Ask HN: Which book have you re-read the most times? how many times?

That's a reminder I've not read that for a couple of years. I should have included it on my list - that and The Tombs.

It's amazing to repeatedly read books to children - and see how quickly they pick up the rhythm, words and story.

HHGTTG 42 times

The Tawny Man Trilogy by Robin Hobb, which I've re-read almost yearly for over a decade. It builds on top of The Farseer Trilogy, but (while it's good) I haven't re-read that trilogy nearly as many times.

From a story standpoint, it's your typical fantasy fiction stuff and not all that unique. But her writing style fascinates me: she leverages stream of consciousness[1] as a primary literary device, and perception and perspective are major components of her plots.

Her books triggered a subtle yet lasting shift in the way I think and communicate, which has directly and positively impacted countless aspects of my life. It caused me to take my introspective nature and apply the same mental framework to other people's thought processes, drastically ratcheting up my ability to be empathetic, spot and resolve assumptions & points of miscommunication between people, and fluidly transition between completely disparate communication styles to address widely different perspectives/concerns on things.

All because she used perspective, perception in a way that has forever-since caused me to be cognizant of and suspicious of implicit assumptions and ambiguity everywhere.

[1] http://literary-devices.com/content/stream-consciousness

"Sapiens", three times.