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Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?

#51

Post by mathieuh »

smogcutter wrote: post #33
mathieuh wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, do you have a recommendation? Currently hooked on the 40k Horus Heresy series, on book 34 and hope to have it finished early next year.

> I imagine I'm not getting the "full experience" by doing this, but even when reading big series like Malazan or the Wheel of Time I don't find I'm suddenly encountering things for the first time: the salient details seem to stick in my head. Don’t blame you with Wheel of Time, heck Jordan recycles descriptions word for word. Not parent, but for Gene Wolfe I’d recommend starting with the “Book of the New Sun” series…

The Horus Heresy is not much better than WoT in that regard: I must read "they grasped gauntlets in the manner of warriors" or some variation thereof at least ten times per book

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?

#53

Post by giantg2 »

serjester wrote: post #40
thehealthycoder wrote: post #10

I'm a big fan of rereading the same books that I found super helpful/useful, vs reading a lot Used to do the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge for multiple years, until I felt I was just padding my stats with books that weren't useful Then I saw a Naval tweet that was: "I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books.” And I adopted that strategy, which has b…

The hardest part is knowing which 100 books to reread. I'd like to think there's a period in your youth when you devour everything - even, god forbid, modern books on management. From here you move on to the classics - Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald. If a book bores you, drop it. After enough years, inevitably, you reach a point where you're ready for real literature - Dostoevsky, Proust, Molière, Kant - the gre…

"The hardest part is knowing which 100 books to reread."

Not if you're like me - my total number read is only about that many in my adult life (other than textbooks and reference books).

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?

#54

Post by giantg2 »

thismodernlife wrote: post #4

120+ books a year! I’m astonished. How do you achieve this? I struggle to read one a month. I should probably turn off WiFi. I browse indie bookshops, talk to colleagues and friends, read reviews and I’m on GoodReads. People know I like books so they buy or loan me books sometimes. I keep a list of loads of books that sound good, then chip away at it. The list is always growing so things fall off it, unread, eventual…

"I should probably turn off WiFi."

I recommend it. I schedule my router to shut down the wifi during the hours I should be sleeping. It's not so much a distraction thing as it is just a health precaution.

Re: Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?

#55

Post by Pamar »

mathieuh wrote: post #16
Pamar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity... ever read anything by Gene Wolfe?

No, do you have a recommendation? Currently hooked on the 40k Horus Heresy series, on book 34 and hope to have it finished early next year.

Try the first book from the New Sun cycle to see if you like the style. If yes, you'll have 4 more to enjoy.

If not, give Soldier of Mist a try (style is still great but more terse).

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