The Hobbit

I can’t resist an invocation:) Most of these are old since I’ve been reading more articles these days but here are a few good books or series I’ve read more than twice: The Hobbit, LOTR, the Silmarillion, Neuromancer, the Chronicles of Narnia, Hong Lou Meng, The Heart Sutra, The Bhagavad Gita, The Tao De Ching, The Wheel of Time series, No country for old men, Persuasion, Sense & Sensibility, Pride & Prejudice, The Way of Kings, The Talisman, the Dark Tower Series, and The Prophet.

Mary Renault. Fire From Heaven. I think she was ahead of the curve in recognizing that Alexander had monstrous qualities at a time when he was still seen as a kind of superhero. Tolkein. The Silmarillion. I’ve bounced off this book a dozen times over decades, despite deeply enjoying The Hobbit and LoTR. This time I discovered that the best way to read it is backwards, tracing connections to characters you already know. Stephenson. Anathem. I think I’ll skip the end next time. The first time I read it, I was confused; this time I understood exactly what was happening but I thought it was a bit pointless. Still worth it for the first 3/4 of the novel. Lots of short stories. I was expecting to like Mark Twain better, but ours is a much more earnest era, and no match for his Gilded Age cynicism. What passes for cynicism today is Twain in his sunniest mood. At any rate, I appreciate Twain, but I enjoy EM Forster, Henry James, JG Ballard, William Gibson, and lots of others I’m forgetting at the moment.

For me, some of the best books I read this year, are: - Ishmael by Daniel Quinn, I have seen many narratives on the fault at the core of current values and goals of human civilization, but never saw a laid out alternative. Whatever it might be, I like the book for attempting at presenting one. - Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, I like this book for extremely original thoughts. This books was so thin (~200 pages), yet it was grand. I also wrote a review [0]. - The Happiness Trap by Russ Hariss, was very helpful to me in sorting through some things. Very practical book. - Anathem by Neal Stephenson, one of the most original book, and probably the best one by Stephenson. Very original ideas, mind expanding. - Permutation City by Greg Egan, this book raised the standard for possibly all SciFi book that I will read in the future. Extremely original and grand ideas. - The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt, another book that lays out alternatives to what is now considered mainstream.…

Great recommendation, thanks! Unfortunately for me, they’re probably my favorite books of all time. :) Cheers!

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings both stand alone as unparalleled fantasy novels. Buy a version with no foreword or footnotes and just, immerse yourself.

I think I was about 9 when I read the Hobbit. It absolutely blew my mind, and gave me a very different sense of what was cool to my peers.

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again. Changed my life by opening my imagination and getting me off of Judy Blume.

The Hobbit - Tolkien Wizard's First Rule (Sword of Truth Book 1) - Goodkind Faith of the Fallen (Sword of Truth Book 6) - Goodkind Ender's Game - Card 1984 - Orwell I'm looking to read Asimov's Foundation series again. Maybe spend more time with Hyperion.

The Razors Edge - Somerset Maugham Siddhartha - Herman Hesse The Hobbit - Tolkien

Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - 3 or 4, including very recently. The latest time I appreciated his background as a writer and the stories behind the story much more. They’re worth a reread as adults. On the business side I read Deming’s Out of the Crisis several times. The ideas are profound but the writing is mediocre so it took a few times for it to stick.

I went through what I suspect is a common experience in that I had The Hobbit read to me at school at about 8, then read LOTR to get more hobbits. Even though the vocabulary was far too difficult for me, the experience of getting through a 1000 page book at that age, gave a massive boost to my reading and writing ability.

Travels - Michael Crichton, got me into travelling, the outdoors and an interest in inner travel The hobbit - came with the adventure game that my aunty had on her c64 got me into computers and reading aged about 7 Fear - Thich nhat hahn, read repeatably during recent hard times. Might need to re-read again soon...

The Bible, Hobbit, LOTR series, Narnia, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Papa Hemingway, these are all books that I’ve had to buy multiple times because they fall apart over the years. Never realized until just now how many comfort books I have...

I re-read 'The Hobbit', which made me marvel again at such a delightful, thoughtful story, the world and characters that Tolkien wrought, and the morals of self-discovery and self-sacrifice... and sad for what the movie(s) could have been instead of what they were.

I've read, at the behest of my spouse, The Hobbit and the trilogy of the Lord of the Rings. As someone who was never really "into" the whole world Tolkien had created, I must say I was won over by the end. Who wouldn't want to be a hobbit? At least, a hobbit who is not Frodo. Every year or two I give a light reading to Andy Hertzfeld's compilation "Revolution in the Valley", which is a print edition of many (and probably some extras) of the stories available on www.folklore.org I am also midway through "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" (Robert M. Pirsig) and I must recommend it. It's got a lot of philosophy in it that I think is both accessible and transcendent all at once. It's actively changing my world view. In terms of skills acquired, I don't typically read for that purpose. I learn skills primarily by active work, not passive ingestion of information.

Hobbit. I was young then. No book after that came close.

Hard to say... had you asked me this question 15 years ago, I would have answered without hesitation, The Hobbit and Ender's Game. Today, it's a bit less clear, but here is what comes to mind. Rendezvous with Rama - Arthur C. Clarke Worthing Saga - Orson Scott Card

* Anything by Cortázar. * Trainspotting, * Fight Club * Anything by Carl Sagan, specially Contact * Lord of the Rings * The Hobbit * And finally: Anything by Michael Ende: The Neverending Story, Momo (one of my faves).

I quite liked the following 1) Angelmaker 2) Gone away world 3) The Hobbit 4) Fables the comic seriers Non fiction 1) Steve Jobs 2) Thinking fast and slow Have a look http://blog.kaipakartik.com for the books I enjoyed reading

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching The translations vary greatly. (from making it sound like new age mumbo jumbo, to mystic mumbo jumbo, to a profound philosophy), need to find one that's right for you. "The C Programming Language" by K&R (I read this very young 12-13, it's life changing aspects probably had a lot to do with my age) "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien "Welcome to the Monkey House" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The Hobbit, I, Robot

Fiction: - The Time Machine (still holds up very well, and seems strangely eerie and prescient in places)... (H. G. Wells) - Dune (Frank Herbert) - The Hobbit (and LotR) (Tolkien) - Neuromancer (William Gibson) - Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties (I picked up Idoru first, so I haven't yet read Virtual Light) (also Gibson) - The Difference Engine (Gibson, Sterling) - Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson) - Cryptonomicon (" ") - Circuit of Heaven, End of Days (Dennis Danvers) - All of the "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" stories and novels. (Fritz Leiber) - The Earthsea trilogy (Ursula K. LeGuin) - 'salem's Lot (Stephen King) - Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein) - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Twain) - the Coldfire trilogy (C. S. Friedman) - various Cory Doctorow short stories - Kamikaze L'Amour (Richard Kadrey) - Lightpaths (Howard V. Hendrix) - A Canticle For Leibowitz (Walter M. Miller, Jr.) - Moonwar, Venus (Ben Bova) - the Stainless Steel Rat series (Harry Harrison) - Treasure Island (Robert Louis Stevenson) - Ringworld (Larry Niven) - Cthon (Piers Anthony) -- Trippiness level approaching Philip Jose Farmer ;-) - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (Douglas Adams)…