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A comment on Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read? by serjester on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @08:21PM (#25368288)
The hardest part is knowing which 100 books to reread.

I'd like to think there's a period in your youth when you devour everything - even, god forbid, modern books on management. From here you move on to the classics - Dickens, Twain, Tolstoy, Fitzgerald. If a book bores you, drop it. After enough years, inevitably, you reach a point where you're ready for real literature - Dostoevsky, Proust, Molière, Kant - the greats.

Some books can't be summarized (poetry and real literature), some can be compressed to about ten pages and the majority to 0 pages.

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Re:Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read? by thehealthycoder on Wednesday December 09, 2020 @09:56PM (#25369086)
Totally agree, feel like it comes down to an exploration vs exploitation optimization.

Don't have an answer unfortunately, still looking for one myself!

I do agree with the method you describe: taking the recommendations of others, and then later navigating toward what you feel is best for yourself

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Re:Ask HN: How do you decide what books to read? by giantg2 on Friday December 11, 2020 @09:26PM (#25394749)
"The hardest part is knowing which 100 books to reread."

Not if you're like me - my total number read is only about that many in my adult life (other than textbooks and reference books).

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