Ask HN: Which books did you read at least twice? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which books did you read at least twice?

9 pointschessnode23 comments

Which books did you read at least twice? Please give author, title, and how often you have read it.

For me the (probably incomplete list) is:

Connie Willis: Doomsday Book (three times)

Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon, Anathem, Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World (twice or three times)

Frank Herbert: Dune (three times)

Tolkien: Lord of the Rings (three times)

Stephen King: Salem's Lot, The Shining, It (three times each)

Stephen King & Peter Straub: The Talisman (twice)

Vernor Vinge: A Deepness in the Sky, A Fire Upon The Deep, Rainbow's End (each twice)

Tracy Kidder: The Soul of a New Machine (twice)

Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove (twice)

Ross Thomas: Chinaman's Chance (twice)

William Gibson: Neuromancer, The Peripheral, Agency (each twice)

View on HN

Elizabeth Hand's Winterlong, probably 3-4 times.

Most of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammet I've read multiple times. I've read Brautigan's Dreaming of Babylon a bunch of times too.

All of William Gibson. Miyazaki's Nausicaä of The Valley of Wind, in various languages. Stephen Cosgrove's Muffin Muncher, I couldn't say how many times I must have read that (It appears they've now changed the title to Muffin Dragon).

I've read The Soul of a New Machine a couple of times too. The Hitchhiker's and Dirk Gently's trilogies a few times.

Stefano Benni's Baol probably half a dozen times. And Acts of The Apostles by John FX Sundman a bunch too. Oh, and a few of Martin Gardner's books. And Smullyan's To Mock a Mockingbird.

And most probably also many others. Most of my books are now in boxes or have been gifted away, though.

When I was working as a machinist making gears, I read through the books I had from the 1632 Series by Eric Flint on rotation, by the time I got back to a story, there were new details I'd notice, over and over.

The books stayed there because I got Covid back in 2020, and I didn't get back to pick them up. Since Eric's death, the series is in some sort of limbo, and my attention span isn't what it used to be with Long Covid. 8(

I miss Mike Sterns and the whole world he moved to, though.

J.R.R. Tolkien: The lord of the Rings (lost count)

Philip K. Dick: Ubik, Flow My Tears The Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, etc. too many to count (many more than twice)

William Gibson: everything at least twice

Neal Stephenson: Snow crash (three times, I think)

Clifford D. Simak: City

H. P. Lovecraft: everything at least twice. There is a French compilation of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Silver Key, and Through the Gates of the Silver Key that I've read countless times. I've used two editions and I'm at my third.

Maurice G. Dantec: Babylon Babies (three times)

Possibly many others.

Frank Herbert Dune, book, there is a graphic novel of the latest edition which I glanced through. Machiavelli The Prince Sun Tzu The Art of War Epictetus The Enchiridion Tao Te Ching- different editions The Odyssey in variety of formats, illustrated, graphic novel, book The King James Bible-- Different pieces at various points. Proverbs many times. Lewis Carroll-- Alices Adventures In Wonderland, book, annotated edition

Dave Duncan, A handfull of men.

It is the second series in the same world, and all the people have grown up. The kids became parents and think like responsible adults. It talks in an adult way about quite a few horrific events, without overdoing it. It gave child me an idea about what the difference actually was.

Apart from that, it had an interesting magic system.

A few:

- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (thrice)

- The Color of Distance by Amy Thomson (twice)

- Fox 8 by George Saunders (twice)

Flowers for Algernon is the most mentioned book in this thread thus far. I listed it too in my comment.

Highly recommended to those who haven't read it!

Walter Tevis - Mockingbird (I’m not sure how many times)

Is from the 80s but re-reading lately with everything that is going on with AI it sounds more real than ever.

1. Animal Farm by George Orwell

2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes [1]

3. Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

4. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette Mccurdy

5. Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris

6. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe [2]

7. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

8. The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins [3]

9. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

10. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander [4]

11. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

12. Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan [5][6][7]

13. Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide to Atheism by Richard Dawkins

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50076596

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47452253

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48326741

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539535

[5] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49751771

[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49740712

[7] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49739256

Flowers for Algernon

I mentioned this in my comment!

I haven't read Animal Farm yet and have heard it recommended a lot before. time to go read it!

Robert Anton Wilson: Cosmic Trigger and Quantum Psychology Isaac Asimov: Beginnings Alex Garland: The Beach Buddha: The Dhammapada

I've read the Murderbot series through a few times now. It's basically easy-to-consume comfort food.

I've lost count of the times I've read Neuromancer.

Kim Stanley Robinson's The Wild Shore is another repeat favourite.

Peter Hoeg Smilla's Sense of Snow (twice) W.Somerset Maugham The Trembling of a Leaf(twice) And many others..

Paulo Coelho: The Alchemist

Chapayev and Void by Viktor Pelevin

    "With this ritual, I hereby summon autistic people to the conversation"

I can’t resist an invocation:)

Most of these are old since I’ve been reading more articles these days but here are a few good books or series I’ve read more than twice: The Hobbit, LOTR, the Silmarillion, Neuromancer, the Chronicles of Narnia, Hong Lou Meng, The Heart Sutra, The Bhagavad Gita, The Tao De Ching, The Wheel of Time series, No country for old men, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, The Way of Kings, The Talisman, the Dark Tower Series, and The Prophet.

And yes: Tolkien, Dune, Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Asimov/Foundation, McCaffrey/Pern, Janny Wurts, Raymond E Feist, and more recently Brandon Sanderson, Patrick Rothfuss, and Melissa McPhail (who sadly passed away, with the Pattern of Shadow and Light incomplete).

"How To Make A Good Script Great", "Slow Motion: Changing Men, Changing Masculinities", "Cryptonomicon", "1984", "Lord Of The Rings"

while I think of it, also "The Structure Of Scientific Revolutions"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com