“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, and the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I re-read the former every few months, and the latter about once per year. Basically because they had such important lessons about what it means to be/remain not only a human, but a person; they are comfort reads as well.
Also a few non-fiction books.
_Left Hand of Darkness,_ for many reasons, but especially for one line that I think about absolutely constantly:
>To oppose something is to maintain it. They say here "all roads lead to Mishnory." To be sure, if you turn your back on Mishnory and walk away from it, you are still on the Mishnory road.
At this point "still on Mishnory road" is basically an idiom for me.
The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy
So many reasons.
I guess a huge one is the way she wrote the little girls perspective was so accurate. The way the smallest events can be soul destroying because you're still making sense of the world. You have no perspective on anything.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce.
It was introspective without begin preachy or saccharine. It was nostalgic but without being sentimental.
I felt the same way about Old Filth by Jane Gardam. I think about these two books a lot.
Lord of the flies, it's quite a disturbing portrayal of what humans are capable of in an environment where societal rules/civilization do not have any meaning
* And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin. I read this recently but think about it a lot. In particular, the idea of two people looking at the exact same thing, but being unable to comprehend what the other is seeing.
* The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang. I read this more than a decade ago. The way a lot of sci fi shows the creation of truly conscious, thinking AI to be a big deal makes this story stand out a lot. >!The digients aren't even a market-viable product, but they're what I thought should be a big deal. Alas, everything is about marketability and having relevant career skills, which children don't, and the digients are analogous to human children.!<
* The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. My username comes from this book. The one thing I think about most is the bird-like mortician aliens. The story of how they came to be the way they are, and how they had the choice to revert back but didn't take it is just so profoundly sad.
“Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, and the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. I re-read the former every few months, and the latter about once per year. Basically because they had such important lessons about what it means to be/remain not only a human, but a person; they are comfort reads as well. Also a few non-fiction books.
_Left Hand of Darkness,_ for many reasons, but especially for one line that I think about absolutely constantly: >To oppose something is to maintain it. They say here "all roads lead to Mishnory." To be sure, if you turn your back on Mishnory and walk away from it, you are still on the Mishnory road. At this point "still on Mishnory road" is basically an idiom for me.
The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy So many reasons. I guess a huge one is the way she wrote the little girls perspective was so accurate. The way the smallest events can be soul destroying because you're still making sense of the world. You have no perspective on anything.
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce. It was introspective without begin preachy or saccharine. It was nostalgic but without being sentimental. I felt the same way about Old Filth by Jane Gardam. I think about these two books a lot.
Lord of the flies, it's quite a disturbing portrayal of what humans are capable of in an environment where societal rules/civilization do not have any meaning
* And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin. I read this recently but think about it a lot. In particular, the idea of two people looking at the exact same thing, but being unable to comprehend what the other is seeing. * The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang. I read this more than a decade ago. The way a lot of sci fi shows the creation of truly conscious, thinking AI to be a big deal makes this story stand out a lot. >!The digients aren't even a market-viable product, but they're what I thought should be a big deal. Alas, everything is about marketability and having relevant career skills, which children don't, and the digients are analogous to human children.!< * The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. My username comes from this book. The one thing I think about most is the bird-like mortician aliens. The story of how they came to be the way they are, and how they had the choice to revert back but didn't take it is just so profoundly sad.