My current goal is to read different copies of the Bhagavad Gita. I'm on the third translation. Probably not very impressive! but a great goal for me personally.
IF I were that interested in a book,(THEN) I'd just learn the language of the original (Sanskrit for the BG) and read the original. Most translations miss many nuances.
Hey, that's a great idea! I think I'll take that on. Learning Sanskrit would be great, and reading the original BG would be so much better, you're right.
Just a heads up. Unless you have a flair for languages, you are in for a lot of pain. It will be exacerbated if you are a native English speaker with no knowledge of other Indo European languages like French or German because Sanskrit has ridiculous amounts declensions. (English, thankfully, lost those; it would have been much worse had they survived.) To add to this, the script is quite complex, more complex than Arabic but far less than Japanese (not sure how people manage to use such a complex system), but this can be somewhat ameliorated by using a transliterated text, like the ones Indologists use.
Thanks for the warning! Luckily I've already studied languages with (some) declensions like Old English, Old Norse and Icelandic, and to a lesser extent Russian and Bosnian. I used to be ravenous to learn new languages but after college and children my attention/interest/time shifted, but I think I can make time for some Sanskrit :)
Typically religious book. I am reading "Pray, Hope, Don't Worry" for the 3rd time. It's a compilation of stories of people who've met and interacted with St. Padre Pio -- one of the only few saints who bore the wound of Christ, stigmata. As I tend too focused on work, this book is a great reminder that there are much more about live than just work, work, and work...
I've re-read The Belgariad series, by David Eddings, so many times I've lost count. Easily once a year, every year, since I was in my mid-teens (I'm in my late thirties). It is most firmly in the territory of "comfort reading" for me these days.
Dune, by Frank Herbert, comes a close second. I've read that at least a dozen times or more. It took me ages to get it. My dad had a copy, and I'd tried to read it probably 4 or 5 times, never getting far. Then I watched the David Lynch movie, went back to it and just devoured the book in a couple of days. Even though the two are wildly different, something about the movie gave me that kick I needed to get me in to the book.
I'm really not one for re-reading books all that much. Most books I read once. The ones I do re-read, I've read maybe 2 or 3 times.
I remember reading "Go Dog Go" to my son, many years ago. I was getting ready to turn the page, and he started reading it before I turned it. Yes he had memorized the book.
As it turns out, this was normal for kids to do, but it also ment I needed to get some new books.
What I should have done was point to each word as he said it to emphasis the the coorlation.
I've read the classics, Dune (+sequels), Lord of the Rings, and the Amber books by Zelazny at least 20 times each over the past twenty years.
Other favourites include the Vlad Taltos novels by Brust which I've read at least ten times each (still thinking "WTF?" over Vallista though!) and Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
My tastes tend towards SciFi & Fantasy, but I have no shame about my love of romance either.
(The last set of books I read were the complete Bond novels by Ian Fleming. I don't think I'd read them again, very dated, very different to the films, and not that great.)
I've read most of Terry Pratchett's books a few times each, some more than others, along with other "comedy" writers such as Jasper Fforde, and Tom Holt (his "Portable Door" series is my favourite.)
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.
I don't re-read. But the other posts in this thread conjure up many, many good memories of awesome books. I always feel there is another classic just on the horizon. So why re-read if you can expand. Time with 3 kids and work is limited. However, the depth of the understanding and impact books I love have made on others, they do tickle me to re-read..!
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[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 141 ms ] threadEdit: downvotes? :(
IF I were that interested in a book,(THEN) I'd just learn the language of the original (Sanskrit for the BG) and read the original. Most translations miss many nuances.
Dune, by Frank Herbert, comes a close second. I've read that at least a dozen times or more. It took me ages to get it. My dad had a copy, and I'd tried to read it probably 4 or 5 times, never getting far. Then I watched the David Lynch movie, went back to it and just devoured the book in a couple of days. Even though the two are wildly different, something about the movie gave me that kick I needed to get me in to the book.
I'm really not one for re-reading books all that much. Most books I read once. The ones I do re-read, I've read maybe 2 or 3 times.
I've read the Lord of the Rings 3 - 4 times, which I feel is a lot for a pretty thick series.
Lord of the Flies: 3 - 4 reads
1984: 3 - 4 reads
A Clockwork Orange: 3 reads
Brave New World: 4 reads
I really like dystopian fiction I guess.
"Go Dog, Go!", maybe a hundred times
"HOP ON POP", maybe a hundred times
As it turns out, this was normal for kids to do, but it also ment I needed to get some new books.
What I should have done was point to each word as he said it to emphasis the the coorlation.
Other favourites include the Vlad Taltos novels by Brust which I've read at least ten times each (still thinking "WTF?" over Vallista though!) and Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos.
My tastes tend towards SciFi & Fantasy, but I have no shame about my love of romance either.
(The last set of books I read were the complete Bond novels by Ian Fleming. I don't think I'd read them again, very dated, very different to the films, and not that great.)
I've read most of Terry Pratchett's books a few times each, some more than others, along with other "comedy" writers such as Jasper Fforde, and Tom Holt (his "Portable Door" series is my favourite.)
The Dark Tower
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
Cryptonomicon a couple of times, and I’m planning on Anathem again.
* The Greatest Salesman in the World [1]
* Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture [2]
* [0] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1875763811
* [1] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1875765552
* [2] https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1875771565