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Ask Slashdot: What Are Some Books You Wish You Had Read Earlier?

Posted by msmash on from the let's-get-this-rolling dept.

Reader joshtops writes: Hey, community. Could you folks please name some books that you wish you had read earlier -- especially because these books presumbably had an impact on your life. The books could be from any genre or year.

2 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlein by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I first encountered Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy in adulthood and I immediately wished someone had introduced it to me in middle school. For the purposes of this discussion, it's about a kid who keeps getting moved from one society into another. Each time he assimilates into a new group he notices the strengths and weaknesses of the new culture. Most of the coming-of-age books I was exposed to glorified the misfit and tried to reassure the reader that it's OK to be different. Citizen of the Galaxy doesn't bother with that at all---the protagonist integrates more-or-less successfully into every society he joins and he never gets angsty about not fitting in. This would have been a good thing to read when I was younger.

  2. Contact and GEB by Volfied · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Contact by Carl Sagan
    and
    Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter