# Do you reread fiction books? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 28, 2006, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371 "2006-07-28T07:34:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/21 "2006-07-28T13:13:31Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/22 "2006-07-28T13:49:27Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/23 "2006-07-28T13:54:11Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/24 "2006-07-28T13:55:39Z")
[QUOTE=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. [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/25 "2006-07-28T15:10:25Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/26 "2006-07-28T15:28:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/27 "2006-07-28T15:28:39Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/28 "2006-07-28T16:42:44Z")
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 – ) > [@Gandalf](#): > > 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. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/29 "2006-07-28T16:59:10Z")
> [@](#): > > _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. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/30 "2006-07-28T17:11:25Z")
[QUOTE=Lissla Lissar] I’m such a nerd. I love that paragraph. [/QUOTE] Loving that paragraph only means you have taste, dear. Now, being able to recite it upon demand means you’re a nerd. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/31 "2006-07-28T17:19:48Z")
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: [ul] [li]_The City And The Stars_, by Arthur C. Clark[/li][li]_Lest Darkness Fall_, by L. Sprague de Camp[/li][li]\*Any or all of the _Foundation_ series, prequels, postquels, etc., by Asimov[/li][li]_The Caine Mutiny_ by Herman Wouk[/li][li]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. [/ul][/li] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/32 "2006-07-28T18:41:46Z")
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_? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/33 "2006-07-28T18:52:09Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] _Remembrance of Things Past_, which I slogged through when I was 22 or 23… [/QUOTE] :eek: You’re going back in? \*salutes God speed, **twickster**! ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/34 "2006-07-28T19:37:41Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/35 "2006-07-28T20:19:14Z")
[QUOTE=Rubystreak] Maybe it’s just that I have a crappy memory and need to reinforce my favorite things with repeated exposures; [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/36 "2006-07-28T20:57:53Z")
From beginning to end? Never. Random passages from all over the book? Often. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/37 "2006-07-28T21:06:21Z")
[QUOTE=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_? [/QUOTE] 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. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/38 "2006-07-28T21:28:55Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![EPDerby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a87d85/32.png) [@EPDerby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EPDerby)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/39 "2006-07-29T00:03:46Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2006, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371/40 "2006-07-29T00:11:22Z")
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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-reread-fiction-books/366371.md?page=3)