BS: Books you read multiple times

Subject: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 04:26 PM

Earlier this year I read EL Doctrow's "Ragtime" again for what must be the seventh or eighth time. Ditto with "Alas, Babylon" by Pat Frank. There are some books that are so multi-layered that they need to be read every few years - because each time you will find something new - they always seem to be fresh. And there are other books that are favorites - and it's like having the same conversation with an old friend.

We finished our basement recently and for the first time in decades I have ALL of my books out where I can find them. So I've spotted some classics that are going to end up on my "to read" shelf again. "Old Fishhawk" by Mitch Jayne is one of them. "Little Big Man" is another. I think I heard somewhere that Christopher Lee reads The Lord Of The Rings every year at Christmas. Do you have a favorite that bears up well under multiple readings?

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 04:47 PM

Grapes of Wrath -- started about four times; finished last time.
East of Eden
The Egyptian
A Peace to End All Peace   --   currently mid way through second reading
The Rubaiyat
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner   --   about every three years I go into my office, close the door and read it aloud
The Destruction of California -- red through when new about 45 years ago. Periodically reread the introductory chapter which is about as
close as elegaic prose gets to poetry.
The Revolutionary War tetrology by F. Van Wyck Mason -- all four of it.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: catspaw49
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 04:57 PM

"To Kill A Mockingbird"..........Harper Lee may only have had one full novel in her, but it is a work for the ages.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Little Robyn
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 05:01 PM

Devil Water by Anya Seton.
Set in Northumberland, it covers the Jacobite uprisings, following the Radcliff family, who lived at Dilston Hall.
It also includes the song Derwentwater's Farewell, one of my favourites.
Robyn

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 05:27 PM

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenence" by Robert Pirsig....but not recently. I just found it in a pile, and it may be time to start it again.

Several of the Sci-Fi books by Marion Zimmer Bradley about "Darkover"...

and a rare little thing by Arthur Herzog.. The B.S. Factor: The Theory and Technique of Faking It in America
I wish I wish I could memorize it...and afford to buy a copy for everyone below the line... ;>)

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 05:57 PM

Two to read online:

Diary of a Nobody - Mr Pooter's Diary, by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith

The Ballad of the White Horse, by GKC Chesterton

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 06:00 PM

"The Leopard," Giuseppe di Lampedusa. The best picture I know of the changes that took place as the old noble families were displaced by members of the middle class.
Only partly fictionized- di Lampedusa belonged to the noble family with the leopard central in their coat of arms. It really is his story.

"Rubiyat." I once was able to quote many verses. Greatly impressed me in my teenage years, and still brings memories that have little to do with Omar's verses.

Most volumes of Joseph Conrad.

"Pillars of Wisdom," T. E. Lawrence.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 06:30 PM

I find that the work SF/Fantasy author, Jack Vance is eminently re-readable, particularly the second book in his 'Dying Earth' series, 'The Eyes of the Overworld'. In this book the incorrigible rogue, Cugel the Clever, has a series of mis-adventures in the world of the far future - a world dominated by magic, magicians and monsters. This sounds like standard fantasy fare, but Vance was a pioneer in the field (the original 'Dying Earth' book was published c. 1950) and he has a unique style which I have always found highly addictive.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Arkie
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 06:54 PM

Watership Down

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 06:57 PM

First and foremost, Tolkien:
Lord of the Rings, 6 times so far,
   (but for The Hobbit, once is enough.)
The Silmarillion
The Lays of Beleriand
The Book of Unfinished Tales
The Book of Lost Tales
Leaf by Niggle
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
(and at least two others, the titles of which my aged memory refuses to yield up.)

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, of course
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Wind in the Willows
Yes, and Watership Down

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Beowulf

A Confederacy of Dunces 3 (or is it 4?) times so far

I just reread Master and Commander, as the beginning of rereading that whole cycle of great novels.

Those are the ones that spring fairly easily to mind.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 07:03 PM

Possession - A.S. Byatt
I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith
The Sixteen Pleasures - Robert Hellenga
Pigs Is Pigs - Ellis Parker Butler
My Very Own Special, Particular, Private and Personal Cat - Sandol Stoddard Warburg
The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" - Douglas Adams
Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast - Bill Richardson
Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
Perfume - Patrick Suskind

Oh, and all the Travis McGee books of John D. MacDonald.

I really want to reread all Ian Fleming's James Bond books, now that I've acquired them again in paperback -- same editions as I read back in the '60s.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 07:21 PM

100 years of solitude - took at least 3 readings before I followed the thread to the child being eaten by the ants...

All Dick Francis mysteries
All Tony Hillerman mysteries
All Alistair McLean mysteries

Narnia and the Lord of the Rings, yes, also too.

The Edward X. Delaney mysteries (author forgotten) as he makes SUCH great sandwiches...

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: akenaton
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 07:33 PM

Sunset Song ...Lewis Grassic Gibbon.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: mauvepink
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 08:17 PM

Pride & Prejudice... Jane Austen
Tipping the Velvet... Sarah Waters
PS I Love You... Cecelia Ahern
The Selfish Gene... Richard Dawkins
The Red Queen Hypothesis... Matt Ridley
The Bible... (not all at once)... numerous authors
Verdi... George Osborne
Womanwords... Jane Mills

and others

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Eiseley
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 09:07 PM

Pride and Prejudice (read for the third time at least :)
Persuasion
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Glass Bead Game
All the Strange Hours
The Great Divorce
The Screwtape Letters
Walden
Blue Willow
The Chosen
Arabel and Mortimer
Mortimer Says Nothing
Homer Price
Centerburg Tales
Housekeeping
A Wrinkle in Time
Anne of Green Gables books
Chronicles of Narnia
Tolkein
Good Omens

And many others

Eiseley

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Mark Ross
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 09:20 PM

BOUND FOR GLORY Woody Guthrie
Anything by Robert Heinlein
GRAPES OF WRATH & IN DUBIOUS BATTLE John Steinbeck


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: GUEST,David E.
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 09:38 PM

Wonderful lists. I must say that Mudcatters are certainly very well read. Makes me wonder why so many of us listen to folk music. (joke!!!)

David E.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: jacqui.c
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:10 PM

The Stand - Stephen King

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Rapparee
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:15 PM

Oh, good Lord. what a silly question! Of course I do!

Almost everything by Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, S. Robinson, Dana Stabenow, Patrick McManus, Bill Shakespeare, Al Pope, Sam Clemens, and others far, far too numerous to list.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: LadyJean
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:34 PM

When my nerves are truly frazzled I read Dorothy L. Sayers' mysteries. Strong Poison and Murder Must Advertise are my favorites.

I, recently, acquired an anthology of Rudyard Kipling's horror and science fiction stories. It is nice to spent time with another old friend.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Bill D
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:43 PM

Oh, and "The Mote in God's Eye" ....Niven & Pournelle ..amazing book.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read mulitple times
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:48 PM

There are very few books I've read more than once.

I've read the complete Sherlock Holmes stories maybe 3 times. I find that, after an interval of 10 years or so, I can't remember how most of the stories end, so it's like reading them for the first time (sort of).

I'm sure I've read several of Shakespeare's tragedies multiple times: Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III. (Is that classified as tragedy or history? It could be either, I guess.)

I'm sure I've read Huckleberry Finn at least twice.

I used to read a lot of SF, but I think A Canticle for Liebowitz is the only one I ever read twice.

Oh, there's Great Expectations and David Copperfield.

I guess I'm always hoping that the next book I read is the one that's going to unlock the mysteries of the universe, but I'm always a little disappointed, and that's why I don't look back.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 11:33 PM

Pride and Prejudice
Return of the Native
Moby Dick
and many children's books which I read aloud yearly to my students

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: mrdux
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 12:04 AM

mostly, there's so much to read that i don't get around to rereading things, with a few exceptions:

Borges and Kafka (especially his stories) get regular rereadings
Tolkein's Ring, every four or five years
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Wind in the Willows
Catch-22
Candide
The Odyssey
Robert Graves' retelling of the Greek Myths
and, lately, Asimov, Poul Anderson and early Heinlein (but only after a forty-year hiatus)

that's all that comes to mind at the moment.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: open mike
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 12:21 AM

my first inclination is to mention (tongue-in-cheek) howthe title reminds me of a joke.... A Texan is trying to explain the size of his ranch and mentions that he can drive all day and still not be to the end of his land. The person he is speaking to says "I used to have a car like that, too."

I can just picture someone saying "I can read all day and not get to the end of the book" and the reply "I used to read that slowly too."
Or I guess I was really thinking of something like this: A guy walks into a bar and says Hey, I have a good banjo joke to tell. The bar tender says I am a banjo player, do you still want to tell that joke?
A very large man at the table says I am a banjo player, do you still want to tell that joke? The bouncer says I am a banjo player, do you still really want to tell that joke?

WEll, not if i have to repeat(explain) it 3 times..


oh, any way i rarely repeat a book..

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 12:34 AM


Several of the Sci-Fi books by Marion Zimmer Bradley about "Darkover"...

We've got the entire series; haven't read them in years, maybe it is time. My fav. was Thendara House.

I don't reread very many books, either, but there are a couple I can think of right off:

The Cowboy and the Cossack - Clair Huffaker
To Kill A Mocking Bird
Elephants in the Living Room, Bears in the Canoe - Elizabeth Levy, Liz Hammond and Earl Hammond
All of James Herroit's
James Whitcomb Riley and other poets

I have set aside three which I plan to read, again:

Cavedweller - Dorothy Allison
Alias Grace - Margaret Atwood
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette - Judith Thurman


And, always some of the classics including Kipling, Twain, Scott, and Shakespeare, but not too often.

With Morgan around, I find myself reading aloud, again, the Jungle Book, stories from a children's book for teachers which my grandma used then gave to me, "How to tell stories to children," and various other classics. He's almost ready for some from other old books I have collected over the years if I don't sell them first!:-)

Wesley, that is such a good feeling, isn't it, to finally have all of your books out and in one place? We had that in WY, but here it's just too limited on space and we really want to lighten up so we've been going through them all.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:25 AM

I share Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey with Lady Jean as comfort reading: even wrote entries on Dorothy L Sayers for two encyclopedias of literature. Gaudy Night my favourite, I think.

Others are P G Wodehouse, esp Jeeves & Wooster and Lord Emsworth; Richmal Crompton's William books: on more serious note, Jane Austen, esp Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, P&P; Dickens, Great Expectations; Twain, Huckleberry Finn; Broadway stories of Damon Runyon.

Julian Fellowes' Snobs has recently been adopted to this catalogue.

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Slag
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:48 AM

The Bible

Nine Princes in Amber

Shakespeare

Alice In Wonderland/ Through the Looking Glass

Robert Frost

Poe

Foundation Trilogy

Jack London

Mark Twain

T.S. Eliot

C.S. Lewis (Two in particlular; The Screwtape Letters & That
Hideous Strength)

The World Almanac (does that count?)

I know there are others but they are not coming to mind. Just as well. These are probably closest to me. Sorry to say my reading has dropped off a lot over the last few years. I used to average about 200 books a year. Now I'm lucky to read 30 to 40. I'll blame the computer, OK?

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: kendall
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 05:07 AM

Silverlock by John Myers Myers

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 05:15 AM

This is a serious answer: Hutton's Arse, by Malcolm Rider. A magnificent book on the topic of three billion years' geological history of the north-west Highlands of Scotland. My son bought it for my birthday and I read it through three times non-stop. If you know the area you really can't not have this book!

I also have a penchant for reading use-of-English books again and again, and I have a wildflowers book by Marjorie Blamey that is my favourite bedside dipper.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: fat B****rd
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 06:01 AM

Heart of Darkness
Moby Dick (short version)
Sherlock Holmes (long and short stories)
Robert B Parker's Spenser series
Moulded In Earth (Richard Vaughan)
Carter (Jack's Ruturn Home) Ted Lewis

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: GUEST,HiLo
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 08:23 AM

Shakespeare and the Bible of course. I have read Yeats literally hundreds of times as well as Keats and Coleridge.
Novels are as follows

The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Howard's End E.M. Forster
Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
No Great Miscief Allister MacCleod
A Distant Mirror Barbara Tuchman
All of the Hornblower books C.S. Forester
Speal Memory Vladimer Nabakov

and so many more

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Deckman
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 08:42 AM

1. The Kalevela
2. Everythig by Ivan Doig ... again and again and ....

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: gnu
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 09:28 AM

A Man Called Intrepid
Mountbatten (the official bio)

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 09:30 AM

I forgot previously to mention George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman series. Anyone else for those?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Anne Lister
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 09:51 AM

Top of my list for multiple re-reads are Dorothy Dunnett's historical novels - the Lymond Chronicles and Niccolo Rising, as well as her wonderful novel about the real MacBeth, King Hereafter. But there are quite a lot of other books I love to re-read, which is why our house is full of books, many of which are looking a tad shabby.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 10:22 AM

How could I leave out Moby-Dick? See more in it with each re-read.

Then, too, there's all of the books by adventurer Richard Halliburton.

And the Lord Peter Wimsey novels of Dorothy L. Sayers.

I need to REread (yet again) the early Flashman books by George MacDonald Fraser and read some of the later books which have been patiently waiting on the book pile(s) for years.

Oh, and "Songlines" by Bruce Chatwin. Hmm...anything by Bruce Chatwin.

Too many books; not enough time...

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Bettynh
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 10:32 AM

I re-read just about anything by Terry Pratchett or Anne McCaffrey to get out of this world.

In this world, John McPhee, especially his love story "Rising from the Plains" and most of Berndt Heinrich, especially "The Trees in My Forest" which are so familiar.

I have the "Hitchhiker's Guide" original and new series on my Itunes list, and bits and pieces turn up when I listen randomly. Ditto for the poems of Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson and "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Riding" (the GOOD reading by Audio Renaissance not the more easily available Audible.com reading). I wish I could find a recording of Matt Parker, a Vermont poet (I think) who wrote "The Giving War."

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Nancy King
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 11:53 AM

There are lots of books I have read more than once, but the ones I find myself going back to over and over are the Aubrey-Maturin series books by Patrick O'Brian, starting with "Master and Commander" and going through all 20. I have read them in print several times, and by now have lost count (who needs to count, anyway?) of how many times I've listened to the wonderful Patrick Tull recordings.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: kendall
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 12:11 PM

The Odyssey

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 12:34 PM

Forgot:

Mists of Avalon

Also certain ones by Barry Lopez, esp. Crow and Weasel
Waiting for the Galactic Bus & The Snake Oil Wars - Parke Godwin

Deckman, "Everything by Ivan Doig"..I just *discovered* him this year and agree!

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: fretless
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:00 PM

Lord of the Rings probably tops my reread list -- many times but not since the movies came out.

The Lattimore translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

In science fiction, Asimov's Foundation trilogy (but not the subsequent additions). Similarly, Herbert's Dune (but only the first in that over-done series). Also the Mote in God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer. And of course Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle.   

Of short stories, Twain's A Cure for the Blues -- one of the funniest essays ever -- and all of Saki.

There are others. I tended to reread novels when I was younger, not so much since I passed 50. Too little time now; too much on my waiting to be read list, I suppose.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:19 PM

Dorothy Sayers mentioned more than once. Me too.
Poe's poems and short stories, but not recently.

Dashiell Hammett. "Strictly speaking, there are no real substitutes for sexual satisfaction."
Raymond Chandler- "An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of decadence."
"The more you reason, the less you create."

Read only recently, but will read again- Marti, Versos sencillos.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: gnu
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:27 PM

Q... "Poe"

I thought that was a given! >;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:32 PM

fretless ~ agree re Asimov, tho personally prefer the Robot series to the Foundations.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: kendall
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:38 PM

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: gnu
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:46 PM

Fascinating thread. Gives insight to those who post.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: IvanB
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:05 PM

Asimov, particularly the Foundation & Robot series.

Heinlein, esp. "Something Wicked this Way Comes."

LOTR, every few years.

Dickens, "Tale of Two Cities."

I reread all the previous Harry Potter books every time a new one was to come out. I suppose now that she's finished the series I won't reread them quite as often.

"The age of Innocence," by Edith Wharton

Steinbeck, esp. "The Grapes of Wrath" & "Travels with Charlie."

Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonrider" series as well as any of the harper books.

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: Ebbie
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:05 PM

Long ages past I read and reread many of the above mentioned, especially those of Shakespeare, Twain, Austin, the Bronte's, Asimov, and a number of other classics.

In more recent times, I keep on hand (among others):

Coming into the Country - John McPhee
One Man's Wilderness - Richard Proeneke
The Road- Cormac McCarthy

Subject: RE: BS: Books you read multiple times
From: robomatic
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:15 PM

Little Big Man by Thomas Berger
The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes
900 Grandmothers by R A Lafferty
Men and Women by Robert Browning
1984 by George Orwell
The Travis McGee 'color' series by John D. MacDonald
The Return of the Continental Op by Dashiell Hammett

I want to add an "AMEN" to the rereaders of Harper Lee and Dorothy Dunnett. I gave (leant out) my copy of the Lymond Chronicles at some point and haven't seen 'em since. Wonderful language.