Books You Can Read Again... and Even Again After That

J.Emerson

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Great question!

Well, I read vociferously, and I read fast. So I tend to like longer books, and serials (because I get super frustrated when it's over too fast). Books that I have read more than once:

Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind - my personal favorite, x4 at least
JK Rowling: Harry Potter - several times, lost track
Charlaine Harris: Sookie Stackhouse series - x4 at least
Janet Evanovich: Stephanie Plum series - x3 at least
Stephen King: Talisman and Black House - x3 or so
Diana Gabaldon: Outlander series (generally the first four books)- also x3 or so
Katie MacAlister: the Aisling Gray dragon series - x4 or more
Karen Marie Moning: the Fever series - x 2
Patricia Cromwell: Kay Scarpetti series - x3
Jeanine Frost: Cat and Bones series - x3
Tom Clancy: Jack Ryan series - x2
WEB Griffin: The Corps series - x2
Anything by Jennifer Crusie - at least three times
 

DragonHeart

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Usually if I reread a book it's for comfort--stories that I just really enjoy, worlds I can escape into easily, that sort of thing. I don't reread nearly as often as I used to but I still have a few books I come back to time and again.

Michael Crichton - The Lost World, Airframe. Oh man. I've read The Lost World more times than I can count. For a long time I had a tradition of reading it every year, to the point where I had memorized entire passages. I had to stop because my paperback is falling apart and it's not available with that cover anymore. :( It's the awesome holographic T-rex one. I should get an ebook copy...

Airframe is probably the beginning of my fascination with all things commercial aviation. Read it at least half a dozen times, probably more.

Kristen Britain - Green Rider series. Really just books 1-3 so far. Mostly 2 because it has some of my absolute favorite scenes in it. Fastion and the snowman makes me laugh every single time. And so many Karigan and King Zachary moments...sigh. Just finished rereading First Rider's Call earlier today actually.
 

benbradley

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I rarely reread books, but I reread "Stand On Zanzabar" several times, mostly because I didn't feel I quite got it the first time around (also, I regularly consumed substantial amounts of alcohol around my first reading, surely that couldn't have had any effect...). It consists of many short vignettes that appear unrelated except they're in the same future mostly-dystopian overpopulated Earth. But reading on, some characters recur, and some of their stories intertwine, and it all becomes quite interesting.
i've read orwell's orwell's animal farm and nineteen eighty-four once a year for more than 30 years.
I read 1984 in high school (about a decade before the title's date) and actually found I enjoyed it, and thought it had an important message to say (and I still do). I read it again 20 years later along with "Animal Farm" and enjoyed reading them both.

Looking at the calendar and my greying hair, it's about time to read them again.
 

Marumae

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Oh man, let me narrow down my list.

Okay, a collection of books I find myself rereading over and over again:

The Hobbit: Sometimes vying for my favorite book spot with Treasure Island, sometimes winning, other times not. I can always go to this on the shelf though, pick up my beloved copy given to me by a family friend and take a journey with Bilbo wishing for his Hobbit Hole and the Kettle. :)

The Last Herald Mage Trilogy (All 3 books, especially the first one-the saddest one). Man something about Vanyel's teenaged angst really speaks to me. As a matter of fact I kind of want to go pick it up and reread it now lol.

The Elenium and The Tamuli: Others go to David Eddings's previous series, but these 6 books are my go to for him and epic sword and sorcery fantasy. :)

The Artemis Fowl Series: Something about this smart ass Irish genius teenager. I kind of love it all. It's like James Bond but with FAIRIES.

Alphabet of Thorns: I know Patricia McKillip doesn't really do series but I could do with a whole freaking series about these characters and the kingdoms therein. Absolutely love it.
 

tianaluthien

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I constantly re-read The Lord of the Rings. If I were stranded on a desert island, that would be the ONE I would take. Every time I read it, I get lost in the world, I see something new, and get myself put through the emotional ringer. When I don't know what to read and I just want to go "home", it's pages pull me in and all is well.
 

Ergodic Mage

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As others, I've re-read The Lord of the Rings too many times to count.

I'm currently in a Google+ only Book club for The Silmarillion, and this is close to the 20th time I've read it. Despite that there have been people posting new insights that I had not thought of.
 

Rebekkamaria

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I've reread many books in the past, but nowadays, not so much. There's one book I go back to all the time, though: Matt Ruff's Bad Monkeys. It's one of my favorite books ever, and the writing style is somehow inspirational and special to me.

I do reread Pratchett, King, Gemmell, Rowling and Tolkien from time to time, when I miss the characters and their world.
 

Dave Williams

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Books I can just pick up and re-read:

Tim Powers' "The Anubis Gates." And his "Dinner at Deviant's Palace."

Almost anything by Dick Francis. The ones he wrote; not the later ones more-or-less ghosted after his health turned bad.

Any of Carter Brown's "Al Wheeler" books. Yes, they're technically schlock, but they're old friends, and all short enough to consume in less than an hour in one of those insomniac nights.
 

Jhaewyrmend

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Let's see. I've reread Les Miserables (twice), everything Douglas Adams (lost count), The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (have lost count), Animal Farm, The Odyssey and Moby Dick.
 

Chris P

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I read pretty slowly, so I reserve second reads for truly exceptional books.

But on my list:

The Once and Future King by TH White
Snow by Orhan Pamuck
War and Peace by Tolstoy
and probably Huckleberry Finn by Twain
 

DreamWeaver

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I love to re-read books. My very favorites:

The Lord of the Rings: I've been re-reading this since I was 12. I also use foreign editions for language practice.
Pride & Prejudice: I've been re-reading this since I was about 11. I never get tired of Lizzy, and Mr Collins always raises a smile.
The Complete Works of Shakespeare: it's been a while since I worked through from end to end, but I keep this on my iPhone to pass the time when I get stuck waiting somewhere. I usually end up finishing whichever play I started when I get home :D.
The Three Musketeers: I think I first read this when I was about 13, when I was too clueless to realize the whole opening is broad comedy. I went back to school to study French so I could read this and Dumas' other works in the original. No, really. I can't speak worth merde, but I can read fluently :).

However, right now I am on about my 4th or 5th time through the extant five books in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, more colloquially referred to as A Game of Thrones. This time I'm reading on my iPad and making copious in-text notes whenever I see foreshadowing, parallelism between character stories, clues to subtle plot implications (pie, anyone?), and things that on repeated re-reading I suspect may come back to grab us in the final two books. It's amazing how dense this series is. For instance, I've found people setting up the Red Wedding in Book 2, and the first hints of some people's betrayals two books before they come to fruition. I thought of it as a fun, bloody romp the first time through, and now on my fourth or fifth time through I am in awe of the incredible understructure.
 

williemeikle

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This week I'll be starting a reread of Roger Zelazny's A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER - a chapter a day each day until Halloween. It's become something of a tradition.
 

DreamWeaver

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This week I'll be starting a reread of Roger Zelazny's A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER - a chapter a day each day until Halloween. It's become something of a tradition.
THANKS!!!!!! I've got to go find my copy. Yes, I do that every year, too. I tweet-summarize it every year, also :D.
 

gingerwoman

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I don't re-read much, but I do reread Margaret Atwood, Cats Eye, Robberbride, Alias Grace, The Handmaid's Tale, and the Bronte sisters, and Jane Austin. Also Stephen King Hearts in Atlantis and Insomnia.
 

zebedee

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Re-reading Pratchett from the beginning, always a pleasure.

Watchers by Dean Koontz. I first read it years ago, one of those right books at the right time things. Still love it.

Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix. Picked up the first book on a rec from someone on here and blew through it, then had to wait for the other two to arrive!

Harry Potter. Read the first one after the kids went to see Goblet Of Fire and raved about it after I'd previously dismissed the books as for kids. Great, great world building and storytelling.
 
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Dave Williams

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This week I'll be starting a reread of Roger Zelazny's A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER -

I bought that book when it came out. I'm about 50/50 on Zelazny's work; I either like it a lot, or consider it a waste of dead trees. I hated Lonesome October, and it went in the trade pile.

A few years back I was short of stuff to feed the MP3 player, so I listened to the audio version. It was read by Zelazny himself, and the cadence really changed things compared to blowing through text. It still won't be one of my favorites, but it's one I wouldn't mind listening to again sometime.
 

RichHelms

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I recently reread Naked Sun and Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov as well as a Modesty Blaise by Peter O'Donnell. I loved the brilliance of the Asimov plots but was amazed at how slow they were. I don't think they would sell today. The Modesty Blaise was just a fun read. Also reread recently a Matt Helm novel. Again what fun.

Nothing literary here. :)
 

DreamWeaver

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I bought that book when it came out. I'm about 50/50 on Zelazny's work; I either like it a lot, or consider it a waste of dead trees. I hated Lonesome October, and it went in the trade pile.
For years A Night in the Lonesome October was only available used, and the prices climbed pretty high. If one wanted one's own copy, one was going to shell out between $20 and $30 for even an "acceptable" used copy.

Now they've rereleased it in trade paperback, so that's not as much of a problem as it was. However, the hardcover prices are still up there ($70 to over $200 for a like-new copy), so I'd say it's officially made it into cult status, possibly even classic status.

As for you not liking it--well, that's taste. If we all liked the same thing they'd only have to carry a few books at the bookstore :D.
 

chompers

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  • My One and Only by Kristan Higgins: This one's a romance I've read three times. The heroine's a prickly divorce attorney with issues and a sarcastic sense of humor that comes across in first person narration. The hero's her ex, which is probably one reason I like the book so much. I have a soft spot for reunion/second chance romances. This book never fails to both make me laugh and make me cry.
I think this was her best written book. Her other books, it's the mostly the voice that carries it.

My favorite line out of that book is where the narrator says something like only one word kept running through her head: Mommy.
Cracks me up.

As for the OP's question, I don't really re-read things based on stories I've liked, but more whatever was available at the moment when I felt like reading.

Oh, wait, I do like Jane Graves' Tall Tales and Wedding Veils. I'll re-read it when I need to write something witty and nothing's coming to me. The voice is similar to my witty stuff, so I read it to get my brain thinking along those lines.
 
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Craig McNeil

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Tolkien's books always reward rereading. Irvine Welsh's early books are the same - I always find something new in them and I've read Trainspotting about four times now!
 

gingerwoman

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This is probably pretty unusual I've read Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall more than most other books. The other book I've re-read most often is Margaret Atwood's "
Cat's Eye" which is probably an unusual choice too.
 

dolores haze

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The book I've reread the most is Nabokov's 'Lolita.' It remains, to this day, the only book I've finished then immediately turned back to the first page and start reading again.

A well known author once described Lolita as "tediously multi-layered." I can't remember who said that, but I would personally describe it as gloriously multi-layered, fresh upon every single reread.

Close contenders are Virginia Woolf's 'Women and Writing,' Annie Dillard's 'The Writing Life,' Flaubert's 'Madam Bovary,' Heinlein's 'Friday,' CJ Cherryh's 'Merchanter's Luck,' everything Jane Austen ever wrote, 'Poor Things' and '1982 Janine' by Alasdair Gray, "The Golden Gate' by Vikram Seth, Thackery's 'Vanity Fair, numerous short stories, and more volumes of poetry than I have time to detail.

I should probably just take a photo of the book shelf to my right that's within arm's length -- my most frequent reread shelf. Sometimes I don't have time to reread the whole thing. Sometimes I just need to reread a chapter or a passage or a single sentence.
 

blacbird

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Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Ethan Frome, Edith Wharton
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
Childhood's End, Arthur C. Clarke
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
The Ox-Bow Incident, Walter Van Tilburg Clark

caw