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Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
For those into reading books, I think it is common practice to pick a new interesting book most of the time. However I want to know if there are books you found so valuable, you went back to it multiple times. Which book(s) was it, and how many times did you read it? What compelled you to reread it?
- LeoPanthera 6y agoDouglas Adam's "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency". Probably the finest work of fiction ever written, and my favorite book of all time. You kind of have to read it twice, the end completely changes the interpretation of the entire rest of the book. It's great. Avoid spoilers, and also avoid the TV versions - not even the same story, and quite disappointing. The audiobook version, read by Douglas Adams himself, is sublime.
- lukifer 6y agoI rather like the Max Landis Dirk Gently series, albeit as its own thing: a drastic reimagining only loosely inspired by the source material, similar to The Shining. The 2 1/2 Dirk Gently books are Adams' finest in my opinion. HHGTTG is fun, but it doesn't hold together as a cohesive narrative in the same way. It's such a shame that we'll never know how the third book would have resolved.
- rfrey 6y agoI can tell you that I've started Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs at least five times. Probably doesn't count.
- chrismatheson 6y agoAll the Ian M Banks Culture series. Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon
- Apreche 6y agoAKIRA
- playingchanges 6y agoThe Razors Edge - Somerset Maugham Siddhartha - Herman Hesse The Hobbit - Tolkien
- weka 6y agoThe Count of Monte Cristo (Robin Buss version)
- KKPMW 6y ago"The problems of philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. ~8 times. "The abolition of man" by "C.S. Lewis" 3 times. "The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times" by René Guénon. 3 times, and planning to set a weekend for another re-read soon.
- hpoe 6y agoI've reread the Abolition Of Man recently and found his conjecture that there may yet come a time when using psychology and technology a small group of people may be able to control everyone else eerily reminiscent to the way ML is being used to custom craft ads that push one opinion or another.
- lennyscales 6y ago- Sapiens - Richard Dawkin's books
- vavooom 6y agoWould recommend checking out Guns, Germs, And Steel if you liked Sapiens. More grounded in research and less hypothetical story-telling on what drove human development in history.
- navbaker 6y agoI tend to re-read my favorites every few years or so, my latest re-read was "A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge. Lots to dig into in that book, but my favorite aspect of it is actually how he writes the two different cultures' points of view to skew the reader's perception of the (very) alien culture, only revealing exactly how uncomfortable humans would be around them late in the book.
- ljoshua 6y ago"How Will You Measure Your Life?" by Clayton Christensen. Absolutely love this book and have read and listened to it multiple times. Really provides a fresh perspective on life and work.
- avremel 6y agoI usually read good technical books twice. Recently did that for: Designing Data-Intensive Applications, DynamoDB Book.
- apazzolini 6y agoDesigning Data-Intensive Applications is probably one of the absolute best technical books I've read. I haven't done a second read through, but I can definitely see that being helpful.
- fourseventy 6y agoGood Night Moon - 187 times The Cat In The Hat - 200 times The Very Hungry Caterpillar - 85 times But seriously, im on my third re-read of Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, In my opinion its the best book about leadership ever written.
- thejackgoode 6y agoI found “Dichotomy of leadership” by them released in 2018 even better put together and formulated, I guess all these podcast skills came to play. Looking forward to second read.
- Infernal 6y agoHah, I hadn’t even thought about children’s books! When my son was 1-2 years old I had probably 3-4 books like this completely memorized for bedtime. He did too, as occasionally if I would change a phrase for effect “they went to” to “they all went to”, he would often correct me.
- AnimalMuppet 6y agoThe secret of writing childrens' books is to write something that an adult can read 200 times without going insane. You've got to put in something that the adults will smile at. For slightly older children, try "The Bravest Ever Bear".
- RhysU 6y agoBoom, boom, boom, etc from The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- chrismatheson 6y agoHAHA yes! add Gruffalo, Room on the broom and Snail and the wale for me
- mathattack 6y ago
- henrik_w 6y ago"How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie
- madamelic 6y agoYep. I would re-read it on a semi-regular basis as suggested. I need to go back to it. Unfortunately my much loved copy (with highlights and underlines) was given to a family member so now I am left with my Kindle version. I've also listened to the millennium version twice.
- mathattack 6y agoHobbit and Lord of the Rings - 3 or 4, including very recently. The latest time I appreciated his background as a writer and the stories behind the story much more. They’re worth a reread as adults. On the business side I read Deming’s Out of the Crisis several times. The ideas are profound but the writing is mediocre so it took a few times for it to stick.
- wazoox 6y agoCheck the commentary on LoTR military tactics, hardware, etc on https://acoup.blog/ https://acoup.blog/, it's a hell of a rabbit hole to fall into :)
- mathattack 6y agoThat’s not a rabbit hole, it’s a bottomless pit!
- Zhyl 6y agoThe Kingkiller Chronicle. Firstly, they're good books and are enjoyable to read a second time round. Secondly, Rothfuss has laid down plot points like a Go player places stones. The second time reading through will join together disparate pieces of information that you wouldn't have connected together before, starting from very large revelations in the second reading of the first few chapters. I know of other books that are so rich that you can appreciate new details on multiple readings, but none that re-contextualise the whole story with revelations hidden in plain sight. Readings: (Name of the wind - 4 times, Wise Man's Fear 5 or 6 times - I like this one more for some reason).
- mindcrime 6y agoBy the time book three comes out, I'll have to re-read the first two, because I won't remember anything about what was going on at the end of book two.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- Slumberthud 6y agoThe Disappearance of the Universe - 4 times
- xamuel 6y agoThe Bible (technically working on my 2nd cover-to-cover readthrough, but have read individual books in it many times, especially the Gospel of Matthew). All of Kafka's novels, but especially "The Castle". Several of PKD's novels: "The Man in the High Castle", "Through a Scanner Darkly", "Ubiq" "The Silmarillion" (when I was a young adult) Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency" (when I was a teenager)
- raztogt21 6y agoDon't you feel The Man in the High Castle could be so much better? The premise was great and the context was great, but I could never relate to the main story.
- xamuel 6y agoHow would you improve Man in the High Castle? Like many PKD books it presents a premise which seems, naively, like a veritable paper mill that you could churn out endless books from--and then barely goes anywhere with it. That's part of PKD's style. Yes, the High Castle universe could be made to churn out whole series of formulaic literature, but it would be just that, formulaic. Go write it yourself--you don't need PKD to write it for you, once he's given you the premise. It's like Kafka said. If you try to make a river too large, it will overflow and you'll end up with mud. There's a certain size at which a river is just right, and any more just detracts from it.
- raztogt21 6y agoIt's not about the river size. Do androids dream of electric sheep? has an amazing premise and a good "main" story. I don't want a full universe explaining every point; just a compelling story to drive the Man in the High Castle.
- snide 6y agoI read East of Eden every couple years. I find it settles me and makes me believe in the goodness of Humans every time I read it.
- syndacks 6y agoSo this is one of the few books that I have re-read. First I read it in high school, secondly as an adult. I was severely let down. I'd go into details why, but I think this sums it up pretty well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(novel)#Reception https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(novel)#Reception _timshel_
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- tonyhb 6y ago"Island" - Aldous Huxley. "Principles" - Ray Dalio. "On the shortness of life" - Seneca.
- justinzollars 6y agoJewish Wisdom for Business Success, Dune, Shoe Dog, On The Road
- trts 6y agoFor many books that I find myself thinking about for years, or just that I enjoyed very much, I will revisit them later. They can be very revealing in how my perspective has changed or that I'll identify with completely different characters, or be awed by a passage that my earlier self overlooked. Several that come to mind are Heart of Darkness Moby Dick Robinson Crusoe Pretty much any Chekhov story Cathedral by Raymond Carver
- filtercoffee37 6y agoInvested by Charles Schwab.
- chrisa 6y agoFiction: The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse Non-fiction: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- xutopia 6y agoDragons of Eden by Carl Sagan. It just is amazing in so many ways but it is hard to describe.
- novalis78 6y ago“How to get what you want” by Raymond Hull
- dustingetz 6y agoJoy of Clojure https://www.manning.com/books/the-joy-of-clojure-second-edition https://www.manning.com/books/the-joy-of-clojure-second-edit...
- humanistbot 6y agoDune by Frank Herbert. This is a book I first read as a young teenager, but every time I re-read it every few years at a somewhat different point in my life, I get a different sense of it, maybe more based on where I am in my life and what is going on in the world. That for me is what makes a book endlessly re-readable: you always find something new in it. It is packed with all kinds of references and allegories to so many parts of our world, but in a way that still seems like its own world.
- raztogt21 6y agoJust finished Dune last month, that book was on another level. Ahead of its time.
- hpoe 6y agoMan's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankel, it is his experience of how he managed to survive the concentration camps. Book of Mormon The Stormlight Archive series (Way of Kings, Words of Radience, Oathbringer) - Brandon Sanderson, I've heard it compared to the Kingkiller Chronicles in terms of depth, intricacies and overall masterfully executed plot but Sanderson is also one of the best authors at making characters real and captivating that I've ever met. Mistborn Series (The Final Empire, Well of Ascension, Hero of Ages) by the same author as The Stormlight Archives and for the same reasons. The Screwtape Letters - C.S. Lewis, even if you aren't religious it has helped me see so much clearly the tactics and obstacles that prevent me from being the person I want to be. I've read quite a few more books more often but these are the books that I have reread multiple times because they have changed who I am and helped me recognize that each time I fall I can rise again a better man.
- cecja 6y agoThe Art of Electronics The Hitchhiker The Idiot The Wealth of Nations and sadly Concrete Mathematics... not because it is a bad book but because I suck at math.
- mindcrime 6y agoThere are a handful of books I have read more than once, and which I may still read more times. Offhand, I can think of: 1. The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne - read 6 or 7 times if not more, dating back to when I was in about 6th grade 2. False Memory - Dean Koontz - read probably 4 or 5 times 3. Neuromancer - William Gibson - read 3 or 4 times, at least 4. Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell - read at least twice 5. The Four Steps to the Epiphany - Steve Blank - read 2 or 3 times, skimmed parts many other times 6. Mastering The Complex Sale - Jeff Thull - read 2 or 3 times 7. Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore - read 2 or 3 times 8. Wellsprings of Knowledge - Dorothy Leonard-Barton - read 2 or 3 times 9. Common Knowledge - Nancy Dixon - read 2 or 3 times 10. Winning the Knowledge Transfer Race - Michael English & William Baker - read 2 or 3 times
- syndacks 6y agoSo I know this is the opposite of what OP is asking, but I've taken the stance recently that I won't re-read another book. There are books that I would like to re-read, but they come at the opportunity cost of reading others. A fellow traveler in a Guatemalan hostel broke it down to me like this: - let's say as an avid reader, you're able to read 12 books a year. - let's say you have 50 years of reading left in you, that means you have 600 books left to read in your lifetime That back-of-the-napkin-math put things into perspective for me. So many great books to read, so little time. It's also for that reason that I have no qualms about putting a book down that I'm not into.
- alanfalcon 6y agoBreadth is nice, but depth is too. I tend to gain more from a second read than from a first, and also I can consume content where I know what to expect while in a different mindset and state of being than what I require to crack open and explore something all new. But sure, everyone is different and does things their own way. If it works for you, that’s great! (Totally agree with putting down a book that isn’t working for you. You have no obligation, in most cases, to any book. It can be freeing to realize this if it’s not something that’s already obvious!)
- abecedarius 6y agoYes, this is an important point. OTOH the reality of human learning (spaced repetition, etc.) is that a book worth reading is probably worth reading again. Correspondingly you need some ruthlessness about dropping books that aren't panning out.
- anoonmoose 6y ago"The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein "Neuromancer" and sequels by William Gibson "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut I've read all of them dozens of times over. Hard to explain why, they speak my language, and help me understand myself and the world around me, kind of like my favorite bands do. Hard to put into words.
- criddell 6y agoThe Dog Stars by Peter Heller and Neuromancer by William Gibson. Both of these I've read twice. The Dog Stars held up well on my second reading. Neuromancer did not.
- pier25 6y ago- Sapiens - The Lord of the Rings - Siddhartha - Chaos: Making a New Science - The Death Gate cycle books - Neuromancer - Head First Design Patterns - Valis - Dune - The name of the rose I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones off the top of my head.
- cududa 6y agoTriumph And Tragedy of Lyndon B Johnson (his effectiveness to pass legislation fascinated me) Harry Potter (comfort series) Charlie Wilson’s War (it’s hilarious and informative), Game Change (a sobering reminder of the 2008 election and how we got to today), Lincoln’s Melancholy (on his depression). I’ve read lots of books twice, but the above are the only I can find in my library I’ve read 3 or more times. Outside of Harry Potter, I view the figures in those books most responsible for turning points in our nations history.
- vzidex 6y agoCatch-22. It's not at all related to tech, but it's the funniest book I've ever read and I feel it helps keep me grounded.
- 5letters 6y agoI second this one. A book good both for laughs and for a cynical but not entirely inaccurate look at organizations and human behavior.
- clairity 6y agoi recently re-read the wisdom of crowds, ~15 years now since i first read it. still good, still relevant. there's even a section on how quickly SARS was identified in international collaboration despite no central, coordinating entity. it's covertly a book about statistical reasoning, but with no dry statistical language, subversive in a way. we need more statistical reasoning in the world, particularly around risk assessment, to subdue fear and panic. edit: as for fiction, james clavell's asian saga[0] series is entertaining historical fiction, which i've read twice. pat conroy's southern portraits, particularly the lords of discipline and the prince of tides, both wrenching, haunting, and beautiful. also in the historical/cultural fiction realm: anna karenina, crime and punishment, a tale of two cities, les miserables. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Asian_Saga
- alanfalcon 6y agoI find myself re-listening to large portions of my audible library fairly often. I pick up so much more on additional read/listen-throughs. I listen to or read Snow Crash at least once a year. I just enjoy most everything about it. Anathem required a couple listens, and a third listen was just for comfort food. The Altered Carbon trilogy has depth and sublime world-building that I have now enjoyed at least a half dozen times. I second mentions of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (and will mention The Long, Dark Tea Time of the Soul as well). Ender’s Game is also comfort food for me. Breaking from the speculative fiction reco’s above... The Power of Vulnerability (Brené Brown) is more lecture series than audiobook, but as for non fiction I’ve recently given multiple listens to, that tops the list. I borrowed “Landline” from the local library, read it twice and then bought it so I could continue to read it when I want to. I think I was in just the right age group and life situation for this novel to hit home for me. Your mileage may vary, but IMO read it without knowing anything about it in advance if you’re going to read it. That means don’t read the back cover etc. (Blind borrowing of books from the library is fun and can be eye opening, try it sometime! Most places, you can borrow eBooks and even digital audiobooks without even leaving your home as long as you have a library card.)
- ganstyles 6y agoThe Power Broker The excellent series on Lyndon Johnson by the same author as The Power Broker The Three Body Problem series
- p4bl0 6y agoThe Campus Trilogy (Changing Places, Small World, Nice Work), by David Lodge. DO IT!: Scenarios of the Revolution, by Jerry Rubin. The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking A Spy Through The Maze Of Computer Espionage, by Cliff Stoll. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Logicomix, by Apóstolos K. Doxiàdis and Christos Papadimitriou. Other books that I strongly recommend can be found here (some of them are in French): https://pablo.rauzy.name/miscellaneous.html#books https://pablo.rauzy.name/miscellaneous.html#books Update: Pirates de tous les pays, by Marcus Rediker is a translation of Villains of All Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age which you can thus read in English :). It really is an awesome read! After I finished it I immidiately ordered 5 more copies to give them to friends.
- zeroxfe 6y ago1984 -- my all-time fav book. I've read it more than 10 times, because it's a beautiful dystopian love story that moves me like no other.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- AndrewLiptak 6y agoA bunch of books: Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (as well as several of the sequels), American Gods by Neil Gaiman, The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Magicians by Lev Grossman, Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, and a bunch of others.
- lukifer 6y agoI used to read The Illuminatus! Trilogy [0] once every year or two, though that's slowed down; I feel like I've gotten something new out of it every time. I'm now taking a second pass through Unsong [1], simply because I enjoyed the first read so much. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illuminatus!_Trilogy [1] http://unsongbook.com/ http://unsongbook.com/
- Okkef 6y agoI've read all of discworld by Terry Pratchett at least three times. I'm almost finished with my second sequential reading. It's comfort food in book form for me.
- photonemitter 6y agoSecond this. In the ongoing protests etc. I’ve realised how much the stories about Vimes have shaped my ideas of what a policeman should be.
- jackschultz 6y agoThese threads are posted a lot, but I still like reading the comments for new book recommendations if I see a match. Also, hopefully this can show people how great fiction is. I've seen comments that shun people for liking fiction compared to non. For me: Lonesome Dove 100 Years of Solitude Catch-22 The Sellout (very relevant again) East of Eden Kafka on the Shore (and all the stories in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman)
- ckarmann 6y agoThe Dispossessed - Ursula K. Le Guin Harry Potter - JK Rowling (re-read it all when the last book came out)
- wazoox 6y agoThe book I've reread the most is The Odyssey. For a long time, I've read it once every year. Another book I've read many times is Eco's Foucault's Pendulum. I've read Asimov's cycle of Foundation many times. Don't know how many, actually. I've also read several times some philosophy classics, particularly Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus, Apology and Republic. Then there are many books that I've read at least twice, almost all considered classics (from 1984 to LoTR, Great expectations to Tom Sawyer, Crime and punishment to Twenty thousand leagues under the sea, etc).
- kediz 6y agoIf you like the Foundation series, you would probably like the three body problem trilogy. The scale(both in space and time) of the story is as big if not bigger than Foundation and the story is equally fascinating. Really good read!
- ajstiles 6y agoCryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, every three years or so.
- arketyp 6y agoSome while ago I reread Richard Dawkins's The Extended Phenotype, which he has referred to as his favorite work. You could say it's the logical follow up on The Selfish Gene, quite technical and expert-oriented, but Dawkins is such a talented and lucid writer that anyone with enough intellectual thirst can follow the arguments. I regard it a piece of philosophy as much as a textbook about evolution.
- starpilot 6y agoAnna Karenina, 3x in two translations Skunk Works Intelligent Investor Man Who Was Thursday
- 5letters 6y agoWhen I've needed to laugh I've read and reread: Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" and "Roughing It" as well as many short stories, esp. "My Watch", "Political Economy", "Journalism in Tennessee" Also short stories from others: J.S. Perelman's "Strictly From Hunger", Alex Atkinson's "The Eyes of Texas are Upon You"
- brudgers 6y agoThe book I've read the most times is Three Little Pigs or "the wolf book" as my son used to request it just about every night for an extended period of time. Children's books dominate my most read list. And they are very important books because what's important about reading a book is mostly the experience of reading and less about the content. The content of a book isn't static. The content is a collaboration between the words on the page and the churning and whirring in the reader's head which isn't just churning and whirring because of the book and so varies from moment to moment and varies a lot from decade to decade. Which is why children want to hear the same story every night and why young readers often read Harry Potter several times rather than always seeking novelty in new books. Which was how I was as an early reader of science fiction. Then for several decades I sought the novelty of new books mostly. Largely because that's how I thought of myself as an adult reader...and then one day I read The Hobbit for the umpteenth time, but the first time since I was a child and out loud because my child was a child. It reads aloud very well and that inspired me to start rereading LoTR (for the O(n * umpteen)th time and it's the literary equivalent of a 200 slide slide deck...but I digress. The big thing is rereading is not reading the same book because of how much I've changed. I'm a much more experienced reader. Even excluding children's books I've probably read close to a hundred books through more than once. I read Blood Meridian cover to cover and then immediately reread the whole thing on two separate occasions about twenty years apart. All four times it was different. To me that's a good proxy for importance.
- jrs235 6y agoThe Underachiever's Manifesto: The Guide to Accomplishing Little and Feeling Great and The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development
- british_india 6y ago“Time Enough For Love”, by Robert Heinlein. It’s the life story of a man who lives 2,300 years.
- booknobook 6y agoI and Thou by Martin Buber Finite and Infinite Games by James P. Carse On Having No Head by Douglas E. Harding
- dmasi 6y agoZodiac by Neal Stephenson on audiobook about a dozen times.
- kencausey 6y agoEvery book published by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. and Iain M. Banks (I need to make more of an effort to do the same for Iain Banks. :)
- geoah 6y agoThe sprawl (neuromancer etc) and the Jean le Flambeur (quantum thief) trilogies. Both are packed with very interesting concepts and characters.
- loganwedwards 6y agoI read East of Eden by Steinbeck twice. It's a long read, but a great story. In fact, I don't really remember any of the story, so perhaps a third read is in my future.
- BrandoElFollito 6y agoHarry Potter. I read most of the tomes a few times and some parts as well. I do not like everything but the overall atmosphere (especially in the first few books) is amazing.
- psychomugs 6y agoThe Catcher in the Rye and Norwegian Wood. A goal is to read them both in Japanese, as the former was translated by the author of the latter.
- dedalus 6y ago- Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes (All 4 Novels and 56 short stories) --> read multiple times since childhood - "Be Here Now" by Ram Dass (read once and listened to audiobook twice) - Flatland by Edwin Abbot Abbot --> read multiple times to understand whats going on in different levels - Some PG Wodehouse stuff because it ages well (specifically the bibilical references) - Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie which is absolute verbal wizardry - Treasure Island by RLS which is a kids favorite for adventurism
- stratosgear 6y agoRoger Zelazny's, the Amber series. I only like Corwin story arc. Must have read them 5 or 6 times...
- photonemitter 6y agoI’ve read most Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett 3 or more times. Finite and Infinite Games, by James P. Carse is another philosophical favourite when it comes to getting something new each read through. Book of Mirdad, which is like a modern take on the Abramelin, don’t recall the author’s name, but it’s very much into the symbolic/mystic/esoteric ways and very revealing to that side without explicitly stating any “secrets” First Law trilogy, by Abercrombie. This is what Gritty Fantasy should read like. It’s got scenes in them that I want to reread the books just to get to. Really hope these would be made into a series or films, as the cinematography in them is already perfect. Without spoiling the first book as it’s revealed early on; Logan Ninefingers is essentially a Barbarian, but throughout you get the feeling he’s deeply afraid of that side. (If you’ve watched how Mike Tyson talked about his fear of that side in him on his podcast, this is essentially it...) There’s been other books as well, but these are the biggest reread-able ones for me.
- thebillywayne 6y agoThe Dune series is so rich in ideas and imagery. I've read it (print and audio) more than 20 times.
- abower 6y agoAdam Hall's Quiller series. Good to revisit every few years and the mechanism of building to a crisis, then starting after the resolution and backing up is fun. Not for everyone though as it's cold war vintage spy stuff. Feels real though, not like Hollywood versin of Bond. Banks of course, Use of Weapons is great. Just hit 51 and finally reading Dune now, so keep that in mind, but would also suggest Cryptonomicon as i have started it several times, put it down and then come back and had to start again several times.... but i find it interesting enough to keep trying!
- me_smith 6y agoThe Hobbit - Tolkien Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth Book 1) - Goodkind Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth Book 6) - Goodkind Ender's Game - Card 1984 - Orwell I'm looking to read Asimov's Foundation series again. Maybe spend more time with Hyperion.
- peter-m80 6y agoVarious from Isaac Asimov. Specially from the robots saga
- tkjef 6y agoThe Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster Read it every year from 3rd grade to 8th.
- gao8a 6y agoStranger in a strange land - Robert Heinlein
- alexpotato 6y agoEnder's Game and the "side-quel" Ender's Shadow. Every single time I've reread either I've found some part of the book that resonates precisely with a situation I'm going through in my life. Even parts I thought didn't apply to me at the time, upon rereading struck a chord. For example, when I was younger, I identified with Ender but as I've gotten older, I identify more with the adults in the book. Especially now that I have children. On a side note, the 25th anniversary edition has an introduction that has some gems all of it's own. Notably, there is a line where Card mentions something along the lines of: when I was a child, I never thought of myself as being less of a person than an adult. I just thought of myself as a smaller adult person. That has always stayed with me since I read it and have always tried to apply that mental model of childhood to any interaction I have with children. It has been particularly impactful now that I have my own children.
- hwj 6y agoBible. Even rereading the same chapter sometimes makes me discover something a wasn't aware of when reading the text before.
- 2rsf 6y agoIf you are into that, try learning Hebrew and join a Rabbi there are endless books and discussion interpreting the bible.
- photawe 6y agoCode Complete - 2 times: clearly it's a good book. The selfish gene - 2 times - that's not programming wise, but it's an awesome book to get your thoughts rolling.
- thanato0s 6y agoThe little prince. I don't count how many read anymore. I'm not kidding either. Best book ever.
- MaurizioPz 6y agoHarry Potter and the Methods of Rationality - great story and also quite a nice introduction to rationality. There's also an audiobook https://hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=56 https://hpmorpodcast.com/?page_id=56