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Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
If you could never read a new book in your life, and only had one book to re-read once a year, which would you pick, and why?
(Feel free to substitute “the next 10 years“ for “the rest of your life“.)
- kthejoker2 4y agoTough choices .. Moby Dick has so much to offer .. Gulliver's Travels ... Tristam Shandy ... Essays by Montaigne.. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man .... Probably the collected works of Shaw? Things with dialogue feel freah every time you read them.
- YangNation 4y agoThe Book of Mormon and the Holy Bible
- gigantecmedia 4y agoIncerto by Nassim Taleb. Best piece of work I've ever read. I'm re-reading it, and still... what a masterpiece, a mind-blowing piece of work. Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and Antifragile remain my "Holy Trinity" of books. You just couldn't stop reading them.
- RickJWagner 4y agoThe Holy Bible. It's an incredible resource. For the believers, it is the Word. For non-believers, it has more snippets attributed to common wisdom than you'd suspect. It's the best-selling book in history, BTW.
- h2odragon 4y agoLord of the Rings. I re-read LotR, one volume a day, every day in 5th grade. Speed reading practice. Have re-read it several times since then, it still holds up.
- joemountain 4y agoI just reread LotR, and concur. Better than I remember and makes me sad about the movies anew. But I’m a romantic sucker.
- gverrilla 4y agoTraité de savoir-vivre à l’usage des jeunes générations Raoul Vaneigem
- leed25d 4y agoGravity's Rainbow
- leobg 4y agoInteresting. Had to look it up. Wikipedia: Gravity's Rainbow is a 1973 novel by American writer Thomas Pynchon. The narrative is set primarily in Europe at the end of World War II and centers on the design, production and dispatch of V-2 rockets by the German military. Can you put in words what makes you choose it as a book to re-read yearly?
- xwdv 4y agoBeing able to say you’ve read this book pays dividends that go far beyond just the experience of reading the contents. It will give you instant credibility among important and highly intellectual individuals, and could lead to great job offers or securing strong investments. The prestige and recognition you carry amongst peers is priceless. Even just owning the book without reading it already puts you a step ahead of other people. The right people can be blown away just seeing it on your shelf. Read the book, yearly.
- I_complete_me 4y agoThat's nice to know. I read it when I was 18/19 while travelling on the New York City subway from Far Rockaway into Manhattan. Twice a day for 3 months and sometimes outside it. I still know the opening line "A screaming comes across the sky". Difficult book.
- reducesuffering 4y agoPoe’s law?
- cercatrova 4y agoYes, it certainly seems like satire to me.
- 4y ago
- sacrosanct 4y agoMastery by Robert Greene
- CelticBard 4y agoSiddhartha by Herman Hesse
- electricant 4y agoCame here to say the same. Every time I read it it has a different meaning.
- gilmore606 4y agoSame, I've read Siddhartha once a year for the past 15 years at least. The river always has something to say.
- jmiskovic 4y agoI found it off-putting that Hesse distorted and criticized Buddha's teachings, but found it necessary to insert real world Buddha character into the novel and have him validate author's ideas and philosophies.
- jsrcout 4y agoAgree, but would also list Narcissus and Goldmund. Am I the only one that found something of value in that book? People never seem to mention it.
- marban 4y agoFounders at Work — Timeless collection of lessons learned from the men/women in the arena.
- llaolleh 4y agoCoders at Work was also very good.
- nigerian1981 4y agoA Confederacy Of Dunces
- URfejk 4y agoQuincunx
- DLA 4y agoThe Bible
- ParanoidShroom 4y agoPiHKAL
- srvmshr 4y ago1. Hackers: Heroes of the computer revolution. 2. Kernighan & Ritchie C (I learn/interpret either something new about C or marvel the art of precise writing) 3. Harry Potter series
- noud 4y agoBourbaki
- throwawayaloo 4y agoQuran
- samatman 4y agoThe 1917 edition of Encyclopedia Brittanica.
- nostromo95 4y agoEssays by Montaigne. The best way I can describe Montaigne is it’s like talking to a brilliant, compassionate best friend.
- leobg 4y agoOne of Nietzsche’s favorites also. I think he even said it on much the same way you did.
- peterhi 4y agoHouse on the Borderland by William Hope Hodges. Very atmospheric horror I read to read Lord of the Rings every year but I pretty much got to memorise the whole thing and it became a drag
- sulfastor 4y agoThe Pilgrim's progress. John Bunyan
- Brajeshwar 4y agoAh! I have this on my table right now.
- dc-programmer 4y agoCount of Monte Cristo
- tomduncalf 4y agoI was going to say this – though I've only read it once, I'll certainly read it again. Loved how much it immersed you in the world. Recently I enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr for similar reasons, if you're looking for recommendations!
- TylerLives 4y agoYou might also enjoy The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
- dc-programmer 4y agoIt’s on my bookshelf but I’ve been slacking. Too much HackerNews probably. I really do love the 19th century magazine to novel genre though.
- dc-programmer 4y agoThat looks like it’s up my alley, I’ll check it out. Thanks! Count of Monte Cristo is the best revenge story ever told which is why it appeals to me, but you’re right about the immersion aspect. Maybe I would choose the unabridged version for the full experience.
- tomduncalf 4y agoOh yeah, it’s a cracking story too! A proper journey and what a revenge. Hope you enjoy it!
- allig256 4y agoI'd recommend you read "The Black Count" by Tom Reiss. It's a non-fiction biography of Alexandre Dumas's father, the inspiration for The Count of Monte Cristo. It holds the same luster of the 19th century while giving you a factual recount of some larger than life figures.
- southpawflo 4y ago
- softwarebeware 4y agoThree Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
- kzrdude 4y agoRöde Orm / The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Ships https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Ships I guess it's a swedish favourite, a viking historical fiction / adventure novel. Fond memories since I was a teenager. I have only read it twice.
- s800 4y agoRendezvous with Rama
- boddhi 4y agoBrave New World
- vanveenada 4y agoit's a quadrilogy, not a book, but I'd pick Ada Palmer's _Terra Ignota_ series without hesitation. I'm comfortable arguing for it fitting within the constraint of the question, largely because it is making one sustained argument that's carried out throughout the entire series -- it's very much one book that happens to be like 4000 pages long rather than four separate books. Anyway, Ada Palmer is a sci-fi writer whose day job is as a professor of Renaissance and Enlightenment-era European philosophy, and everything in this series (set in the 2500s in a world where the geographical nation state collapsed and world governments are now large voluntary organizations) is heavily informed by her training as a historian of philosophy. She finished the series last year, and though each book has gotten nominated for the big awards, she's had the misfortune of publishing on more or less the same schedule as N.K. Jemisin, whose stuff typically wins the Hugo, Nebula, or both. The fandom is teensy tiny -- I've seen it described as "six people and a shoelace" -- but most people who read it get fanatically devoted to it.
- dmitriid 4y ago> it's very much one book that happens to be like 4000 pages long rather than four separate books. It's a good way to approach it. Because otherwise part two and so on feel "more of the same", and you may be a bit let down (like me) hoping there would be "new schtick" in the new books > The fandom is teensy tiny Count me squarely in that fandom.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dbingham 4y agoOh man, I started reading Too Like the Lightning a while ago on the recommendation of a fantasy author friend. It was really good, but I got derailed and then had to take it back to the library and never finished it. I need to pick this series back up. But it's worth saying, N.K. Jemisin deserved those wins. I've read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy and Broken Earth blew my mind when I read it the first time. I had to stop reading sci-fi/fantasy for a while afterwards because nothing could hold a candle to it. It was a master class in craft, with an incredibly well done drip of very thorough world building and some really fantastic reveals. I don't want to say too much - I normally don't mind spoilers but I really loved the reveals in these novels. I don't think I'd have wanted to be spoiled on them going in.
- labrador 4y agoKurt Vonnegut "Breakfast of Champions": A yearly reminder that despite the terrible cruelty of human society and the awful behavior of many people and the indifference of most others, there are good people who shine love and creativity and it's worth staying alive to try to find these people to make life bearable.
- karaterobot 4y agoThe Book of the New Sun. I've already read it 6-ish times, with a different interpretation every time, and I have every reason to believe that would continue indefinitely. I would say The Book of the Long Sun and The Book of the Short Sun, since I like them better, but there's no way to justify calling them one book when, even in fiction, they're 2 different books. > (Feel free to substitute “the next 10 years“ for “the rest of your life“.) ... Say... What do you know that I don't?
- jdmoreira 4y agoI read BotNS + Urth this year and followed the chapter by chapter analysis at Alzabo Soup. It was one of the best experiences of my life. No doubt.
- leobg 4y agoHaha. I meant that it’s quite hard to claim that a book that’s had an impact on your life between 20 and 50 will still have it when you’re 95. For some books, that might seem possible (say, spiritual texts or great literature). But for some, it’s quite unlikely (say, books about business, dating, or productivity). So, no worries. My crystal ball tells me you’ve got lots of runway left!
- NickNaraghi 4y agoZen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- jdkee 4y agoCame here to say this. I reread it every ten years or so and each time I find something new in it.
- gHeadphone 4y agoCame here to say both these things. I also read it every ten years, and take something entirely different from it each time. A philosophy book, a novel, a road trip story, a discussion of mental illness, and a father and son book alll rolled into one.
- perryizgr8 4y agoPermutation City by Greg Egan. The central idea presented in this scifi novel is so compelling, I can't help but feel there is some truth in it. Also, I never feel I understood everything completely. Re reading helps clarify some new question every time.
- helloworld11 4y agoWhat an existentially depressing book though, at least for me. It was wonderful, and worth reading more than once simply because it helps absorb more of its deeply complex aspects, but without a doubt it creates an unusual emotional impact.
- pgoat 4y agoInfinite Jest - David Foster Wallace: It includes so many sides of life: terrible misery and humor, both spicy and tender, sometimes simple, sometimes absurd, then politics, society, love, cynicism, - and poetry. And it predicted, by the way, shockingly many developments of today's (American) society. And the language, of course, is opulent and wild, it won't get boring any time soon.
- throwawaaaaay17 4y agopgoat - lol Kind of a miserable book to reread a lot. The author killed himself, the one person I know of who figured it all out also killed himself http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/ijend
- jesterson 4y agoThere is no miserable or joyful books out there - it's all subjective interpretations. Whether to kill yourself or go on with living is a personal choice, the book does it best to make the said choice an informed one.
- genjipress 4y agoGödel, Escher, Bach
- bmj 4y agoThis has been a year of re-reading for me, so this is a timely question. I can't pick just one at the moment, but I'll split a couple of top choices via genre. (Also worth noting that in the end, my final choice would probably be the Bible.) Fiction: The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner Non-fiction: In Good Company - Stanley Hauerwas Into the Silent Land - Martin Laird
- erokar 4y agoFaulkner: The Sound and the Fury
- rscho 4y agoMusashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. Great for entertainment as well as enlightenment.
- rramadass 4y agoIn case you don't already know of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Trilogy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samurai_Trilogy
- vehemenz 4y agoPlato: Complete Works Are anthologies cheating?
- lapcat 4y agoYes.
- lcuff 4y agoJames Clavell's Shogun: The contrast between the Japanese and European cultures in 1600 are delicious, the characters and plot both well developed. I've read it at least a dozen times over four decades. As I age, I find I experience it very differently.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- vr46 4y agoThat’s intriguing. I read it when I was 12-13 having found it in a pile of books left behind by the previous owners of the house. I enjoyed it, I think I was curious of the cover and the size of the book. I doubt I’d ever get the time to read it again but the idea is appealing, 30+ years later.
- WheelsAtLarge 4y agoIt's a very good book. I read the book and watched the 1970's TV series. I think it's a great candidate for a redo in the streaming era. It has adventure, political intrigue, romance, and on and on... It's definitely worth reading more than once.
- GameOfFrowns 4y ago>I think it's a great candidate for a redo in the streaming era Don't wish for it. It's very likely that it will be utterly ruined by shoehorning in current political talking points and race relations.
- Prophasi 4y agoShogun's a milestone in my reading history - it's so extraordinarily engrossing. It deflated me more than any other book as I turned each of the final, waning pages because I didn't want to leave its world behind. I was briefly elated to see there are "sequels" but just as quickly disappointed to learn they're set centuries apart; it ended up feeling like I was clinging to the only album ever made by an amazing band. I've yet to read the other books in the saga, but I should circle back and fix that.
- curiousfab 4y agoThe Brothers Karamazov (Dostoevsky) It's a book that raises a lot of good questions about good vs. evil, free will, morality, religion and so much more.
- asplake 4y agoAt risk of committing a heresy, does the ending get better on subsequent readings?
- flint 4y agoThe Baroque Cycle - Neal Stephenson. Newton, Leibnitz, the birth of the Royal Society - and pirates!
- navigate8310 4y agoBhagavad Gita and Nine Upnishads
- brudgers 4y agoIf it was TAoCP, I would always have something I didn’t understand to read. I would always be learning. And Knuth is a fine writer to boot.
- arisbe__ 4y agoThis would be my pick for the same reason or perhaps a mathematics book with tons of proofs (preferably Analysis).
- dbingham 4y agoThe Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin Extremely well done series that straddles the sci-fi fantasy line. There's a reason Jemisin became the first person to win the Hugo three years running for three books of a series.
- asplake 4y agoI’ve listened to the audiobooks right through at least three times now
- kylebenzleee 4y ago
- daverol 4y agoMiddlemarch by George Eliot - the greatest fiction exploration of how to live a life of integrity and significance in a world that often seems overwhelming and meaningless.
- excalibur 4y agoMaybe it's the nostalgia talking, but I finished season 4 of Stranger Things yesterday, and now I have a strong urge to pick up a copy of The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub. A great book, it really captured the magic that King's Dark Tower series lost along the way.
- the_third_wave 4y agoNot a book but the facilities to make one - access to either paper and pencils/pens/ink, glue, linen binding thread, leather for making covers and a book press to bind the thing. Given that I'd have the rest of my life I'd settle for access to the raw materials to make these. I'd write the book myself, it'd probably end up like a cross between Robinson Crusoë, Baden Powell's "Scouting for Boys", Zindell's "Neverness", Tolkien's "Silmarillion", The Gulag Archipelago - for what twisted mind would keep people from reading new (to them) books other than the same mind which created the GULAG system - and more of such. It would take years to write but that'd be a good thing given that it would keep me busy.
- lcall 4y agoThe Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In the Bible, Christ said he would visit his (maybe inexact, from memory) "...other sheep, which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (In John, I think?) The Book of Mormon tells of Christ's visit to the ancient Americas, after his resurrection, where he taught them things like he taught in the Near East. It also contains teachings of ancient prophets, like the Bible does. Along with the Bible, its teachings are amazing to me, in their ongoing ability to help me want to be a better person, and to bring peace and direction, amid hard events. (And its confirmation that Christ's resurrection is real, therefore we will all live again, with justice and the opportunity for honest mercy.) (ps: thoughtful comments appreciated with any downvotes.) (pps: fun note, I have read it in English, Spanish, Esperanto (such as there is), and over 1/2-way now in Russian. Something like 115 translations exist, per wikipedia, with more on the way. Looks like several chapters even in Klingon.)
- zeagle 4y agoI thank you for your comment and sharing an interesting perspective that is far removed from my own (as someone who is not religious but knows about other parts of the Christian faith)
- lcall 4y agoYou're welcome. (And thanks for the kind words.)
- lcall 4y agoSince I am unable to reply to the other flagged/dead comments, I'll add here that the book itself (in the intro. materials and the last chapter) says how one can determine for oneself if it is, in fact, what it says it is, and receive an answer from God. Thus the question becomes not a matter to debate harshly (which has been done enough already), but one of individual knowledge and conscience. I can't prove it to someone else, but it has been satisfactorily proven to me, about which I have written elsewhere at some length.
- papyrussans 4y ago
- pfortuny 4y agoThomas Mann’s “Joseph and his brothers”, a tetralogy on the biblical (old testament) Joseph. I am in the fourth reading.
- t1eb4n 4y agoAtlas Shrugged
- Jaruzel 4y agoIf I was forced to only pick one, or at least one set of books it would be: The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy. There are many better books I've read, but I grew up with these, and would want access to copies at all times in my life. Now... I'm off to make a Perfectly Normal Beast sandwich and ponder why Eddie is in the space time continuum.
- jamiek88 4y agoWashed down with an Ooisgian Zoda.
- philophyse 4y agoThe conversation around eddies in the space-time continuum is the single funniest thing I've ever read. I haven't read those books for years but I still chuckle every time I am reminded of it for any reason. Douglas Adams was a true master of his craft.
- sen 4y agoAbsolutely HHGTTG for me. Not the "best" books I've ever ready but easily the ones I can re-read the most and still get a laugh or discover something new (or something I at least forgot and get to re-enjoy).
- ericfrazier 4y agoComputer Systems - A Programmer's Perspective https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspective-3rd/dp/013409266X https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Systems-Programmers-Perspect... Or, any discrete math book because it will take me a lifetime to understand it. If I choose an OS book, my life will be short indeed.
- fm2606 4y agoThis is a great book that we used in Comp Sys 1 and 2. I had every intention of reading it after class / graduating but I have yet to do it.
- pengo 4y ago"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens, unless I can get Anthony Trollope's "Barsetshire Chronicles" accepted as a single book.
- BlasDeLezo 4y agoDon Quijote de la Mancha
- maestre 4y ago
- dedalus 4y ago"Autobiography of a Yogi" by Paramahamsa Yogananda as its a book thats on one level about a chockful of miracles in India and weird bugs about reality (like what you see if not what you get) but on a deeper level about reality in the way that steve jobs felt compelled to hand it as his parting gift at his funeral
- itisit 4y agoThat was not my takeaway at all. It was mostly about a delusional, albeit charming charlatan. A testament to the power of one's conviction in crafting an identity and a sense of self.
- electricant 4y agoNeuromancer by William Gibson
- plaguepilled 4y agoUnderrated pick
- doopy1 4y agoCame here to say this. For me this is already that book... 5x + counting.
- hulitu 4y agoGeorge Orwell - 1984. It talks about the present.
- scruple 4y agoEast of Eden by John Steinbeck. My favorite piece of literature. I re-read it every few years.
- supersrdjan 4y agoI had read it only once but since then I frequently recall episodes from it more so than from any other novel I read
- MollyRealized 4y agoI think I'd pick The Wounded Sky, by Diane Duane. It's a Trek novel in which (ROT13 to spoiler-warning a decades-old novel): onfvpnyyl gur Ragrecevfr perj urycf grfg n arj zrnaf bs cebchyfvba, evcf gur Havirefr, naq va qbvat fb zrrgf n Tbq (abg Fgne Gerx I'f Tbq!) va n arj lrg-gb-or-obea cebgb-Havirefr, juvpu gurl gura uryc sbhaq vg jvgu gurve zbfg cerpvbhf zrzbevrf. Honestly, there's so much to explore in the very concepts that she lays down that it leaves room for an intense amount of imagination and application.
- elkos 4y agoDiane Duane has written some of my favorite Star Ttek novels
- koots 4y agoQuran
- romesmoke 4y agoKierkegaard's The Sickness Unto Death. In many books I have tried to find answers and failed. TSUD stresses the importance of who is asking the questions.
- faragon 4y agoTime Enough for Love (Heinlein)
- monty908 4y agoJurassic Park - Michael Crichton The movie cut out a lot. The book is awesome. Read it 5 times already and I might repeat it again soon.
- tailspin2019 4y agoIt’s much lesser known, but I also really enjoyed Airframe, by the same author.
- ffguuficc 4y agoThe biggest thing I remember from the book is the old guy kept falling asleep constantly! Obviously still a great book but that part annoyed me.
- imissmymind 4y agoThe Blue Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver. I read it at least once a year and live my life by it. There was no book that better described living in the digital world vs the physical world when I was growing up programming and living in muds. Every thing and every relationship in the physical world is a game that can played successfully with the right character
- supportengineer 4y agoCryponomicon by Neal Stephenson
- rramadass 4y agoThe Sherlock Holmes Canon. The language phrasings, creation of a masterful personality, focus on clever logical deductions, varied story lines are all combined harmoniously to take the reader on a truly enjoyable read.
- qwertyuiop_ 4y agoBible
- imakwana 4y agoThe Prophet by Khalil Gibran
- ebb_earl_co 4y agoSam Harris’ Waking Up. I’m sure that some of the neuroscience in it will become outdated, but its effect on my worldview and life trajectory can’t be understated. Perhaps this is apocryphal, but when Richard Feynman was asked what one sentence would contain the most information to bootstrap science after apocalypse, he said “everything is made of atoms”. Sam Harris parallels this with his one sentence for spiritual practice: “you are not this next thought”. Being reminded of this annually by way of the excellent exposition of Waking Up seems to be the right move for me.
- imartin2k 4y agoHave you tried “I Am That” by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj? That would probably be my choice, but it’s very related (Harris praises it too). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_That https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_That
- andrei_says_ 4y agoThis is the book I came to recommend. It is different from almost anything else I've read in its causing an immediate shift of awareness which is beyond the intellectual / thinking process. It consists of conversations which modify being and a different state of being changes everything, instantaneously. This is my book - I open it almost every day. Not a story to re-read but a state of being to dissolve into.
- tmpfs 4y agoThe Prophet by Kahil Gibran
- tchock23 4y agoThe Conquest of Happiness by Bertrand Russell. Just good reflections on happiness and life. Reminds me I need to read it again.
- 1sembiyan 4y agoI am not sure which book I will re-read for the rest of my life, but these past few years I have read multiple times chapters from How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen and Reflections on Silver River by Ken McLeod.
- ss48 4y agoThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - One of the most vividly written books I read. The style of writing made me feel like I was in its world as the story was playing out.
- Myrmornis 4y agoThe Princeton Companion to Mathematics maybe.
- decasteve 4y agoThat would be a hard one. A book of appetizers without a main course. I read it when I was an undergrad wanting to get a broad sense of different areas in Math I could pursue. If I had to pick one math book it would have to be a classic with some depth to it: Euclid’s Elements, Newton’s Principia, or Gauss’ Disquisitiones.
- Myrmornis 4y agoYes, perhaps you're right! It could be frustrating, either because it doesn't give you enough to understand the introduction to an area, or because it doesn't give you any depth. I think it would be a bad mistake not to take a maths book with exercises and solutions to ones desert island.
- shrubble 4y agoIs it acceptable to have the trilogy (despite different authors) of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid? Not having read the Aeneid until much later than my 20s , I was surprised that this great work has been put to the side as I see it.
- 8bitsrule 4y agoWhen I was a bookworm, there are a couple of topics that continually interested me as the result of a single book. But then, after a couple reads, I tended to read others in the same arena. Not just for the novelty, but the different perspective. But that was 'then', when words seemed to matter. And this is the same Now, only different, and Life is the book. Every day a new chapter. ;-)
- jayturley 4y agoThe Deed of Paksenarrion by Elisabeth Moon.
- throwaway6734 4y agoThe Count of Monte Cristo
- Ken_At_EM 4y agoSlaughterhouse-Five
- ethics13 4y agoAnd so it goes...
- plaguepilled 4y agoQuantum Field Theory by Peskin and Schroeder. There are many things in that book I could make into a standalone project that could occupy years at a time. Some other picks: The Man in The High Castle by Phil K. Dick. The Plague or The Outsider by Albert Camus. City of Thieves by David Benioff.
- wnkrshm 4y agoI wonder whether The Myth of Sysiphus wouldn't be more apt for something like that. But I'd pick an academic text too, though I'm not sure which one. There are many textbooks outside of my expertise that could be just as interesting as more physics or mathematics, e.g. ship/boat construction. Edit: For a fiction book I would probably pick Fiasco by Stanislav Lem, it contains some parables and allergories that are interesting to think about.
- jra_samba 4y agoLord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Something about this book speaks to me. It's a wonderful examination of how the human condition never changes in a world of magic, wonders and terrors beyond imagination.
- lawgimenez 4y agoAnimal Farm
- ararar 4y agoDon Quixote de la Mancha - M. de Cervantes Saavedra A hundred years of Solitude - G. G. Márquez Foucault's Pendulum - U. Eco Cryptonomicon - N. Stephenson The Dispossessed - U. K. Le Guin
- decasteve 4y ago4 of those 5 books are some of my all-time favourites. Ones that I enjoy rereading but I’d be hard pressed to pick just one.
- johnthescott 4y ago"finite and infinite games" by james carse
- AdamJacobMuller 4y agoIf I must pick one without knowing why, I would likely pick Ark by Stephen Baxter. The story is hard sci-fi and is, very broadly, about a multigenerational spaceship which travels across the stars following a planet-scale catastrophe. The writing and the world building are amazing and i've already read it probably a dozen times. I vaguely suspect if I can only have one book forever, some shit has gone down and I'd want a book like this. Ark is actually the 2nd book in an unfinished trilogy, Flood precedes it and is a really great read. Baxter's NASA Trilogy (Voyage/Titan/Moonseed) also deals with similarly isolated individuals and is a great read, though the ending is... trippy. The Sky So Big and Black is also a book I can infinitely re-read. There's a pervasive sadness to the book which I enjoy. It's the fourth book in a quadriligoy but the first four are neither required nor are they as good as the final installment. I'll also throw out Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. It's a great read and depicts another scenario where shit has gone down and perhaps you're left with one book. The book talks about the tragedy of what would happen after the fall of civilization but also talks about (despite loss) people could be happier with a slower simpler life, which is deeply ironic considering it was published in 1959.
- leobg 4y agoSecond Alas, Babylon! And, in a similar vein, Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart. I’ve read that one about five times. It’s also about an end-of-civilization scenario. And something about it is strangely grounding and life-affirming.
- mikewarot 4y agoI could read the 1632 series by Eric Flint over and over... I have. One single book isn't enough... there has to be some variety.
- blockwriter 4y agoIn the sense of a piece of writing that was meant to be a book, Ulysses. Otherwise, the collected works of Shakespeare.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dunefox 4y agoDune 1-6, it's that good. I really need to read it again soon.
- muzani 4y agoQur'an. As my Arabic is poor, I'd pick the Tafsir al-Jalalayn in Indonesian. The English translation often miss out most of the good stuff. Religious books are a bit cliche, but here's my reasoning. 1. Information density The reverse Blinkist effect - summaries of the book end up longer than the book itself. You read the book once, find it nice. Then you read someone else's understanding of it. Compare notes, and find a lot of depth that you overlooked. It's the kind of book which you can discuss one verse over a whole hour. A lot of the scholars often have a favorite verse or chapter. Mine would be the first 3 verses of Al-Humazah: Don't speak with the intent of harming people directly. Don't speak with the intent of harming people indirectly. Don't count wealth with the purpose of making yourself immortal. These are very difficult things to do in this era of social media. But it's compact - it fits into a whole English sentence, and makes for a good mantra. When I slip (and it's tempting to insult strangers on the internet!) I can use these verses to remind myself. 2. Motivation/Inspiration/Self-Control The ideal book should elevate you, give you more control over yourself and your surroundings, and turn you into a better person. Some draw inspiration from religion, but why not just pick a religious book. I love Robert Greene's books because of how clever and practical they are, but they can be a little toxic to practice. Core to the Quran is trust. Trust that things are working as planned. That doesn't mean doing nothing, you have to be patient and persevere. There's some incredible but logical feats of perseverance, such as refraining from saying hurtful words. There's stories of people who made their riches, and then go out and donate nearly all of it to the poor. And beggars. It requires a lot of willpower to suffer for your wealth and then just give it to someone apparently lazy and incompetent. Meditation may train your mindfulness muscle, but there's virtues like kindness and selflessness that need to be trained too. 3. Psychology/Philosophy, society modeling I love a lot of philosophical books but they feel a little incomplete. You learn from it. But can you really apply it and get better at it? What of it? I sat for a whole night pondering the Quran's An-Nazi'at 79:18-24. This is something anyone speed reading (or reciting) will gloss over, and it's not apparent in most English translations too. Instead of asking Pharaoh to repent, Moses asks whether he's looking for a mentor to purify/cleanse himself. The teacher comes to the ready student, but the student must first open their heart. Then Pharaoh calls his retinue of yes-men, which symbolises that he refuses to be ready. It was at a time when I was stuck on something, and could not find a suitable mentor, and then realized that I was just being stubborn. 4. Entertainment There's what I call active entertainment. Like you don't just watch a Marvel film, you end up searching/documenting/modeling the world in some way. Passive entertainment is okay, but shallow. The part I enjoy about reading the Qur'an is that it's all interlinked and ties back into reality. I know if I spend time on it, I find something, and so there's a lot of entertainment value in spending lots of time digging into it slowly. For the last 6 months, I've been analyzing the second chapter of the Qur'an (al-Baqarah) and my notes for that one chapter are about 3000 words long. I have 500 words of notes on An-Nazi'at and it's only 46 verses long. The more I work on one part, the more meaning I can find when working on another part. By comparison, my notes on a book like Deep Work is about 3750 words. Aristotle's Poetics is the only other book I combed through sentence by sentence, and it's under 2000 words. Considering this, I think it's a good pick if I really just wanted one book.
- d13 4y agoThe Collected Works of Shakespeare. There’s nothing else that even comes close.
- jesterson 4y agoTao Te Ching. Keeps me in balance, probably had reread it countless times.
- mikelevins 4y agoI stumbled across it when I was about twelve and made a habit of reading it fairly frequently for the following fifteen years or so. In my mid twenties I was in a graduate psychology program at a Buddhist college and one of my instructors was a Chinese Buddhist nun. She said that she knew of the Tao Te Ching, but had not read it, so I brought her a copy with the text in Chinese, as well as in English translation. On a subsequent day of the class she took a little time to comment on it. She said it was like the answers in the back of a mathematics textbook: the answers were correct, of course, but they weren't useful unless you first did the work needed to correctly understand the corresponding questions. There was one other occasion when making a gift of that book to someone elicited a memorable response: when I was in high school my neighbor from India had a baby, and her father, a philosophy professor from Delhi, came to stay for a few months. A friend of mine and I struck up a friendship with him. On one visit we gave him a copy of the Tao Te Ching, which he had not read before. He responded by giving me a beautiful copy of the Rig Veda, and giving my friend a sitar.
- jesterson 4y agoQuite interesting, thank you for sharing it. > the answers were correct, of course, but they weren't useful unless you first did the work needed to correctly understand the corresponding questions. That's a beautiful way to put it. Actually explains why some people find the books useless - they just didn't experience questions at the stage of their lives.
- ImageXav 4y agoI would have to say Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy. A short book, it covers the limits of knowledge and how to think about the world. Every time I read it I discover something new, and it would be a good companion guide through life if I could read nothing else.
- mif 4y ago„Be not content - A subterranean journal“ is pretty eternal for me. So is „On the road“. Or take „Middlesex“. Why, they tell the story about a different life. If you want to spend the rest of your life miserable then „Im Westen nichts Neues“ (All quiet on the western front). Love those Ask HN lists, btw!!
- 42e6e8c8-f7b8-4 4y agoWorks of GK Chesterton.
- M_bara 4y agoPandoras star by Peter f Hamilton. This along with pushing ice and the culture series opened a new vast world for me. Will keep rereading them every few years
- astoilkov 4y agoThinking Fast and Slow This book changed my life. It's content is based on an entire life of research. I think I will learn new things every time I read it. I like this question because I started re-reading a few books already. I find it valuable as I already know they are good and I can extract more from them the second/third/forth time.
- snickersnee11 4y agohttps://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-underpowered-studies-nobel-prize-winner-admits-mistakes/ https://retractionwatch.com/2017/02/20/placed-much-faith-und...
- astoilkov 4y agoI've read the article. I remember when something similar happened with Why We Sleep. I'll take the time to readjust my views. Thank you.
- kpozin 4y agoNote that this concerns the studies cited in just one chapter (of 38 total) in Thinking, Fast and Slow. The chapter is about implicit priming.
- thinkpad13 4y agoits on my reading list queue any words or gist about the book maybe so that I could put it on my next read?
- astoilkov 4y agoI would recommend going through the most popular quotes on Goodreads — https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16402639 https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/16402639. You also read the reviews of other people. Both of these things can give a good sense if that book is for you.
- passedandfuture 4y agoBook of Mormon because it is both a collection of ancient records and inspired religious text. Sometimes reading it is like having a conversation with Christ Himself. Amazing book.
- ravoori 4y agoNeal Stephenson's Anathem
- kakistokrat 4y agoseconded!
- buriburi 4y agoThe Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer.
- noir_lord 4y agoHogfather by Sir Terry Pratchett. I read it a couple of days before Christmas every year without fail and have since it came out. I absolutely adore the discworld (Pratchett's books shaped me as a child - I wouldn't be the person I am now nor have had the career I do without him). > “The senior wizards of Unseen University stood and looked at the door. > There was no doubt that whoever had shut it wanted it to stay shut. Dozens of nails secured it to the door frame. Planks had been nailed right across. And finally it had, up until this morning, been hidden by a bookcase that had been put in front of it. > 'And there's the sign, Ridcully,' said the Dean. 'You have read it, I assume. You know? The sign which says "Do not, under any circumstances, open this door"?' > 'Of course I've read it,' said Ridcully. 'Why d'yer think I want it opened?' > 'Er ... why?' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes. > 'To see why they wanted it shut, of course.' > This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization. At least, those bits of it that are now under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.”
- jrjarrett 4y agoSnow Crash. I love the opening sequence with the Pizzanator. Also, the description of the Metaverse was a great concept. I’ve worn out one copy so far from reading it so much.
- JonChesterfield 4y agoExcession. Iain Banks. The culture series explores a universe where machine intelligence has obsoleted mankind, mostly through the perspective of individual people interacting with earlier stage societies. Excession explores that higher intelligence interacting with a power they cannot comprehend. I read that each vacation as a reminder of where I want tech to end up.
- Kenneth39 4y agoRegardless of taste preferences, it seems most logical to take with you some massive franchise. At least because there is more action, more characters, and therefore more room for thought. But as for me, I would prefer Erich Maria Remarque's Three Comrades. It's simple, it's short, but it has so much life in it.
- pramit 4y agoBlood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. For the language and the story. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. For the language and the story.
- bknight1983 4y agoDon’t Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson. Very centering and good way to lead life. That or Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
- high_byte 4y agoThe Last Lecture, Randy Pausch
- Hiddleston 4y agoPride and Prejudice. Just love Mr.Darcy.
- logicalmonster 4y agoFor fiction: it's a hard tossup between Snow Crash and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, though Ender's Game, The Bicentennial Man, Rendezvous with Rama series, and Atlas Shrugged also would be contenders for me. For nonfiction: some current contenders would be Democracy: The God that Failed, The Physics of Immortality (very thought-provoking and mind-bending), and some of Robert Green's books particularly The 48 Laws of Power.
- rmhitchens 4y agoNeal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon. Something about this book, jumping between eras, keeps me interested each time I jump into it.
- kurupt213 4y agoProbably the Iliad or the Aeneid. They are the foundation of the classical education and fundamental to understanding much our past
- zeno08 4y agoTime Enough for Love -- Robert Heinlein Google Lazarus Long quotes.