For me it’s Ken Follett’s Night Over Water. I love that novel and read it as if I were a passenger on that Pan Am Clipper watching all the intrigue unfold around me!
I have mixed emotions about it becoming a film for this reason, however: I have already pre-conceived all the goings-on in my head, and any deviation from this would destroy my fantasy, and we all know how Hollywood likes to write their own stories, don’t we?
So what’s your favorite novel that you like to re-read, and have you ever experienced a let-down when it was brought to film (if it was)?
I really enjoy Bryce Courtenay’s The Power of One, it is storytelling at its best. I reread this novel once a year. Sadly, I was disappointed with the movie version. I think it must be very hard to make such a long, rich novel into a successful screenplay.
The Harry Potter books by JK Rowling The Ender’s Game/Shadow Series by Orson Scott Card 1984 by George Orwell In Front of Your Nose: Letters and Essays by George Orwell
And my countless trivia books I have lying around.
HOLY CRAP!!! Needless to say I’m thoroughly surprised. Hey, FlyingDragonFan, I thought I was the only one who read ARMOR by Steakley. I still retain some small hope that a sequel might pop up sometime. Ender’s Game is another worth reading over again. Try Time Enough For Love by Heinlein. It’s fast,fluid and truly one of the Greats. Last one I promise. Glen Cook’s The Black company series (first three only). Too COOL!!!
The only book over four hundred pages I’ve read for pleasure multiple times was Boy’s Life by Roger McCormic. Two not so serious books, Samurai Car in the Real World, and Samurai Cat Goes to the Movies by Mark E. Rogers.
I’ve read nearly every book I own multiple times (general rule, if I don’t care to ever read it again I give it away) but two in particular stand out.
Red Storm Rising and The Stand. The main reason is I used to travel for work a lot, meaning lots of time in airports and on planes, and I hate just sitting around and there’s a limit to how much I can sleep on a plane. Both these books are great because it’s a good story and long enough that I can’t remember every single detail so it’s still pleasant to read. Most importantly I’ve been through them enough and know the general outline well enough that if I lose my place while getting on the plane or something I can open the book to any random page and pick right back up without missing a beat.
The Long Walk-Stephen King…I read this every few years…I don’t know what it is that keeps drawing me back to it.
Enders Game-Orson Scott Card…god I love that story
Infinite Jest-David Foster Wallace…I reread this more out of necessity…it’s so damn long that once I get to the end I kind of forget what happened in the beginning and start reading all over
Alice in Wonderland-Lewis Carol…always good to come home to
Brave New World-Alduos Huxley…just love it
Anything by David Sedaris
Incantations of Immortality…specially Death-Piers Anthony
The Once and Future King by T.H. White will always be my favorite book. It seems like it has everything in it–it’s one of those books that you never want to end.
It’s also a book I’d recommend to anyone, not just King Arthur buffs.
Oh my, this is definitely my kind of post! LOL Because there are indeed many books that I have read and re-read, sometimes too many times to count! I’m not sure if it’s a measure of how good the book is or not, but each re-reading, I seem to pick up certain nuances that I didn’t with the previous reading.
My all-time favorite book to read again and again is (and remains right now): “Green Darkness” by Anya Seton. I’ve read some of her other novels, but none of them intrigued me as much as this one! It’s a lengthy novel too, and involves characters in present day and in the 15th century, and switches back and forth between the time periods as well, which can be confusing. I really loved the historical aspects, though; I think that was (is?) her forte.
Very close behind Green Darkness comes “The Stand,” by Stephen King. I really can’t say how many times I’ve read this novel, including at least 3 re-readings of the “un-cut” version. Damn, but that’s his best work! And each time I do pick up on something new.
There are most definitely more books that I’ve read over and over, but I’d rhapsodize on each of them at length…
And now, I must find and re-read “City Under the Back Steps,” by Evelyn Sibley Lampman. Thank you again, Helena, for pointing me back to this book. The re-reading of books spans back to my childhood; I think the very first book I read and re-read was Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time.”
