Do you read books more than once?

[iansales]

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year was to each month reread one of my favourite ten novels. I'm on track so far... and it's proving an interesting exercise. See here.

[Anthony G Williams]

Originally Posted by tangaloomababe

Murphy got it right re reading a book is like revisiting an old friend.

+1

In my youth I used to re-read books a lot, because I had lots of time, not much money to buy new books, and there was nothing like the choice there is now anyway. So I got through LOTR ten times, and quite a few others about three times.

Since then I have become increasingly money-rich and time-poor, which means that I rarely re-read books - instead I built up a large pile of unread ones. It also means that I'm quite picky and stop reading if a book doesn't hold my interest, so there are now a lot of books I've started but never finished.

However, I have still kept all my favourites for a re-read, and with a little more time since I retired (but not as much as I expected!) I have started to do so. I now like to leave lots of time before re-reads, so that I forget as much as possible and can enjoy reading them afresh. I did this recently with Tepper's Marianne Trilogy, my favourite contemporary fantasy, which I hadn't read for 15 years. And it was an absolute delight, all over again!

[sassy1]

It's practically unanimous that we all tend to re-read books

You guys are so good at putting it into words... "Rereading books is like visiting old friends", "subtle things you miss on a first reading that give you a thrill of discovery when you re-read the book"

I agree with everything that's been said. I have a to-read pile of i think 50 books now (i tend to buy in series' and sets :P), so when i get the urge to reread one of my old favourites (which actually happens quite often when some random things remind me of a book i've read haha), i tend to tell myself to wait till i've read some more un-read ones

I never sell books I have read, well only if they were particularly dull and there's no chance i'll ever read them again, so if i don't reread them, they'll sit there doing nothing, so i feel guilty :P

[Rothgar]

I have never reread a book since I started really reading sci-fi and fantasy. I don't have nearly enough time, and there are way too many books that I want to read a first time. I still buy books much faster than I can read them. Some day I will reread my favorites but that is a long time from today.

[mogora]

Even though I've got a huge TBR pile, I reread books more frequently than I move books off that pile. The comments about visiting old friends, comfort reading, and finding new insights are spot on. I love the thrill of a new book but I think I take more delight in my old favorites.

And then there are my Lovecraft binges during which all other reading stops. My enjoyment and appreciation of his stories just increases upon each reading and I don't think I could stand the thought of never rereading HPL.

[Connavar]

Originally Posted by Rothgar

I have never reread a book since I started really reading sci-fi and fantasy. I don't have nearly enough time, and there are way too many books that I want to read a first time. I still buy books much faster than I can read them. Some day I will reread my favorites but that is a long time from today.

Hehe exactly the same reason i havent reread either.

I have only months ago started reading fantasy and much more SF than before.

[dwndrgn]

Absutively! As others do, I have certain books that I re-read on a yearly basis and others, especially long series, I re-read before the next installment comes out. Some I just read for special occasions - Pratchett and Spider Robinson are always good for a pick-me-up.

I just recently re-read The Phantom Tollbooth because someone mentioned it here and I recalled that I had loved it as a child. I saw it all differently this time and still enjoyed it.

Once, I tried to re-read a book I had liked when much younger and couldn't get through the first couple of chapters. I now have no idea why I liked it in the first place.

Anyway, hooray for books!

[2nddan]

murphy said it best.
I re-read King's The Stand every spring, it's time to start it back up. Every year I find something new. One year I had read Macbeth and when I re-read The Stand, I discovered his reference to Shakespeare! Another year I had a month-long silent debate with myself as to whether or not a plant could defenestrate itself!
The reason I came to this forum was because I had re-read Stirling's Dies the Fireseries.
Someone else mentioned War Of The Worlds, I'd like to add Lord of the Flies. Both I read when I was in 3rd or 4th grade. Re-reading them as a teen, a thritysomething and again as I start my second half-century on this planet gave me new insights.
Re-reading books is as comfortable to me as sparking or spooning with my lovely wife.

[K. Riehl]

I re-read a large percentage of my collection.

I've found there are a few titles that will make a greater impact on me now that I'm 5 or 10years older than they did when I first read them. A book like Lolita which I first readin my teens didn't impress me that much. But when I re-read it in my thirties it made alot more sense and gave me a much higher opinion of Nabokov's skill with pen.

On the other hand there are a large number of treasured titles from youth that fall apart in front of you when you read them as an adult.

Some titles I will re-read almost immediately just to try and figure out how the heck the author did that?. Titles like The Wizard of Earthsea which if you examine sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, show how every word is there for a reason. Or The Pastel City by M. John Harrison which is one of the great fabulist tour-de-force books that most people have never heard of.[Other than people on this forum:-)]

I think it is very valuable to to re-read and gain more insight into what the author is saying and in turn I find that I will look at some situations differently than I would have before. That, to me, is the great thing about great writitng. It can change your world view.

[purple_kathryn]

Ugh....right....

I have a fondness for Mills and Boons books and historical romance - have hundreds of the buggers. The bonus being I don't have to put too much thought into reading them and they're nice to read before I go to bed. Whereas with "proper" books I like to take my time and be all awake like when I read them.

Now my memory is pretty poor. So I find that if I re read the book say a year or so later....it's like I've never read it before. (seriously sometimes I'm like - "did I even read this?")

I haven't tried this on my "proper" books however I imagine it would be the same. In the case of "proper" books though there are just so many out there I want to read it seems a shame to waste my time re reading stuff when I could be reading something new.

[Quokka]

As with other's I used to re-read books reasonably often when i was younger but it's actually pretty rare now. I think I've got alot more of an appreciation for what's out there in SFF and otherwise and I'm a lot more open to trying new authors, so basically there's just too many new worlds I want to explore.

Still I'll always go back and re-read some books, particularly series that I have read as they've been published. I'm deliberatley avoiding re-reading Erikson now so that once I have bought and read the final book I can go back and read the whole series from start to finish, with only just enough remembered to make it a nice easy read the second time around, which is something I am really looking forward to.

Also with a lot of SF books like; Behold the Man, Flowers for Algernon, Ender's Game, Blood Music, Childhood's End etc I can see myself rereading them after a long break like 10 years both just to enjoy the story again and also to see if I get anything new (or maybe less) out of the idea's explored in them.

[sanityassassin]

I am a re-reader also especially with Pratchett and Gemmell, when I get to a loose end and my reading pile just doesn't appeal to me at the time I will reach for witches abroad, Guards Guards or Wolf in Shadow books I know and love and every time I read them I find something I had missed before or forgotten. Also as said before about HPL if you've got a spare half an hour you can read 1 or 2 of his short stories.

[gully_foyle]

I'm re-reading alot of SF from my youth and also picking up alot recommendations on books to read from the good folk here at chronicles. My SF&F library was static for about 15 years with a few PKD's, LOTR, etc, and I would happily re-read them when enough time had elapsed. Some books I re-read cause I have exhausted my new books and I need something to read. Some of them I re-read because they are works of art and I want them to stay fresh in my mind (esp, The Hobbit and On The Road). I'm not a collector, I don't buy books so I can say I have them, I buy books because I read them, and want to read them again, and again (and again).

[Nikitta]

I just found an excerpt of Heinlein's Puppet Masters online and I remember enjoying that story, so I read the excerpt only to find myself wondering how on earth I could've ever enjoyed that.

[sassy1]

well me and my dad had an argument again... he just keeps saying "but you know the ending!!"... i guess he'll never learn, sad git :P