# What books have you read at least three times? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 18, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579 "2009-09-18T12:32:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Ian\_D.Bergkamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ian_D.Bergkamp)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/1 "2009-09-18T12:32:08Z")
Inspired by [this post](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=11565863&postcount=52), which full-length books (so no short stories) do you enjoy so much that you have read them, start to finish, at least three times. For me, it’s a pretty small list: Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein (5 times) Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco (4 times) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (4 times) Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (3 times) Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (3 times) Lempriere’s Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk (3 times) And I’ll probably read some of these again - LOTR, Foucault’s Pendulum, Lempriere’s Dictionary. I’m probably done with Atlas Shrugged. I last read it about 10 years ago and it was starting to look very dated to me then. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/2 "2009-09-18T12:39:09Z")
**Lord of the Rings** (way more than a dozen times) **The Day of the Jackal** **Starship Troopers, Expanded Universe, Stranger in a Strange Land** and much other Heinlein All my **Dave Barry Books** All my **Tom Weller** books ( **Science Made Stupid** and **CVLTVRE Made Stupid** ) **Bored of the Rings** All of my **Cecil Forester Horatio Hornblower** novels All of **Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes** stories and novels The two volumes of **Collected Plays of Neil Simon** **The Iliad** and **The Odyssey** , in Fitzgerald’s translation and Fagles’ translation **A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court** **Dune** **Dracula** **Gulliver’s Travels** **Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea** (I have these last three in Annotated Editions) ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/3 "2009-09-18T12:40:21Z")
Too many for my poor memory to recall. The Lord Of The Rings Sati Prince Ombra Illusions The Forgotten Beasts of Eld Old Yeller No doubt many more that just aren’t coming to me. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/4 "2009-09-18T12:42:44Z")
There’s a very, very long list. Most of my favorite books have been re-read at least a half dozen times. ---
**Author:** ![JoseArcadio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc348/32.png) [@JoseArcadio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseArcadio)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/5 "2009-09-18T12:45:28Z")
Lion of Macedon and Dark Prince The Stars Look Down Ragged Trousered Philanthropists Stephen King’s It Frankenstein There are probably a few more but those are definitely my most read. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/6 "2009-09-18T12:59:01Z")
Aw, Jeez…I really haven’t had as much time as I’d like to re-read old favorites for quite awhile. ☹ Off the top of my head, though, and not counting non-fiction and, er, internet based stories, I can think of… _War of the Worlds_; John Christopher’s _Tripods_ trilogy (still my oldest favorite); _Red Dwarf_; and I think I’ve read Dante’s _Inferno_ more than once or twice. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/7 "2009-09-18T13:00:15Z")
The New Testament probably most of The Old Testament Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged -Anthem Taylor Caldwell’s Dear and Glorious Physician -Captains and the Kings -Bright Flows the River Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World Orwell’s 1984 C.S. Lewis’ Naria: Lion&W&WD & The Last Battle -Mere Christianity -The Great Divorce -That Hideous Strength Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange Brad Steiger’s Mysteries of Time and Space Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth -Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth -There’s A New World Coming -The Liberation of Planet Earth David Chilton’s The Days of Vengeance:Commentary on Revelation -Paradise Restored Erich Von Daniken’s Chariots of the Gods Bram Stoker’s Dracula Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins -Lost in the Cosmos -Lancelot -The Second Coming John Stormer’s None Dare Call It Treason Gary Allen’s None Dare Call It Conspiracy Frederic Bastiat’s The Law Robert Anton Wilson’s Cosmic Trigger: The Final Secret of the Illuminati - and Robert Shea’s The Illuminatus Trilogy Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula -The Bloody Red Baron: Anno Dracula II -Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula III Jeffrey Sackett’s Blood of the Impaler Mark Rogers’ The Dead Brian Caldwell’s We All Fall Down James BeauSeigneur’s The Christ Clone Trilogy J. Patterson-Smyth’s The Gospel of the HereAfter Charles Taze Russell’s The Divine Plan of the Ages Charles Fox Parham’s The Everlasting Gospel -A Voice in the Wilderness Stephen King’s The Stand ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/8 "2009-09-18T13:04:06Z")
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean Beautiful Swimmers by William Warner Happy Days by H. L. Mencken Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis There are probably more. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/9 "2009-09-18T13:04:51Z")
and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/10 "2009-09-18T13:10:41Z")
Over the years I’ve pared my library down to three main categories: 1) Reference books, 2) Books with which I have some emotional connection (such as _The Wizard of Oz_), and 3) Books that I think I’ll reread. There’s quite a few that I’ve read at least three times, but there’s one of them that I’ll bet hardly anyone has ever heard of: _Not As A Stranger_ by Morton Thompson. It think it’s a masterpiece of mid-twentieth century fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/11 "2009-09-18T13:22:32Z")
Too many to remember, some top picks. Shogun The Cruel Sea The Caine Mutiny Rocket Boys Carrying the Fire The Demon Haunted World A Fall of Moondust Iceigger Nor Crystal Tears Jane Eyre Mutiny on the Bounty Misery Eye of the Needle Voice Across the Sea Life in Nelsons Navy ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/12 "2009-09-18T13:25:23Z")
Ironically, _War and Peace_ is the only one. That, and _Ada_ by Nabokov which is sort of a parody of epic Russian novels and is fairly long itself. ---
**Author:** ![Ronald\_C.Semone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/cc9497/32.png) [@Ronald\_C.Semone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ronald_C.Semone)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/13 "2009-09-18T13:27:01Z")
Alice In Wonderland Alice Through The Looking Glass The Education of Henry Adams The Picture of Dorian Grey A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court Gulliver’s Travels And Then There Were None White Patch Fancies And Good Nights And that might be it! ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/14 "2009-09-18T13:29:40Z")
The first six books of the _Dragonlance_ saga The _Hitchhiker’s Guide_ series _To Kill A Mockingbird_ I generally don’t do a lot of rereading. Too much good stuff out there I still have to get to. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/15 "2009-09-18T13:32:27Z")
1984 Dragonlance Chronicles Raw Deal Incomplete Education Watchers Interview with the Vampire I Robot The Mist The Bible will probably be on this list by next year, as I plan to read it again. ---
**Author:** ![Jettboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/85e7bf/32.png) [@Jettboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jettboy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/16 "2009-09-18T13:34:29Z")
A few that I keep coming back to: • _Blood Sport: A Journey Up the Hassayampa_, by Robert F. Jones (read at least 6-8 times) • _Boys Life_, by Robet McCammon (3-4 times) • _Jim Morrison’s Adventures in the Afterlife_, by Mick Farren (3-4 times) • _Child of Fortune_, by Norman Spinrad (a ‘bible’ of sorts when I was a wee young 20-something, read at least 8-10 times) • _1984_, by George Orwell (5-6 times easily) • _Aztec_, by Gary Jennings (3-5 times) • _Skinny Legs And All_, by Tom Robbins, (3-4 times) • _Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintanence_, by Robert Pirsig (8-10 times easily. When I was young, I thought it was just too fucking ‘deep’ for words; at my current age I don’t think I could force myself to read it again) ---
**Author:** ![Chum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3ab097/32.png) [@Chum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chum)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/17 "2009-09-18T13:35:42Z")
_Jane Eyre_ by Charlotte Bronte _The Magician’s Nephew_ and _The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe_ by C.S. Lewis _Behind the Magic Wall_ by Sylvia Cassidy Probably all of Roald Dahl’s books for children This is actually more difficult than I thought it would be. I re-read a lot of books when I was a kid, but now I always opt for trying something new. I just figure there are _so_ many books out there, why read something I’ve already read? And especially why read something I’ve already read twice? _Jane Eyre_ is only on the list because I read it on my own once and then had to read it for school twice. I honestly don’t think any other non-children’s literature would make this list. Maybe _Surfacing_ by Margaret Atwood, but I’m not sure. But this is a nice way to find great new books to try. **PoorYorick** , I just requested _Not as a Stranger_ from the library. I hope I think it’s as good as you think it is. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/18 "2009-09-18T13:49:49Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol “A Christmas Carol” is the only book I can definitely say I have read at least three times. I read it every Christmas, and have for probably 10 years or so. Otherwise I’m not really a re-reader. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/19 "2009-09-18T14:00:04Z")
> [@RikWriter](#): > > There’s a very, very long list. Most of my favorite books have been re-read at least a half dozen times. I re-read my old favorites. In some cases, I have read a book until it falls apart. I know that I’ve read Barbara Hambly’s _Dragonsbane_ so many times that I’m on my fourth or fifth copy of the book, for instance. I read a lot, I’m a fast reader, and I don’t watch much TV, so I read much, much more than even the average reader, let alone the average American. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579/20 "2009-09-18T14:51:23Z")
As a kid: Alice in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass, over and over All the Narnia books I Robot Several John Wyndam books but definitely The Day of the Triffids The Kraken Wakes The Chrysalids Later: A bunch of Tom Wolfe including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test The Right Stuff More recently: Some Neal Stephenson stuff from when his books were short enough to read more than once Snow Crash The Diamod Age William Gibson, everything (except Idoru) Neuromancer to Spook Country. Also, quite a long list that starts: Guards! Guards! Men at Arms Wyrd Sisters Lords and Ladies Reaper Man Mort … and I am currently finishing Making Money for the second time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-you-read-at-least-three-times/510579.md?page=2)