Not sure what to read next? Here's a list of most mentioned books on HN

In plain words

This website displays the most frequently mentioned books on Hacker News, helping readers discover popular titles within the tech community. It aggregates book references from HN discussions to identify which works are gaining attention among the site's users. The tool is designed for anyone looking for reading recommendations based on what technologists and developers are actually discussing online.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

• TB
  Top books mentioned in comments on Hacker News2016 · hackernewsbooks.com · ▲463
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  HN Reads – the books of hacker news2015 · hnreads.com · ▲33
• BM
  Books mentioned on Hacker News in 2025Dec 2025 · hackernews-readings-613604506318.us-west1.run.app · ▲613
• RL
  Reading list of popular Hacker News users2019 · collectoral.com · ▲143
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  40k HN comments mentioning books, extracted using deep learning2021 · hacker-recommended-books.vercel.app · ▲1,359

  Thinking, Fast and Slow - with 523 comments from the Hacker News community

• YH
  YaHNd – HN Books: The Best Books of Hacker News2021 · yahnd.com · ▲55

  HN Books collects, ranks, and showcases the best books that have been recommended on Hacker News.

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  SimCity, but with Permits▲936

  A free city-building game in your browser. You are the mayor. You know what the city needs. Now get it past the zoning board, the neighbors, the appeals court and the next election.

  Life & fun · 3d ago · permit.petercai.com

• IV
  I've been paying for a rural Tanzanian's education for 10 years▲778

  Life & fun · 15d ago · tanzaniaeducationproject.org

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  Bigwords.page – Turn any screen into a sign. The URL is the app▲728

  Turn a phone, tablet or TV into a sign. Type a message and it fills the screen: welcome signs, timers, Wi-Fi passwords and more. No app, no account, free.

  Life & fun · 16d ago · bigwords.page

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  Guitoro, a virtual guitar you strum with your keyboard▲573

  Play a free virtual guitar online with your keyboard or by touch. Slow songs down and see every chord, string and strum. Acoustic, classic, electric and bass.

  Life & fun · 10d ago · guitoro.com

• 
  See *almost* any carriers phone settings▲432

  Carrier settings from iPhone, Pixel and Galaxy firmware, decoded and compared: APNs, VoLTE, 5G and Wi-Fi Calling per carrier, and what each build changed.

  Life & fun · 14d ago · carrierexplode.com

• 
  The whole Solar System and every tracked satellite, live in the browser▲407

  Life & fun · 24d ago · space.bl2.net

• WM
  We made an addictive way to browse pictures on reddit▲401

  Life & fun · 2012 · mongout.com

• S
  Scrollorama▲395

  Life & fun · 2012 · johnpolacek.github.com

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  my database engine for GPU▲364

  ålenkå files. Full list of files for ålenkå

  Dev tools · 2012 · sourceforge.net

• IM
  I'm tired of corrupt US politicians, so I created this▲334

  Life & fun · 2012 · politicianmarket.com

• HI
  How I built a self-driving (RC) car.▲300

  I have been taking Andrew Ng's Machine Learning course. The lecture module on Neural Networks ends with an intriguing video of the ALVINN autonomous car driving itself along normal roads at CMU in the mid 90s. I was inspired by that video to see what I could build myself. A link to my incomplete write up was posted a couple of weeks ago (ouch!) but I finally finished it and open sourced the code tonight (so you can build your own self driving car). What do you think? http://blog.davidsingleton.org/nnrccar https://github.com/dps/nnrccar

  AI · 2012 · blog.davidsingleton.org

• CC
  Craigslist Car Search▲236

  Life & fun · 2012 · carsabi.com