Read, Repeat

[therealsnape]

Hello, everyone at the coffee corner,

Today it's my turn to post an item. And as usual, it's a bookish one.

Are you a re-reader of books? If not, why not? And if so, which books in particular? And which is the book you've re-read most often, and why?

I am a great re-reader myself. My father, who was also a compulsively-buying book addict dedicated collectionneur, even had it as a criterium for his purchases: if it's a book you want to read more than once, buy it. If not, get it from the library.

Wise words, and he lived by them. Therefore his collection, after some thinning, fitted into three large Billys. In my case it was more difficult. Not because I lack self-control (which I do) but because I like to read lots of English books, and live in the Netherlands. While the English section of our library is largish and fairly well-stocked, it has its limitations.

Things are better now that I have a kindle. That allows me to read all the lovely bookses without actually buying them in paper. I only do that when I want to re-read.

The book I've read most often is Dickens's Christmas Carol. Every year, when the tree is decorated and the final lesson given, out comes my lovely copy, with Rackham's illustrations, and at that moment Christmas has truly started. The reading count is well over 30 times.

An other book I've re-read often is Terry Pratchett's Night Watch.

And how about you?

Comments

[beer_good_foamy]

I took the Current Situation™ as an excuse to re-read Stephen King's The Stand for something like the fourth time but the first time in over 20 years. Weird how it felt, somehow, relevant. Even if the 1400-page 1990 version still feels VERY 1970s in every aspect, including how King still seemed to have trouble writing any character who's not a straight white man without using the Big Lexicon Of Stereotypes.

If the Current Situation™ lasts much longer I might have to re-read Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the fifty-eleventh time. All four (4) books. That's just a warm blanket (or rather towel) of comfort.

[therealsnape]

Isn't it amazing when you read a book again after a very long time, how new, and at the same time familiar, it is?

[goodbyebird]

I'm currently re-reading His Dark Materials with some friends of mine. But the series I'm definitely going to pick back up soon is Becky Chambers' Wayfarers series. Those books are such a warm, comforting blanket to me.

As the new Murderbot book is on its way to me, I might re-read the previous novellas. Murderbot is truly a fitting social distancing mascot for the times ;)

[beer_good_foamy]

I just read the first Murderbot last weekend! I really need to get hold of the others too.

[shadowycat]

I re-read lots of books. I re-read books from series I particularly enjoyed (like the Harry Potter books and the Sherlock Holmes tales) and from authors whose works I love but who aren't around to write more of them, such as Ngaio Marsh, Charlotte Macleod, and Dorothy Sayers.

I re-read The Lord of the Rings every year, always in the fall. So that could be the book I've re-read the most, since I've been doing that for many years, but I also tend to go to two of my favorite books when I want something I know I'll enjoy, so I've re-read both The Goblin Emperor and The Martian quite a few times since I discovered them a few years back.

I've re-read The Christmas Carol quite a few times, too. Reading Christmas themed books at Christmas time has always been part of my celebration of the season.

There's something incredibly comforting in re-reading a book you love. It's like having a visit with a beloved old friend! :D

[therealsnape]

It's like having a visit with a beloved old friend! This, exactly!

And we have quite a few authors in common - Ngaio Marsh is a great one for rereading, too.

[redbird]

I reread sporadically, either because I think something will be comforting, or because I want to revisit the characters/situation, or sometimes just because I remember enjoying that book. A lot of my reading has been SF and fantasy, so there usually aren't more books about the place that the writer invented. Fanfic sometimes appeals, but a missing scene or AU doesn't explore other parts of that world.

My most recent reread was Ursula Le Guin's _Always Coming Home_, which is a comfort book for me, even though it's set in a far-future society long after the collapse of what might be called civilization. That's partly about tone and the author's voice. Recent rereadings of _The Goblin Emperor_ and _The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet_ touch a similar thing, I think, the desire for a book where things can come out, not happily ever after, but basically well.

(I may take this to my own journal at more length, later when I've had breakfast and am not staring at paid proofreading work.)

[therealsnape]

Rereading for comfort is, indeed what I often do, too. As Shadowycat so aptly put it, it's like visiting a dear old friend.

[liseuse]

I am a compulsive re-reader. Some books get re-read at specific times of the year - so Pamela Dean's Tam Lin gets a re-read in mid-September to align with the academic year, I usually end up re-reading Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising sequence around the Winter solstice. Others are just re-read as and when I have the whim. I alternate years for re-reads of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond and Niccolo books - it's Niccolo's turn this year.

Currently I'm re-reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

Because I try and read the Women's Prize longlist and the Jhalak Prize longlist each year, I often end up reading those in ebook or paper copy from the library. If there is one I've really loved I then buy the paperback version so I have it available for a paper-based re-read.

[therealsnape]

I'm hearing good things about Hilary Mantel. One to check out for sure. And yes, there are books for which it is just the right time of the year. Seasonal authors, so to speak.

[pensnest]

Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion and Sense and Sensibility are definitely re-reads (I also listen to the audio books every so often).

Bujold's The Curse of Chalion, which I adore, and its sequel Paladin of Souls. Also her Vorkosigan books, most particularly the ones from Mirror Dance to Civil Campaign.

The Martian.

Quite a few, really - I have phases of being fond of a certain author (like Dick Francis, which I have re-read, Dorothy L Sayers, Georgette Heyer...) Lots of old friends on the shelves, really.

[therealsnape]

Oh, and we share quite a few old friends, too. Jane Austen, Dick Francis, Georgette Heyer … One of my latest rereads was The Grand Sophy.

[petrea_mitchell]

I very rarely re-read anything. The few books that I have reread tend to be stories built up out of shorter stories, or what Ursula K. Le Guin called "suites".

Examples:

• The Cyberiad by Stanislaw Lem, a science-fantasy collection of "fables for robots", mostly featuring two recurring main characters.
• The Hunter's Haunt by Dave Duncan, about a group of travellers at an inn telling each other stories. Only the stories form a common narrative, which eventually twists around and swallows itself like a Klein bottle.
• Changing Planes by Ursula K. Le Guin, easily her most underrated book, where the unnamed narrator is an interdimensional tourist visiting new and strange places.
• Always Coming Home, also Ursula K. Le Guin (you see why she needed to invent a term for this sort of thing), about a people called the Kesh living in a future, post-apocalyptic California. It's a mixture of stories, reference sections, and anthropological notes.

The one I've re-read the most would have to be The Cyberiad, since I've had it since I was in college. (I think you cannot read The Cyberiad when you are halfway through a computer science degree and not fall in love with it.)

[therealsnape]

I'm not a science fiction reader myself, but I can see where Ursula LeGuin gets her excellent reputation. These sound like very interesting books, indeed.

[luckyzukky]

i don't usually like rereading books since most of the time i can remember what happened, but when i was still in normal school i ended up rereading books i read last year because i was in the same classroom for english as i was in the last semester and there was nothing else that interested me. i ended up rereading like 5 books, it was pretty boring but oh well lol

[therealsnape]

I can imagine that remembering all about the story makes it a rather boring exercise!

[verdande_mi]

There’s only one book I reread and reread, LOTR. I started a slow reread of this again last year and I am nearing the end of it sadly. Last year and this year one of my reading goals is to reread a certain book, this year it is Frost by Roy Jacobsen, a Norwegian novel which really should have been translated and sold to other countries, as it’s amazing. No idea if it’s been translated though. I also plan on rereading a book from my childhood this year, The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren.

Your father’s rule is a good rule, I have a quite a few books already read on a one-day-I-will-own-it mental list!

I hate when I want a book in English and no Norwegian libraries has it!

[goodbyebird]

Frost sounds really interesting, thanks for the heads up!

[tetleythesecond]

Third Year at Malory Towers is my go-to drug. With a job that often leaves me unable to process much or concentrate for a long time in the evenings, it's just the right level of literary sophistication, plus there's the endless potential for backstory.

[therealsnape]

Absolutely. Such delightful backstories to be had. About Miss Peter's dog, for instance - one of my favourites.

[ninetydegrees]

I live in a tiny flat and decided when I moved in that I would have exactly one reasonably-sized bookcase. One of my top criteria for deciding between books I should keep and ones I should give away was "How often have I read this? Is there a chance I'll read it again?" :)

To answer your question, most Jane Austen's, some Steinbeck's, Philip K. Dick's, some volumes of Pratchett's Disc World. Ender's Game. Pretty sure there's more, particularly fantasy books, but this is a good list already :)

[aome]

Although I do go through my books periodically and purge those I don't think I'll ever re-read, I think I would die if I had to condense everything down to one bookshelf. I do have quite a few books on Kindle, but still - sometimes I really enjoy having a paper book. There's advantages and disadvantages to both.

[aome]

Dag, therealsnape! :D (My father's family is Dutch - I know only a few phrases, but I can understand more.)

Oh, heck yeah I re-read old favorites. Sometimes I re-read fairly often, sometimes it's years and years between re-reads. I sometimes feel torn, because there's always so many books in my TBR pile, and re-reading an old book doesn't help that at all. But sometimes I need the comfort and enjoyment of something I really treasured. There are books I've re-read so often *coughHarryPottercough* I can practically recite certain sections from memory. But that's also allowed me to challenge myself with reading HP in German: in places I might not normally have known what a word or phrase meant, I can figure it out because I know the original so well.

And sometimes I love a book so much, the minute I finish it I go back to the beginning and read it over right away. :D Knowing how it turns out means I can enjoy seeing clues and foreshadowing and such that I might have missed the first time, and it allows me to be part of that universe a little longer.

On the list: HP series, Maurice, the Whyborne & Griffin series, Autoboyography, the Earth's Children series (first 3 books, mostly), childhood favorites, The Phantom Tollbooth, and stuff I end up re-reading because, after reading it to myself, I read it aloud to my teen son (who has reading issues).

[highlyeccentric]

Reading aloud adds so much! I sat in on my mother reading Little Women/Good Wives to my younger sister, last year - I ended up reading ahead because I hadn't realised, until I saw a *normal* kid who asks 'but why???' react to them, how dense they are with historical references, and I took it upon myself to be the Human Critical Notes To Alcott.

[readera]

I love rereading weather its fanfic, online work or traditional published books. I am currently rereading Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger as that series was on kindle sale recently.

[satsuma]

My most re-read books are probably P&P and Good Omens, two very different books, but both ones I first read when I was quite young (I was still in elementary school when I discovered Austen! Terry Pratchett was later, I think around my freshman year of highschool) so are very much comfort reads. I also have a tradition of taking Good Omens with me when I'm traveling, so my copy has got a fair number of miles on it.

So I definitely do some rereading, but the reason why I own books in general is usually more so I can lend them to people than so I can reread them myself (well, that and secondhand book sales, because I love the serendipity of browsing) Pre-quarentine at least, my libraries hold system was fast and extensive enough that I could track down almost all of what I wanted to read and have it within days and I have no shame about requesting the same thing multiple times so most of my personal reading & rereading was through the library.

[magnetic_pole]

I love the serendipity of browsing, too. :) Nicely put. M.

[gender_euphoric]

I tend to be more likely to reread books if they are in a series. I have reread the Tales of the City books all the way through about 5 times — but I’ve read the first three upwards of idk 20 times? I lose interest after Babycakes. I also have reread Edmund White’s 3 memoir books through about 5 times. The Farewell Symphony is kind of a doozy of a book though, so I sometimes skip it. They aren’t serialized completely, but there is a clear through line.

If books hit me at the right time in my life, I’ll reread them over and over. I came out as queer in the late 90s, and found David Feinberg’s 86ed and Spontaneous Combustion at the exact right time to appreciate them. He’s probably the funniest gallows humor type writer I’ve found. His ferocious third book—a book of essays and other short writing called Queer and Loathing: Rants and Raves of a Raging AIDS Clone is the book that’s had the most impact on my life. It’s a hard read though—he rushed to finish it *as he was dying* and thus, not exactly a beach read if you know what I mean. I read through it every few years.

[magnetic_pole]

Ha! Even before I read your second paragraph, I thought "This must be someone else who came out in the 1990s." :) M.

[highlyeccentric]

My family had the same rule about buying books, growing up - in fact, it was more like, 'get it from a library, and when you've read it multiple times that justifies buying it / others in the series'.

I now own a lot of physical books I haven't read, for the same reason as you- lack of English library access. I can get the academic books I want, but the fiction selections in university libraries are rarely to my taste.

Having said that, I do re-read a lot less now than I did as a child. Sadly, adult life and academia chew up too much brain and too much reading time. I own a handful of Pratchetts (mostly i read from my father's collection as a kid), but don't re-read them nearly as often as I thought i would.

Anne of Green Gables and sequels come around semi-regularly, though. Little Women every few years. I'm trying to gear myself up for another Lord of the Rings re-read - I used to do the Hobbit, LOTR and Sil every year in my teens, but have only read them piecemeal since and only the hobbit in the last five years.

I do find that I end up buying e-book copies of things I liked as a teen that I *didn't* expect to be re-reading still - Looking for Alibrandi, a popular Australian YA novel from before YA was a category, was one surprise. And books I've read as an adult, well, I re-read them less often than I did beloved books of my teens, but I do find I get a lot out of the re-read: second time around Portrait of a Lady was very much worthwhile. AS Byatt's Possession likewise. On the to-re-read list is Middlemarch.

[therealsnape]

I reread LIttle Women after the latest movie - loved it once again. The lack of English novels in libraries really is a problem for us folks living abroad. But it gives us a chance to go to bookshops!

[kelly_chambliss]

As a compulsive book-buying addict dedicated collectioneur myself, I confess that I sometimes feel a twinge of guilt when I reread an old, comfortable book instead of plucking something from the stacks of as-yet-unread new books. But mostly I'm able to suppress it.

I cycle through Jane Austen fairly consistently, and every four or five years, I return to Middlemarch. Sherlock Holmes is a frequent companion, as are Agatha Christie and Margery Allingham on occasion.

But most of my comfort rereads are children's books. I revisit the Harry Potter books often (if listening to them on Audible while I walk and drive counts as rereading). The E. Nesbit books, especially the Bastables, are a never-failing source of pleasure. I have a lot of old girls' school stories and series, both American and British, that make for lovely summer afternoon retreats.

I have not yet mastered your father's sensible distinction between re-readable ownership and one-off library-ship, but one day I will run out of wall space for shelves and will have to reconsider.

[therealsnape]

The Fallen Fortune of the House of Bastable is a classic, for sure. And the Railway Children!

I think I've only read one Margery Allingham. I liked it, so I'll have to check out some more.

[azurelunatic]

I have an aspiration to re-read Spock's World and Cyteen every year, because they act as a moral reset button to me, as well as being enjoyable.

Spock's World is about community, IDIC, and how overlooking the good of the one in search for the good of the many results in good for none.

Cyteen is about the problem of being one of the smartest people you know and how to protect yourself from becoming a worse monster than you strictly have to be.

(I recommend it to people who are now heartbroken over Ender's Game, with content notes including: atypical neurotype representation(ish), minimally angstful bisexuality, teenagers being teenagers, super reliable narrators, SFnal drug use (sanctioned and unsanctioned), alcohol use, institutionalized/medicalized slavery, medical and psychological mind control, trauma bonds, sexual predation from an older authority figure, murder, intellectarchy, a massive surveillance state, insular communities, and probably more that I can't recall off the top of my head.)

[magnetic_pole]

Both these books sound great! *bookmarks this page* M.

[magnetic_pole]

Fun to read all these replies! Great question.

I do a little too much reading for work to fully enjoy reading fiction in my downtime--a situation which will change one day, I hope. I'm definitely a rereader, in general, but there's a very specific set of books that I reread the most, to the greatest effect: the books I loved as a child. I used to reread *constantly* because there were never enough books in the house, and somehow those books--the Little House series, the Island of the Blue Dolphins, the Betsy-Tacy-Tib series, the Madeline L'Engle books, the abridged Sherlock Holmes stories--are satisfying in a way little else is. From my teen years: the regular Sherlock Holmes stories, And Ladies of the Club, The Name of the Rose, Love in the Time of Cholera, The Bonfire of the Vanities, Bleak House. M.

[write_out]

The Little House books are such a comfort, aren't they? I've been meaning to get a new set for ages (my childhood set was ruined from water damage). Which one is your favorite? I've always loved Farmer Boy's cozy and delicious descriptions of food. :)

I didn't mention this in my comment down below, but now I'm thinking my Nancy Drew books. I still love those, as dated as they are.

[lash_larue]

I have found that a lot of the books I treasured in my youth (under 30) simply do not hold up.

Most of my rereading is fanfic, and most of that is mine. I suppose that I like to know what is going on. Further, most of my reading is done in bed, before sleep, and the Kindle I can read in dim light and without glasses. I love actual books, but during the day there is ALWAYS something else that needs doing.

I have reread both HP and LOTR numerous times. I still love them, but now I can see the shortcomings in them, so it is not with the same sense of wonder that I had upon first readings.

I have read and re-read Mark Henwick's "Bite Back" series, an Urban Fantasy vampire/werewolf/witch thing many times, and am doing that now, in point of fact. The magical aspects get kind of convoluted, but what draws me to this series is that the action sequences are done properly. Namely, you do not leave weapons lying around after surviving a fight, and you finish the job.

Grim, I know, but my mood is not gentle at the moment.

I need to get back into Alexander McCall's works (there are many of them), to lighten up things with well-crafted and something less than grim lit.

I might also revisit Nero Wolfe. I just need to clean the dust off the things. There is a metric ton of old books around here.

L

[purpleink]

Deeply entrenched in re-reading a lot of Nero Wolfe right at the moment; have not looked at them in years, but they're just the ticket right now.

[write_out]

What a great question! I've loved reading all of the responses.

Oh yes, I reread books all the time. Sometimes the entire book, sometimes just a certain section, depending on the book and my mood. Some authors I revisit time and again are Stephen King, Arthur Conan Doyle (like many others here, I've noticed), Shirley Jackson, Minette Walters, Roald Dahl. Too many to name because chances are if I've read a book once, I'll read it twice.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is an autumn read for me every few years. Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot is best in the summer. Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles tends to be a winter reread.

[magnetic_pole]

Gah! A teacher showed us the film Something Wicked This Way Comes back in elementary school or junior high--I don't remember, but I was *not* old enough for it--and I didn't sleep for half a year. Seriously. That story still haunts my dreams.

You have a high tolerance for suspense. :) M.

[light_of_summer]

I reread a lot of both pro-fic and fan-fic. Though it's often re-listening, rather than rereading by eye, as I am a staunch fan of audiobooks, podfic, and having my phone read e-books aloud to me. (Reading by eye was physically easier for me before trifocals, especially for works on paper, rather than screen.)

I couldn't honestly tell you what I've reread the most. I've been an avid reader for over 50 years, and I don't keep track!

As a child and a teenager, I got into the habit of rereading because I didn't have access to nearly as many new stories as I would have liked. In contrast, immediately pre-pandemic, I had access to four library systems (I still have online access to them), plus interlibrary loan (currently suspended), plus the internet. That makes a big difference!

When I re-read now, I think it's usually because I want to revisit the emotions that I associate with a particular story. It's also true that I often want to take a break from my RL circumstances, and frequently feel like I don't have the emotional energy or resilience to open myself to a brand-new story. (If the publishing industry would adopt ao3-style tagging, and use it well, I might consume more new pro-fic. I'd often be searching for fiction tagged as comfort-fic or fluff! 😄)

All that being said, I still own some books that I acquired in my teens and twenties, and it's quite possible that I've reread some of them more often than anything else. Those older candidates would include the complete volume of the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling's Kim, Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love, Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster trilogy, and Alexei Panshin's trilogy of Anthony Villiers SF novels.

Fanfic is a whole other set of stories—I've been reading and rereading fanfic (usually in multiple fandoms) for just over 15 years. I could tell you which single longfic has most impressed me with its plotting (Dira Sudis' Get Loved, Make More, Try to Stay Alive ), or which individual segment of a podfic series I think I've replayed most often (echolalaphile's reading of Feather lalaietha's "what I thought, what I said," one of many follow-on works by Feather to her excellent longfic your blue-eyed boys). But that's about as close as I can get—there are probably at least fifty pieces of fan fiction that I've reread (or re-listened to) several times, and I couldn't honestly tell you which one I've revisited most often. Candidate authors (besides Dira Sudis and Feather lalaietha) would include copperbadge, cesperanza, primarybufferpanel (aka ArwenLune), scifigrl47, silentwalrus, owlet, and probably synecdochic and bracketyjack.

I rarely reread (or re-listen to) non-fiction. Exceptions to that are some of Freya Stark's travel writings, and Barbara Tuchman's The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World Before the War, 1890-1914.

[magnetic_pole]

When I re-read now, I think it's usually because I want to revisit the emotions that I associate with a particular story.

Yes. What a lovely way of putting it! M.

[tielan]

I don't know how many times I've re-read my collection of books. Most recently I've been re-reading:

Meljean Brooks Guardian series.
Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel's Dart series.
Courtney Milan's Brothers Sinister series.
The second half of Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series (pretty much from The Shadow Queen onwards).

It takes me ages to find a new author, and when I do I tend to buy them, put them on the shelf, and binge-read the heck out of them at later points.

But Terry Pratchett's Night Watch is, I think, the peak of his writing for Discworld, and I could re-read that book so many times.

[magnetic_pole]

This is 119th heart-felt recommendation I've seen for Night Watch--or something like that :)--and I'm finally convinced. As soon as the library reopens! M.

[mothwing]

I re-read most of my book collection if I didn't dislike the book strongly (which I then give to friend, set it free, or put it on the church's donations shelf). The ones I've re-read most is everything by Terry Pratchett (apart from the Rincewind novels), the Harry Potter novels and The Name of The Wind.

[therealsnape]

Who wrote The Name of the Wind, then? It's not a book I recognize. And I never could get into the Rincewind novels either. Death, now, those books are lovely. And so many others too, of course.

[sulien]

The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are two books I have reread (and partially reread) more times than I can remember over the decades. Others I enjoy enough to reread are the Chanur series by CJ Cherryh, Yesterday's Son and Time for Yesterday by AC Crispin, the Rihannsu novels by Diane Duane (as well as others of her books). Thinking about it, there are several others that I enjoy rereading as well that I have kept on hand, but I can't think of them off the top of my head at the moment. These days, I'm buying my most loved books in Kindle and audio format because of various medical issues and I am weeding out most of my hardback and paperback books with a few exceptions. I'll never give up my physical copies of Tolkien, or the various books on folklore I've collected over the years. The same goes for things like my Foxfire books and various reference materials.

As for rereading fanfiction, I've got over a gig of text, Word and .pdf documents saved on my backup drive. I've lost too many favorite fanfics that have disappeared off of the internet so that I've gotten into the habit of archiving the ones I plan to reread. Fan fiction that I have reread more than once: Through the Blue Vault of Varda by jedibuttercup, which blew my mind (several others of hers as well, the list is too long to put here, but I'll also include Eclipse, which is an SG-1/Pitch Black fic), The Rock Happy 'verse by Arwen Lune (the Marines from Generation Kill get recruited for service in Atlantis), the Retrograde series by LtLJ, the truly epic length series called A Different Future by Cordyfan over on tthfanfic.org that is a crossover between BtVS, Stargate SG-1, and many other things (including world building that most published authors should envy and emulate). There are many others, but those are the highlights.

[therealsnape]

I've several fanfic works, Harry Potter mostly, that I've read and reread over the years. The particularly good ones are safely on the hard disk, indeed.