HackerBooks – HackerTube, but for books recommended on HN lets you browse thousands of books recommended in Hacker News comments from 2006 to 2026, ranked by how many different people recommended each title. It's stated as a free service with no pricing page or paid tiers mentioned.
Comparison table
| Product | Free tier | Starts at | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| HackerBooks – HackerTube, but for books recommended on HN | true | not stated (free) | Broadest archive, 2006–2026, ranked by recommender count |
| Top books mentioned in comments on Hacker News | false | not stated | A long-running, early list |
| Not sure what to read next? | false | not stated | A minimal, bare-bones list |
| 40k HN comments mentioning books | false | not stated | NLP-extracted mention counts |
| HN Reads | true | not stated (free) | A simple, free, ad-free site |
| YaHNd – HN Books | true | not stated (free) | A books section within a broader site |
| All books recommended on Ask HN | false | not stated | AI-filtered genuine recommendations |
| Meta book recommendations from Ask HN threads | false | not stated | Meta-analysis of Ask HN book threads |
Top books mentioned in comments on Hacker News
hackernewsbooks.com is one of the earliest HN book-ranking sites, launched in 2016 with 463 launch-day votes. It does the same basic job as HackerBooks: aggregating book mentions from HN comments into a ranked list. Pricing isn't stated on the site. It suits readers who want a long-running, community-tested list rather than the newest tool. Limitation: no pricing or feature details are published, so it's unclear whether the list is still actively updated.
Not sure what to read next? Here's a list of most mentioned books on HN
hntopbooks.com is the oldest entry here, launched in 2012 with just 14 launch-day votes. It offers a simple list of most-mentioned HN books, without HackerBooks' broader 2006–2026 range or recommender-count ranking. Pricing is not stated. It suits readers who want a minimal list rather than a searchable archive. Limitation: low launch traction and no stated updates suggest it may not be actively maintained.
40k HN comments mentioning books, extracted using deep learning
hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app uses NLP to pull book mentions from roughly 40,000 HN comments, surfacing results like Thinking, Fast and Slow with 523 mentions. Launched in 2021 with 1,359 votes, it's one of the more popular alternatives listed. No pricing is stated, though it appears to function as a free browsing tool like HackerBooks. It suits readers curious about extraction methodology and category/page browsing. Limitation: being NLP-derived, mention counts may include false positives not filtered by human review.
HN Reads – the books of hacker news
hnreads.com analyzes and displays HN book recommendations, much like HackerBooks, and is explicitly stated as free with no pricing page. Launched in 2015 with 33 votes. It suits readers who want a straightforward, ad-free, free site without needing an account. Limitation: it has far fewer launch-day votes than newer tools, suggesting a smaller or quieter following today.
YaHNd – HN Books: The Best Books of Hacker News
yahnd.com/books collects, ranks, and showcases HN-recommended books, closely matching HackerBooks' job. It's stated as free with no pricing information, launched in 2021 with 55 votes. It suits readers who want a dedicated books section within a broader site rather than a single-purpose tool. Limitation: lower launch-day traction than the deep-learning extraction tool suggests a smaller audience base.
All books recommended on Ask HN
hackernewsbookrecommendations.com takes a narrower approach: it pulls only from Ask HN threads specifically about books, using the Algolia API to gather posts and the OpenAI API to extract genuinely recommended titles rather than just mentioned ones. Launched in 2024 with 14 votes. Pricing isn't stated. It suits readers who want recommendations filtered for relevance over raw mention counts. Limitation: by focusing only on Ask HN threads, it covers a narrower comment pool than HackerBooks' full 2006–2026 archive.
Meta book recommendations from Ask HN threads
mapfilterfold.com is also scoped to Ask HN discussions, producing a meta-analysis of book recommendations across those threads. Launched in 2020 with 273 votes, one of the stronger launches in this list. Pricing isn't stated. It suits readers who prefer a focused meta-roundup over a huge general archive. Limitation: like the Ask HN-only tool above, it won't capture book mentions from non-Ask HN comment threads.
How to choose
- Want the broadest archive with recommender counts: HackerBooks.
- Want an NLP-driven list with visible mention counts: 40k HN comments extracted using de