What book have you read the most times?

[waryan]

What books have you guys read more than once, and were the second and up readings much different- as far as comprehension, etc., from the first?

[ntropyincarnate]

Ok let's see...i've probably read To Kill A Mockingbird the most times, 5 or 6. I certainly get something new out of it every time i read it, but i wouldn't say that has anything to do with comprehension. Other books that i've read a lot are Lord of the Rings, all of the Anne of Green Gables books, Quo Vadis, The Chosen...there are definitely more, but i can't think of any right now.

[Niamh]

O thats a tough one! Maybe Persuasion by Jane Austen.
But then again it could be The Merlin Trilogy by Mary Stewart (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, The Last Enchantment.) I've read them every year since i was about 14....

[ntropyincarnate]

That reminds me, I've read both Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility a lot of times.

[amalia1985]

Wuthering Heights, My Cousin Rachel, Ivanhoe, The Age Of Innocence, and many more.

[manolia]

Lord of the rings

[stlukesguild]

It would be a toss up between Dante's Comedia... at least 5 times in differing translations... and J.L. Borges' Dreamtigers (El Hacedor).

[mortalterror]

For the novel, I've read The Catcher in the Rye about 16 times. It's stayed fresh, although I never studied it deeply like I've done with other books. I've always been slightly afraid of ruining the magic. As for poems, I've probably read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner about twenty times. Again, I haven't studied it closely. For plays, I'd have to say Hamlet. I started out reading it for fun, but then it seems like every other class I took for years we had to read it again. I've also seen various film versions multiple times; so I've lost track of how many times I've read or viewed this play. I'd have to say that I find something new every time, sometimes in the text and sometimes in the performances.

[Dori]

For the novel, I've read The Catcher in the Rye about 16 times. It's stayed fresh, although I never studied it deeply like I've done with other books. I've always been slightly afraid of ruining the magic. As for poems, I've probably read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner about twenty times. Again, I haven't studied it closely. For plays, I'd have to say Hamlet. I started out reading it for fun, but then it seems like every other class I took for years we had to read it again. I've also seen various film versions multiple times; so I've lost track of how many times I've read or viewed this play. I'd have to say that I find something new every time, sometimes in the text and sometimes in the performances.

16 times?! :eek: Oh, we just watched a movie version of Hamlet with Mel Gibson. Some parts were a bit awkward, but I liked it. :) Also liked the play, of course.


I've read The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien three times. :p

[El Viejo]

Tom Sawyer and Alice in Wonderland are on top at ten or so each.

[Oniw17]

I very rarely read a book twice. I've read the Republic 3 times and have reread chapters of some books that I didn't really understand the first time. I have an extremely good memory, so reading a book twice is really boring for me.

[LadyWentworth]

I've read a few books twice, but the only ones that I have cared to read 3 times or more (sometimes more times than I can even remember! :p ) are:

Jane Eyre - Bronte
Persuasion - Austen
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - Lewis
Maurice - Forster
The "Little House" series - Wilder
A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
The Phantom of the Opera - Leroux


I still have the same opinion on those as I did when I first read them. If I didn't, I wouldn't keep getting this great desire to read them all over again. :)

[believin]

I usually read books multiple times, if the book is good enough to keep me thinking. For books that I teach, I obviously read them many times each. So there are many of Shakespeare's plays that I've read more times than I can remember, for instance.

In reading for leisure, I usually wait about 5 or more years before rereading a book. What I usually find when rereading is that there are things I forgot — not so much plot, but the subtleties. It is a good experience to read a book multiple times. Toni Morrison says that it is only when you do so that you really begin to read at all.

[Niamh]

I've read a few books twice, but the only ones that I have cared to read 3 times or more (sometimes more times than I can even remember! :p ) are:

Jane Eyre - Bronte
Persuasion - Austen
I still have the same opinion on those as I did when I first read them. If I didn't, I wouldn't keep getting this great desire to read them all over again. :)

I'm the same with these two. I've read persuasion more than Jane Eyre though, and still love both of them.

[Etienne]

I believe it's probably Candide, rather short and very sweet, so that's an easy multiple reads.

[Kafka's Crow]

I read Hamlet and King Lear countless times, I knew both the plays by heart and could tell the act and scene number of any line without looking it up. Same goes for Waiting for Godot. I have read Beckett's Trilogy at least five times. Want to re-read Dostoevsky's novels. Can't read more than two pages of To Kill a Mocking Bird! I find myself going back to Les Chants de Maldoror again and again.

[kelby_lake]

i've read Lolita and The Great Gatsby twice.
Also read Les Enfants Terribles twice

[hellsapoppin]

"The Cask of Amontillado"

Read it at least 30 times.

Ah, revenge is sweet! :)

[WayneHughes]

I don't personally see the appeal of re-reading books.

[waryan]

kafka, i cant seem to get far with mockingbird either so youre not alone

also i could understand reading catcher in the rye 16 times i think- i really enjoyed it

i think i could read Camus' THE STRANGER more than a few times at the moment.

[bazarov]

Fathers and Sons, for 6 times minimum.

[Sir Bartholomew]

Pride & Prejudice (can't tell exactly, but I've been reading it since 2000)

[bounty]

ive read all these first bunch of books twice---the hobbit and the lord of the rings trilogy, the all creatures great and small series, 1984, watership down, and david copperfield. my all time repeat book is tom brown's schooldays by thomas hughes. ive probably read that a half dozen times and each time i did, i loved it more (if you ever read it, make sure to skip the first chapter!).

some of you catcher in the rye fans are welcome to share your love of the book with me---along with moby dick, which was a huge disappointment, i absolutely do not see the appeal....

[_Shannon_]

I'm old enough now to be going back and re reading things (it's always so hard ofr me to choose something I've already read :) )

This Side of Paradise, Great Gatsby, Beautiful and the Damned. To Kill a Mockingbird, Beowulf, Appointment in Samarra, On the Road, Dharma Bums, The Sun Also Rises --a bunch of ancient Greek plays, A Tale of Two Cities....Most of those I've only re-read the past two years..

[sofia82]

Coetzee's Waiting for the Barbarians and LIfe and Times of Michael K

[sofia82]

And of course, there are a lot of re-reading because of my courses :d

[DapperDrake]

I don't personally see the appeal of re-reading books.

There's plenty of appeal.

1) You have the book already.
2) You know that you like the book.
3) A second read often brings the story to life.
4) Its an escape into a familiar and comfortable world.

Of course there are plenty of reasons not to spend too much time re-reading books.

Personally I've been guilty of re-reading many, many, books - mostly when I was a kid and for the reasons above but also because I didn't have much money to by new books, but that's a secondary reason.

The lord of the rings I first read when I was 11 and I've re-read it at least 10 times.
The magician by R E Feist I have read perhaps 6 times,
Dune by F Herbert about 6 times,
The God emperor of Dune about 6 times,
Emma by J Austen 3 times (and all her other books twice),
The waves V Woolf 3 times,
The Woman in White by W Collins 3 times,
Moonstone by W Collins 3 times,
Robinson Crusoe by D Defoe 4 times,

not to mention the countless E Blyton book and countless Dr Who books I read and re-read as a kid.

I guess that's it really, for me as a Kid reading was about escaping into a familiar and comfortable fantasy world, so it was only natural that I would re-read.

[stlukesguild]

I don't personally see the appeal of re-reading books.

It has the same appeal as listening to the same piece of music or watching the same film or looking at the same painting a second time (and more). Reading a book brings a certain aesthetic pleasure. Re-reading it does the same. Re-reading also can bring a greater understanding or a different eye to the work because you, the reader, have changed... have read other books... have had other experiences in the interim. If the work is truly a work of great aesthetic worth it will always be ahead of you... you will find that it offers more each time you return with more. If not... then like most of the works of art and music beloved in our adolescence, we will find that it no longer lives up to what we once imagined it as being.

[stlukesguild]

I can see the appeal of rereading books, but I have so many books to read that I just can't afford to spend time rereading unless the book is really superlative.

Dante and then Shakespeare are probably the authors I have re-read the most... followed by Blake, Borges, Baudelaire (perhaps), and a few others. All would sure fall into the category of "superlative".

The problem is that unless one's a speed reader, it takes so much longer to reread a book than it does to listen to a piece of music or look at a painting or watch a film, even a long film. I just don't have that time to spare if I want to read all I want to read.

Certainly... I have not even re-read Dante as often as I have listened again to Bach's Well Tempered Clavier or Beethoven's 9th. On the other hand, I have found far more aesthetic pleasure to be found in re-reading Dante or Shakespeare than I might find with the first readings of most other authors... this in spite of the fact that I too have a library and a "to be read" list that mocks my own mortality.

[Petrarch's Love]

There are many books I've re-read a lot, and I'm not actually sure what I've re-read the most. I would imagine the prize would have to go to one of Shakespeare's plays, since I've been over some of those many times for my teaching and research.


Certainly... I have not even re-read Dante as often as I have listened again to Bach's Well Tempered Clavier or Beethoven's 9th. On the other hand, I have found far more aesthetic pleasure to be found in re-reading Dante or Shakespeare than I might find with the first readings of most other authors... this in spite of the fact that I too have a library and a "to be read" list that mocks my own mortality.

I know. I sometimes feel a sort of gleeful guilty pleasure when re-reading something, because I feel on some level I should be giving time to something new but still...that old friend tempts me back. Obviously listening to music over and over again is easier because of the time involved, but there are certainly some lyric poems that I've re-read as often as I've re-listened to Bach's Cello suites. Maybe we need a thread on what poem you've re-read the most (though this I cannot possibly guess; there are so many).

[sofia82]

I don't personally see the appeal of re-reading books.

It has the same appeal as listening to the same piece of music or watching the same film or looking at the same painting a second time (and more). Reading a book brings a certain aesthetic pleasure. Re-reading it does the same. Re-reading also can bring a greater understanding or a different eye to the work because you, the reader, have changed... have read other books... have had other experiences in the interim. If the work is truly a work of great aesthetic worth it will always be ahead of you... you will find that it offers more each time you return with more. If not... then like most of the works of art and music beloved in our adolescence, we will find that it no longer lives up to what we once imagined it as being.


I do agree with you. Each time you read a literary work anew, you find new things and feeling about it. You are not the same person, do not have the same feelings ans attitudes your view changes and now you are a new reader.And even you find it strange that you find it completely different from the previous reading.

[_Shannon_]

I think for me- some of the appeal of re-reading books is that I am a different person now than I was--you know with much better self knowledge, vastly more life experience. So many books I had read as I was becoming...it is interesting to go back and re-read them to see what I think about them now. There were books that were intensely important to me- and as I get older I forget more and more about the details of those books. I find re-reading to refresh those details and make those books part of my adult life--as opposed to the life of my youth.

Interestingly- some things that were just so, so important to me back then- no longer are breath taking to me now. Some of the books I have re read just break my heart now at their hopelessness--and some of them just don't seem all that well written, whereas before they were instrumental stepping stones that I found to be great literature.