Compared to code that's very regular, like say Java, Lisp might be less readable, but IMHO Lisp is in general more readable than other languages as soon as your

Compared to code that's very regular, like say Java, Lisp might be less readable, but IMHO Lisp is in general more readable than other languages as soon as your code is more than a sequence of simple non-nested assignment and method calls. Nested function calls in Java have more punctuation than nested calls in Lisp, and the Lisp ones are generally better indented and thus more readable. It doesn't help that even after 10 years, Eclipse indentation is still absolute crap (aligning method arguments, anyone?), while Emacs got it right back in 2000 (or way before).