Omitting scripture, which books have you re-read?
Macbeth by William Shakespeare - > 4 + untold listening and saw once
The Stranger by Albert Camus - > 3 times
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - > 3 times
Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien - > 3 times
The Honor Harrington series by David Weber - 2 times
Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber - 2 times
Next up:
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - #2
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas - yet again
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - countless times.
Lord of the Rings – I long ago lost track of how many times. At least 20.
** Day of the Jackal** – I love Frederick Forsyth’s plotting and writing.
All of C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower novels – again, I love the writing
A Connecut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court – I love Mark Twain, but for some reason this is the only one I’ve re-read multiple times.
All of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and novels
Several Heinlein novels, especially Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers, and Expanded Universe.
The Straight Dope collections, and William Poundstone’s “Big Secrets” series
And humor books I read and re-read – almost all of Dave Barry’s books, and the James Lileks books, and Tom Weller’s Science Made Stupid and Culture Made Stupid, and Bored of the Rings, and too many others to name.
I’d love to re-read more, to really get to know a good book. But I can’t. There are just too many good books I haven’t read even once.
I’ve re-read some Stephen King – Carrie, The Stand, The Gunslinger. I re-read Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson – not because it was so good (although it was) but because it helped me understand what was going on. I’ve re-read The Dollmaker by Harriett Arnow and will probably read it again.
I’ve re-read a lot of Ray Bradbury’s short stories, because I helped proofread the reissue of Dark Carnival.
John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy, ever since I was about…9 or 10, I think.
A number of…um…internet-based short stories and novellas in the style of preexisting intellectual properties.
War of the Worlds, a couple of times.
The Henry Reed and Mad Scientists Club books, also since I was a kid.
I forget how many times I’ve read Dante’s Inferno…at least a couple.
I’m sure there are others, though I can’t bring any to mind just now.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
A Fool’s Progress. I’ve given away three copies of this and keep getting one for myself.
Oh yeah, Eaters of the Dead, the only book by Michael Crichton I’ve re-read.
Ender’s Game
Lord of the Rings
Most of Larry Niven’s Known Space stuff - Neutron Star, Ringworld books, etc.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Hey Ranchoth, glad to see I’m not the only one who’s read the Mad Scientists Club books. I really loved those!
This question comes up on this borad every six months or so. And every time it does I am not the least bit embarrassed to say that I have read the two Alice books (**Alice In Wonderland ** and Alice Through The Looking G****lass) at least once a year and sometimes twice for each of the last 55 years.
Ditto Lord of the Rings and Sherlock Holmes.
Also, all of Terry Pratchett.
Others:
Dracula
The Hitchhiker’s Guide and Dirk Gently books.
I also just re-read Gone with the Wind but I have a feeling that will be the last time.
Lord of the Rings - because I had read it about 30 years before, and had forgotten it.
2001 a Space Odyssey - at least four of five times. 2010 twice.
Childhood’s End several times, and I just reread “The City and the Stars” after Sir Arthur’s death. For the most part, though, 1,000 or more unread books and magazines on my shelves cuts down on the urge to reread.
Every book I’ve ever enjoyed.
Too many to count. I love re-reading books. I re-read the Anne of Green Gable series at least once a year.
All of these twice and will read again:
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
May not read again:
The Lord of the Rings
The Dragonlance Trilogy by Weis & Hickman
The Schroedinger’s Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson
Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson
Others I plan on re-reading:
Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Yep ( well, excluding Anne of Green Gables ;), which I read once, but wasn’t enchanted with - liked the original TV mini-series, though ). I re-read constantly and I doubt I’ve ever enjoyed anything that I didn’t re-read at least once and often many times.
It helps that I’m a reasonably fast ( but not speed ) reader.
I’ve re-read Gone With the Wind to the point of nearly having it memorized at one time. It’s been a few years now since the last time.
I re-read lots of things, so I’ll just say I’ve read these the most:
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Secret Garden
Watership Down
Many Stephen King books, especially The Shining and The Stand. (He’s written others that I read once, and once was too much).
Jane Eyre
The James Herriot books
The Haunting of Hill House
By Tolkien:
Lord of the Rings & the Hobbit at least 20+ times
Silmarillion at least a dozen times.
Unfinished Tales at least 4
The rest of Tolkien’s short fiction 3-10 times.
Heinlein: I have read everything he wrote through Friday at least twice. “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” would top this list at about 6 times.
Dragon Riders of Pern: First three books and the first three Harper Hall books at least twice.
A Short History of the World by H G Wells twice.
MacBeth: 3 times.
The Lensman series by E.E. ‘Doc’ Smith: at least 3 times.
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first three and least 4 times.
Moonheart by Charles De Lint twice
Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: 2-3 times.
Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles maybe 4 times.
The Elric series by Michael Moorcock I read 2 or 3 times but not in 18 years.
There are others that I read more than once before I turn 23 and have not read since. These are now hard to recall. Several of the John Carter Books though.
I re-read most of my favorite books, sometimes once a year.
I’ve re-read all of Heinlein’s “juveniles” dozens of times since I first read them at around age 8-10. I’ve re-read my favorite three of Walter Jon Williams’ books several times each since the early 90s. I’ve re-read SM Stirling’s ISOT series several times…maybe an even dozen by now. The list is pretty long.
As for nonfiction books, I’ve re-read Geoffrey Bibby’s “4000 Years Ago” a few times, and some popularized science books more than once.
I very rarely re-read anything. Of the books I remember rereading they would include:
Lolita by Valdimir Nabakov.
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
and, off the top of my head, that’s all I remember rereading. I also rarely watch movies more than once.
Does anyone really not re-read books? Honest question, not trying to be snarky. I re-read all the time. Anything I’ve enjoyed gets re-read.