Ask HN: Books worth reading multiple times? I've seen this advice in different tweets and podcast that goes like this: "It's better to read one good book multiple times than multiple books once" or "I would rather read the best 100 books over and over again until I absorb them rather than read all the books." However I fail to identify what books are worth reading over and over again. So, what books did you read more than once and are worth keep reading? |
For me, I'm constantly rereading the essays and non-fiction/philosophical writings of Hazlitt, Emerson, Chesterton, Stevenson, Santayana, William James, Collingwood. For 20+ years so far. Others, like Nietzsche, Wilde, Hilary Putnam, Dewey, I don't read so constantly but I've read some/most of their books over and over again. Wilde's Intentions, Putnam's Realism with a Human Face, Dewey's Art as Experience, for example, and almost everything of Nietzsche's, e.g. Human, All Too Human or Daybreak, I find endlessly rereadable. Chesterton, Nietzsche and Wilde are very funny too.
I reread most of the books that I enjoyed reading the first time. Reading is my hobby, I only read what I like reading. Likewise, if I don't like a book after reading the first 50 pages, I stop reading. The earlier I admit my mistake, the better.
Depends on your taste. Sounds like you haven't found something that rings that bell for you.
Personally I've read "Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut three times and each time in one sitting. Then again I've read "Fragment" from Warren Fahy 3 times too. Some people reread their holy book dozens of times. It's all very personal.
The Old Man and the Sea - Hemmingway L'Etranger - Camus The Castle / The Trial - Kafka
"finite and infinite games" by james carse.