Ask HN: What books do you want to read over again? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What books do you want to read over again?

For me "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo, "Ender's Shadow" by Orson Scott Card and the Bhagvad Gita

Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy. It's a bit biased and is rough around the edges, but it's a fun journey each time. I read it first in undergrad and pick it up again every few years.

It's a pretty long read though. I wouldn't want to put myself through it again...

Extremely biased. Only obvious when you know a philosopher well that he covers

Given that everything is biased at the very least by the nature of limited resources, in what ways would you say it’s biased? Does it present false information?

Here is basically the consensus take: "Almost all those who reviewed Russell's now famous History of Western Philosophy when it first appeared in 1945 were agreed about two things: first, that it is beautifully written, witty, clear, lucid and magisterial; and second, that it is not always accurate in its account of the thinkers it covers, nor always fair to them." [0]

The book is certainly worth reading but one should keep in mind its weak spots.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_Western_Philosoph...

To illustrate, this is one of my favorite (humorous) lines from it, in the introductory chapter: "In the Eastern Empire, Greek civilization, in a desiccated form, survived, as in a museum, till the fall of Constantinople in 1453, _but nothing of importance to the world came out of Constantinople except an artistic tradition and Justinian's Codes of Roman law._"

Fiction

- Recursion

- Red Rising (on book 2 now and I assume I'll want to re-read it)

- Ender's Game series (I've read some of them multiple times)

- The Martian (I've read multiple times)

- An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (series)

Non-ficton

- The Model Thinker (super dense, I'll need multiple re-reads)

- Chief Joy Officer

- Work Clean

- Outlive

A Very Private Gentleman by Martin Booth. While the movie "The American" is based on this book, it's vastly stylistically different and I love both equally. The book is a conversation essentially between a man with a past and a priest. It delves into the essence of what we think we are as men. But ultimately we die alone, no matter what. It sounds depressing but gave me a lot of stoic feelings without actually reading stoicism.

Been looking forward to reading it again almost a decade since reading it for the first time.

Alice in Wonderland - I read it once a year, just to remind me of how interesting imagination and paying attention in little things can be.

I'm also thinking of going back to The Plague by Albert Camus. It felt really surreal when I read it over the pandemic. Want to see how I would feel now that COVID has become an endemic disease.

Oxford publishes all of Shakespeare in a big book, which it really not expensive at all. It has very good commentary and explanations too. It's the book I'd grab as the only book before leaving this stupid planet for somewhere else. Contains everything there's to know about what the human condition of being is.

Lives of the Great Composers by Harold Schoenberg

The merry adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle

The Magicians Book #1 by Lev Grossman

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson

The Children's Hospital, by Chris Adrian. So great!

https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/the-childrens-hospital

I've also read A Prayer For Owen Meany (John Irving) more than once.

Anything my child enjoys hearing, especially poetry and stories with tight rhymes and/or rhythm. Dr. Seuss is good for that, as is Jack Prelutsky. I've checked out a bunch of poetry books from the library and we've had a lot of fun reading aloud.

"Ender's Shadow" and the mirror "Ender's Game" are some that I read once in a while too

"1984" is a big one for me.

"Lord of the Rings" as well.

If you like 1984 you should check out “Prophet Song”, this year’s Booker winner. Makes 1984 feel like a kid’s book.

Started reading this from your recommendation. Whenever I pick it up I have trouble putting it down. Thanks!

I finished it, now I have depression. But really, it was a great book. Reminded me a bit of The Shawl by Cynthia Ozick.

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse. I enjoyed reading both Steppenwolf and Narcissus and Goldmund for the second time.

Alastair Reynolds’s House of Suns (novel) and Galactic North. Incredibly fun sci fi.

I Am That by Nisargadatta Maharaj. It’s a collection of recorded conversations in QA format. I read from it on a weekly basis.

Dan Simmons' Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion

All of the 1632 series by Eric Flint, et al.

I didn't mention why... which seems to be the thing to do, sorry about that.

To prepare for writing the book, Eric Flint, the primary author, did an extensive survey and interviews with a number of people in the town of Mannington, West Virginia. In the book, he renames the town to Grantville, and "aliens" throw it (and a 6 mile diameter sphere centered on the town) backwards in time to late 1632 in the middle of Germany, from the year 2000.

The alternative history, with struggles for survival, is a great read. The series that developed taught me a lot about the things necessary to keep civilization going, in terms of supply chains and infrastructure.

I lost a few of the physical books, and I may rebuy them, once my retirement pay kicks in.

Start reading Bhagvad Gita few days back.

re-read: 1984, Animal Farm and flowers of algernon.

Technopoly.

Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Tubes.

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit that Changed the World.

+1 Technopoly and Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Neil Postman is great at pointing out the trade-off that new technologies introduce.

Antifragile, Meditations.

Bhagavad-gita 1972 Srila Prabhupada

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