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

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,John
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 01:24 PM

Earth Abides .. one of those aftermath of catastrophy books.
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy .. another of those aftermath of catastrophy books.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Miken
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 05:03 PM

Every two or three years I re-read most of Dickens, and much of Mark Twain; neither of which ever get old for me.
Also: all of Annie Proulx, LOTR, Frank O'Conner.
Just re-read Jack Whyte's series about Arthur.
Others.....Ursula Leguin,Edward Rutherfurd's Sarum, The Forest, and London; and not long ago, a series of children's books I had read,as a chold by Thornton W. Burgess ( Bowser the Hound, Old mother West Wind, etc.)

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Gareth
Date: 25 Oct 03 - 07:40 PM

Nye Bevan - "In Place of Fear" - Jenny Lee - "A Candle in the Darkness" - Sorry UK politics - My Guiding lights !!

Gerry Fiennes - "I tried to run a Railway" An amusing, and wise tale of management 'C**k Ups'.

C S Forester - All and every !

Patrick O'Brian.

And Pratchett - who on the rough, self selected sample here wins outright.

Gareth

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: robinia
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 01:19 AM

Mary Webb's "Precious Bane" -- what can I tell you about it, except I found it on my mother's bookshelf as a teenager and could not open it at any page, then or later, without going on to the end. It cast that kind of a spell, like an old ballad, rare and lovely and true and on the knife edge of "corniness" . . . And I loved introducing it to my teenage daughters, i.e., their reading the book aloud to me on a long interstate highway trip between Huntington WV and Pittsburgh PA, the kind of driving I hate, but this trip I wanted to go on and on or at least until we got to the 'raising of Venus' . . . Î so wanted to hear their reaction to it; instead one of them piped up with "Mother, why are we only going 35 mph?"
Read this book under (or in) an apple tree or perhaps in a meadow . . .   
          robinia

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 01:42 AM

Moby Dick I have re-read many times, including a marathon read-aloud with an exgirlfriend on a trip to the Bahamas. And yes, a lot of it does crack me up. I get a kick out of the way the second mate calls Queequeg "Quohog", and the sermon delivered by the cook to the sharks is hilarious.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Stephen L. Rich
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 08:48 AM

I re-read almost anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Douglas R. Hofstadter, James Thurber, or Jack Douglas. From time to time I will also return to Charles Dickens's "Hard Times".

Stephen Lee

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 11:49 AM

In the realm of science fiction, anything by C.J. Cherryh! What a MARVELOUS writer she is!

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Cluin
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 05:27 PM

Most everything by W.O. Mitchell.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 05:47 PM

Anything by John Steinbeck, especially "Cannery Row" and its sequel "Sweet Thursday". His characters are truly old California, a place which no longer exists.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Thomas the Rhymer
Date: 26 Oct 03 - 06:29 PM

Dostoyevski, Gurdjieff, Swift, De Tocqueville, Voltaire, Doyle, Blavatsky, (Sir Albert) Howard, Nearing, Sholokov, Childe, Franklin, (Alasdair) Gray, Hesse, Dumas... ttr

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: alison
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 02:30 AM

anything by Peter Mayle (Year in Provence etc...)
Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
Jamaica Inn, Rebecca, & Frenchman's Creek - Daphne du Maurier
the "Cross stitch" series - by diana gabaldon as mentioned above (some of the books are better than other... but the good ones are GREAT!!)
the Narnia Chronicles - C.S. Lewis


slainte

alison

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Gurney
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 03:29 AM

As a boy, Coral Island by R.M.Ballantyne.
Everything by Dick Francis.
The Earth Children series by Jean M.Auel.
The Tower and Hive series by Anne McCaffery.
The Cadfael Chronicles by Ellis Peters.
Most of Terry Pratchett.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein


Escapism all. I skim at first, and take it slower and deeper if I enjoy it.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 06:12 AM

OK, so here's an extension of this question....

If the book is part of a series, do you re-read the whole series in sequence from start to finish or do you just read the one book?

I'm a whole series person myself. Can't understand those people who just pick up at random.

LTS

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 09:36 AM

Difficult really not to start at the beginning and work through - you don't pick up the thread of the story properly otherwise and there's history that you are unaware of. I recently read LOTR and the Dune series and wouldn't have made sense of either set of books if I hadn't read from the start. It helped as well having read The Hobbitt.

I've now been recommended Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy which I'm hoping to start when I have to have a minor op. in November. Has anyone read them and what did you think?

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 01:07 PM

They are Great. I am sure you'll love them. They are much better, in my opinion, than the Harry Potter Books.
As for Pratchett, I hate his stuff it is not very good writing and is a bit condescending...but to each his own.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 05:19 PM

Read to a frazzle:
George Orwell: 1984; Collected Essays, Letters, & Journalism
William Bradford Huie: The Revolt of Mamie Stover
Arthur Koestler: autobiographical books; Darkness at Noon
Lewis Carroll: the Alice books
H. L. Mencken: journalism & diary, passim
James Agee: A Death in the Family
many others

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 27 Oct 03 - 06:52 PM

Liz, as to series re-reading, the question isn't quite that way with me.

When I'm out of fresh books to read, I start hunting through bookshelves and cabinets in three different rooms in the house, striving to avoid thrashing around on the floor in withdrawal symptoms.

Now, all my Tolkien books are NOT together, nor are all my C.J. Cherryh books shelved in the same place, and so on; they are where they were shoved the last time I read them. So I go through a shelf or a cabinet and I see lots of my Beautiful Wife's books and lots of kids' books left over from days of yore, and a scattering of my own b ooks, and I see (we'll say) Tolkien's The Unfinished Tales.

"Do I want to read that right now? Umm, no. What else is here? Okay, here's the last volume of Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King. Okay, let's read that!" I don't have to read the preceding volumes, because I have a good recollection of them from the other seven times I read them.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: jacqui.c
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 09:30 AM

Dave
If you HADN'T read the books before would you still have as good an understanding of the story? you paint a great picture of your book collection - I don't think I'd want to live in a house without books - it just wouldn't be a home to me!

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 11:11 AM

This great thread moved me to go looking for a copy of Roald Dahl's collection Someone Like You. Found it through Alibris for around $4, after shipping it was all of $7 and change. It arrived in the mail this morning, a used hardback, no dust jacket, flyspecked but in great shape. (The little owner plate in front says it was owned by a fellow from Beverly Hills, California.) The stories in here are masterful, and the arrangement is such that they do amount to a quite complex whole when you finish reading them.

Thanks for the great reminder of books we want to reread! This one is going beside my lamp and reading chair.

SRS

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: AliUK
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 11:19 AM

Normally, if it´s a series of books I´ll start at the beginning. This sometimes is a pain in the arse for me living here in Brazil as the bookstores that sell books in English will have maybe the middle book of the series and not the rest. Or, as has just happened, the first book and I know for certain that the rest will ot follow. seeing as I don´t have an international credit card and it would be prohibitively expensive to order from the internet it leaves me in a quandry. I miss out on some great stories because I just put the books back on the shelves.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,creole jack
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 12:42 PM

My wife and I read to each at bedtime. We have read and re-read
Stranger in a Stranger Land by Joseph Heinlein
A Conferacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Grimm's Fairy Tales (WELL! We like them)
Poetry by numerous writers

We have read (but will probably not re-read)
Harry Potter Series
Lord of the Rings Series

When we don't read to each other we make up stories about our cats and their supposed adventures. I am currently writing these down (on computer) and will investigate the possibility of a book. Jack

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: joe hill
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 03:30 PM

The Earth by Emile Zola

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Sam L
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 04:36 PM

I like Nabokov in a particular way, and re-read some of his stuff.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: DonMeixner
Date: 28 Oct 03 - 11:31 PM

Louis L'Amour- The Sacketts and Bendigo Shafter, Iron Marshall, Comstock Lode

William Shakespeare- The Tempest, Henry V

Robert Heinlein- Everything

Dick Francis-Everything

Jonathan Gash- Lovejoy

Jack Kirby- The Fourth World Tetralogy, The Monster Comics

Mark Schultz-Xenozoic Tales

Don

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 07:55 AM

A sequel to SILVERLOBK? Tell me about it.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 12:35 PM

Jacqui C. said:

If you HADN'T read the books before would you still have as good an understanding of the story?

Well, of course this thread is about re-reading books. But to answer your question (somewhat):

I wouldn't, in retrospect, have wanted to read The Lord of the Rings out of order, but if I had, I think each of the books is fairly free-standing. There is absolutely NO necessity to have read The Hobbit before The Lord of the Rings. While it has some of the same-named (but somewhat different) characters and shares the same Middle Earth history, it's a different kettle of fish altogether, and is not nearly as satisfying a read. And its story is not in any way a necessary background of knowledge for LOTR.

The other author I've mentioned here a couple times is C.J. Cherryh. She has written several series (along with many single books), and each of the books of each of those series stands alone very nicely.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: kendall
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:02 PM

SILVERLOCK, that is.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Burke
Date: 29 Oct 03 - 08:22 PM

LOTR is really one book in 3 volumes so it would be hard to read it out of order the first time. I reordered my reading of v.2-3 to follow the story straight on one side of the river, then the other.

Some other series are written so that the stories stand alone, others don't. With some SF writers, it's more like they create a world and set lots of stories in it so each is pretty independent of the others.

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 10:59 AM

I occasionally find myself rereading a book without realizing that I've read it before. The title won't ring a bell so I'll start reading it and then realize that I've read it before. The logical thing to do would be to put the book down and choose another, but more often than not I'll realize that I don't remember a damned thing about it, particularly how it ended. This phenomenon is limited to books of popular fiction. It never happens with "serious literature". Furthermore, there are some authors whose work seems to stick in my mind clearly while others' tend to get foggy. For example, within the horror/occult mystery field, I can clearly recall the basic story line and outcome of every Stephen King novel I've ever read, but Peter Straub's books fade from memory pretty quickly. It takes second readings to place them firmly in memory.

Bruce

Subject: RE: What Books Do You Reread?
From: GUEST,Kim C no cookie
Date: 30 Oct 03 - 05:40 PM

Don, I absolutely LOVE the Sacketts.

LH, our local newspaper started carrying Get Fuzzy about a year or so ago. At first I thought it was very strange, but it grew on me like a barnacle. I love its quirkiness. One of my favorites is where Bucky wanted to be a gladiator, and Satchel wanted to call him Gluteus Maximus.