# What books have you re-read the most? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946 "2017-06-02T17:38:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/61 "2017-06-05T19:25:32Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I don’t think I’ve ever re-read a book… Some of us are so forgetful that it is not uncommon to forget what books we have read. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2017, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/62 "2017-06-05T20:01:39Z")
I sometimes forget that I’ve reread a book before. Until I actually start reading. Usually I realize the plot is oddly familiar within a few pages. I often don’t remember all the details. It’s fun rereading a book and rediscovering why I enjoyed it the first time. ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/63 "2017-06-06T01:44:34Z")
The Cruel Sea. Some of the descriptions almost make you queasy with seasickness. The same way that Jack London’s To build a Fire makes me feel cold. Foundation Trilogy, Rendevous with Rama (and Rama 2, etc.). Guy Murchie’s Song of the Sky and Music of the Spheres. Canticle for Leibowitz. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2017, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/64 "2017-06-06T02:16:05Z")
Fiction _The Wizard of Oz_ by L. Frank Baum (when I was a child) _Mrs Frisby and The Rats of NIMH_ by Robert C O’Brien (when I was a child) _Replay_ by Ken Grimwood _Jumper_ by Stephen Gould \*The Man Who Folded Himself \*by David Gerrold Nonfiction _Guns, Germs, and Steel_ by Jared Diamond \*One Child \* by Torey Hayden _The Late Shift_ by Bill Carter _The War for Late Night_ by Bill Carter Book about the Paranomal (they maybe nonfiction. they maybe fiction) _Time Storms_ by Jenny Randles _Alien Agenda_ by Jim Marrs _The Gods of Eden_ by William Bramley _Borderlands_ by Mike Dash ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/65 "2017-06-09T23:59:32Z")
_Swallows and Amazons_ (Ransome). _Tarzan of the Apes_ (Burroughs). _Metzger’s Dog_ (Perry). ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/66 "2017-06-10T00:26:21Z")
> [@Enright3](#): > > Unless I missed it, I can’t believe my two favorite books haven’t been mentioned yet: > The Godfather > The Princess Bride. > > Both excellent books. > The Princess Bride book is especially awesome; in that William Goldman interrupts the story (much like they also did in the movie) so that he can interject his thoughts. It’s comedy gold. The Princess Bride is on my reading list (never read.) My contributions are _Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland_ & _Through the Looking Glass_, which I have read at least as many times as I’ve had years. I now own an annotated version which gives historical and cultural context to every little detail. Then there’s _Catcher in the Rye_, which I know to be very polarizing but I personally find both hilarious and poignant. I also re-read whatever I can get my hands on by Ray Bradbury, and love Stephen King’s short stories. Then there are my comic book collections: Calvin n’ Hobbes, Foxtrot, the Far Side… I’ve read all of that a million times. I’m not a huge re-reader, TBH. There are too many shiny new things. ---
**Author:** ![PapSett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@PapSett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PapSett)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/67 "2017-06-10T19:25:11Z")
The Lady and her Tiger by Pat Derby. Her autobiography telling tales of her many wonderful animals. Read it so many times I can recite parts from memory. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. My favorite of his writing, delightfully creepy Bluegrass by Borden Deal. Wonderful story about horse racing ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/68 "2017-06-11T01:38:22Z")
> [@epbrown01](#): > > I re-read Maugham’s **The Razor’s Edge** every year, and I’ve re-read **Of Human Bondage** quite a few times as well. I’ve read Ready Player One a few times already, and I’ve got a collection of Jeeves short stories ( **The World Of Jeeves** ) that I dip into fairly often, and I crack up every time. I have two huge volumes of Maugham’s short stories, remarkably entertaining. Mostly centered around the Brits mixing it up with the natives at the turn of the century in hot places, like Malaysia, Viet Nam, Hawaii. (There are some great short stories about a spy named Ashenden, and I swore they were the basis for James Bond, but these were set in WWI!). If you’ve ever seen ‘Red Dust’ with Clark Gable, Mary Astor, and Jean Harlow, this is just what I’m talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/69 "2017-06-11T16:17:23Z")
I’ve read Gary Jennings’s historical epic _Aztec_ four times, I think, and George R.R. Martin’s environmental sf satire _Tuf Voyaging_ at least that often. They’re my all-time favorite books. I don’t think I’ve read any other book more than three times. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/70 "2017-06-11T17:26:14Z")
> [@PapSett](#): > > The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. My favorite of his writing, delightfully creepy I just re-read this the other day. It’s up there with some of my favorites by Stephen King. Now I want to re-read The Eyes of the Dragon, that’s another of my favorites. I’ve re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy many times. I keep meaning to attempt to re-read The Silmarillion to see if I can get any more out of it upon a second read-through. I’ve probably re-read my Chronicles of Narnia set the most. I still have the set my aunt gave me when I was 8, I probably read through them once a year or so. I think my oldest niece will get a set of the books soon, she’s 8 now herself and I think she’d enjoy them as much as I do. ---
**Author:** ![Textual\_Innuendo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@Textual\_Innuendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Textual_Innuendo)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/71 "2017-06-11T17:56:25Z")
I re-read books pretty frequently, often due to circumstances limiting accessibility of new material (bathrooms, planes, at my desk while scripts are running in the background) and having a deep trove of ebooks on my phone that allows me to easily access past reads. I also re-read a ton of books when I was younger, due to not having money or as many trips to the library as I’d have liked. So for me at least, there’s a pretty long tail of “I’ve re-read this 2ish times” books. But the books that have made the cut above that threshold that immediately occur to me are: Kinda Philosophical: Robert Pirsig’s _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance_ Herman Hesse’s _Siddhartha_ Gregory David Roberts’ _Shantaram_ Neal Stephenson’s _Anathem_ Sci-Fi: Peter Hamilton’s _Judas Unchained_ and _Pandora’s Star_ The first three books in Orson Scott Card’s Ender however-many-there-are-nowlogy, _Ender’s Game, Speaker for the Dead_, and _Children of the Mind_ Nancy Kress’ _Beggars in Spain_ Frank Herbert’s _Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Children of Dune_ Pretty much everything by Neal Stephenson, but _Cryptonomicon_ particularly Charles Stross’ _Accelerando_ Verner Vinge’s _A Fire Upon the Deep_ and _A Deepness in the Sky_ Other Fiction: Norman Rush’s _Mating_ David Foster Wallace’s _Infinite Jest_ James Clavell’s _Shogun_ Mark Danielewski’s _House of Leaves_ Tolstoy’s _Anna Karenina_ Dostoyevski’s _Brothers Karamazov_ Non-Fiction: Jared Diamond’s _Guns Germs and Steel_ Dubner and Levitt’s _Freakonomics_ and follow ups John Allen Paulos’ _A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper_ Dan Ariely’s _Predictably Irrational_ Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s _The Black Swan_ and _Fooled by Randomness_ Thaler and Sunstein’s _Nudge_ Needless to say, I would and do heartily recommend these to friends and family, and unreservedly recommend them to anyone here in the same spirit. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2017, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/72 "2017-06-11T18:06:07Z")
I don’t like to reread books, because it takes time away from reading one I haven’t read. My reading time is limited. But I think I read _The Magic Journey_ twice, John Nichols’ second installment in his New Mexico trilogy of which _The Milagro Beanfield War_ was the first. I think I read some of the Tony Hillerman mysteries twice. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2017, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946/73 "2017-06-12T00:23:37Z")
I read rather quickly and thus go through many of them. I often find myself without a new book to read without a trip to the library, and thus must re-read. We probably have a thousand books in the house; I’ve never tried to count them. The ones I most often re-read are: Earth Abides Harry Potter (all of them) The Godfather Anything by Asimov Ender’s Game Speaker for the Dead Lots of nonfiction, especially anthropology, evolution and medical history. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-re-read-the-most/787946.md?page=3)