OT: Books you have read twice..no phonebooks

[VA Huskie]

VA Huskie, did you ever try audiobooks? They are great when you are working outside or exercising. When your library opens just go down and try a few of them.

Yup, I love audio books. Mostly listen on long car rides.

 

[triaddukefan]

Edge City by Joel Garreau

 

[UcMiami]

FYI - For those who love Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey, Jill Paton Walsh has written two really good continuations and two that are OK. The first one is a completion of an unfinished novel by DS, the second uses some of Sayers' war time Wimsey letters as a jumping off point, and the others are all original.

Usually follow on authors are pretty dreadful but Walsh does really well at getting the tone of the original works, and the characters right. I stumbled upon her a few years ago and really enjoyed them.

 

[hoopster]

match book

 

[TWG236]

Red Storm Rising & Red Rabbit by Tom Clancy and all of Federick Forsyth novels. Forsyth is my favorite author of all time.

 

[Littlemin]

boy, i must be missing something. or you all are the biggest bunch of BS'ers in the universe!!

why in heck would you be re-reading all these books, multiple books, long books, whole lengthy series of books rather than using your limited time to experience all the thousands and thousands of potentially fantastic books that you have not experienced at all.

please, clue me in.

excuse me if you are just listing some of your favorites. cool. ... but if you are actually re-reading all of them, well, ... i'm sorry you don't have better things to do.

btw, i do see why someone would re-read a book or two, but not a library. myself, i am blown away by the prose of 'the great gatsby' -- plus it's short and an easy read.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. To me, it is like visiting an old friend and hearing the same stories over; I may know the ending but the real pleasure is in the telling.

 

[UcMiami]

Different strokes for different folks I guess. To me, it is like visiting an old friend and hearing the same stories over; I may know the ending but the real pleasure is in the telling.

Or with the average age here on the BY, I am reminded of my mother's comment when in her nineties - It's so nice now I can watch all the good movies I've seen over the years and still be surprised by the ending!

 

[Rich]

Tuchman-The Guns of August
King-The Shining
Stevenson-Cryptonomicon
Exley-A Fan’s Notes

 

[choochoo]

At dawn we slept
The hobbit
Lord of the rings
Man from saint petersburg
lord of the flies
Rebbeca
Doctor Zhivago

 

[Millenial23]

boy, i must be missing something. or you all are the biggest bunch of BS'ers in the universe!!

why in heck would you be re-reading all these books, multiple books, long books, whole lengthy series of books rather than using your limited time to experience all the thousands and thousands of potentially fantastic books that you have not experienced at all.

please, clue me in.

excuse me if you are just listing some of your favorites. cool. ... but if you are actually re-reading all of them, well, ... i'm sorry you don't have better things to do.

btw, i do see why someone would re-read a book or two, but not a library. myself, i am blown away by the prose of 'the great gatsby' -- plus it's short and an easy read.

Because you really enjoyed a book or series and want to get lost in it again! Maybe you want something light hearted, or just enjoyable. Maybe you want an escape from reality. I personally did most of my re-reading as a kid - so maybe before the 4th Harry Potter came out, I wanted to re-read the first 3. So there's that too - as a refresher to new books or movies in the series. (So I have definitely read HP 1-3 way more times than the later ones.) Just my 2 cents

 

[garddog]

I almost always reread when the authors are slow with sequels. But Perspective is the biggest thing. What you "see" as a child, changes in youth, then changes again as an adult and changes again later in life.

 

[chrissaran]

Black Heart - Eric Van Lustbader
Ashley Bell - Dean Koontz

 

[UcMiami]

Kingsley Amis pair very different but great -
Lucky Jim
The Green Man

Love this thread as it is getting me thinking about books I haven't read in years, but have read multiple times.

 

[connie]

boy, i must be missing something. or you all are the biggest bunch of BS'ers in the universe!!

why in heck would you be re-reading all these books, multiple books, long books, whole lengthy series of books rather than using your limited time to experience all the thousands and thousands of potentially fantastic books that you have not experienced at all.

please, clue me in.

excuse me if you are just listing some of your favorites. cool. ... but if you are actually re-reading all of them, well, ... i'm sorry you don't have better things to do.

btw, i do see why someone would re-read a book or two, but not a library. myself, i am blown away by the prose of 'the great gatsby' -- plus it's short and an easy read.

Even granting that there may happen to be "thousands and thousands of potentially fantastic books", that hardly requires one to refrain from re-reading a book (or many books) on grounds that something new is available. Reading -- or more broadly, aesthetic experience -- is not a race to consume the most in the limited time available. A work of art -- painting, poem, concerto, novel, you name it -- succeeds to the degree it rewards repeated contemplation with new discovery, pleasure and insight. This is particularly the case when one brings new experience to the object of art.

To make this more immediately understandable, consider that many participants here (myself included) have re-watched numerous UConn WCBB games over the years. I am sure that, notwithstanding, there are "thousands and thousands" of potentially fantastic games and competitions available to experience (not only basketball, but also chess, tennis, grand prix showjumping, lacrosse, volleyball, motor cross, boxing, gymnastics, etc.). Would it be an argument to say that I should not be re-watching a game because there are other competitions I have yet to experience at all?

 

[Sargassoc]

I'm an English teacher, so I'll likely not include everything I teach -- except for the ones I would otherwise choose to reread. Here are just a few of them:

• Beloved by Toni Morrison (you could read this a hundred times and still find something new)
• The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee ("Hey, Boo" gets me every single time)
• Working by Studs Terkel
• Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Final Payments by Mary Gordon
• Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
• Antigone by Sophocles
• Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
• And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts (I've just started to re-read this because a plague is a plague)

 

[Bigboote]

Different strokes for different folks I guess. To me, it is like visiting an old friend and hearing the same stories over; I may know the ending but the real pleasure is in the telling.

I like your comparison to an old friend or family member who tells a story over and over. I'd add that the friend will occasionally surprise you.

Some books have layers and layers to peel away. When I was a teenager, I never saw anything besides the main parts of the plot. I was never concerned with why some characters behaved the way they did. I didn't have as firm a grasp of the subtleties of language as I do now. I'm fascinated by the English language, and someone like Jane Austen, John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, or especially HP Lovecraft always has something to teach me about language. (Did you know that nefandous and infandous don't mean the same thing?)

I still read mostly new-to-me stuff, but enjoy the living daylights out of my annual foray back into Jane Austen and Sinclair Lewis.

 

[Rixxx]

I enjoy watching the movies based upon author's novels. For example, Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child. Also, Michael Connolly's detective novels about Harry Bosch. Please see Amazon Prime for Bosch, I think six seasons. One of my favorite John Grisham novels is "A Time to Kill" , with the movie version's paralegal played by Sandra Bullock. Of course you can go back to "Kill a Mockingbird" or "Moby Dick" or "The Old Man and the Sea" or "The Grapes of Wrath" and find the Hollywood version. Please note my list is not all inclusive. I just enjoy reading.

 

[Ozimoto]

I read a lot of books, though not as many as I used to as "free" time seems to be an ever decreasing commodity. However, I don't read them twice. Once I have read a book and I know the outcome, I don't have any desire to read it again.

Same reason why I don't watch repeats of sporting events.

 

[FairView]

I'm not big into reading the same book twice.
If you folks say you read all these books twice, I believe you.
Although I am skeptical of Ivanhoe and some Dickens. Despite the story, Ivanhoe is a dreadful read. Dickens has some tedious passages as he was writing to fill the required pages of his monthly installments. I did read "She's Come Undone" twice, mainly to see if I could find any parts where Lamb gave away that he is male. I could not. I thought that was masterful in itself.
There are a number of books I have reread though, including The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (a rare sequel as good - some say better - than the original) One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, Goodnight Moon, and about 25 other titles. I could read some of them without even opening the book – especially Go, Dog. Go!

 

[tomcat]

I'm not big into reading the same book twice.
If you folks say you read all these books twice, I believe you.
Although I am skeptical of Ivanhoe and some Dickens. Despite the story, Ivanhoe is a dreadful read. Dickens has some tedious passages as he was writing to fill the required pages of his monthly installments. I did read "She's Come Undone" twice, mainly to see if I could find any parts where Lamb gave away that he is male. I could not. I thought that was masterful in itself.
There are a number of books I have reread though, including The Cat in the Hat, The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (a rare sequel as good - some say better - than the original) One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, Goodnight Moon, and about 25 other titles. I could read some of them without even opening the book – especially Go, Dog. Go!

Re: She's Come Undone, What an unusual reason to read a book twice, especially if you don't make it a practice to reread books. I'm with you on Ivanhoe. having struggled to read it once.

 

[Zorro]

All of Vonnegut, all of Hornblower, all of Steinbeck, all of Russo (especially Straight Man), all of Tuchman (Esp. March of Folly), all of, of course, Holmes and Wimsey, all of Cadfael, all of Tarzan and the Mars books (when I was younger), Quijote, most of Dickens, all of Will Cuppy, most of Twain (I especially love Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses, His Grandfather's Old Ram and the great Bluejay story, plus, of course, Tom and Huck), Catch 22, Maltese Falcon, Shogun and Taipan, most of Bruce Catton, Catcher in the Rye, Mockingbird, Stranger in a Strange Land, Lord of the Flies, Lucky Jim, Green Man, Wicker Man, Incident at Owl Creek Bridge and Horseman in the Sky, King Solomon's Mines and She, Robinson Crusoe, all of Richard Dawkins, Origin of Species, Wealth of Nations, Pinker's Language Instinct and Stuff of Thought, Candide, Sotweed Factor and Giles Goatboy, the Thunderhead trilogy; sheesh, typing one title brings several more. As soon as I post this, a couple dozen more will pop into my head.

There were a number of books mentioned by other posters of which I had never heard, but will certainly try to obtain. Not so easy down here; no libraries, but I will try, and thanks to everyone for the wealth of suggestions.

 

[BlueDolphin]

Lots, but a few I think worth noting:

Huckleberry Finn - I reread it every decade or so. Almost 80, so time for my 6th or 7th reread. Still my favorite book.

Treasure Island - When I was a boy I was told all boys read it, so I read it 2 or 3 times. Reread it a few years ago because I wanted to see what it was like for an adult. Still great!

Mont St. Michel & Chartres - Read it in college for a course on the Middle Ages. During a week-long program at Chartres Cathedral some years ago I reread the Chartres part while sitting in the cathedral or on a bench right in front of the building. The following year on a trip to France wife and I took a day trip to St. Michel and I reread the St. Michel part.

Old Man & the Sea - Santiago might be my favorite character in all literature.

To Kill a Mockingbird - I meant to reread it for the 2nd or 3rd time on its 50th anniversary but didn't get to it. Gotta do it this year. It was such a formative experience for me in the 60's. Read it around the time of the Selma - Montgomery March (which I participated in). Scout might be my 2nd favorite character.

 

[willtalk]

I don't remember the title because it was so long ago, but it had a girl, a boy, a dog and a cat in it. I think their names were Dick, Jane, Spot and Puff?

 

[ochoopsfan]

I am not a reader. I do crossword puzzles. I have read 2 books since college days(40+ years ago). One was about a professional gambler, a long time friend of mine. The other I finished this morning, The Diary of Anne Frank.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

As Fairview implied, there are books that might be enjoyable to reread, but it just doesn't go so well. I particularly enjoyed (of older literature) Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad and Dickens' Pickwick Papers, but - no matter how fondly I remember them - when I went to reread a few years later - no go.

Also someone mentioned Ivanhoe. My great aunt left behind most of an originally "complete" set of Walter Scott, actually printed in 1898 IIRC. As I was a great reader in high school days, I actually read almost the entire set of books. But no, not twice, and no desire to do so.