The Martian, by Andy Weir

That being said, why are you using camelcase with “re-read”? That’s what the hyphen is for.

Les Misérables is easily the best book I’ve ever read in my entire life. A few years ago I read a shorthened version of it and even then I was fascinated by it. I finished reading the full text two months ago and oh my fucking god this book is the best thing ever written.

I’m Turkish so I read the Turkish translation (will read the full text in English and French when I learn it) and on the back of it, it says something along these lines:

“… Les Misérables is the third and the most majestic collumn of the author’s novel trilogy that tells of the society…”

And I completely agree with that. This book is simply timeless. The characters, situations, unjustice, inequalities, all the suffering in it could be applied to any society. This book is real.

The messages that it sends are solutions to topics that seemingly anybody with a functioning brain should be capable of thinking and realizing. And yet, these solutions are ignored and refused because of greed, revenge, bloodlust and most important of all, ignorance.

The main character of the book, Jean Valjean is the embodiment of redemption. His entire arc teaches us how to treat criminals. Some countries today are taking these lessons and applying them. The lessons being; treat them as human, rehabilitate them. The result? They actually do heal and return to society as normal human beings.

And yet you see people against this practice. Those kinds of people are blinded by bloodlust and revenge. They are the same kind of people that were racist, sexist and much more back in the day. The arguments that these people bring don’t hold up either. The most common one I see (at least from my perspective) is this:

“You wouldn’t react this way if they hurt one of your loved ones!”

The fact that these people don’t know anything about me aside, this argument is pointless as it implies that I would be blind to fact and logic when I’m in pain. And while that is true, me being angry over an apple falling onto my head won’t make gravity any less real. In other words, so what?

The biggest victims of this mentality are pedofiles. Not the ones that do engage in action. But rather the ones that don’t harm anybody are aware of their issue. For instance, if a non-engaging pedo went to a therapist and told them of their issue, what would the therapist do? Call the police of course. And what would that do? Their life would be pretty screwed from that point forward. Assuming they are the non-engaging type, of course. I don’t believe this to be the correct attitude towards these kind of cases.

I would also like to dive into other topics that the book covers (and perhaps extend on this one) but it would be way too long for a comment. Thank you anyone reading this far. I would like to hear your opinions on the matter and discuss even!

Asimov’s Foundation series (two times polish translation and once original) and The Hitchikerms Guide to Galaxy by Adams Douglas (once in polish, twice original)

The Discworld series, the Culture series by Iain Banks, Tolkien, Illuminatus!, GEB: The Eternal Golden Braid, The Book of Swords…

there is a lot of books i have read more than once. but one stands out over all others, yet there is no storyline to speak of. The C Programming Language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie.

The Wheel Of Time, by Robert Jordan

The entire series, start to finish, repeatedly. I’ve read it at least a dozen times since the late 90s when I first discovered it. I’d read the entire series over again whenever a new book in the series was released so the first few books I’ve read far more frequently.

Then the TV show came out and now I can’t bring myself to look at it ever again.

I have re-read The Lord of the Rings and all of Larry Niven’s books (many in the Ringworld universe).

" When Mr. Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton. "

The stand, by Stephen King

I’ve definitely gone through the Harry Potter series a couple of times at different phases of my life. Definitely had a different experience with every reading. Not always positive, but at this point it’s part of the tapestry of my childhood.

I just read the 4 Stormlight Archives books this past year (in addition to the novellas) but I’m already itching to reread them.

Pretty much all of Discworld but especially the Moist Von Lipwig and Vimes ones.

Excession, by Iain M Banks.

Genar-Hofoen felt the Diplomatic Force officer’s kiss through the few millimetres’ thickness of the gelfield suit as a moderately sharp impact on his jaw followed by a powerful sucking that might have led someone less experienced in the diverse and robust manifestations of Affronter friendliness to conclude that the being was either trying to suck his teeth out through his cheek or had determined to test whether a Culture Gelfield Contact/Protection Suit, Mk 12, could be ripped off its wearer by a localised partial vacuum.  What the crushingly powerful four-limbed hug would have done to a human unprotected by a suit designed to withstand pressures comparable to those found at the bottom of an ocean probably did not bear thinking about, but then a human exposed without protection to the conditions required to support Affronter life would be dying in at least three excitingly different and painful ways anyway without having to worry about being crushed by a cage of leg-thick tentacles.

Gorgeous.

Currently there is a Humble Bundle with Cory Doctorow’s books. I liked Little Brother and read it twice. Maybe I’m going to read some more of his work.

HHGTTG Tue trilogy of 5 I’ve read through maybe 5 times now. Unfortunately I think the last time was a mistake as I really struggled after the first 2 books and didn’t enjoy them like I once had.