Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. Great for entertainment as well as enlightenment.
Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
41–50 of 199 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#42Plato: Complete Works
Are anthologies cheating?
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#43James Clavell's Shogun: The contrast between the Japanese and European cultures in 1600 are delicious, the characters and plot both well developed. I've read it at least a dozen times over four decades. As I age, I find I experience it very differently.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#44it's a quadrilogy, not a book, but I'd pick Ada Palmer's _Terra Ignota_ series without hesitation. I'm comfortable arguing for it fitting within the constraint of the question, largely because it is making one sustained argument that's carried out throughout the entire series -- it's very much one book that happens to be like 4000 pages long rather than four separate books. Anyway, Ada Palmer is a sci-fi writer whose…
> it's very much one book that happens to be like 4000 pages long rather than four separate books.
It's a good way to approach it. Because otherwise part two and so on feel "more of the same", and you may be a bit let down (like me) hoping there would be "new schtick" in the new books
> The fandom is teensy tiny
Count me squarely in that fandom.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#45Count of Monte Cristo
I was going to say this – though I've only read it once, I'll certainly read it again. Loved how much it immersed you in the world. Recently I enjoyed Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr for similar reasons, if you're looking for recommendations!
You might also enjoy The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#46The Baroque Cycle - Neal Stephenson. Newton, Leibnitz, the birth of the Royal Society - and pirates!
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#47House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodges. Very atmospheric horror
I read to read Lord of the Rings every year but I pretty much got to memorise the whole thing and it became a drag
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#48Essays by Montaigne. The best way I can describe Montaigne is it’s like talking to a brilliant, compassionate best friend.
One of Nietzsche’s favorites also. I think he even said it on much the same way you did.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#49Bhagavad Gita and Nine Upnishads
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#50Tough choices ..
Moby Dick has so much to offer .. Gulliver's Travels ... Tristam Shandy ... Essays by Montaigne.. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ....
Probably the collected works of Shaw? Things with dialogue feel freah every time you read them.