I’m not re-reading them right at the moment, but every five or six years I return to George R.R. Martin’s science-fiction masterpiece Tuf Voyaging (about power, intrigue, ecological engineering, population control, psionic cats and the finer points of mushroom cuisine) and Gary Jenning’s historical novel Aztec (about a long-lost and in many ways admirable civilization, warfare, human sacrifice, sex, cultural clashes and the Inquisition). Both are longtime favorites of mine - just wonderful books, well-written, witty and totally engrossing.
Rereading my Agatha Christies right now. They’re popcorn - I go through one every evening.
Next up, probably the Rex Stout set. I’m on an ‘old mystery’ roll right now.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub, for a BOM at SFF World. I hope it holds up better than Floating Dragon, which was a disappointment.
Put me on the list for re-reading The Baroque cycle.
That means, though, that I read it first over about a year and a half, came back to it a year later and re-read Quicksilver this past summer (actually, this one is my favorite. I must be odd!), and need to re-read the second two pretty soon when I finish all my Christmas books.
I should re-read Cryptonomicon too. Maybe this time I will be smarterer when I am done.
I know this is a hijack, but could someone please enlighten me about what this Baroque Cycle is? Author, basic premise, etc?
Here is a link, with some basic information: The Baroque Cycle - Wikipedia
And here is one to the first book on Amazon:
My comment: this book is big in every possible way - big in theme, big in scope, and long; to me that is all good, but some people don’t like it - hence the cries of “he needs an editor”.
Basic premise: nothing less than ‘how did the modern world emerge from the morass of violence and superstition’. Told with lots of robust historical fiction interacting with real historical events.
Creative notes abound. One of my favorites: a chapter written in the style of a Restoration era play.
Thanks!
I recently bought the World War Z audiobook and have been listening to it in my car. This is actually my first experiance with audiobooks.
I picked up Rudyard Kipling’s Kim for the first time in September '06, and I have just begun reading it for the fourth time. It’s just a beautiful story, and the descriptions of Kim, the eternal outsider, along with the Grand Trunk Road and the hills and the cities could only have been written by a mournful genius who loved and pined for India without ever really having understood it. I’m actually thinking about learning Hindi and Urdu because of this book. It’s replaced The Karla Trilogy as the work I find myself compulsively re-reading over and over again.
I’m in the middle of re-reading Thud! right now, Lobsang.
As I remembered it from my first read, the whole thing is marvelous fun.
I reread a lot. Since this summer I reread all of Harry Turtledove’s Timeline-191 books and Peter Hamilton’s Commonwealth books. I also reread The Book of Lists: 1990 edition new years day.
Pillars Of The Earth by Follet.
I was re-watching the first four seasons of The Wire (which, IMHO, is very much equivalent to reading a great novel), and in the second season the character of D’Angelo Barksdale is discussing The Great Gatsby in a prison reading group (led by author Richard Price, BTW). “D” had some interesting things to say about Gatsby, and since it had been quite a while since I read the book, and since I’m sure the series writers were drawing a parallel between him and Gatsby, I re-read the book. (Yes, there are parallels.)
I definitely got a lot more from it this time than when I read it 10+ years ago. So I turned around an re-read it right away.
I’m re-reading Winston Graham’s *Poldark * series for the fourth or fifth time, although I’ll probably quit around book six or seven rather than slog all the way through to the end as I don’t care for the last few books. Right now I’m finishing up Warleggan (the fourth book), and Ross has just dragged Elizabeth off to her room for some extremely ill advised and at least semi-forcible sex. I hate that scene, as it kind of screws up Ross’s good guy image, to say the least.
I also have a set of old VHS tapes of both seasons of the BBC TV series from the '70s, which I re-watch periodically.
I just finished re-reading Making Money. I re-read Pratchett over and over and over…
I’m re-reading Matthew Kneale’s English Passengers for the third time since I bought it about two months ago. I just can’t get enough of it! I will probably retire it for the next year after this, mostly because I have a bunch of books I got for Christmas to read instead. I just love the story, the language and most of the characters.
A World Lit Only by Fire by William Manchester. I’m a history nut and have read plenty of books about the history of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, but I’ve never read a book that does such a great job of describing what it felt like. Manchester’s extensive research supports an incredibly personal look into the dynamic forces of the powerful, the adventurous and the mundane characters of the time.
If I was a high school history teacher this would be mandatory reading even though it has plenty of sex.
Haven’t read this at all yet, but I’m interested.
This sounds awesome. I found a used edition at Amazon for $3.50. In some of the descriptions, the seller says “No CD”, so I’m thinking maybe this has been used as a textbook.
The last book that made me feel a time period was Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill. It’s the mundane details that accomplish this, I think. Too many authors shy away from mundanities. Maybe they think it’s boring for the reader, the day to day stuff.
Malthus, English Passengers is a guaranteed good read. Several Dopers have read and loved it.
Re-reading Jane Eyre because I called her a wimp in a thread on these boards a few months ago and promised her defenders I’d reread to figure out why I think she’s a wimp.