The premise is simple: list books that are so rich in content that each time you re-read them, they elicit new insights.
illuminatus, who started the whole thing for me.
though i haven't read them in some time, quantum psychology and prometheus' rising, for continuing illuminatus' work with my mind.
yoga vasishta - this book is amazing, not many things like it, def a must read.
nisargadatta maharaj's "i am that" - also amazing, you should google for it, it's available online.
the bhagavad gita.
ashtavakra gita.
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
The Prince of Nothing Trilogy by R. Scott Bakker (imagine the first Crusade, but with a single supergenius psyop warrior who takes over the whole thing)
Gospel of Thomas.
Quote from: East Coast Hustle on October 18, 2008, 08:47:38 PM
One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
Ditto.
Quote from: Requiem on October 19, 2008, 02:28:46 AM
Gospel of Thomas.
Ditto.
Tao Te Ching, especially the translation by Stephen Mitchell
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, A Collection of Zen & Pre-Zen Writings, compiled by Paul Reps
off the top o' my head but many more, often re-read stuff, often sends me off to new places
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy"
Quote from: Iason Ouabache on October 19, 2008, 02:34:08 PM
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy"
Ditto those too!
This is a really tough question.
I used to read "Steppenwolf" once a year, to see the different ways I reacted to it as I greww older. But I stopped doing that. Maybe I should start again.
I suppose any text that can hold multiple meanings might have to be intentionally vague, like the Tao Te Ching -- you'd hope that something like a physics textbook would convey the same message regardless of when or how you read it.
Ultimately though, I think that it's not so much the book as much as it is the reader. Just like you can't step into the same river twice, you can't read a book twice with the same frame of mind.
For example, it had been 10 years between my two readings of "Godel, Escher, Bach" and the different ways I experienced the book was profound. But even more frivolous works, like The Sandman series, changed when I re-read them, because I had some idea of how everything would end up.
But for the greatest amount of multiple information storage, I suppose poetry would have to rank pretty high -- TS Eliot, Ginsburg, Ezra Pound.
For Madmen Only
Have read Steppenwolf several times but not recently. Then, I was reading 1 of Anne Rice's novels, dunno remember which 1? & a part in it, except for that it was in Paris reminded me of The Magic Theater in Steppenwolf. I really liked the guy in Steppenwolf. Maybe I need to read that 1 again?
My books:
Sun Tzu, Art of War
Machiavelli, The Prince, and Discourses on Livy
Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Nietzsche, The Will to Power
Chris Frith, Making up The Mind
I'll add more when I look through my bookcase later.
Quote from: Cain on October 21, 2008, 03:01:32 PM
My books:
Sun Tzu, Art of War
Machiavelli, The Prince, and Discourses on Livy
Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Nietzsche, The Will to Power
Chris Frith, Making up The Mind
I'll add more when I look through my bookcase later.
I'd also recommend
The Book of Five Rings. I know nothing about swordfighting (other than a smattering of fencing,) but his approach to combat (and life) is very interesting.
Quote from: Cain on October 21, 2008, 03:01:32 PM
My books:
Sun Tzu, Art of War
Machiavelli, The Prince, and Discourses on Livy
Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Nietzsche, The Will to Power
Chris Frith, Making up The Mind
I'll add more when I look through my bookcase later.
Hi there Cain,
Out of your list I've only read Machiavelli,
The Prince (twice if I recall but long ago).
I appreciate your insights into things (understatement) & I bought & read Naomi Klein's
The Shock Doctrine, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism on your advice (maybe the best $10 I ever spent!)
Can you recommend another from your list or another? Thanks. Much respect.
Oh & I tend to read all of an author (novels too) when I like them. Like Tom Robbins fr'instance. I think I've read all of his more than once. This from
Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins (Amanda to the agent)
QuoteYou risked your life, but what else have you ever risked? Have you ever risked disapproval? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous in risking one's life. So you lose it, you go to your hero's heaven and everything is milk & honey 'til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That's not courage. Real courage is risking something you have to keep on living with, real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one's cliches.
& this 1 from
Still Life With Woodpecker QuoteOn her small canvas, she recreated a section of the Crazy Mountains, the range near Livingston that they had admired earlier that day; that is to say, she recreated the mountains not as she had originally seen them but as she eventually chose to see them, for a person has not only perceptions but a will to perceive, not only a capacity to observe the world but a capacity to alter his or her observation of it - which, in the end, is the capacity to alter the world, itself. Those people who recognize that imagination is reality's master, we call "sages," and those who act upon it, we call "artists." Or "lunatics."
Hmmm....in terms of useful and contemporary books, I would probably suggest War in Human Civilization by Azar Gat. Its an anthropological, biological and historical investigation of war.
Thanks! :)
I re-read "The Tao is Silent" and "5000 B.C. and Other Philosophical Fantasies" by Raymond Smullyan every year. Every year they teach me something new. If nothing else, Google Smullyan's essay entitled "Is God a Taoist?" It's one of his most searching essays.
Other "quantum" books/poems:
"Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens.
"Ulysses" by James Joyce (but dear goddess, is it dense).
"Walden" by Thoreau.
"The Immense Journey," by Loren Eisley.
And if you want a way to take a step back and do a self-mindfuck/revel at the lower limits of human intelligence, pick up a copy of "Chariots of the Gods?" by Erich von Daniken (sp?). Always a good read, if only as a reminder of the shaky foundations of quasi-science.
hm i haven't read many books multiple times, but yeah i did read THHGTTG about 7 or 8 times (didnt keep count), wanted to call it, but i think it stopped giving me insights about the third time through :) (rereadings 4 through 8 were just for the lulz, apparently)
Honey, I highly enjoyed Siddharta, so that sounds like a good reason to read it again (hey, perhaps in the original German this time, there's a good chance my gf has it)
Wait no, I already borrowed THHGTTG in German for re-reading (aloud, to her), I haven't even yet gotten to the bit where the earth blows up though :) :)
I definitely got some better insights reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the second time.
I read The Neverending Story thrice as a kid. But if it had given me insights, I guess I'd have picked up on the "Do what thou wilt" inscription on the amulet, right? :)
oh, and the Mystical Qabalah definitely got more insights the second time i started in it, but i still haven't been able to finish it.
Quote from: Triple Zero on November 01, 2008, 11:25:22 PM
hm i haven't read many books multiple times, but yeah i did read THHGTTG about 7 or 8 times (didnt keep count), wanted to call it, but i think it stopped giving me insights about the third time through :) (rereadings 4 through 8 were just for the lulz, apparently)
Honey, I highly enjoyed Siddharta, so that sounds like a good reason to read it again (hey, perhaps in the original German this time, there's a good chance my gf has it)
Wait no, I already borrowed THHGTTG in German for re-reading (aloud, to her), I haven't even yet gotten to the bit where the earth blows up though :) :)
I definitely got some better insights reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the second time.
I read The Neverending Story thrice as a kid. But if it had given me insights, I guess I'd have picked up on the "Do what thou wilt" inscription on the amulet, right? :)
oh, and the Mystical Qabalah definitely got more insights the second time i started in it, but i still haven't been able to finish it.
I would just love to be able to read anything by Herman Hesse (others too) in the original German! I always think something gets lost in the translation of anything. Some things just don't translate. Herman Hesse's work is so rich in meaning in English, I can just imagine (barely) how much
more rich it would be in the original language. You & your gf are very lucky I am thinking!
& the guy who wrote
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (can't think of his name, last name starts with P, hhhmmm?) Well anyway, he wrote another book called
Lila which was pretty good too.
Quote from: Honey on November 02, 2008, 09:13:40 PMI would just love to be able to read anything by Herman Hesse (others too) in the original German! I always think something gets lost in the translation of anything. Some things just don't translate. Herman Hesse's work is so rich in meaning in English, I can just imagine (barely) how much more rich it would be in the original language. You & your gf are very lucky I am thinking!
weeeelllll... i really did try to read "narciss und goldmund" in German, but I think both my German isn't good enough and perhaps Hesse's writing is too archaic or colourful, that I got no further than page 6 over a few weeks.
I think I'll have more luck with the translated HHGTTG, or perhaps Siddharta (which is a bit more "light" story).
Hitchikers Guide... Quantum Psychology...
Chaung Tzu. Ive got the complete works, the guy was pretty much an ancient Discordian. Lots of cool parables. I might put up some of his stuff one day when I get off my butt (and am reading it again).
:fap:
new insights from these:
The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Shame by Salman Rushdie
1984 by George Orwell
Al-Ghazali - "The Niche of Light" & "Alchemy of Happiness"
Robert F. Williams - "Negroes with Guns" & "While God lay Sleeping"
ANYTHING by Nietzsche
ALL poetry by James Liddy
G.L. Rockwell - "This Time the World"
James Mason - "Siege"
The Havamal
Jack Spicer - What little we have , all is lovely
Kierkegaard - Again, it's all one addictive dreamy bed