Apollo 8
Recounts the bold but dangerous mission to secure America's position as the first nation to reach the moon, revealing the dangers endured by its crew and the ways the mission brought renewal to a country ravaged by assassinations and war.
Stats for nerds
4recommend
6mentions
6people
2017–2025years
67% recommend33% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- I highly recommend his book with Jeffrey Kluger, “Apollo 13”, originally published as “Lost Moon” in 1994.
- Apollo 8 by Jeffrey Kluger is one of my favourite books. It was basically extraordinary that NASA gambled so extravagantly, combining multiple steps in the planned sequence into one mega mission in order to get back on schedule after the disastrous fire and meet Kennedy's aspirational goal. Chances of success? (surviving the mission), maybe 50%.
Thinking about Frank Borman being alive and well and still flying his plane has been a favourite thought for me, and I'm very sad to have to retire it.
- Fiction
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Termination Shock - Neal Stephenson
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
Shards of Earth - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
Gnomon - Nick Harkaway
The Gone Away World - Nick Harkaway
The Apollo Murders - Chris Hadfield
Nonfiction
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Mindf*ck - Chris Wylie
1776 - David McCullough
Apollo 8 - Jeffrey Kluger
- Second this recommendation for the book and miniseries. Jeff Kluger and Jim Lovell's Lost Moon (retitled Apollo 13 after the movie based on it) and Kluger's Apollo 8 are also good reads.
For podcast listeners, these episodes of the Omega Tau podcast cover the Apollo hardware at a very high level of detail:
http://omegataupodcast.net/239-the-saturn-v-launch-vehicle/ http://omegataupodcast.net/83-how-apollo-flew-to-the-moon/ http://omegataupodcast.net/97-how-apollo-explored-the-moon/ http://omegataupodcast.net/167-the-apollo-guidance-computer/ http://omegataupodcast.net/218-a-life-in-apollo/
- Jeffrey Kluger also wrote Lost Moon, about Apollo 13, in collaboration with Jim Lovell. That is also an excellent read.
- How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler - I come back to this book constantly and I absolutely love it. Highly recommended. 5/5.
Deep Work by Cal Newport - Could be summed up in a blog post. 3/5 (for the message; lower otherwise - maybe 2-2.5/5)
Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount - Could be summed up in a blog post, but I think he makes a point on cold calling - if you need to do it, suck it up and do it. And that about sums it up. 2.5/5 (message is decent and he does offer some tips)
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke - Liked it, but unsure that I'll continue. 3.5/5.
White Fang by Jack London - Enjoyable and descriptive. Had to power through, though. 3.5/5
Treasure Island by RLS - Absolutely loved it. Now I need to power through the 800ish episodes of One Piece. 4/5
King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green - The story moves pretty fast. 4/5
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford - Khan as a historical figure fascinates me and I enjoyed this book. Don't know if it's just me, but Weatherford does seem to handwave Mongol atrocities. 4/5
Genghis Khan and the Quest for God by Jack Weatherford - Again, enjoyable. 3.5/5
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Charming and enjoyable story. 4/5
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell - Pretty sure this is the first book I ever read that's written from an animal's POV. I liked it. 4/5
The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson (Penguin Classic) - I really liked it. Helped me understand a bit more about Norse mythology. 4.5/5
Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang - I read this earlier in the year; it's about a guy who asked people ridiculous things in an effort to see if they'd say yes or no. I believe the thesis boils down to "Don't be afraid to ask; people say yes more often than you think." Was an enjoyable read. 4/5
My Antonia by Willa Cather (Oxford World Classic) - Really good read and not that long of a book. 4.5/5.
Apollo 8 by Jeffrey Kluger - As the title implies, it's about the Apollo 8 mission. Same guy who wrote the biography on Neil Armstrong. 3/5.
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling - Charming short stories that Kipling told his daughter until she died. 3.5/5
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - Was assigned this in high school but didn't read it then. Read it now. I missed out; it's a good book, but I think it's relatively boring until Tom starts going out with Huck a bit more. 3.5/5
The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame - Best book I've ever read on friendship and its importance. 4.5/5
Only surprises for me were Apollo 8, which I didn't like as much as I liked the Neil Armstrong biography; Tom Sawyer, in that I liked it; and that Deep Work and Fanatical Prospecting seemed a lot more bloated than they should've been. Besides that, I'm happy I didn't read any books that I didn't like, but I suppose I didn't take many risks either.
