BS: Books You've Read More Than Once

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: ranger1
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 09:41 AM

The Lord of the Rings trilogy
The Dark is Rising series
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
the JP Beaumont series by J.A. Jance

And so many, many more...

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: kendall
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 09:33 AM

The Odyssey.
Silverlock (Myers)at least 4 times.
All of C.S. Forrester's books.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: jacqui.c
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 08:42 AM

The Stand - Stephen King

Too many books, not enough time to reread too often!

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 08:41 AM

Ah...I'm a librarian. I honestly can't remember all of them.

But I'll put this into perspective: I don't purchase for myself anything I don't plan to re-read. There are about 5,900 books in the house at the moment. There are 30 shelves of books in my office, 36 in the other room. Each shelf holds about 30 books. That's about 1,980 books within 50 feet of me here in the basement, and that only counts those on the shelving units we bought, not the books on the "built in" shelves. Nor does it count the books upstairs.

Best way to tell you: the books run the gamut from Robert Heinlein to Dana Stabenow to Nicolai Gogol to Marie Webster to Shakespeare to Chaucer to Dee Brown to Twain to Bill Watterson to Hofstadter to Hawking to Ed McGivern -- and beyond.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: dwditty
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 08:29 AM

Bobad, I had forgotten all about Heart of A Dog...now I am going to have to go order it today for a re-read.

Anam Cara - John O'Donohue
Memoirs of a Shy Pornographer - Kenneth Patchen
The World Don't Owe Me Nothin' - David "Honeyboy" Edwards

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: bobad
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 08:26 AM

Yes LH "Lame Deer Seeker of Visions" is pretty neat.

I've owned two copies of "Black Elk Speaks", loaned them out to never see them again. I can only hope that they are out there being passed around and disseminating some of that Oglala Sioux wisdom.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 08:00 AM

"Trout Fishing In America" - Richard Brautigan

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 07:20 AM

Rereading Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency right now since the old paperback turned up when I was looking for something else.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 07:19 AM

one of the unexpected pleasures of late age is re-reading the books you read when you were young, and picking up all sorts of subtleties and cadences that you missed when you were young and dim.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Moses
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 07:05 AM

Another vote for LOTR and The Hobbit (read several times over the years )although I've only read them out loud once, years ago, to my two girls as books at bedtime.

Took several months.

Actually I probably did read them out loud twice as each night we would discuss the previous evenings chapter and find that one or the other had dropped off before the end so we had to re-cap from the last remembered part of the story.

Great books and the girls still remember those months fondly. They buy me the Tolkien calendar each year.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Dave Earl
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 06:46 AM

Gervase,

You were a journalist.

Go off and start compiling the part-work and you'll have any number of subscibers from round here!

Dave
p.s I here you move into the house soon. Hope all goes well

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 06:39 AM

I'm always intrigued by how popular sci-fi and fantasy fiction are when reading preferences are aired on Mudcat. There must be scope for at least an MA thesis here - is it because folkies like that sort of thing more than most, or is it because computer-literate folkies like that sort of thing...etc?
One sees it mirrored in matters of faith on the Mudcat; Wiccan and other neo-pagan beliefs seem far more prevalent here than in the 'outside' world.
Similarly the crossover between living history enthusiasts, re-enactors and folkies: is it all tied to a desire to escape the chains of modernity by entering an alternative world?
I'm sure it can't be beyond the talents of a skilled but cynical marketing type to package an entire 'folk lifestyle' to be bought off-the-shelf in easy monthly instalments. Not that we're cliched sterotypes, of course!

Now where did I put my shaky egg? Ah yes, it's in the chalice on top of the H.P.Lovecraft...

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 05:21 AM

Oddly enough, I'm reading LOTR now, for the first time in years. Even though I've watched the movies several times, the pictures in my head when I read the books are still the ones that were there when I read it first in 1976. It took me 3 months to read then, the next time, it took a week. The copy I spent ages saving to get literally exploded with pages dropping out everywhere, so I got myself the 3 volume set in 1981. That too, is now showing distinct signs of wear. I may treat myself to a new edition one day.

Otherwise, there are very few books I don't read again - although Philip Pullman seems to be falling into that category. The first was great, the second got a bit boggy and I never even opened the third!

I'm on my fourth copy of 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', and the Susan Cooper 'Dark is Rising sequence' gets read every year in autumn/winter... in fact, it's about time I started to read it again.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Stu
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 05:10 AM

LOTR many times.

The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster. My favourite book by a mile. Deeper than a very deep bit of the briny ocean deep.

On a musical note, Last Night's Fun by Ciaran Curran is an excellent book about Irish traditional music. Even though I was not born into the tradition I have played the music for years, and many people will recognise some of the observations and philosophy in this fine tome.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 04:13 AM

I regularly re-read the works of the American SF writer/Fantasist Jack Vance. His Dying Earth book 'The Eyes of the Overworld' is a great favourite - as is 'The Last Castle', 'The Dragon Masters', 'Emphyrio', the 'Planet of Adventure' books and the 'Lyonesse' books.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Gervase
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 04:07 AM

The Third Policeman! Wonderful book that I've read a couple of times. I love the idea of molecular interchange so that one becomes one's bicycle and has to lean against a wall to avoid falling over, while the bike gets to know the way home by itself.
Other repeat reads for me are Ulysses and Dubliners, along with most of Peter Ackroyd's canon. Now I'm just about to start going through Patrick O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series again. Can't wait.
Confession time, though - I've never read a single piece of Dickens all the way through.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Paul Burke
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 03:43 AM

At Swim-Two_Birds by Flann O'Brien- you need to read it several times, just to get all the layers sorted out.

Including this:

'The Workmans Friend'

When things go wrong and will not come right,
Though you do the best you can,
When life looks black as the hour of night -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

When money's tight and hard to get
And your horse has also ran,
When all you have is a heap of debt -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

When health is bad and your heart feels strange,
And your face is pale and wan,
When doctors say you need a change,
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

When food is scarce and your larder bare
And no rashers grease your pan,
When hunger grows as your meals are rare -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

In time of trouble and lousey strife,
You have still got a darlint plan
You still can turn to a brighter life -
A PINT OF PLAIN IS YOUR ONLY MAN.

Also another of his great books, The Third Policeman. How can something so funny be so disturbing?

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: GUEST,Ingrid Frances Stark
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 02:01 AM

Nearly everything ever written by Dick Francis; Cyteen by C J Cherryh; The Hobbit by Tolkein.

IFS

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 12:29 AM

Another vote for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, Their Eyes Were Watching God, House Made of Dawn, Ceremony, Go Down, Moses (rereading that right now). Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday. Lots of them.

A Sand County Almanac, Mama Makes Up Her Mind, and Boy (Dahl--also rereading now) are favorite re-read nonficiton.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: harpmolly
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 12:20 AM

Almost every book I read ends up being read at least three or four times. I'm one of those people who can't get to sleep unless I read for half an hour or so first, so everything in my apartment has been gone through lots of times. But the most dog-eared books on my shelf are:

Lord of the Rings trilogy
His Dark Materials trilogy (Philip Pullman)
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (especially the Witches books--Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad and Lords & Ladies in particular)
Les Miserables (Hugo)
The Talisman (Peter Straub/Stephen King)
The Dark Tower series (Stephen King, really only the first four books...the last three were a huge letdown IMHO)
Watership Down (Adams)
A Natural History of Love (Diane Ackerman)
Careful What You Wish For (Myrlin Hermes)


OK, there are a lot more, I confess. In fact, I need a bigger bookshelf. *grin*

Molly

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Nov 05 - 12:19 AM

I'm with you on Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Great stuff. Also the William Morris medieval fantasy tales. I read that stuff a lot in my 20's. Not so much lately.

Also read Black Elk Speaks about 3 times. "Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions" was pretty neat too.

Read "Seven Arrows" several times. It's a book you can really meditate on.

Have read certain spiritual books over and over in more recent years. I recommend the writings of Marianne Williamson and Eckhard Tolle very highly.

When I was a good deal younger, I used to read A.A.Milne repeatedly, and also Arthur Conan Doyle, H.Ryder Haggard, and H.G. Wells. And the Hornblower books by C.S. Forester...fine adventure novels.

Read Watership Down 2 or 3 times.

Subject: RE: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: bobad
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 11:33 PM

The Master and Margarita: Mikhail Bulgakov
Heart of a Dog: Mikhail Bulgakov
The Tin Drum: Gunther Grass
St. Urbain's Horseman: Mordechai Richler
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz: Mordechai Richler
Water Music: T.C.Boyle
The Ginger Man: J.P.Donleavy
Black Elk Speaks: edited by John Neihardt

Subject: BS: Books You've Read More Than Once
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 17 Nov 05 - 11:18 PM

Which books have you enjoyed so much that you've gone back to re-read them?

Here are a few of mine:

Lord Of The Rings trilogy (three times)
The Hobbit (three times)
Call It Sleep: Phillip Roth (Twice)
Giants In The Earth: A. O. Rolvaag (Three times)

Jerry