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Ask HN: if you could only read one book, which would it be?

7 points by keiferski ↗ HN
Pre-modern age, reading was a very narrow, deep activity. Books were rare, and a lucky person owned one, maybe two. These days, information is cheap, and most people only read a book once. I personally have a Kindle with hundreds of books on it, most of which I won't read again.

So, if you had to pick one book to read hundreds of times, to know word-for-word from front-to-back, what would it be?

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[dead] SparrowOS
Do you know what wisdom is? A good book you can glean wisdom from. Do you know what "glean" means? It's when a field has been harvested and you go back and harvest again. Do you suppose there are ANY books worth reading 5 times? Seriously?

The Bible is like 66 books. You could torment a believer by making him pick one.

God says...

heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

3:14 Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

3:15 And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; 3:16 As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

3:17 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

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Left behind was not a very deep meditation. It seemed pretty worldly, but harmless, I guess. On the other hand, Old Testament had battles. God is immutable. Left behind is no worse than Sampson.

[dead] bluestix
John C. Lilly: Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer

All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are programmed biocomputers.None of us can escape our own nature as programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less.

Despite the great varieties of programs available, most of us have a limited set of programs. Some of these are built in. In the simpler forms of life the programs were mostly built in from genetic codes to fully formed adultly reproducing organisms. The patterns of function, of action reaction were determined by necessities of survival, of adaptation to slow environmental changes and of passing on the code to descendants.

http://www.shroomery.org/11839/Programming-and-metaprogrammi...