That’s what I do. The top shelf of my bookshelf in the living room is reserved for my reread favorites. I find it very comforting to slip back into the world of a favorite book for awhile. I might already know where it ends up but that doesn’t make the trip any less satisifying.
Oh yeah, for sure!
I have such a shocking memory that I can read the same book twice in a year and be surprised by the ending both times.
[Bugs Bunny] He don’t know me very well, do he? [/Bugs Bunny]
If a book is on my shelf that I haven’t re-read at least once, I don’t look upon it with much affection.
If a book is on my shelf that I have reread half a dozen times (Watership Down, *Guards! Guards!) * it has pride of place. I love these books as I can repeatedly sink into that world and forget everything else.
I reread 98 % of my literature.
Another rereader here. For all the reasons listed above.
The books I reread most often are Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. They’re short (so you have to read them twice to do the same amount of reading as, say, a John Irving book), and quick. And there are always new things to discover. It’s like listening to a song again - you may notice that horn part that you hadn’t noticed before, or really ‘get’ that metaphor the songwriter is getting at.
Me too!
In fact, I once read a book, hated it, then picked it up years later and was halfway through before I realized I’d read it before! (I hated it the second time, too.)
Re: books on shelves, and non-rereaders
My dad only reads books once. (Freak!) But then (this is the part I love) he gives them away - why keep them if you’re not going to read them again? It just doesn’t make sense to keep non-reference books that you’re not going to read again (unless you plan on lending them - in which case, why not just give them away and start a book exchange among your friends?)
I used to reread a lot becasue I read so fast, I’d run out of books. But now I just reread my favorites occasionally, partly because I seem to have lost the attention span needed to read a novel. Or maybe I no longer have any patience for books that don’t immediately grab my attention.
Anyway, some favorite rereads:
Sherlock Holmes
Nero Wolfe
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld
Lord of the Rings
Heinlein
Dean Koontz (for quick, comforting cheese)
Old Stephen King (still creeps me out)
I love that sledride. I love starting off not knowing anything about what’s going to happen, and having the story unfold like an exotic flower. It’s by far the biggest pleasure I get from books, movies, anything with a narrative.
When I toboggan down the same hill twice, I don’t get to start off in ignorance, though, and the ride’s nowhere near as fun for me. So I rarely reread.
But there are exceptions. Books whose pleasure is more in the writing than in the narrative, for example. Books I remember fondly from my youth. Books for a book club.
It’s extremely rare for me to read something more than twice, however; I’ve probably read less than a dozen books three times, and I can’t think of anything I’ve read four or more times.
Daniel
Who has time to reread? Are you all fast readers? My list of books I’ve yet to read grows every year.
I used to read 40-50 books per year, but these days between work and school and family I rad maybe 10-12 books per year, mostly concentrated around Thanksgiving and Christmas, when I can spend some time reading.
Dung Beetle, are you me? :eek: I had exactly the same thought with Gone With the Wind, the second time reading it.
I’m growing old; Now, when I see Romeo and Julia, I think: "Those poor parents!"
I’m a re-reader, too, although not as much as I used to. I re-read Pratchett all the time, though. Never gets old.
My parents, oddly enough, are re-readers but not re-watchers. They never watch a movie or particular episode of a TV show more than once, and are completely baffled by the idea of buying movies to watch them over and over.
For me it depdns on the book. Some, like the works of David Eddings, are good but not worth rereading, as I doubt I’d catch anything worthwhile that I didn’t get the first time. Others, like George R R Martin and Robin Hobb are written with the intention of being reread, and their are subtle hints, connections, and jokes that you can’t get the first time since you don’t know what lies ahead. Also, books written before about 1900 are more likely to justify a reread (if they’re good) because with the older language I may have mistaken the meaning of some passages on the first go round.
I reread constantly. Since I don’t usually get books I won’t like, I figure I’ll enjoy a 2nd or 4th or 8th reading. And more often than not - in fact, pretty much always - I do enjoy it on the subsequent reading(s). Some authors only wrote so much, so there’s less ground to tread, and thus it must be treaded more.
Of course, it helps that I’m an extremely fast reader. (100-300 pages/hour, varying widely on the conditions around me and the book I’m reading.)
I re-read all the time, and have for years. Can’t say how many times I’ve read Stephen King’s “The Stand,” (one of my very favorite books) but know that it’s probably more than 5 times. I’ve only read LotR twice, and am getting ready to start in on it again. I was once very into an Anya Seton novel, “Green Darkness,” and re-read it so many times that the cover fell off! Each time that I read a favorite book, I discover new things that I’ve missed, somehow, in previous readings. It is sort of like watching a favorite movie–it’s something that is familiar and comforting (well, I can’t really say that “The Stand” was all that comforting, but it was a very good read!). I’ve even re-read some historical romances … ducks especially if they’re about pirates.
Definitely. Sometimes I’ll just read the whole thing straight through again.
I did this a lot more often when I was younger and on car trips shuttling between my parents. My mom thought it was slightly odd.