Have you ever enjoyed a book so much that as soon as you finished it...

[Bysshe]

...you turned right back to page one and started again?

I've never done that before, but last night I finished Lolita and decided that it was worth re-reading straight away. I very nearly did it with The Tin Drum a while ago, but was put off by the length.

Has anyone else does this? What books have you read twice in a row?

[Nightshade]

yupp when I first 'discovered' reading I only did it because my mum refused to read The secret Garden to me AGAIN ( I think we were on our 4th reading so I took it up and read it, that first time took me ages but then I was able to read it in 2 hours and then just turn back and read it again I think I read it 2 and half times in one day.....:) Ive done it since but cat remember with what, mostly nowadays I just go back to my favourite bits then carry on from there.

[bazarov]

Yes, with some books nobody here probably have ever heard before, when I was really young some books for children were really interesting!
Now, some books are really worth of immediate reread, but they are just too long.

[Pensive]

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

[Stieg]

World War Z by Brooks

[rafaelnadal]

A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving.

[metal134]

There have been books where I have been inclined to (Catch 22 and Les Miserable), but I don't really read a book more than once because my list is too damned long; that's time that could be spent reading a new book! (new in the sense that I haven't read it before, not newly released).

[manolia]

When i finished "The count of monte Crtisto" and "Jane Eyre" i re-read a lot of chapters...but not the whole book.

[grace86]

but I don't really read a book more than once because my list is too damned long; that's time that could be spent reading a new book! (new in the sense that I haven't read it before, not newly released).

Same here. :D

[Bysshe]

When i finished "The count of monte Crtisto" and "Jane Eyre" i re-read a lot of chapters...but not the whole book.

Yes, I do that sometimes. Re-read chapters instead of the whole book. I can't think of any examples off-hand, but I'm sure that there have been times when I've re-read a chapter several times without ever re-reading the actual book.

[aabbcc]

That one unforgettable book which never dies is for me M.Selimović's "Derviš i smrt"; however, having read it for the first time several years ago, I was too disturbed to re-read it immediately, I had to let certain time pass for it to settle inside of me for a while, in order to be able to re-read it again. And again. And again. There is no book which I have read more times in its entirety than this one.

There were only two books, as far as my memory serves me, which I could - and wanted - re-read [i]immediately having finished them: M.Bulgakov's "Master i Margarita", and M.Yourcenar's "Hadrian's memoirs".

Usually when I finish a book I either have absolutely no desire to re-read it again [or maybe ever], either [when it comes to truly brilliant books which had provoked quite some thought and emotion in me] cannot re-read it until it settles down, and I need to give it at least a couple of days [if not months] before I can return to it and re-live it.

[JBI]

Good luck trying to re-read the whole Count of Monte Cristo. 1600 pages later... Assuming you didn't get a little kid's 600 page version which misses most of the back story, and ideas that Dumas was trying express.

[Asa Adams]

Same here. :D

Make that three!:thumbs_up darn long my list is getting!

[metal134]

Good luck trying to re-read the whole Count of Monte Cristo. 1600 pages later.
Haha, I was thinking the same thing! Incidently, that book is one my "to read list". My little cousin is about 10 years old and her eyes about popped out of her head when she saw size of my copy of that book!

[Bakiryu]

I Have re-read most of my books (nothing else to do during vacation) but my most read books are

* Ender's game (the wholeseries actually)
* The Hitchikers guide to the galaxy

[Koa]

YES. With so many books that I can't even remember. It was ages ago, when I was a child/teenager and I used to read all the time. And I did read the same books several times, sometimes twice (or more!) in a row. Then I started reading less and less....

[Koa]

Oh and sometimes if a book was from the library or not mine I would read it twice just to enjoy it at the max before giving it back...

[Bysshe]

Oh and sometimes if a book was from the library or not mine I would read it twice just to enjoy it at the max before giving it back...

Yeah, that's what I'm doing with Lolita, because it's from the school library. I have two more weeks till I have to give it back so I might as well make the most of it!

[Dante Wodehouse]

Good luck trying to re-read the whole Count of Monte Cristo. 1600 pages later... Assuming you didn't get a little kid's 600 page version which misses most of the back story, and ideas that Dumas was trying express.

600 pages! How absolutely miniscule!

[Matrim Cuathon]

i reread a lot of books but some of the chapters arent as cool so i skip them. i might read them the next time afte ri skip them though. but, i remember the story so well, rereading sometimes isnt an option.

[Niamh]

Persuasion i think is one of the only ones. I mainly just reread the last few chapters so i can get that fufilling feeling again, you know the one that you get when you have just enjoyed a book so much that when you've finished, you are either sobbing, laughing or smiling!

[jygrace]

I've not exactly done that for the sake of enjoyment, but when I read The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe), I had to read it again right away...just to get some of the info and meaning through my head. XD Very enjoyable though, after I got most of it. ...There are still some parts I don't understand, though.

[ladymacbeth]

I have reread several books like Pride and Prejudice and Tale of Two Cities, but I usually wait several years between readings. However I do read the last few pages of To Kill a Mockingbird occasionally when I get in the mood for a good cry--Scout standing in front of Boo's door looking out at the town gets me every time.

[SleepyWitch]

I've never done that but way very tempted to re-read the following books straight away:
Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides)
Jane Eyre
LotR

[Stieg]

I have just read one incredible ghost story titled Babe in the Woods by Barbara DeGraw three consecutive times in row. Found it on the author's website but rather than describe the qualities of this amazing short...

Click here and click on "Scary Stuff" (http://www.degrawbooks.com/)

Read it slow, savoring, and digest every word.

[Bakiryu]

The tittle some like some... movie.

[manolia]

Good luck trying to re-read the whole Count of Monte Cristo. 1600 pages later... Assuming you didn't get a little kid's 600 page version which misses most of the back story, and ideas that Dumas was trying express.

I am a big girl so i read the big book;)
And yes i plan to read it again soon. One of the best books i've ever read. What's wrong with that? The lord of the rings i've read 3 times (speaking of big books).
I like your assumptions:alien:

[Madhuri]

I must have re-read my favourite parts again and again, but don't remember if I have re-read a complete book. However, I have wanted some stories to never end, like, East of Eden. When it was nearing the end, I thought, I want to now read about Caleb and his future life. This one book I might re-read, but haven't thought of it, as there are sooo many more books to read. Whenever I enter a book store, I see thousands of books that are there, of which probably I haven't read even 1%, once I have sufficiently read a lot of books, I will decide which ones to re-read.

[Mugwump101]

The Harry Potter Series and Notre Dame of Paris. I'm trying to reread Les Miserables but there are so many books that I'm forced to rad currently, I don't have time reread books but rather read new ones.

[morgane]

either [when it comes to truly brilliant books which had provoked quite some thought and emotion in me] cannot re-read it until it settles down, and I need to give it at least a couple of days [if not months] before I can return to it and re-live it.

It's exactly the same with me! Even when I have really enjoyed a book, I cannot re-read it immediately because the story stays in my mind and I prefer to think about it, before going to bed for example, and then I have such a good night!

When I was a child, I used to read the same books again and again, especially the Sherlock Holmes short stories, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights
I know these books as if I had written them! But I still feel a lot of pleasure when I read them, as I did last year.

[carina_gino20]

just recently, i reread A Tale of Two Cities right after I finished it. It was just so good. Unfortunately, I only reached the middle because I had to return it to the library.

other books i reread (but wasnt able to finish again) are:

The Prestige
HP books
Jane Eyre
Persuasion

[The_11th_Doctor]

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I loved it some much that I read it three times in a row. As soon as I was able to get my hands on the television series I did.

[Lioness_Heart]

When I first read Grass for His Pillow, I sat down and read it, and didn't stop until I'd finished it... and then I turned straight back to the beginning (my mum found this amusing). I diddn't read the whole thing through the second time though. I just reread my favourite parts (most of the book...). But I reread most of my books loads of times anyway. This was just a bit sooner than usual.

And HP of course

[cows]

Last year I moved from Massachusetts to Brooklyn, New York and read On The Road by Jack Kerouac twice. Kerouac moved from MA to NY as well for college (I'm in college now) before he started his own travels, so it had particular significance.

Also Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. I read it like a drug addict, thrice in less than a month.

[Idril]

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I loved it some much that I read it three times in a row. As soon as I was able to get my hands on the television series I did.

That is a wonderful book, I've read it several times myself and also had to buy the series. What did you think of the series?

[Nightshade]

There was a series? :eek2: Where do I get my hands on this???

[Idril]

There was a series? :eek2: Where do I get my hands on this???

I got mine on amazon. It's a BBC miniseries and it's pretty cheesy and the guy who plays Richard looks so much like Paul McCartney, it was almost distracting but it was still fun to see.

[chaplin]

...you turned right back to page one and started again?


Only a person who has never known the wiles of indolence and television or food could do such a thing.

[JohnDoe]

Good Day,

Oh my, Yes. Dr. Faustus is not exactly a book, but I read the play twice in one month. Some books are addictive� The Chess Garden, for an example of a longer text, was read back to back but congruently with one other book.

Cheery-Bye

[Adras]

Well, when I was in 5th grade my dad had me read the LotR Hobbit and 3. As soon as I was done with Return of the King I turned right back to page 1 of the Hobbit. There are two reasns for this. The first being it was the first long book and series I had ever read. Secondly, I was so intrigued by the world I had lived in for the past year that I felt lost without it. Yes it took me a year to read all of them the first time. Now I could probably read them all in about 1- 1 1/2 weeks. Excuse me, three reasons, I also wanted to show my dad how much I liked it and tried to please. Which didn't happen very often so it was exciting to seem him light up. No pity. It was cool though.

[Durgamol]

"Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova. I didn't reread it immediately - i had to think it over. But after 2 days...;)

[Nossa]

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown...and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen..I was very much tempted to turn to page one and start reading both of them again, but for my bad luck, at the time when I finished them both, I had exams and studying..so I'm still determined on re-reading them again...someday..lol

[BroadwayBaby]

I've totally done that, and other times I'll just try to look something up and end up reading the rest of the book in 1 day from where I was looking it up...

[emmsi_*tobyrox*]

Harry Potter and the Philosopher'sStone when i was about 9!

[poofyhead15]

I often feel like I should start right over again when I finish a book. I usually feel this way if it seems that there is much there that didn't sink in the first time. My problem is that I always have a list of about the next 10-12 books I want to read for the first time, so I usually end up starting something else. Books I've read twice in the same year or two:

The Stranger by Camus
The Great Gatsby
currently rereading The Brothers Karamazov (I think I will end up reading this one several more times...)

[Dark Star]

I usually have a long queue so I have no desire to re-read a book immediately. I cannot recall ever doing this, actually. That aside, once I've read a book I tend to like to give it time before a re-reading when the story and all the details aren't still right there in my mind like they are after a first reading. Over time some details fade and I may look at the story from a new perspective, or it will feel like 're-discovering' the book and I prefer that. Assuming I feel that I've missed a lot the first time through, I'll pack it away for six months to a year or two on the book shelf before giving it a re-read to give myself a bit of time to gain more experience and maybe grow a bit wiser and see if I understand the book better or catch more the second time around. It isn't going anywhere, after all... ;)

[downing]

Bysse, I did exactly that with Gone with the Wind!

[johann cruyff]

Not really,but there were many books that,after reading them,made me look for everything else by that author - exempli gratia,Demian.When I finished it,I simply froze all of my plans until I've read all there is to read by Hesse.

[INTUNEevolution]

The Edge Chronicles.

It's a children's book series, but I'm not judging you :D

[capek]

No. My addiction to Half Priced Books keeps me too busy.

[Janine]

Actually, I do two things - I re-read books, but not right after I just read them; the second thing I do, is find other books by that author, and try to read all he has written. Lately, I have been going back to books I read years ago, and reading them a second and third time; I find them so much more meaningful and fascinating. I think one definitely benefits, from reading a book more than once. One reading is never enough. Of course, realistically, we can only hope to re-read some books, not all of them in one lifetime. Time is of the essense.

[amalia1985]

I did that not long ago, with a beautiful book by a famous Greek author. I would translate the title of the book as "The Time When The Unicorns Vanished". It is a mixture of Greek Medieval History and Fantasy, a fabulous book, which will probably become my favourite one in due time...Time to read it again!!!

[LadyWentworth]

I did that not long ago, with a beautiful book by a famous Greek author. I would translate the title of the book as "The Time When The Unicorns Vanished". It is a mixture of Greek Medieval History and Fantasy, a fabulous book, which will probably become my favourite one in due time...Time to read it again!!!
This book sounds interesting. Who is the author? Do you think there might be an English translation?


I re-read Jane Eyre as soon as I finished it. I just loved it. I have read it a number of times since then, also.

I didn't re-read all of Persuasion as soon as I finished it, but what I did do was re-read Chapter 23 as soon as I finished that chapter. :) I have read the book a number if times since then, though, but every now and then I will just re-read Chapter 23. Every now and then I need that little bit of happiness that I get from that chapter. :)

[1n50mn14]

Shogun- James Clavell
Though that may have been simply to glean more information and retain more information than the first time around.

[jon1jt]

Even the greatest books need to simmer in the soul after a full reading. :)

[Dori]

/\ What he said. :p

I virtually read Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck twice in a row, but that was for school. Otherwise, I would prefer to pick up another book (by the same author, perhaps) than to reread the book I just read.

[snufflesrules]

I read "To kill a mocking bird" twice in a row and most of the Harry Potter ones.

[Igetanotion]

I did that with "One Hundred Years of Solitude". At first, I refused to finish it... lol this is a problem I have with books I really enjoy, I feel like if I finish it, that I will have something missing in my life! LMAO, I know, crazy. But when I Did finish it, I just re-read it again immediately. I haven't done that since, now I give it at least a month before I re-read..

[Etienne]

I did that with "One Hundred Years of Solitude". At first, I refused to finish it... lol this is a problem I have with books I really enjoy, I feel like if I finish it, that I will have something missing in my life! LMAO, I know, crazy. But when I Did finish it, I just re-read it again immediately. I haven't done that since, now I give it at least a month before I re-read..

I know that, it did that when I read War and Peace, but this "something missing" led me to what is now hundreds of other books and a passion for literature :)

[Tournesol]

When I was a young teen, I read a darling little paperback that my Mom picked out from the sale basket at the bookshop:

'Charlie' by Joan G. Robinson.

I really love this book, when I read it at 13, it absolutely captured my heart and psyche: feeling no one loves you, wanting to run away from home, then actually running away from home, and finally realising that they do care for you...lol
I read it whenever I can!

[Weisinheimer]

I read Jane Eyre twice in a row, except the second time I started at chapter ten.

[jasons123451]

I re-read several books over the years not right after finishing but six months to a year or two later. Slaughter-House Five, The Sun Also Rises, and the Harry Potter books are just a few examples. It gives more meaning to many of these after reading other books by same authors and time. I plan on re-reading Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov after I finsh Demons.

[Homyrrh]

"A Feast for Crows", the remembered what a bi--- it was the first 1000 pages around. O where is "A Dance with Dragons" ... ?

Other than that, likely just the Book of Proverbs. Solomon was DROPPING knowledge like no OTHER...

I despise senselessly re-reading books; it seems so counterproductive on the whole.

[superunknown]

As someone else said I've reread chapters but not the whole book. This was with Catch 22.

[islandclimber]

I reread Dostoevsky's 'Notes From the Underground' three times in a row... but it is a fairly short work... again with Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' I read twice in a row.. but it is short also... I have never read a long book twice in a row, though I have read many more than once...

[HowlingMan]

I read The Catcher in the Rye twice in a row, and have done that two times now. I ALWAYS skip over the part where poor Holden gets his *** handed to him by Maurice.

I read Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman twice in a row, some stories dozens of times in a row like Babycakes and Nicholas Was...

Read Citizen Vince by Jess Walters twice in a row. I just loved it.

[Saphira]

I started re-reading all books in "His Dark Materials Trilogy", "Temeraire Series", "Inheritance" and "Rangers Apprentice". They are very good. I was jumping of excitement when I had finished those. :) I have probably read them more than 10 times.

/Saphira.

[Jozanny]

If I care to reread I tend not to do it right away unless I want to write something about the author or the text. I am rereading Madame Bovary now, slowly, arguing various points and critical assessments, and I barely remember my first time through it, which is odd, as I consider myself a careful reader--but rereading is essential for writers, teachers, and professional scholars.

[kelby_lake]

...you turned right back to page one and started again?

I've never done that before, but last night I finished Lolita and decided that it was worth re-reading straight away.
Has anyone else does this? What books have you read twice in a row?

I did that, primarily because I didn't understand some bits :) i did that with girl with a pearl earring too

[lyni]

I did that with a trilogy by Cecilia Dart-Thornton. her Bitterbynde trilogy. I read the first book and I was rapt by it that I went back to the first page and read it again. then when it was time for the second book to come out I reread the first one and went onto the second one. then reread that again straight away. then did the same thing with the third book. she puts so much detail in her books that you miss a lot the first time round.

[MorpheusSandman]

Yes...

The Man Who Was Thursday by GK Chesterton

[Guinivere]

I reread most of the Harry Potter books straight away. Especially when I was younger and the first books came out. I couldn't believe that there could be anything this good.