What Books Do You Reread?

Subject: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Peter T.
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 08:31 AM

A spinoff from the Favourite Books thread. There are many books that we cherish, but not too many that we reread. And one goes through phases.

I can reread Jane Austen any time, but usually wait a few years until I forget some of the details. There was a time when I read War and Peace every year, but gave it up -- although having just seen the BBC War and Peace again (easily the best adaptation of a book ever) -- I may be hooked.

Curiously enough, I reread Catcher in the Rye often. There is something about its struggle for honesty that cheers me up.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 09:07 AM

If I buy it, I'll reread it 99% of the time. The other 1% are mistakes and I give them away.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: kendall
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 09:15 AM

Silverlock by John Myers Myers.
The Odyssey of Homer

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: mack/misophist
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 09:59 AM

Wind In The Willows
Through The Looking Glass
Just So Stories
The Prince
Sei Shonagon

Kendall: Were you aware there's a sequel to Silverlock?

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Beverley Barton
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:17 AM

the phone directory

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Mark Clark
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:33 AM

I reread Jack London about a year ago. White Fang, Sea Wolf, Call of the Wild… great stuff.
I also reread guys like R.B. Fuller and (guilty pleasure) Velikovsky from time to time.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Beardy
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:42 AM

Captive State - George Monbiot
(When needing reminding how corrupt states are)

The 5 books about Amber by Roger Zelazny
(When needing escapism)


Stewart

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:51 AM

I read The Lord of the Rings several times as a teenager/young adult. I reread it this past year for the first time in about thirty years.

For several years running I had a personal ritual of reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance every spring as a sort of mental spring tonic.

Among "popular" authors I've been know to read anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and Douglas Adams multiple times.

Bruce

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 11:15 AM

The Black Flower - 4
The Year of Jubilo - 3
The Secret Life of Bees -2, and plan on going back for another
Pet Sematary - 3 or 4 - it's been awhile - back when King was still writing cool horror novels - I've read several other of his books more than once, but not recently
Les Miserables - 2
Hunchback of Notre Dame - 2
The Diary of Amanda Virginia Edmonds - 2 - nonfiction
A Christmas Carol - at least once or twice every year, for many years
The Velveteen Rabbit - ditto - I think everyone should have a storybook or two that they enjoy
Lonesome Dove - 2 - seen the movie many times

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,bbc at work
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 12:04 PM

Islandia by Austin Tappin Wright. Kendall, I picked up Silverlock & will give it a try.

Barbara

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Blind DRunk in Blind River
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 01:09 PM

I read "Secret Diary of a Sudbury Skank" at least ten times and I aint tired of it yet! Totally decent book!!! I even found out a coupla things about girls that I didnt know eh?

- BDiBR

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 03:05 PM

Pratchett

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Little Robyn
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 03:09 PM

Devil Water by Anya Seton, which includes the Jacobite uprisings in 1715 and 1745 along with a couple of songs and a Northumbrian piper!
Diana Gabaldon's series where a 20th C woman falls through a gap in a stone circle in Scotland and finds herself in the 18th C just before the '45.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Duncan from Seldom Seen Road
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 03:14 PM

Right, Shane...

I read that book too. Believe me, I found out things about girls in there that I DIDN'T want to know!

You are a major loser, man.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Megan L
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 03:42 PM

DiskWorld series Pratchet
The Cadfael Chronicles Ellis Peters
Goergette Heyer
and any Bill Knox including those he wrote as Robet Mcloud

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 04:35 PM

Not counting the children's books I read as a child, there are very few books I have read more than once.

One exception is the complete Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. I think I've read them 3 times. I find that after about 10 years, I can't remember the endings, so it's like reading them for the first time.

I might read The Quincunx again (by Charles Palliser), having just acquired my third copy. I loved it so much I practically forced my friends to borrow it—that's how I lost my first 2 copies.

Another book I might read again is The Sufis, by Idries Shah. I've read it twice, and some of his other books twice also.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Blowzabella
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 05:57 PM

I read most things more than once, but some I re-read almost ritually.

Susan Cooper's dark is Rising series is one of these (5 books)- every Christmas it comes out of the bookcase
Mayor of Casterbridge & The Trumpet Major (both Thmas Hardy) - tend to be autumn reads
Anything by Jane Austen (whenever)
Wuthering Heights (stormy weather)

perhaps its time I introduced my self to some new reading matter...but I love reading the ones I've got already (and I've loads of books I've never even opened, which is worse, I suppose)

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Burke
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 07:18 PM

Jane Austen, especially Pride and Prejudice.
Lord of the Rings.

I lost count of the number of times I reread Count of Monte Christo. Then I decided revenge was not so wonderful & have read it maybe once since then.

I forget almost every novel read almost immediately. If I enjoy it I need to reread it so I can remember.

Thanks for asking, I realize I want to reread Les Miserable.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Raptor
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 07:25 PM

How did Shane learn to read?

Raptor

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 09:55 PM

What books do I RE-read?

Technical manuals - especially the HTML specs... :-)

RTFM
Robin

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Amergin
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:05 PM

dark is rising...the narnia books....LOTR....harry potter...grapes of wrath. bound for glory.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Oct 03 - 10:46 PM

I made a point of reading all of the Hardy I could get my hands on when I was an undergraduate, but I haven't heard of The Trumpet Major. Where does that fit in his ouevre?

I also read some Anya Seton, but haven't heard of Devil Water. Any idea if that was published under a different title elsewhere?

I reread several as a child--The Secret Garden, Caddy Woodlawn, several of Bevery Cleary's books. In my teen years and into my twenties I think I reread the Lord of the Rings three or four times.

I read so much in graduate school (that all had to be read a couple of times to get the full meaning) that I didn't get to do much recreational reading for several years. I like short stories, though, and have read and reread many by Roald Dahl. And I have some favorite poets I read and reread with the kids. Robert Frost and Shel Silverstein, in particular.

SRS

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 12:05 AM

Dorothy L. Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries are my tranquilizers. If I'm bouncing off walls, I read "Strong Poison" or "Murder Must Advertise" Any of them will do. Interestingly, "Thrones Dominations" which another writer finished after Sayers died, didn't work.
I was a bad sleeper, when I was a kid. I read "Kidnapped" over and over in the wee hours.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: jacqui c
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 02:33 AM

The Stand by Stephen King. Problem is there are so many different books that I haven't read yet and so little time for reading that it would have to be a really good book to make me re-read. At the moment I've got the Phillip Pulman trilogy, the complete set of Narnia, Pooh and the Philosophers/Pooh and the Psychologists, the latest Stephen King, one by Bernard Cornwell and a couple of others that are waiting to be read. That's beside a number of interesting looking books with a psychological/philosophical base that I would like to get into. I've already given up on housework - I wish I could give up on work as well!

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 04:59 AM

Blowzabella - me too! Every December, the Dark is Rising sequence gets a re-read.

I'm in the middle of re-reading the Peter Wimsey ones now, and am deeply frustrated because I suspect I left 'Gaudy Night' at Bratlings's school last night(Parents' evening - the child they teach is not the one downstairs here) and as it's now a training day and half term, I won't see it for a week or more - unless I left it on the bus in which case it's gone forever. The address in it is 20 years out of date!

I read almost everything I have, over and over again. It's like meeting with an old friend again. The exceptions are tech books and one or two I was given as presents that didn't really gel. There's only one of my books I haven't read - Umberto Eco's 'Island of the Day before', a present, which one day, I will try.....

Trumpet Major - used to be a really good pub just a stone's throw from Hardy's house Max Gate in Dorchester, although he was so mean, it's highly unlikely he'd set foot in it under it's former name, now forgotten.

Published in 1880, set on the Dorset coast, it's about a soldier in the Napoleonic wars, and deals with the threat of invasion and the usual things that soldiers and maidens get up to. It has Admiral Thomas Hardy (no relation but lived in Portesham, a village in Dorset, where my ancestors lived - my dad went to the same village school) and Farmer George III in it, and it's the most cheerful of his miserable books. He only wrote one book that was almost entirely happy, his first, 'Under the Greenwood tree', about 8 years previous to the Trumpet Major.   

LTS

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Peter T.
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 09:20 AM

I only read The Count of Monte Cristo once, but maybe should reread it, I enjoyed it so much. Everyone reads abridged versions (or the Classics Illustrated version) but the full beast is terrific, the digressions are so fascinating. It does show that revenge, quests, and a frustrated love story are the three best ways of keeping a story going -- the reader just has to keep going.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Cluin
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 09:37 AM

Silverlock, Lord of the Rings, Stars My Destination, The Sun Also Rises, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, The Stonor Eagles, Black Elk Speaks.... just to name a few. Always something new to reflect on in those ones.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 09:39 AM

Thanks, Liz! I have Under the Greenwood Tree, but by the time I found that one I was into other projects and that is the one remaining I need to finish reading. My first Hardy novel was Tess of the D'Urbervilles. It was so unlike anything else I'd read, in its characterizations and the life of Tess that I went looking for more. Had I started with Jude, The Obscure, I might have stopped with that one! ;-)

SRS

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: muppett
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 10:25 AM

The Adrian Mole books by Sue Townsend, they're so funny, I'm currently reading No. 10 by her (probally ending up reading again) and have recently read the queen & I also by her, lent it out and not got it back or else I would have read that again as well. Hate that when that happens (you lend it out and don't get it back) is it just me, it's happened loads of times (thought I would have learnt me lesson)or does this happen to others?

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:29 AM

Any and everything of Tolkien that I can lay hands on, for one area.

And "The Great American Novel", which is called A Conspiracy of Dunces. The author tried and tried to get it published, and finally despaired and committed suicide. His mother, convinced it must be published, took it from publisher to publisher to publisher, and was turned down and turned down. Finally she took it to a man at I believe it was Mississippi University Press. He told her, "We don't publish fiction." She twisted his arm to at least read it. He realized its greatness, and despite the no-fiction policy of that University Press, moved mountains to get the policy set aside in this case and have it published there.

The title, incidentally, refers to a quote from Swift, to the effect,
"Once in a generation a great genius arises, and he may be known by this sign: All the dunces arise in conspiracy against him." That's my paraphrase.

Read it! Read it! Read it! Read it! Read it!    I have, three times so far. What a loss, that we'll have no further offerings from its author!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: TIA
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:36 AM

LLoyd Alexander - Chronicles of Prydain...annually

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:41 AM

The Deptford Trilogy - Robinson Davies
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Bronte Sisters and Jane Austin
Moby Dick - am I the only one who finds parts of it hilariously funny?

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Big Brother
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:52 AM

Raptor - This is Don. I am the idiot's older brother...I mean Shane, eh? The amazing thing is, the jerk-off did learn to read. Sort of. I figure it was because he wanted to read the letters in Hustler or somethign like that. It sure as hell wasn't for school, eh? He flunked so many times that it was like a joke. He can read if he wants to, but he don't read much unless it has to do with sex or guitars or beer or racing cars or that sort of thing. He got really stuck up recently bvecause he started the internet thing on Mudcat (but mostly he's on them "pictorial" sights...know what I mean?). Anyway, he figured he was better thanm the rest of us. So I give him a big surprise by appearin as "Big Brother" one day. Ha! Ha! If you had had to spend the time in Shane's company that I had to in this life you would know what I mean when I say he is "the joke that walks"! I follow him around sometimes just for laughs and watch him try to pick up girls. He is noteorious in this town. The only girls that will give him the time of day are girls who are too drunk to know which end is up or really dumb ones from out of town, eh?

I guess I gotta apologize to Peter T for wastin' space on a thread that sposed to be about books, so I will list one of my favourites...

Hmmm?

Okay, I like Stephen King in a big way. I'll go for "Cujo" and "The Stand".

Don

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 12:04 PM

I've just re-read Legend by David Gemmell for the umpteenth time! I tend to re-read most things as I usualy read a book very quickly for the story and then slower at a later stage for the subtleties:-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 12:44 PM

Lord of the Rings
Dorothy Dunnet's Lymond Series
Dorothy Dunnet's Niccolo Series
Stephen Donaldson

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 12:51 PM

Sinsull, I have only read Moby Dick once, and you're right---- there are some really funny bits in it, many of them having to do with Queequeg. The scene where he and Ishmael first meet is funny, but I thought the scene where Queequeg spent all day in prayer, and wouldn't answer the door, was the best. Melville actually used the phrase "squatting on his hams."

Pity this book was such a failure in Melville's lifetime.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 01:10 PM

Pratchett.

I've just finished LOTR for the first time in several years (but then it's practically engraved on my memory).

Silverberg, Wolfe, van Vogt, Austen, Lieber, Moorcock, Iain M. Banks... Of course you re-read books. The plot may not fade, but the details do. Now what's more interesting, a skeleton, or the fully fleshed human being? If you enjoyed it first time, you'll enjoy it again... & again... & again...

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 06:04 PM

Stilly - just as well you didn't start with Jude. It was dubbed 'Jude the Obscene' (dealing as it did with possible incest, infanticide, suicide of a child and other jolly themes) and got such terrible reviews that Hardy declared he'd never write another novel again and ever after stuck to bad poetry.

My adopted grandfather was his paperboy back in the 1920's and said that Hardy was the meanest man God ever blew breath into - the stories about the outside toilet and extinguishing the fire if leaving the room for more than 30 mins are all true. He designed his own house with an outside toilet because it was cheaper than digging a foul drain to the house.

LTS

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Nancy King
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 07:18 PM

The Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Robin2
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 07:44 PM

The Left Hand Of Darkness
LOTR
The Illiad by Homer... Every time I read it, I pick up on more nuances between the characters. Plus I love all that jealous god stuff...better than a soap opera!

Robin2

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Desdemona
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 08:04 PM

Most of Shakespeare ("Titus Andronicus" being a notable exception!!)
Alice in Wonderland
Through the Looking Glass
Wuthering Heights
Pride & Prejudice
Emma
Sense & Sensibility
Gone With the Wind
To Kill A Mockingbird


Lots more but those are the ones that spring to mind most readily!

D.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 10:43 PM

A note to Uncle Dave O: Can you give the name of the author of A Conspiracy of Dunces"? I have googled the phrase +book, and can't find it anywhere. Although I had a lot of hits for the phrase, none of them reflected a book title. Also tried my local library online and no book found there either.

So, to coin a phrase, "Author! Author!"

Thanks,
pdc

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 10:47 PM

Back again: Do you by any chance mean "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole?

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: LadyJean
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:34 PM

Dear Liz the Squeak,
My Cousin John Caldwell loves Thomas Hardy above all writers. When he and his wife went to England, he made a special visit to your part of England. Cousin John is blind but he wanted to hear what Hardy heard and feel what he felt. (That man gets more from 4 senses, than whole suburbs get from 5!)
I like Thomas Hardy's poetry. I was introduced to his verses by a lady named Sarah Hickman. She taught me most of what I know about writing. She also taught Annie Dillard, though Ms. Dillard doesn't care to admit it.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Oct 03 - 11:54 PM

When I was younger I used to reread the following:

Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and "The Lost World" (never yet made into a movie that comes even close to the book)
most of H.G.Wells
Lord of the Rings
the Hornblower books by C.S.Forester
several fantasy novels by William Morris
The Wind in the Willows
A.A.Milne's "Pooh" books
Bob Dylan's lyrics and poetry

Now I reread spiritual books like:

The Conversations With God series by Neale Donald Walsch
The Tao of Health, Sex, and Longevity
The Tao of Pooh
The Teh of Piglet
Seven Arrows

And other stuff along that general line...

Interesting evolution of tastes, isn't it? I note that Winnie-the-Pooh somehow bridges the whole thing, which speaks well for the little stuffed bear. He's a cosmic figure, no doubt, and Milne's books were a masterpiece of writing.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: cetmst
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 07:14 AM

Dorothy L. Sayers, The Nine Tailors
Margery Allingham, The Fear Sign (Sweet Danger) and Estate of the Beckoning Lady
Hans Zinsser, As I Remember Him and Rats, Lice and History
Hamlet
Godel, Escher and Bach - Still don't understand a word of it
James Gleick, Chaos
Edmund Wilson, Consilience
The Bible, King James Version, for history, legend, poetry
Rise Up Singing
Edward Gorey, everything

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: cetmst
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 08:14 AM

Pogo

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 11:58 AM

My face is red! The book about which I enthuse is really titled A Confederacy of Dunces, not a "conspiracy". The author was John Kennedy Toole. Sorry.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 12:33 PM

That's okay -- I found a lot of interesting sites while looking up A Conspiracy of Dunces, so the error was fortuitous in my case.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 01:04 PM

Oh yeah,

I also reread comics I like, such as:

Calvin & Hobbes
Get Fuzzy
Liberty Meadows
Pogo