Do you reread fiction books?

[Rubystreak]

I'm stuck in a rut. This is my summer off, when I should be reading new books hand over fist, but instead, I've beenr rereading. Just went back through China Mieville's Bas Lag Trilogy, just started Neil Gaiman's American Gods for the second go-round.

My boyfriend thinks I'm crazy for doing this, but I enjoy it. I've read the Dune series from beginning to end at least 6 times since I first picked it up when I was in middle school, and I keep finding new things. Probably read the Lord of the Rings and Silmarillion as many times, and a few other favorites.

Maybe it's just that I have a crappy memory and need to reinforce my favorite things with repeated exposures; I've seen my favorite movies half a dozen times too. Maybe it's because on the first read-through, I always read very fast and need to pick up stuff I missed, but that doesn't account for the 6 rereadings. Maybe I'm just a lazy weirdo who doesn't feel like trying new things right now (though I have seen a ton of movies in the last year).

Do you reread your favorite books? Or do you think it's a waste of time? I guess ought to force myself to read some new stuff and get out of this rut, eh? Feel free to suggest your favorite, multiply-read book if you want. I might even give it a shot.

[Dead Pete]

Do you reread your favorite books? Or do you think it's a waste of time? I guess ought to force myself to read some new stuff and get out of this rut, eh? Feel free to suggest your favorite, multiply-read book if you want. I might even give it a shot.

Books I have read, re-read, and re-re-read over the process of time:

Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit at least four times.

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant at least three times.

Four Lords of the Diamond by Jack Chalker about three times.

The Stand by Stephen King several times. Actually, any of King's earlier works are subject to being re-read by me. Just NOT Gerald's Game.

And of course the Harry Potter series.

[One And Only Wanderers]

I reread books contsantly. I don't read it so much nowadays, but I have read Eddings' Belgariad in the region of 50 times. I have read the "Wheel of Time" books multiple times, obviously as it is a work in progress I have read the earlier books in the series more often than the later. David Gemmell and Katharine Kerr & Pratchett also get the reread treatment, as do the Dragonlance books. If i didn't reread, i'd find it hard to justify all the bookcases full of books around the place.

[Monstre]

I definitely reread favorite books from time to time. One reason for rereading, though, is when a new book in a series comes out and it's been a while since I've read the previous ones. Often, I'll reread just to refresh my memory on the details.

But with some books, they are just good, so they are worth visiting again. Although right now, I don't need to be doing it, because of the gajillion books I have lined up waiting to be read (many bookshelves overflowing in my house).

- I read LOTR when I was much younger, then I reread it a year or two ago.
- I reread Harry Potter 1-5 recently, before starting on 6 (that was mostly to refresh my memory on details).
- I've read "Good Omens" (Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman) twice so far.
- I've read the Hitchhikers Guide series many times, at least the first three. I'd already read those multiple times when "Mostly Harmless" came out. I think I've read that one twice.

Right now I'm reading "Snow Crash" (Neal Stephenson). Okay, it's the first time, but I'm guessing this one may get read again some day in the future.

And I may go ahead and do "American Gods" again some time, even though I heard "Anansi Boys" doesn't really depend on the first one. But I'll probably do it anyways. ;)

[Bryan Ekers]

Yep, right until my husband gave me repeated shots of insulin.

[Ranchoth]

John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy. I first read those when...I couldn't have been any older than 11. I can't remember how many times it's been, since, but a few. Grand stuff.

[Skald the Rhymer]

I can't imagine NOT rereading novels, as I only buy them if they're worth rereading. (For things I only wish to read once, there's this place called the library.) The books I most care for tend to be ones that benefit from a reread.

[glee]

I think it's a sign of a skilled writer that you can enjoy rereading their work.

Dick Francis (writes thrillers set in a horse-racing background), Elmore Leonard, Robert Parker, Larry Niven, Isaac Asimov, Rex Stout and Tolkien all live up to my expectations.

[Foldup Rabbit]

I absolutely do. Like Skald the Rhymer, I only buy novels if I've already been through them and think they bear repeating.

I have read Watership Down and The Chronicles of Narnia too many times to count since I was a kid. I have read everything Bill Bryson has penned to paper at least twice (better ones, like A Short History of Nearly Everything and In A Sunburned Country several more times). A lot of Heinlein's stuff gets repeated.

I like popping into old books. I know what's going to happen later, but I always forget the details that make the story worthwhile.

[Dunderman]

Stephen King and Terry Pratchett are the great rereadable authors for me. Most Pratchett books I've read something like ten times each.

[twickster]

Someone's got to be the contrarian -- it might as well be me.

No, I don't, in general. There's no way in hell I'm going to get through all the books I want to read before I die, so I'm not going to waste reading time on something I've read already.

There are some -- few -- exceptions. Two that occur to me: Magister Ludi, which I read in high school or college, and totally wanted to learn how to play the glass bead game, but didn't understand the ending. I reread it again when I left academia, and got the ending. It's on my list of things I'll reread some day -- hm, it's been 20 years, I might be due, come to think of it.

Another was a book by a favorite genre author of mine, Sheri Tepper. I was telling a friend about her book The Family Tree, which has ... not a plot twist, exactly, but some stuff happens in the middle that throws the whole beginning of the book into a different light, in such a way that I wanted to reread it to see how she set that up. He and I were supposed to read it at the same time so we could discuss it, and I did, but he didn't -- but I'm glad I reread it anyway.

There are a few classic novels that I read when I was too young to fully get, I think, and I plan to reread those -- Mme. Bovary, for one, and Remembrance of Things Past, which I slogged through when I was 22 or 23 and which I got zero out of, other than bragging rights. None are on my immediate list, though I did buy a copy of Mme. Bovary a few years ago -- it's in the queue...

[Khadaji]

I used to reread a lot. Back then I had less money and more time - and a smaller selection. Now I have more money and less time and access to Amazon and Borders and I have dozens of books in the queue at all times. So no, not any more.

[Crotalus]

I have reread To Kill A Mockingbird and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn every couple of years since I first read them forty years ago. Every one in a while I pick up one of Stephen Jay Gould's books from the library and reread it. I've reread Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia a few times.

[Chez Guevara]

I have most of John le Carre's output and have reread them many times. I can give two reasons why.

Firstly, I enjoy his writing. He is strong on characterisation as well as plot.

Secondly, to take Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as an example, some of his books require a second reading merely to fully understand what is going on.

[PerditaX]

When I was in college, majoring in Literature ("Would you like fries with that?"), one of my professors once said "Great literature cannot be read, it can only be re-read." You can't really appreciate the the specifics until you have the whole book in your head. You can enjoy the writing style more the second time, when you're not hurrying to follow the plot. You can't fully appreciate things like foreshadowing until you know what it was pointing towards. I 've found that Dr. Brooker was right. I re-read most books; it's not uncommon for me to finish a book and turn right to the beginning again.

At least that's MHO. YMMV.

[Steve Wright]

Count me as a re-reader ... Besides PerditaX's comments, I'll add this; the words on the page may not change over the years, but the reader does - re-reading a book after some time, you come to it with more knowledge and fresher insights.

[Lynn Bodoni]

If a book's worth reading, it's usually worth re-reading, IMO.

[Jayn_Newell]

I re-read occasionally. Sometimes because i feel like reading that particular book again, sometimes because I just want to read something and there's nothing new at hand.

[RealityChuck]

Some books well worth rereading every few years:

The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
Chimera by John Barth (the more you read it, the more you get out of it).
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

I do far less rereading nowadays than when I was younger simply because I can barely keep up with new material.

[Sierra Indigo]

I re-read a lot.

I re-read my trashfics (That is things like the Resident Evil novelisations, the Aliens books not written by ADF, the Amtrak Wars series) when I need something to read before bed, that I don't have to think too hard about.

I re-read my favourite books because (IMHO) the stories are engaging and well-written, and I like the headspace the books put me into. Snow Crash, The Diamond Age and Richard Morgan's books fall into this category, as do things like The Stand and the (first five) Dark Tower books.

[Lissla Lissar]

I re-read because I want to re-experience the story. I have trashy comfort re-reading (Kushiel books, Diana Gabaldon, Recluce series), and I re-read all my favourites. I can't imagine tackling a new book every day, but I have to be reading something. I'll probably read a new books or so a week, and maybe re-read three.

I can't think of a single book I've read and enjoyed that I haven't re-read.

[Eleanor of Aquitaine]

I re-read quite often. Sometimes I get in the mood for a certain kind of book, and I don't want to risk a new one that might not satisfy me, so I grab an old favorite. I'm also prone to picking up a book and skimming it to re-read just my favorite sections, or maybe just the sections that involve a certain character.

Some I've read more than twice:

Dune, but only the first one
Gone With the Wind
James Herriot's books
Anne McCaffrey's early Pern books
Pride & Prejudice
The Six Wives of Henry VIII by A. Weir
Katherine, by Anya Seton
I, Claudius and Claudius the God

[Askia]

I re-read whenever I can't afford new fiction.

I probably need to quit re-reading as much as I do.

That, or start going to the library more.

[bordelond]

I think it's a sign of a skilled writer that you can enjoy rereading their work.

Dick Francis (writes thrillers set in a horse-racing background), Elmore Leonard, Robert Parker, Larry Niven, Isaac Asimov, Rex Stout and Tolkien all live up to my expectations.
Isaac Asimov falls into the pleasant re-read category for me. I've gone through the original Foundation Trilogy three times in full. Same for The Gods Themselves and loads of his short stories.

One cool thing about these books is that I can kill small blocks of time with them -- I can bring one to the doctor's office, say ... turn to any place in the book, and knock out 20 engaging pages while I'm waiting.

[Gordon Urquhart]

I've read Garrison Keillor's Lake Wobegon Days probably five or six times, John Steinbeck's East of Eden three times, and Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan and Gormenghast three times (haven't brought myself to read Titus Alone yet).

All three authors have wildly different writing styles, but they all appeal to me.

[pseudotriton ruber ruber]

Books are like crack to me, crack that keeps appearing fresh the more you use it. The books I teach , I re-read almost every term (sometimes, when I'm harried, I just give a quick skim). I must have read THE GREAT GATSBY and THE NIGHT IN QUESTION and DON JUAN thirty or forty times apiece by now.

And you know what? They keep changing. Maybe it's me growing older and looking for different things, maybe it's that I'm a more careful or subtle reader, maybe it's early Alzheimer's kicking in, I don't know, but the books are always different, and I always see things I never saw before.

[SnakesCatLady]

I re-read - as someone said above, if I didn't there wouldn't be the need for all these bookshelves I have to try to keep dusted.

I read a lot, but sometimes I just am not in the mood for something new and untried. I can pick up a book I've read and know what I'm getting myself into, and usually take something new away from it.

[Little Plastic Ninja]

Discworld.

I haven't reread everything in the series -- I didn't like Eric or Moving Pictures very much -- but there is so much in there that I've only seen on a tenth reading. In Reaper Man, the beautiful dance scene near the end of the book with Miss Flitwick. In Guards! Guards!, the imagery of the city as a woman unfolding into the woman who was a city (Never said she was a small woman. Be fair. :D). Oh, some of the puns I didn't get until the third time 'round, but there's always something new.

And in a really good book, reading it at different times and different stages of your life is remarkably rewarding. Just after I lost a dear friend, the lines in Return of the King about the afterlife just set me to sobbing uncontrollably. (I can't find the ones from the book, so the movie will have to suffice -- )

End? No, the journey doesn't end here. There's another path we all must take. The gray rain curtain of this world rolls back, and it will change to the silver clouds, and then you see it. ... White shores and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.

I'm tearing up right now. :(

[Lissla Lissar]

But either in his dreams or out of them, he could not tell which, Frodo heard a sweet singing running in his mind: a song that seemed to come like a pale light behind a gray rain-curtain, and growing stronger to turn the veil all to glass and silver, until at last it was rolled back, and a far green country opened before him under a swift sunrise.
-Fog on the Barrow-downs, Fellowship of the Ring

I'm such a nerd. I love that paragraph.

[Skald the Rhymer]

I'm such a nerd. I love that paragraph.

Loving that paragraph only means you have taste, dear. Now, being able to recite it upon demand means you're a nerd. ;)

[Spectre of Pithecanthropus]

I've lost count of how many times I've read LOTR, but haven't reread it now for several years (not counting a German copy that my wife bought me a couple of years ago). But The Hobbit not so much; I think I've only read that two or three times in my whole life.

Most books I don't usually reread, but a few of the outstanding exceptions, besides LOTR, would be:
The City And The Stars, by Arthur C. Clark
Lest Darkness Fall, by L. Sprague de Camp
Any or all of the [i]Foundation series, prequels, postquels, etc., by Asimov
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
Occasionally, any number of musicians' memoirs or biographies. I don't necessarily have to like their style of music, either. I though Lawrence Welk's memoir was interesting.

My general take on rereading is that a good book is like a good meal; just because you've had prime rib, baked potato, and asparagus, washed down with a nice glass of Cabernet, you can't say you won't ever have the exact same meal again.

[Lissla Lissar]

How about knowing exactly where to find it, and that the intro to the movie is actually Treebeard to Galadriel and Celeborn, in RoTK? Would anyone like to hear me recite Earendil was a mariner?

[koeeoaddi]

Remembrance of Things Past, which I slogged through when I was 22 or 23...
:eek:

You're going back in?

*salutes

God speed, twickster!

[LVBoPeep]

I'm re-reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtrey right now- for the fifth or six time, I think. I usually re-read one in that series every 6 months or so. They never get old, always something new to discover and the characters are so well drawn that you feel like you are just hanging out with them again ..

I do tend to get in a re-reading rut and not try new authors out... I might work on that after I get done re-reading this and Porno by Irvine Welsh.

[AuntiePam]

Maybe it's just that I have a crappy memory and need to reinforce my favorite things with repeated exposures;

This is why I re-read.

Right now I'm re-reading The Dollmaker by Harriette Arnow.

It's about a hard-working woman from the hills of Kentucky. During WWII, her husband gets a job in a factory in Detroit, hoping to "better" their lives. She uproots her family and follows him. Not begrudgingly, but with some trepidation.

The first time I read it, I expected a rags-to-riches story. (Or almost riches -- indoor plumbing, at least.)

This time the story isn't affected by my expectations -- I'm reading what Arnow wrote, and the experience is ten times richer.

Basically, while I loved the book, I didn't truly appreciate it the first time. I knew I'd have to read it again someday.

[FlyingRamenMonster]

From beginning to end? Never. Random passages from all over the book? Often.

[Skald the Rhymer]

How about knowing exactly where to find it, and that the intro to the movie is actually Treebeard to Galadriel and Celeborn, in RoTK? Would anyone like to hear me recite Earendil was a mariner?

Darling, I've always wanted to marry a woman who can recite Tolkien on demand. How 'bout the elegy for Boromir, though? It's so beautifully sad.

[Lightnin']

I reread every one of my books. I pretty much have to- I read really, really fast, and I've got very specific tastes in fiction. If I didn't reread, I'd be a lot poorer than I am now.

Most of my books I've read at least five times. Some are into the double digits by now.

[EPDerby]

I reread fiction and non-fiction alike.

I've read "Winter's Tale" by Mark Helprin multiple times, and even bought copies when I thought I had lost it -- so now I own three copies though I've read it five times. And I have to read it in the winter, it's just a sort of prerequisite for me.

Every few years I reread a variety of Lovecraft stories. Since I have read them all, it's a little less fun as I know how each one ends, but there won't ever be new ones, so I try to hold out as long as I can before I reread them.

In that vein, I reread various Ligotti stories, because he's a little pokey as a writer and when I'm in the mood what can I do?

I also reread various Brautigan books and short stories about every five years.

"Low Life" by Luc Sante is non-fiction I've read three times and will read it again.

"High Rise" by Ballard I've started to reread twice but haven't finished due to various circumstances.

I anticipate within a few years I will pick up some Goodis books and reread them, and try to fit in one I haven't read but I'm running out.

I just finished rereading "Stiff" by Mary Roach. It seemed more humorous the first time though.

Just last night I thought to myself that I need to reread "Malpertuis" by Jean Ray.

Some authors are so singular that they are worth returning to, when you can't find their particular sort of magic with anyone else. And when it comes to non-fiction, I second what has been said by others -- if you are interested in the subject matter but don't have the best memory, then it's always interesting.

[Mindfield]

I love re-reading a book or especially a series after a hiatus. In fact, if I'm up-to-date on a series and have to wait a while for the next book, I'll usually end up reading the entire series again when the new book arrives so it's all fresh in my mind when I get to the new volume. It's a bit like revisiting a place you liked being in being in before, seeing old friends and familiar places.

I've read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series about 6 times so far, David Eddings' Belgariad, Malloreon, Elenium and Tamuli series at least twice each (I need to get the omnibus editions of these, as I only have box sets right now), Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series twice, LE Modesitt Jr.'s Saga of Recluse series twice (though I'm missing a few volumes of these and they're bloody hard to find in conventional book stores), and everything Douglas Adams at least twice, plus a bunch of random one-offs 'n stuff. Sadly my reading time these days is limited, and I really need to get back into it, plus pick up volumes I've missed.

[Rysto]

I re-read everything. I mean, I re-read Agatha Christie novels, and I have a very good memory and can almost always remember who the murderer was.

[Zoe]

Trinity by Leon Uris -- again and again. The last time my husband read it aloud to me. Ah, such luxury!

[dalej42]

I reread a lot. Usually during weeks at work when I'm so exhausted, I can't really concentrate on something new and challenging.

[DesertDog]

I reread every one of my books. I pretty much have to- I read really, really fast, and I've got very specific tastes in fiction. If I didn't reread, I'd be a lot poorer than I am now.But, Lightnin', like Skald said, there's these places called libraries where you can read 'most anything you like for free.

You gotta give the book back after though.

Seriously, to echo Steve Wright, the words might not change but the reader does. New readings bring new insignts except for the most shallow stuff.

[Lissla Lissar]

Darling, I've always wanted to marry a woman who can recite Tolkien on demand.

Boromir's elegy is beautiful. Wanna join my harem? I have nine husbands so far. :D

I probably re-read
Robin McKinley
Jacqueline Carey
Audrey Niffenegger
Nigel Slater
Elizabeth David
Chaim Potok
Annie Dillard
L. M. Montgomery
Ursula K. Le Guin
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Diana Gabaldon
and
Tad Williams the most often. I have Tolkien and most of C. S. Lewis printed invisibly on the backs of my eyelids now, and don't need to re-read them often.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Boromir's elegy is beautiful. Wanna join my harem? I have nine husbands so far. :D


Well, sure I'll join your harem, if you're okay with me murdering your other husbands. (I am after all a member of the evil commuinty.)

[don't ask]

Every few years I reread To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby because one or the other is the greatest work of fiction ever written.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Every few years I reread To Kill A Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby because one or the other is the greatest work of fiction ever written.

It's Gatsby. Though Mockingbird is within a few hundredths of a point.

[don't ask]

I'll get back after the next reading. I recently read part of the first page of To Kill A Mockingbird to some people at work. They all went out and got a copy.

[supervenusfreak]

I have reread too many novels to remember. Books can be like friends that live far away. Every once in awhile you reconnect and enjoy for different reasons. :D

[Mgcklmoon]

Hello, my name is Mgcklmoon and I am addicted to books. Reading a book once only is very rare for me. Books have been a large part of my world since I was a child.

Books are kind of like potential lovers. Sometimes it can be a quick and dirty affair, happening once and then never wishing to see them again and other times it can be like a long term love affair. You come back to them over and over because they are entrancing and exciting, or comfortable and inviting.

My husband and I both reread books. We listen to songs of books we read, we sing songs of books have read.

We enjoy our escapes from reality and walk through those doors often

[woodflute]

Hello--I'm Mgcklmoon's husband, and we do indeed reread books.

I have read the Lord of the Rings maybe twenty times since my first exposure to it in the 8th grade many many moons ago, and I've read the Silmarillion maybe ten times. There is an incredible depth to these books and to the moral and ethical questions that underlie the story which you simply don't get from just a few readings.

Another set of books frequently visited by me are Susan Cooper's wonderful The Dark Is Rising sequence, which I usually return to around Christmas about every other year.

Some books get reread because they are great fun reads: Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, Steven Brust's Jhereg novels, and James P. Hogan's Giants books come to mind.

Some books you find yourself returning to with active dread (the Thomas Covenant trilogies come to mind here), but you can't help yourself--you pick them up again anyway, even as you curse yourself for doing so.

Books are magical and in a real way they open doors to other worlds.

When people tell me they don't like to read, I always look at them in amazement and pity, and hope for them that one day they too will discover the only real magic left to a world grown deadly cold, where people are disposable commodities and your only value is the money someone else can make from you.

But then I look at my lovely wife, and I remember there is yet beauty in the world. And she smiles--and we both turn back to our books, and keep reading. :D

--James

[Ronald C. Semone]

I have read "Alice In Wonderland" and "Alice Through The Looking Glass" at least once a year for more than fifty years and they have never failed to transport me to another, a more magical, world. (And unlike most movie critics who, I suspect, have never read the books or seen the movie, I think Walt Disney's version of the two Alice books is a very faithful adaptation and well worth the viewing.)

[Carlyjay]

I'm a serial re-reader. I have a bookshelf full of books that I read over and over again. These include:

- Almost all of Stephen King's books (except for the really, really bad ones)
- River God and Warlock by Wilbur Smith
- Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien
- Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
- The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
- Leading With My Chin by Jay Leno (Excellent inspirational book for those of us trying to make it in the entertainment industry)
- Shogun by James Clavell
- All of Dave Barry's books, both humour and novel
- All of Roald Dahl's books.

And I'd be rereading the Harry Potter series if ALL of my Harry Potter books hadn't mysteriously disappeared.

[Taters]

I re-read books constantly.

It's like visiting with an old friend.

Additionally, I find that sometimes I missed something on the first reading, or, I interpret it differently, or I can relate better because of more life experience.

[Rick]

If I didn't reread books, I be the only guy on skid row living in a box with book shelves.

[Lissla Lissar]

I warn you, Skald, at least four of them are hard to kill. I seem to attract martial artists.

[Skald the Rhymer]

I warn you, Skald, at least four of them are hard to kill. I seem to attract martial artists.

Surely you didn't think I'd be assassinating them MYSELF. That's why I employ ASSASSINS. Or occasionally polar bears.

[Khampelf]

Another re-reader here. I re-read "To Kill a Mockingbird" probably once a year. I can also pick up anything by Raymond Chandler whenever I'm not reading anything else. Robert B Parker, too. I'm currently re-reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle Triology, now that it's in paperback, and I don't have to borrow the hardbacks from the Library. Yes, I bought books specifically to re-read them. Bruce Sterling gets re-read a lot, too. Any Cyberpunk, really.

[Skald the Rhymer]

Another re-reader here. I re-read "To Kill a Mockingbird" probably once a year. I can also pick up anything by Raymond Chandler whenever I'm not reading anything else. Robert B Parker, too. I'm currently re-reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle Triology, now that it's in paperback, and I don't have to borrow the hardbacks from the Library. Yes, I bought books specifically to re-read them. Bruce Sterling gets re-read a lot, too. Any Cyberpunk, really.

Of course you buy books to reread them...what OTHER reason would there be? :confused: Hardbacks, in particularl, should only be bought if you've already read & loved them.

Um...unless I publish my novel. That you should all buy IMMEDIATELY. In multiple copies. And persuade your book clubs to undertake.

But I'm special.

[Khampelf]

Of course you buy books to reread them...what OTHER reason would there be? :confused: .[/SIZE]


I guess in this thread, it wasn't particularly noteworthy that I bought a book I'd already read. But I buy very few books brand new, and those tend to be Authors I know and love, but new material.

Carry on. :)

[David Simmons]

Of course. I reread every fiction book. I even reread mysteries. I favor light fiction, action-adventure, mysteries and the like.

Reread books I can think of offhand, most of them several times:
Rafael Sabatini
Captain Blood
The Gamester
Scaramouch

C.S. Forester
The Horblower novels
The General - a scathing portrayal of WWI British army leadership.
The Sky and the Forest - an African tribal chief who is a god is captured
by slavers.

S.S. Van Dine
The Philo Vance mysteries from The Benson Murder Case to The Winter
Murder case.

Alexandre Dumas[i]
The Count of Monte Cristo

Erle Stanley Gardner
A great number of the Perry Mason stories and
Gardner's work as A.A. Fair

As you can see from the list, as a fuddy-duddy I eschew modern authors.

In fact I sometimes go to great lengts to reread. About 60 years ago I bought a cheap copy of Captain Blood at the Five and Dime (F.W. Woolworth to you rookies). Over the years the paper turned ecru, then tan and then brown and was so brittle that to turn the pages was to break off a piece. So I copied and bound it. Here (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dwsimm2000/detail?.dir=/8cf7&.dnm=6e97scd.jpg&.src=ph) and here. (http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dwsimm2000/detail?.dir=/8cf7&.dnm=af4bscd.jpg&.src=ph)

I don't have enough to do.

[AuntiePam]

I don't have enough to do.

I love that you did that. You weren't strictly recycling, since you used new paper to copy the book, but it's sorta like sentimental recycling.

[Rubystreak]

I feel much better knowing that I am not the only person who rereads. I too am a cheapskate, I mean, thrifty, and aside from thise warehouse booksales, mostly buys books I've already read, to reread or loan out, unless it's George R.R. Martin's newest Song of Ice and Fire book, and that gets delivered the day it's out and huffed up like crystal meth.

Interesting to me that many of the books others have reread are also on my list. Also, there are books I'll read twice, and then books I'll read half a dozen times. I reckon I'll go through Dune and LotR half a dozen more before I go blind. It is like visiting with an old friend, and I am often finding new things in old books. Rereading books I loved as a kid has been quite interesting in that regard. I do think I'm going to try something new soon, though... after American Gods.

[Clothahump]

Oh, absolutely I reread them.

It seems like every time I do, I pick up on something that I missed the previous times. Yeah, I know the butler did it (or whatever), but it's that discovery that makes it like a new read.