How Often Do You Re-Read A Book?

[Rogers_68]

I didn't become an avid reader until a few years ago (in my mid-twenties). Since then I've been interested in reading as much fiction as I can and haven't bothered to read a novel a second time. Even with one I really enjoyed. I just didn't want to take time out from reading things I hadn't read before to go over a novel a second time.

Oddly, I don't currently have anything on my reading list that is jumping out at me so I decided to start reading Don DeLillo's The Names again this morning. So far I'm really enjoying the second round and now I'm thinking I should re-read good novels more often.

How often do you re-read a novel compared to reading work you've never touched before?

[Lokasenna]

There are certain favourite novels that I can come back to again and again.

Its no literary masterpiece, but I've read Good Omens at least a dozen times and it always has me howling with laughter. Same with most of the Discworld stories.

Good books can become like old friends, to be visited often for the pleasure of their company.

[Idril]

I've read a lot of those Discworld books a few times as well, they never seem to get old for me. I struggle to fit in rereads when there are so many new books to read but I always enjoy it when I make the time. It's amazing what new things you can discover and enjoy when you aren't worried about silly things like keeping track of the plot. :p

[Three Sparrows]

For me, reading a book the second time is my favorite part. You have already been acquainted with it, but now you really get to enjoy it. And, I know Lord of the Rings is not 'great' literature, but I really cannot tell you how many times I have read it.:blush:

[dfloyd]

I am thinking about the Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment. I have read each three times, and they got better as I matured. Others, there has been up to ten years in between readings. I just reread Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I read it when it first was published in 1984. Twenty-five years later it means more to me since I have read many of the people he writes about in the book: Ezra Pound, Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Madox Ford etc.

I have tried to read some post moderns, but they haven't been able to keep my interest. Don Delilo Philp Roth, et al, can't hold a candle to Scott Fitzgerald or Hemingway. But Nabokov and Thomas Pynchon hold my interest very well. I will probably read them again in a few years.

[Virgil]

Classic novels require multiple readings. In college I tried to read novels a second time before I wrote essays on them, but that wasn't always possible. If a novel is really finely crafted, I defintely will read it more than once - maybe more than twice. ;)

[Red-Headed]

There are a lot of novels I have read several times. Particularly Dostoyevsky & Tolstoy as I try to read different translations. The same goes for long narrative poems &/or those written in Middle English.

Oddly, one novel I actually read at least five times was Patrick Tilley's Mission (http://www.patrick-tilley.com/mission/index.php).

I first read it only a few years after it was published. I think it is one of the cleverest contemporary novels I have ever read.

[The Comedian]

I've read Walden probably 20 times now. And several others, My Antonia, Watchmen, Lonesome Dove, Republic, the AD & D Dungeon Master's guide (2nd edition), and several others anywhere from 5-10 times.

In short, I love to re-read the best of literature.

[mtpspur]

As to books Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini gets reread about 3-5 years. Recently reread the Fu Manchu series by Sax Rohmer (in order this time) and likewise Adam Hall's Quiller series. As to my other likes: comics--Jonah Hex stories get reread periodically along wiht old Adam Strange stories from Mystery in Space and early Batmans. Tomb of Dracula gets pulled out along with Dr.Strange from Marvel and of course The Avengers.

[African_Love]

I have no limit, I never get (permanently) tired of a book they way I do a movie. I've read The Autobiography of Malcolm X 8 times since I was 13 although it's been years since I last did so. I will usually wait at least 6-12 months before I reread a book.

[Night_Lamp]

Without posting a list, there are ten or so novels that I reread every three or four years. I also have a tradition of reading a (different) Dickens novel every christmas season. To me, big heavy Victorian novels like Dickens suit long nights and wool blankets on the bed during the holidays.

[stlukesguild]

It depends upon the book. I've read The Divine Comedy in its entirety about 4 times... in different translations. I've read Don Quixote perhaps 3 times. Favorite poets and poems I read again and again: Blake, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Holderlin, Rilke, Herrick, etc... Being a sworn Borgesian I've read his poems and stories repeatedly... along with those of Kafka and Calvino.

[jocky]

The play Hamlet, it puts my problems into perspective everytime. Will put the cathart into catharticism effortlessly. Hubris is childsplay ' a mere toy ' Now I am going to my bed, ' for this relief much thanks ' :) Oh ****, that was MacBeth. ' Goodnight ladies ' I have lost the plot altogether.

[Bastable]

I generally find it difficult to reread most books, and if i do it's only a skim because knowing what happens bores me. The only book i can remember rereading and genuinely enjoying and finding more and more with each read was On the Road.

[jocky]

I generally find it difficult to reread most books, and if i do it's only a skim because knowing what happens bores me. The only book i can remember rereading and genuinely enjoying and finding more and more with each read was On the Road.

The beat goes on Bastable :)

[CollegeGal09]

I have read both Ender's Game and Catcher in the Rye approximately ten times each. I feel a mix of euphoria and nostalgia when I flip through the battered pages.

[African_Love]

I generally find it difficult to reread most books, and if i do it's only a skim because knowing what happens bores me. The only book i can remember rereading and genuinely enjoying and finding more and more with each read was On the Road.

I would hate to be in your position, lol. A book is as good to me the second (or third, fourth etc.) time as the first. The prospect of rereading a good book is the only reason why I would bother to buy something that could probably be found at a library.


I have read both Ender's Game and Catcher in the Rye approximately ten times each. I feel a mix of euphoria and nostalgia when I flip through the battered pages.

I guess ordering Ender's Game was a good decision after all. Catcher in the Rye also sounds interesting.

[Veho]

I like to re-read Jane Eyre. I'm sure there'll be others that I'll want to re-read, but Jane Eyre is always in my sub-conscious, tempting me.

[Janine]

Not that often but I have read a few twice....they were mostly D.H.Lawrence books. I do desire to read more books over in the future. I think one gets a much better understanding of a novel or book on second reading. It's almost more enjoyable as well.

[blazeofglory]

I am a bookworm and keep myself engaged with books whenever I have time

[Night_Lamp]

I think those of you who don't reread great novels are really shortchanging yourselves: there's a lot of deeper subtleties you're missing in only one read. I enjoy many books more the second, third, (or more) time I go through it; after the major plot points are clear, you are more able to understand the smaller but just as, or more important, details.

[blazeofglory]

I read books of poetry several times; for poetry necessuiates rereading for they are not implicit at first and we need to read repeatedly so that things become clearer at each reading.

The prophet by Khalil Gibran I read a number of times and each reading gives me a different meaning and different feeling. Of course some books must be read repeatedly. War & Peace needs several readings. James Joyce's Ulysses has been tried several times and it tired me.

I like this book beyond imagination; what I like of this book is its style, sentecne constructions, experiments wiht new usages; allusions, inferences, refeences, frankness, openness, modernity and what not.

Dostavesky' s books need several times, the Karmazov brothers in particualr

[kiki1982]

I think those of you who don't reread great novels are really shortchanging yourselves: there's a lot of deeper subtleties you're missing in only one read. I enjoy many books more the second, third, (or more) time I go through it; after the major plot points are clear, you are more able to understand the smaller but just as, or more important, details.

I disagree with that.

I rarely re-read, because it also bores me. Although I do study my books and I think about them. It does not mean that I don't re-read parts of them when I think there is something in that particular part, but re-reading all...

The thing is how well one reads it the first time, not how many times. And with e-texts we can do 'control f' and we find the part we are looking for.

[blazeofglory]

I am thinking about rereading the Karamazov Brothers by Dostoevsky for it is a philosophical novel and every reading renews us or answer our philosophical questions.

[Snowqueen]

I like to re-read Jane Eyre.

I have read Wuthering Heights and Pride and Prejudice twice. There are few parts of Tess of the d'Urbervilles that I would love to re-read as it is one of my favourites.

[mono]

Though it sounds somewhat counter-productive in terms of the sole enjoyment of literature, as opposed to making it appear more like an always-student obligation, I seldom, if ever, re-read a piece of literature for leisure or hobby, but more for confirmation and comprehension. I re-read and thoroughly enjoyed books like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Doctor Zhivago, Beowulf, The Iliad, The Odyssey, The Divine Comedy, and Paradise Lost and Regained, but the primary and prioritized reason as to why I re-read them lay more in reasons of enhanced understanding than fun (or because I read them at too early an age); though I hope not to speak too soon, I could never see myself going back to Jane Austen, O. Henry, Guy de Maupassant, Charlotte or Anne Brontë, Charles Dickens, or Agatha Christie because, to put it bluntly, and I hope not to offend anyone, they felt quite easy to absorb, yet this did not subtract from my enjoyment. I crave understanding things, and love a good challenge, hence tackling works by Joyce, Pynchon, Shakespeare, Shaw, the Greco-Romans, Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka, Goethe, countless philosophers, and even more poets feels like that last mile on the racetrack I know I can run if I try hard enough, the final lap I feel I can succeed with enough practice, and, if I cannot, then it seemed a good exercise in the pursuit.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I re-read all the time, and go by Wilde's philosophy that if a book is not worth reading more than once, it is not worth reading at all. Sometimes the re-reads are not full-on re-reads, I might just read a chapter here and there to refresh my memory, but for the most part I re-read quite a lot, especially works which really demand it like Shakespeare and Milton - you can't over-read the likes of those - the joy of picking up the likes of Paradise Lost and reading a section at random is something to behold.

Having said that, you do have to find a balance between reading new material and going back over old ground. I think the most I have re-read something is probably Dorian Gray at six or seven times, Paradise Lost at about four, several works of Shakespeare King Lear, Macbeth and about three or four, Hemingway's A Moveable Feast about the same, though for many others (excluding poetry) I don't usually re-read, a re-read; twice is usually enough.

There are several works that I wouldn't re-read don't get me wrong, but overall I think it is important to do so, after all would you play your favourite record only once?

[Paulclem]

Having said that, you do have to find a balance between reading new material and going back over old ground.

This is my problem. I re-read works when I studied them, and I am aware that you get more from a re-read. I am also aware that there is much much more out there to have a go at. So I tend not to re-read unless for a specific purpose. I'm just too busy.

[Paulclem]

On the other hand, I re-read poetry all the time.I have been reading poems like The waste Land and other challenging poems for the past twenty odd years. It is easier and quicker to re-read poetry, but I have found that my undrstanding has developed with time

[FrankMarcopolos]

This is a great topic. I think in general it's great to let 5-10 years go by before re-reading a classic novel. What happens for me is that my life experiences have changed me so much during that time that I bring a much different perspective to the reading, which greatly enhances the experience. I would suspect the same holds true for most people. (But I've been known to be wrong quite frequently, so you never know!)

[BoSox]

A lot of contemporary books I don't read twice unless they really moved me a certain way or if I favor the author. Classics I found after a few years (Jane Eyre, Villette, Les Miserables, etc.) I needed to re-read them because I forgot entire sections of the story. As I read I remembered the end mostly but the journey through it was enjoyable. Even more so because my mind wasn't filled with the wandering thoughts about how it was going to end, what happens to the characters, will I like it, etc.

[keilj]

almost never. it can wash out your original impression of the book.

i re-read Of Mice and Men recently - having read it originally about 20 years ago as an adolescent. I didn't gain much at all from re-reading it

I re-read The Eternal Husband by Dostoevsky. it was great again the 2nd time around - but I didn't gain much from the second reading otherwise

those are the only 2 that I have read more than once

[aquarium444]

Short stories that contain a lot of details can easily be read more than once, but novels are a little bit different. I myself would be happy if I could read some of these novels even one time.

[blazeofglory]

I read some books repeatedly. I have read the Metamorphosis several times. The Prophet many times. The Brothers Karamazov a second time

[Drkshadow03]

I try to make sure I re-read at least 4 books per a year. Although, I think I failed at that last year.

[wormofthebooks]

Would you watch a good movie only once? Would you only want to see the Statue of David once? Would you be satisfied with just seeing The Last Supper one time? When you read a book, it kind of hangs around with you after reading it (at least it does me). It's worth it to re-read it every now and then. You pick up on new details that you didnt notice before and sometimes its nice to feel the emotions that you felt before all over again. It's like visiting old friends you haven't seen in a while. They are comforting. Sometimes I need to watch Dagny Taggert try to save her railroad or walk in on Fransisco D'Anconia sitting on the floor like a little boy pouring over sheets of paper spread out, watching him work passionately with his hair carelessly falling into his face. And then sometimes I need to feel the emotional destruction that Raskolikov is experiencing and feel for him, even though I know what is going to happen, I still hold my breath.

[lyni]

I love re-reading my books. I read the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett over and over again. currently I am re-reading a trilogy by Jan Siegel.
I think I have read most of my books at least twice. it just depends on how the mood strikes me.
its not something that you consciously say - 'I must re-read those books'
it just happens.

[Travis_R]

I've read Lolita five times and Slaughterhouse-5 by Vonnegut four times, in a period of about two years. The third reading was probably the best for Lolita, and the second was for Slaughterhouse-5. I just kept reading them because I thought they were brilliant.