Re-reading?

[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". 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.

[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

[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.

[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

[Cormeister37]

The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises