Books You've Read More Than Once

[anonymous-user]

I’ve read loads of books more than once especially ones I studied in my youth. The ones I’ve read the most often are probably,

The great gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Great expectations - Dickens
Fate is the hunter - Ernest Gann
The old man and the sea - Hemingway
Heart of darkness - Joseph Conrad
Catch 22 - Heller
1984 - George Orwell
The right stuff - Tom Wolfe

[paua]

Mitla Pass - Leon Uris, 4 times & several others of his 2-3 times
Some Michener bks twice.
Catch 22 x 3
East of Eden & Winter of Our Discontent ( Steinbeck) x 3
Some others twice

[MC Bodge]

Georgiaa said:

'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte seem to be my go-to book forever.

I read that when I was at university and attempting to work my way through classic novels.

I found it very "old-fashioned", melodramatic and very dull. It seemed to be written from a very narrow world view, which it probably was.

[Brianstorm]

Only read 2 books more than once although a good few years between both reads - A Kestral for a Knave & Tony Adams 'Addicted'.
Not even an Arsenal fan i just thought the book was a top read.

[ReverendCounter]

Catch 22, Dune, To Kill A Mockingbird, Wuthering Heights, Mastering Audio by Bob Katz

[spikeyhead]

ozzuk said:

...

I'm due a re-read of some McNabb and Chris Ryan books, the earlier ones though I do lose track of a good order for them.

I'm just re-reading McNabb's Nick Stone series in order.

[mywifeshusband]

All of Evelyn Waugh about 3 times but try to read Scoop more then the others.

[Halmyre]

The Lord of the Rings
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Cryptonomicon (Neil Stephenson)
Wildtrack (Bernard Cornwell)
Timeline (Michael Crichton)
most of Alastair MacLean's works

I actually threw away the above to stop me reading them yet again.

The Bridge (Iain Banks)
most of Iain M Banks's works

Not throwing out my Banks...

[Voldemort]

A Bear Called Paddington - and the rest of the series

The Tale of Peter Rabbit - and the rest of the series

The Wind in the Willows

Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency - and obviously the HHGTTG set too.

The Player of Games - and most of the culture books. Made it through Feersum Enjin (?sp) but couldn't do it again!

The Stainless Steel Rat - and the rest of the series

And if we allow graphic novels - someone already mentioned Tintin I think, then:

Watchmen

The Killing Joke

The Dark Knight Returns

Button Man

Preacher

Sin City

V for Vendetta

[Riley Blue]

I've recently re-started the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde after a break of many years and I'm enjoying them just as much as when they were 'fresh'.

I've just finished the second, 'Lost in a Good Book', the third, The Well of Lost Plots' will hopefully arrive tomorrow. I'm having to buy the whole lot again (there are now seven) and I'm really looking forward to working my way through them all - again...

More here for the inquisitive: https://www.jasperfforde.com/index.html

[tomw2000]

Like a few of the others here, I've re-read the Tolkien and Douglas Adams books many times. I say 'many' at least 4 time each I reckon.

I'm tempted to give the David Eddings books a re-read - just wish they did them all as a collection I could buy in one hit for my Kindle.

Given how much I read (and have read since childhood) I'm surprised I've never re-read anything else.

[yli]

It may sound odd. But I read Pride and Prejudice more than once. The first time I read it was not long after I got my first job almost 20 year ago, though I cannot remember what made me pick up this book in the first place.

To me the story was actually plain. And as a non native English speaker I cannot fully appreciate whether or not Jane Austen's writing skills in English were great other than some of her writing was indeed very witty. However this book changed my view on perceptions to a person's true character that I should never be misled by first time impressions. Back then I didn't know how and why this book had such a profound impact on my views. Now looking back I wonder if it has more to do with the fact that it coincided with my first taste of the real and rather complex side of a human being right after the university. 20 or 30 years ago a youngster's life in China as a student was pretty simple
and naive. We had to devote most of our time to study in order to getting admitted by the universities in order to change our lives. As a result we were academically trained but not short of social awareness and skills. As many Chinese said back then, after we finished our academic universities we embarked on a new journey of being educated by the university of societies.

After reading this post I ordered a copy of the Great Expectations and I'm looking forward to it.

[Skodapondy]

The Harry Potter Series

A Song of Fire & Ice Series (aka Game of Thrones)

Lord Of The Rings & The Hobbit

Marvel Graphic Novels (Iron Man/Black Widow/Guardians of the Galaxy etc)

The Simpsons Comics Collections

Plenty of Autobiographies/biographies from the F1 world

Bravo Two Zero & Immediate Action

Clarkson from his newspaper column.

I was never much of a reader as a child (much like my Son is now) but if something interests me I will now.

[Derek Smith]

yli said:

It may sound odd. But I read Pride and Prejudice more than once. The first time I read it was not long after I got my first job almost 20 year ago, though I cannot remember what made me pick up this book in the first place.

To me the story was actually plain. And as a non native English speaker I cannot fully appreciate whether or not Jane Austen's writing skills in English were great other than some of her writing was indeed very witty. However this book changed my view on perceptions to a person's true character that I should never be misled by first time impressions. Back then I didn't know how and why this book had such a profound impact on my views. Now looking back I wonder if it has more to do with the fact that it coincided with my first taste of the real and rather complex side of a human being right after the university. 20 or 30 years ago a youngster's life in China as a student was pretty simple
and naive. We had to devote most of our time to study in order to getting admitted by the universities in order to change our lives. As a result we were academically trained but not short of social awareness and skills. As many Chinese said back then, after we finished our academic universities we embarked on a new journey of being educated by the university of societies.

After reading this post I ordered a copy of the Great Expectations and I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for that.

P&P and Austin are both overhyped. The book was probably interesting and entertaining in its time, but reading it now as a novel is an effort. Tell don't show is my main complaint, closely followed by having a very shallow Darcy. No character in the book. The 2000 or so TV series gave him more depth.

As a history book, showing the attitudes of some, it's great. Austin is praised for her feminism in highlighting entailment based on gender as reprehensible, yet we have no thought given to servants and others of the lower class. A very middle-class attitude. And what's the big deal about marrying vicars?

Mansfield Park is the only book of hers I've read all the way through, but I don't know why. Having to read any of them more than once must have been purgatory, made worse by it being in a second language with outdated language and phrases.

I often read a book again immediately after finishing it. It's a great way of discovering what you missed and picking up pointers that you've missed. Le Carre novels are great for this. I didn't enjoy A Murder of Quality as much as his MI6 ones, but on rereading, it improved. I read it a third time and even that was worth it.

I've read Rings to my kids, and listened to my wife reading it to them, even more entertaining.

[yli]

Derek Smith said:

Thanks for that.

P&P and Austin are both overhyped. The book was probably interesting and entertaining in its time, but reading it now as a novel is an effort. Tell don't show is my main complaint, closely followed by having a very shallow Darcy. No character in the book. The 2000 or so TV series gave him more depth.

As a history book, showing the attitudes of some, it's great. Austin is praised for her feminism in highlighting entailment based on gender as reprehensible, yet we have no thought given to servants and others of the lower class. A very middle-class attitude. And what's the big deal about marrying vicars?

Mansfield Park is the only book of hers I've read all the way through, but I don't know why. Having to read any of them more than once must have been purgatory, made worse by it being in a second language with outdated language and phrases.

I often read a book again immediately after finishing it. It's a great way of discovering what you missed and picking up pointers that you've missed. Le Carre novels are great for this. I didn't enjoy A Murder of Quality as much as his MI6 ones, but on rereading, it improved. I read it a third time and even that was worth it.

I've read Rings to my kids, and listened to my wife reading it to them, even more entertaining.

Thanks Derek.

You reminded me that those outdated phrases did make it very hard to read. I think the reason for reading it more than once was that I learnt something from this book that made me read it again. Otherwise I wouldn't have done it.

I'm not a novel guy. My knowledge about the novels, be it Chinese novel or non-Chinese, pretty much stays at what I was taught in schools, that was over 25 years ago when the classic novels were the only source for us. I did notice that nowadays many Chinese students or younger enthusiasts are reading Harry Porter or A Song of Fire & Ice Series etc. I suspect the movies contributed a lot to that.

I'll see if I can buy Le Carre novels here and give it a go.

[Roofless Toothless]

I have read many books more than once, and length does not stop me - Proust, Gibbon, etc.

But the book I keep coming back to is Pickwick Papers, because I just love all the characters so much and when I get to the end I get a real sense of loss that I will not be able to share more time with them.

[MC Bodge]

Derek Smith said:

Thanks for that.

P&P and Austin are both overhyped. The book was probably interesting and entertaining in its time, but reading it now as a novel is an effort. Tell don't show is my main complaint, closely followed by having a very shallow Darcy. No character in the book. The 2000 or so TV series gave him more depth.

As a history book, showing the attitudes of some, it's great. Austin is praised for her feminism in highlighting entailment based on gender as reprehensible, yet we have no thought given to servants and others of the lower class. A very middle-class attitude. And what's the big deal about marrying vicars?

Mansfield Park is the only book of hers I've read all the way through, but I don't know why. Having to read any of them more than once must have been purgatory, made worse by it being in a second language with outdated language and phrases.

Agreed. Really tedious.

Brontës over-hyped too. Wuthering Heightzzzzzz....

[thismonkeyhere]

'The Rachel Papers' by Martin Amis. An apparently semi-autobiographical story of a precocious late-teen boy, reminiscing about the last few months leading up to his 20th birthday.

I first read it as an inexperienced 15 year old, and I'm afraid his approach to life and the opposite sex may have at least partially shaped who I later became in my late teens and twenties. I read it loads in my sixth form and uni days, and later on as I knocked around the world at the start of my career, and these days go back to it on a regular basis. I find it quite a comforting book to immerse myself in. Not sure why.

[anonymous-user]

Still chugging my way through a lot of the things for the 1st time, mainly the culture series.

Although I like to go back to certain books a lot:

Starship Troopers
The Forever War
The Penultimate Truth
Ice Station Zebra
Day of the Jackal
The Fourth Protocol

[eccles]

thismonkeyhere said:

'The Rachel Papers' by Martin Amis. An apparently semi-autobiographical story of a precocious late-teen boy, reminiscing about the last few months leading up to his 20th birthday.

I first read it as an inexperienced 15 year old, and I'm afraid his approach to life and the opposite sex may have at least partially shaped who I later became in my late teens and twenties. I read it loads in my sixth form and uni days, and later on as I knocked around the world at the start of my career, and these days go back to it on a regular basis. I find it quite a comforting book to immerse myself in. Not sure why.

I've read this a few times over the years. Every time I have a clear out of books I end up keeping it. I quite enjoyed the film of it as well.