicating Sequential Processes 1985 C. A. R. Hoare book computer science Ben Sless
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb 1996 Richard Rhodes book history Denis McCarthy
Eisenhorn 2001–2018 Dan Abnett book series science fantasy Ben Sless
Guns of August 1962 Barbara W. Tuchman book history Mario Trost and Jack Rusher
Hyperion Cantos 1989–1997 Dan Simmons book series science fiction Matthias
Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of sodware errors 2003 Joe Armstrong PhD thesis computer science Ben Sless
Relational programming in miniKanren: Techniques, applications, and implementations 2009 William E. Byrd PhD thesis computer science Ben Sless
The Book of the New Sun 1980–1987 Gene Wolfe book series science fantasy Ben Sless
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men 2022 Shauna Lawless book historical fantasy Mario Trost
The Cyberiad 1965 Stanisław Lem short story collection science fiction Jack Rusher
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power 1990 Daniel Yergin book history Denis McCarthy
The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 1970 John Toland book history Denis McCarthy
The Three-Body Problem 2008 Liu Cixin book science fiction Ben Sless
Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System [pdf] 1978 Leslie Lamport paper computer science Jack Rusher
μKanren: A Minimal Functional Core for Relational Programming 2013 Hemann & Freidman paper computer science Ben Sless

Recommendation by type, then genre

Type Genre Title Published year Author Recommended by
PhD thesis computer science Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of sodware errors 2003 Joe Armstrong Ben Sless
PhD thesis computer science Relational programming in miniKanren: Techniques, applications, and implementations 2009 William E. Byrd Ben Sless
book computer science Communicating Sequential Processes 1985 C. A. R. Hoare Ben Sless
book historical fantasy The Children of Gods and Fighting Men 2022 Shauna Lawless Mario Trost
book history Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb 1996 Richard Rhodes Denis McCarthy
book history Guns of August 1962 Barbara W. Tuchman Mario Trost and Jack Rusher
book history The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power 1990 Daniel Yergin Denis McCarthy
book history The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 1970 John Toland Denis McCarthy
book science fiction Ancillary Justice [talk] 2013 Ann Leckie Mario Trost
book science fiction The Three-Body Problem 2008 Liu Cixin Ben Sless
book series science fantasy Ciaphas Cain 2003–2023 Alex Stewart Ben Sless
book series science fantasy Eisenhorn 2001–2018 Dan Abnett Ben Sless
book series science fantasy The Book of the New Sun 1980–1987 Gene Wolfe Ben Sless
book series science fiction Hyperion Cantos 1989–1997 Dan Simmons Matthias
paper computer science A Unified Approach to Solving Seven Programming Problems (Functional Pearl) 2017 Byrd et al Ben Sless
paper computer science Backtracking, Interleaving, and Terminating Monad Transformers 2005 Kiselyov et al Ben Sless
paper computer science Communicating Sequential Processes 1978 C. A. R. Hoare Ben Sless
paper computer science Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System [pdf] 1978 Leslie Lamport Jack Rusher
paper computer science μKanren: A Minimal Functional Core for Relational Programming 2013 Hemann & Freidman Ben Sless
short story collection science fiction The Cyberiad 1965 Stanisław Lem Jack Rusher

Recommendation by recommender

Recommended by Title Published year Author Type Genre
Ben Sless A Unified Approach to Solving Seven Programming Problems (Functional Pearl) 2017 Byrd et al paper computer science
Ben Sless Backtracking, Interleaving, and Terminating Monad Transformers 2005 Kiselyov et al paper computer science
Ben Sless Ciaphas Cain 2003–2023 Alex Stewart book series science fantasy
Ben Sless Communicating Sequential Processes 1978 C. A. R. Hoare paper computer science
Ben Sless Communicating Sequential Processes 1985 C. A. R. Hoare book computer science
Ben Sless Eisenhorn 2001–2018 Dan Abnett book series science fantasy
Ben Sless Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of sodware errors 2003 Joe Armstrong PhD thesis computer science
Ben Sless Relational programming in miniKanren: Techniques, applications, and implementations 2009 William E. Byrd PhD thesis computer science
Ben Sless The Book of the New Sun 1980–1987 Gene Wolfe book series science fantasy
Ben Sless The Three-Body Problem 2008 Liu Cixin book science fiction
Ben Sless μKanren: A Minimal Functional Core for Relational Programming 2013 Hemann & Freidman paper computer science
Denis McCarthy Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb 1996 Richard Rhodes book history
Denis McCarthy The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power 1990 Daniel Yergin book history
Denis McCarthy The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 1970 John Toland book history
Jack Rusher Guns of August 1962 Barbara W. Tuchman book history
Jack Rusher The Cyberiad 1965 Stanisław Lem short story collection science fiction
Jack Rusher Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System [pdf] 1978 Leslie Lamport paper computer science
Mario Trost Ancillary Justice [talk] 2013 Ann Leckie book science fiction
Mario Trost Guns of August 1962 Barbara W. Tuchman book history
Mario Trost The Children of Gods and Fighting Men 2022 Shauna Lawless book historical fantasy
Matthias Hyperion Cantos 1989–1997 Dan Simmons book series science fiction

Recommendation by published year

Published year Title Author Type Genre Recommended by
1962 Guns of August Barbara W. Tuchman book history Mario Trost and Jack Rusher
1965 The Cyberiad Stanisław Lem short story collection science fiction Jack Rusher
1970 The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 John Toland book history Denis McCarthy
1978 Communicating Sequential Processes C. A. R. Hoare paper computer science Ben Sless
1978 Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System [pdf] Leslie Lamport paper computer science Jack Rusher
1980–1987 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe book series science fantasy Ben Sless
1985 Communicating Sequential Processes C. A. R. Hoare book computer science Ben Sless
1989–1997 Hyperion Cantos Dan Simmons book series science fiction Matthias
1990 The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power Daniel Yergin book history Denis McCarthy
1996 Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb Richard Rhodes book history Denis McCarthy
2001–2018 Eisenhorn Dan Abnett book series science fantasy Ben Sless
2003 Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of sodware errors Joe Armstrong PhD thesis computer science Ben Sless
2003–2023 Ciaphas Cain Alex Stewart book series science fantasy Ben Sless
2005 Backtracking, Interleaving, and Terminating Monad Transformers Kiselyov et al paper computer science Ben Sless
2008 The Three-Body Problem Liu Cixin book science fiction Ben Sless
2009 Relational programming in miniKanren: Techniques, applications, and implementations William E. Byrd PhD thesis computer science Ben Sless
2013 Ancillary Justice [talk] Ann Leckie book science fiction Mario Trost
2013 μKanren: A Minimal Functional Core for Relational Programming Hemann & Freidman paper computer science Ben Sless
2017 A Unified Approach to Solving Seven Programming Problems (Functional Pearl) Byrd et al paper computer science Ben Sless
2022 The Children of Gods and Fighting Men Shauna Lawless book historical fantasy Mario Trost

I keep this table for myself: if new recommendations show up in the thread, can add them here and update the other tables.

Title Published year Author Type Genre Recommended by
Hyperion Cantos 1989–1997 Dan Simmons book series science fiction Matthias
μKanren: A Minimal Functional Core for Relational Programming 2013 Hemann & Freidman paper computer science Ben Sless
Relational programming in miniKanren: Techniques, applications, and implementations 2009 William E. Byrd PhD thesis computer science Ben Sless
Backtracking, Interleaving, and Terminating Monad Transformers 2005 Kiselyov et al paper computer science Ben Sless
A Unified Approach to Solving Seven Programming Problems (Functional Pearl) 2017 Byrd et al paper computer science Ben Sless
Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of sodware errors 2003 Joe Armstrong PhD thesis computer science Ben Sless
Communicating Sequential Processes 1978 C. A. R. Hoare paper computer science Ben Sless
Communicating Sequential Processes 1985 C. A. R. Hoare book computer science Ben Sless
The Three-Body Problem 2008 Liu Cixin book science fiction Ben Sless
The Book of the New Sun 1980–1987 Gene Wolfe book series science fantasy Ben Sless
Ciaphas Cain 2003–2023 Alex Stewart book series science fantasy Ben Sless
Eisenhorn 2001–2018 Dan Abnett book series science fantasy Ben Sless
Ancillary Justice [talk] 2013 Ann Leckie book science fiction Mario Trost
The Children of Gods and Fighting Men 2022 Shauna Lawless book historical fantasy Mario Trost
Guns of August 1962 Barbara W. Tuchman book history Mario Trost and Jack Rusher
The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power 1990 Daniel Yergin book history Denis McCarthy
Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb 1996 Richard Rhodes book history Denis McCarthy
The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936–1945 1970 John Toland book history Denis McCarthy
The Cyberiad 1965 Stanisław Lem short story collection science fiction Jack Rusher
Time, Clocks, and the Ordering of Events in a Distributed System [pdf] 1978 Leslie Lamport paper computer science Jack Rusher