Neal Stephenson's Anathem
Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
161–170 of 199 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#162The Riverworld series by Phillip Jose Farmer.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#163The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In the Bible, Christ said he would visit his (maybe inexact, from memory) "...other sheep, which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (In John, I think?) The Book of Mormon tells of Christ's visit to the ancient Americas, after his resurrection, where he taught them things like he taught in the Near East. I…
I thank you for your comment and sharing an interesting perspective that is far removed from my own (as someone who is not religious but knows about other parts of the Christian faith)
You're welcome. (And thanks for the kind words.)
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#164The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. In the Bible, Christ said he would visit his (maybe inexact, from memory) "...other sheep, which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." (In John, I think?) The Book of Mormon tells of Christ's visit to the ancient Americas, after his resurrection, where he taught them things like he taught in the Near East. I…
I thank you for your comment and sharing an interesting perspective that is far removed from my own (as someone who is not religious but knows about other parts of the Christian faith)
Since I am unable to reply to the other flagged/dead comments, I'll add here that the book itself (in the intro. materials and the last chapter) says how one can determine for oneself if it is, in fact, what it says it is, and receive an answer from God. Thus the question becomes not a matter to debate harshly (which has been done enough already), but one of individual knowledge and conscience. I can't prove it to someone else, but it has been satisfactorily proven to me, about which I have written elsewhere at some length.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#165Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#166The Holy Bible.
It's an incredible resource. For the believers, it is the Word. For non-believers, it has more snippets attributed to common wisdom than you'd suspect.
It's the best-selling book in history, BTW.
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#167Neal Stephenson's Anathem
seconded!
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#168Thinking Fast and Slow This book changed my life. It's content is based on an entire life of research. I think I will learn new things every time I read it. I like this question because I started re-reading a few books already. I find it valuable as I already know they are good and I can extract more from them the second/third/forth time.
its on my reading list queue
any words or gist about the book maybe so that I could put it on my next read?
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#169Hogfather by Sir Terry Pratchett.
I read it a couple of days before Christmas every year without fail and have since it came out.
I absolutely adore the discworld (Pratchett's books shaped me as a child - I wouldn't be the person I am now nor have had the career I do without him).
> “The senior wizards of Unseen University stood and looked at the door.
> There was no doubt that whoever had shut it wanted it to stay shut. Dozens of nails secured it to the door frame. Planks had been nailed right across. And finally it had, up until this morning, been hidden by a bookcase that had been put in front of it.
> 'And there's the sign, Ridcully,' said the Dean. 'You have read it, I assume. You know? The sign which says "Do not, under any circumstances, open this door"?'
> 'Of course I've read it,' said Ridcully. 'Why d'yer think I want it opened?'
> 'Er ... why?' said the Lecturer in Recent Runes.
> 'To see why they wanted it shut, of course.'
> This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization. At least, those bits of it that are now under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.”
Re: Ask HN: Which book would you pick to re-read for the rest of your life?
#170Tao Te Ching. Keeps me in balance, probably had reread it countless times.
I stumbled across it when I was about twelve and made a habit of reading it fairly frequently for the following fifteen years or so.
In my mid twenties I was in a graduate psychology program at a Buddhist college and one of my instructors was a Chinese Buddhist nun. She said that she knew of the Tao Te Ching, but had not read it, so I brought her a copy with the text in Chinese, as well as in English translation.
On a subsequent day of the class she took a little time to comment on it. She said it was like the answers in the back of a mathematics textbook: the answers were correct, of course, but they weren't useful unless you first did the work needed to correctly understand the corresponding questions.
There was one other occasion when making a gift of that book to someone elicited a memorable response: when I was in high school my neighbor from India had a baby, and her father, a philosophy professor from Delhi, came to stay for a few months. A friend of mine and I struck up a friendship with him. On one visit we gave him a copy of the Tao Te Ching, which he had not read before. He responded by giving me a beautiful copy of the Rig Veda, and giving my friend a sitar.