Adam 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!
Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
91–100 of 111 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#92The 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.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#93Various from Isaac Asimov. Specially from the robots saga
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#94The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Read it every year from 3rd grade to 8th.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#95I'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.
Second 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.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#96I’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.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#97Good 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.
The 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".
Boom, boom, boom, etc from The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#98Stranger in a strange land - Robert Heinlein
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#99Good 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.
I started that book, got about 60% of the way through, and had to put it down. It seemed like Jocko was re-teaching the same lesson over and over again from slightly different angles. Maybe I missed something big, but that's just the way it felt to me.
I think you're missing a lot. It might seem repetitive because in almost all the stories Jocko is practicing almost all the principles at the same time, but in different chapters he definitely teaches different lessons.
Re: Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?
#100Good 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.
Extreme ownership is a great book with lots of sound advice. However, I don't find the approach flawless at all. These guys had the benefit of being leaders in an organization that is set up to rapidly show you the door if you under-perform. Furthermore, everyone that's on a SEAL team desperately wants to be there. To some extent, extreme ownership falls apart in a regular, non-combat focused military unit and also i…
Disclaimer: I have no military experience.
Your points on the lessons he mention are very valid. The particular part of the book that matched your description of "this might not work for non SEALs" was when Jocko described how he took full responsibility for a near friendly fire incident. He goes on to say that he earned a lot of respect for being the type of leader that would take accountability. He points out, IIRC, that this respect was gained from both the enlisted men and the officers.
I remember reading that passage and thinking "I've been in plenty of orgs where if someone did that, sure, the 'enlisted' aka line employees might respect that but the 'officers' aka middle managers would immediately think: 'Ah ha! Here is some noble minded fool we can dump our problems on!' "
I'm exaggerating somewhat but only to reinforce the point that I think the book is excellent and agree with you that the lessons taught don't ALWAYS apply.