Re-reading?

[Lycosparks]

What book(s) have you read more than once? Why? :)

The only books I have read twice so far are the 5th and 6th of the Harry Potter series. I can read any of those books over and over again.

I hope to re-read a few books that have been assigned to me in school; simply because when they are assigned you don't enjoy them as much, and perhaps skim through it. I want to re-read Catcher in the Rye, Moby Dick, and Frankenstein.

[Danika_Valin]

I've re-read Beowolf, The Giver, Everyman, and King Lear for a class, and I've re-read Jane Eyre for pleasure. There are a lot of books I want to re-read, but there are also so many books that I haven't read yet and would like to spend the time reading.

[grace86]

I have read all the Harry Potter books twice. The third one I read about three times.

There was a book in my childhood called Phoenix Rising that I read probably about four times.

Just like you, I hope as well to re read some of those school assigned books like Frankenstein and The Great Gatsby. To Kill a Mockingbird didn't catch me at all, so I might read that one again too.

I have read Hamlet just about five times now.

But of course, I plan on reading all of my books again, it is just getting through them the first time that is a little hard.

By the way, welcome to the forum.

[cruciverbalist]

Welcome to the forum, Lycosparks! :wave:

I used to re-read my favourite books a lot earlier, but now I generally tend to re-read sections I like, since there are so many books on my to-read list. :)
But I keep going back to the books I like time and again. Those generally tend to be ones where I particularly like the writing style, the lyricism of the language, or where I want to re-read some particularly memorable scene. I recently read The Great Gatsby again... one of my favourites. I keep re-visiting Shakespeare. Also, I hope to re-read Faulkner's The Sound & The Fury and Joyce's Ulysses, to understand them better. ;)
Hope I didn't prattle on too much! :p

[Pensive]

Hmmm, I have read all Harry Potter books six or seven times. Other books which I re-read were Mill on the Floss and The Hobbit.

Now, I might re-read East of Eden...

[Bysshe]

I'm extremely predictable - always re-reading my favourite Evelyn Waugh novels...apart from that, I'll sometimes comfort read (eg: Bridget Jones's Diary AGAIN), or go back to P.G Wodehouse. I never get tired of P.G Wodehouse.

I'm probably the only person on earth who's never re-read a Harry Potter book. :)

[mono]

If I can remember some of the books I have re-read, some list as Shakespeare's complete plays and sonnets (multiple times), The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger (just because I loved it), The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (twice - once in modernized English, the other in original Old English), Tess Of The D'Urberville by Thomas Hardy (which I plan on reading again shortly, probably having read it at an age that I did not understand it completely), Dubliners by James Joyce (because James Joyce almost always requires more than one read), Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (having some difficulty understanding it), Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained by John Milton (for comprehension), The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (also for comprehension, but also in two different translations), The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer, The Æneid by Virgil, and various works by Plato, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, Jean-Paul Sartre, Cicero, Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer, and David Hume.
With poetry, the list extends much further, that seeming my greatest passion in literature; almost always I carry around at least one book of poetry, along with whatever I presently read.

[Lycosparks]

Thanks for the welcome! :)

I agree about not being able to re-read as much as I'd like, simply because there is so much to read for a first time!

[Lycosparks]

I am taking a course next term on Chaucer... I'm getting nervous about it; I'm not the best at comprehending old English...

And I agree about poetry! That's my passion as well--reading and writing.

[amanda_isabel]

hey there lycosparks!

i usually re-read my books after the first time i read them, a day or so after. i prefer re-reading it because i get to see things for the second time, get a clearer point of view on the whole thing.

[alshadai]

I've read three books twice, What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson, Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, and Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami.

I have read Dante's Inferno numerous times, I can't even count anymore!

[Shannanigan]

I had a time in high school where I realized that I had read a lot of somewhat grown-up books as a kid that would have more meaning if I re-read them as a young adult...so I re-read The Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm, 1984, Brave new World, and all of the Chronicles of Narnia. If I ever get the time, I want to re-read a book called "Black Like Me," because I also read it at a rather young age and remember being very affected by it...and I want to refresh the story in my head. (A white man dyes his skin black to see if he is treated differently.) Also, i once read a "Diary of a Slave Girl," but when I search on Amazon and Google for it, a totally different book comes up from the one that I read...so I'll have to search a little deeper for it. If I do find it, I do want to re-read that as well.

I can read Edgar Allan Poe's works over and over for the rest of my life and be content :)

[Idril]

I reread quite often, sometimes just because I loved the book so much and can't get enough of it, sometimes because it's been so long since the first time that I've completely forgotten the plot and yet other times because I didn't like it the first time and enough time has elapsed that I think I might see it in a different light. The books I've reread most often are Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, all by Tolkien, Forsyte Saga by Galsworthy, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams and many books from the Discworld series. I'm about to reread The Brothers K by David James Duncan which I'm actually a little apprehensive about, I loved the book, absolutely loved it but the first half was excrutiatingly slow and I'm not looking forward to reading that part again. Maybe it will be easier this time knowing that the second half more than makes up for it. ;)


I'm probably the only person on earth who's never re-read a Harry Potter book.

You're doing better than me, I've never even read one for the first time.

[Hyacinth Girl]

Honestly, I have reread so many books over the years that I don't want to bore you. The highlights:
Posession - Byatt
The Blind Assassin - Atwood
Shakespeare (take your pick)
Tess of the D'urbervilles - Hardy
Corrine,or Italy - de Stael
Don Quixote - Cervantes
Howards End - Forester (great to read in conjunction with On Beauty by Zadie Smith)
John Donne's poetry
Invisible Man - Ellison

Hello and welcome to lycosparks and alshadai :banana:

[thevintagepiper]

Lord of the Rings 2x
The Last Battle (TCON) 2x
Peter Pan 3x
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (TCON) 3x
So Much to Live For 4x
Ella Enchanted 5x

Ella Enchanted was such a cool book....the movie is a mess though.

Something about Peter Pan is extremely delghtful to me...I love it everything about it.

[Bastet]

hmm... off the top of my head... Hamlet, the Great Gatsby, London, Waiting to Exhale, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, The Portrait of a Lady, 1984, The Scarlet Letter, Interview with the Vampire...

all of them for pleasure :)

[MikeK]

I can almost never retain anything from a book until I've read it for a second time. I think that the second reading is when the book really opens itself up. I find it nearly impossible, with a book of any depth whatsoever, to appreciate all of what the author is trying to get across. Maybe I'm just really, really slow, but I can't even imagine how much poorer my appreciation of my favorite writers (Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Shakespeare, etc...) would be had I only read their works once. (Just think about how much more you notice every time you see one of your favorite movies again - a good line you missed, something you notice that is meant to be symbolic, etc...) Almost every book that I've really enjoyed I've re-read, or at least plan on so doing.

[Pendragon]

I'd say I have read more than half the books I own at least twice, some favorites more than that. With people like myself who collect series of books that revolve around a central character, you tend to go back and re-read the entire series once in a while and relive the world of that character. Some books, once is plenty, and I've read a few where once was too much... ;)

[PeterL]

If it's worth reading once, it's worth rereading. Someone mentioned "Beowulf"; I've read it at least 6 times. I've read most of Shakespeare, but there are only a few of his plays that I have any desire to reread. I reread Poe from time to time. There are some books that I can reread annually.

Every few years I pick up Swift again. For the first few paragraphs I wonder why I liked Swift, then I realize what he is doing, and I fall right into his writing.

[kathycf]

I, or go back to P.G Wodehouse. I never get tired of P.G Wodehouse.
I do this myself and agree with you.

"Black Like Me," because I also read it at a rather young age and remember being very affected by it...and I want to refresh the story in my head.
Thank you for reminding me of this story, I first read it at age 9 and I would do well to re-read it again with an adult perspective.

Any books that are well loved enough in my library get re-read periodically every few years or so, plus I try to keep time open for new books that will become some of those well loved favorites.
The Hobbit, LOTR trilogy, books by C.S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, Wodehouse, the Brontes and Jane Austen are just a few on my summer re-read list.

[TEND]

Books I've re-read (off the top of my head):
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R Tolkien (The only piece of classic literature I had from about 10 or 11 years old till 14 or 15, so I've read it many times.)
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka (Well all of Kafka's short stories really.)
Notes From Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
Gotta be more, but that's all I can think of at the moment...

[ClaesGefvenberg]

What book(s) have you read more than once?Actually, I think my answer is "all of them". :D I doubt that I own a single book that I have not read at least twice...


Why? :) Good question, with several answers. Those are the ones I can think of right away:


Because I enjoy them
Because I am always short on reading material. I really do try to work up a "stash", but to no awail: I love my reading, and keep depleting it.
Because I know that I will find new angles when I reread something. I change, and interpret things differently...


/Claes

[ShoutGrace]

What book(s) have you read more than once?

There is a science fiction / fantasy series that I have re-read called DragonLance. I own 24 of the books in the series and have re-read each of them 4 or five times. I just love it too much. As I get older, some of the parts seem dumber and more childish and others take on greater meaning. I love them!

I have read many books over and over again. I think that it is comforting and a good waste of time. This topic was touched on in one of my favorite movies, 'Memento'. Leonard asks his wife why she continues to read her favorite book over and over and over again constantly, never ceasing. He was arguing that the best part about a book was wondering what happens next.

I re-read books for the same reason I watch my favorite movies repeatedly; I enjoy them. I like reading them. I guess that's it. :D

[Daniel A. C.]

My rereads: The Gospel, On the Road, Crime and Punishment, The Trial, Shakespeare.

There's a good passage from the novelist Vladimir Nabokov on the subject of rereading, from his Lectures on Literature:


Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader. And I shall tell you why. When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, the very process of learning in terms of space and time what the book is about, this stands between us and artistic appreciation. When we look at a painting we do not have to move our eyes in a special way even if, as in a book, the picture contains elements of depth and development. The element of time does not really enter in a first contact with a painting. In reading a book, we must have time to acquaint ourselves with it. We have no physical organ (as we have the eye in regard to a painting) that takes in the whole picture and then can enjoy its details. But at a second, or third, or fourth reading we do, in a sense, behave towards a book as we do towards a painting. However, let us not confuse the physical eye, that monstrous masterpiece of evolution, with the mind, an even more monstrous achievement. A book, no matter what it is—a work of fiction or a work of science (the boundary line between the two is not as clear as is generally believed)—a book of fiction appeals first of all to the mind. The mind, the brain, the top of the tingling spine, is, or should be, the only instrument used upon a book.
Link: Good Readers and Good Writers, by Vladimir Nabokov (http://www.jths.org/jths/teacherpages/west/jsheehan/Summer%20Assignments/Nabokov%20essay.doc)

[Manfred]

I hardly know where to begin.
"The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood," by Pyle.
The "Flashman" series by GM Frasier.
Several Dickens novels.
Most of Poe's works.

All of these have been read multiple times, and the list goes on and on and on. I couldn't begin to count.

[EAP]

Simarillion - Because it is good.
Lord of the Rings - Because it is good.
Heidi - Because it is good.
Harry Potter - Because it is good.

[pqb57]

The book that I have reread the most is The Lord of The Rings. I have read it about 6 times.

[Shakira]

I have read the following books more than once :

1. Her Mother's Daughter - Marilyn French - x6

2. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - x3

3. Wish You Well - David Beldacci - x3

4. Women of Brewster Place - Gloria Naylor - x 4

I can say I am an avid reader. :D

[literaturerocks]

hmm well there are so many books on my to read list that i dont have time to re read but..i do plan to re read the divine comedy and also 1984..im also probably going to re read watership down but for right now i have enough "to read"books to keep me busy for the summer :D

[Cormeister37]

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises

[kathycf]

I like to read in bed and am currently re-reading Jane Eyre. This is a rather forward thinking passage (IMO)


Women are supposed to be very
calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise
for their faculties, and a field for their efforts, as much as their
brothers do; they suffer from too rigid a restraint, too absolute a
stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow-minded
in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to
confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to
playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to
condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn
more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.

[Petrarch's Love]

I am taking a course next term on Chaucer... I'm getting nervous about it; I'm not the best at comprehending old English...


Hi Lycosparks. Sorry for going off topic, but I saw this and thought I'd pass along a few links that might be helpful for you in preparing for and/or while taking your upcoming Chaucer class. The Middle English (not Old English, which is much, much harder) is tricky but manageable with a little knowledge and practice. One of the best sites for Chaucer is the Harvard Chaucer page (http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/), especially the links to "Chaucer's language" and "Teach Yourself Chaucer." Also fun is the audio Chaucer (http://academics.vmi.edu/english/audio/audio_index.html), which has excerpts read aloud, and is good for getting a feel for the meter and sound of the language. Above all though, don't let the funny language scare you. Chaucer is an absolute blast once you get to know him. ;)

[Lycosparks]

Thank you, Petrarch's Love! I will certainly have a look at those sites.
I really appreciate it!!

:nod:

[Nightshade]

I reread a lot- its really the only way I canconstantly keep my self supplied with books-- well ok not true anymore but old habits die hard and so if Ive read somthing more than 3 times I buy it as soon as I see it for sale.
Lets see
Jane austen ( everything at leats twice Northanger abby only twice the rest three or five times.)
Frances Hodgsen burrnett The secret garden (8 and a half times,) The shuttle, T.Tempbaron.
Afew agatha christies
The danger by Dick fransis
The avalanche express by Colin forbes
Redwall (and I cant think of his name)
Wodehouse ( but not the jeeves stories they kind of annoyed me)
Monster men, the oakdale affaire (was that what it was called??) the mucker all by edger Rice burroughs
The Anne series and the emily serires by Montgomery.

theat just what I can think of off the top of my head this early in the morning anyway all becasue I enjoyed them some I started finished turned over and started again as soon as I read it but that is a rare occurance nowadays now I usually onlygo back and read from the middle if Im rereading somthing that quickly.

[WhimsySA]

At the moment I'm rereading Harry Potter & the Order of the Pheonix, I'm nearly finished & am enjoying it as much as, if not more than the first time I read it!

[mtpspur]

I reread Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini (not HIM again) every three to four years or so. Favorite novel of all time just for the plot, the characters, Sabatini's way of conversations.

Recently reread all the Quiller novels by Adam Hall after FINALLY getting my paws on the final novel. Great suspense novels sustained by Quiller's detached way of dealing with his missions.

The Matt Helm spy novels get reread (a certain four or five of them that is) for much the same reason as Hall.

The Bible has been reread all the way thru at least 6 times (trust me--38 years a believer in the Lord Christ and 6 times is a poor showing for The Book of Books. Many portions have been read more often.

[stlukesguild]

There are far too many books that I've read more than once for me to list. Some I've read 5, 6, 7 times or more. With certain truly great works I may have read them in several different translations: the Bible, The Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, Homer and Virgil. I very much a fan of the so-called meta-fictions of Borges, Kafka, and Calvino and have read many of their works repeatedly. And of course there's poetry and Shakespeare...