I have a friend who buys a book, reads it and then will never read it again. I'm sorry but that's just not me. I don't see the sense in reading something once and then letting it sit on a book shelf until you decide to throw it out.
All of my books are well and truly worn.
If I had to chose one book that I could read repeatedly and never grow sick of - I can't pick just one, but any of the Pat Cornwell novels would do.
What about you?
I don't know because I haven't done many re-reads lately -- it seems that I have so many unread books on my shelves, though I glance at old favorites and want to re-read them.
I suppose The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy: those are the ones that drew me in to fantasy and at that time I also bought every book I could find about those books.
Of course, now that I'm moving, I need to sort out those that I'll never read again, but there will still be enough to fill the 6 bookcases I'm taking with me -- and then I'll be able to buy more!
If I like a book and I own it, chances are I've read it at least ten times. :jg: I'm a rereader too.
But in particular... The Harry Potter series, Earth's Children series (Clan of the Cave Bear and sequals) and Stephen King's The Stand, IT and The Shining are probably the books I've reread the most often.
Basically my entire bookshelf is the land of rereading. Harry Potter, Tamora Peirce, Diane Daune, any book up there on my shelves is up for rereading grabs.
The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit are my most favorite books to re-read...I've worn the covers off all my Tolkien books and I do have every one he's ever written.
I started trying to read the Fellowship of the Ring when I was 10!! But they are like wonderful friends I take out when I'm sad about something.
However, like most of you, I don't buy a book unless I plan on re-reading it 100 times or more. My bookcases too, is all fair game for re-reading. its like going Christmas shopping sometimes.. I think I had over 700 paperbacks at last count, so I'm like a small bookstore.
- Robert Jordan, Mercedes Lackey, Anne Bishop -
All three of them fall into the most heavily re-read (after LoTR) too :)
Some books I can read again and again, others are just lucky I don't pitch them because they are so bad :D
1. Dragonriders of Pern series
2. Ender's Game/Ender's Shadow Series
3. Harry Potter Series
4. Red Mars Series
It really depends on my mood, but I do re-read a lot. I like 'When Demons Walk' by Patricia Briggs because I love the concepts, she's a good writer, and it makes me happy. Ditto with 'Sabriel' by Gareth Nix, although I dont usually read the next two unless I have time on my hands. I'll also reread 'A Little Princess' and "The Secret Garden' a lot - I'm a sucker for kid's books from that era. Kathy Reichs can be good for a reread, as can 'The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency'. 'Summon the Keeper' is always good for a laugh, and I occasionally pick up 'Neverwhere' because I like the name Door. And for other reasons. :)
Basically, my criteria for rereads tends to be simple books with plots and characters that make me happy. I'd love to reread mysteries more often but unless they're more character oriented rather than mystery oriented, I get bored with them too quickly and put them down again. Short stories also work really nicely for rereads.
1) Pern of course!
2) Anything by Robert A Heinlein
3) Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series
4) The Dune books
5) Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' Series
Hmm, for me it's Harry Potter (i'm starting to see a theme ;)), Dragonriders of Pern series and anything by Robin McKinley. :cheers:
I'm a book collector (that's my main interest in life) and nearly all book collectors are re-readers - that's how they get started!
However, I know exactly which books I can re-read most often because they are the two slim paperbacks I would pack for deployments and postings in the military. Sometimes it would be ages before the rest of my stuff caught up with me (if it ever did), so they had to be books I could re-read over and over again right one after each other. They are:
* Patricia McKillip's 'The Changeling Sea'
* Anne Mason's 'The Dancing Meteorite'
In general, though, I reread everything in my collection:
* Elsie Oxenham
* Arthur Ransome
* Andre Norton
* Tamora Pierce
* D.E. Stevenson
* Iris Bromige
and many more ...
1. The Lensmen Chronicles, E.E. "Doc" Smith
2. The Black Company Stories, Glen Cook
3. The Future History series, Robert A. Heinlein
Harry Potter
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop
Women of the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong
The Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
The Anita Blake series by LKH
The Sword-dancer Saga by Jennifer Roberson
The Pern series
Dragon Prince/Dragon Star Trilogies by Melanie Rawn
The Sevenwaters Trilogy by Juliette Marillier
Hawksong by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes
:)
My mother buys only books she hasn't read -and it dries me nuts. I'm another re-reader. Unless it's an author I know I like or I am desperate for reading material, I only buy things I know I am going to reread.
Some of my favorites?
Doc Sidhe and Sidhe Devil by Aaron Allston
The SERRAted Edge series and Bedlam's bard Series by Mercedes Lackey
Pern :)
Redwall Series
Son of Darkness by Josepha Sherman
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
and many, many others
I'll reread a few series, but I'm like Vix as there are way too many in my unread pile at the moment.
I love rereading the Pern series, LKH's Anita Blake Series, and Diana Gabaldon's 'Outlander' Series. I have read the Outlander books many times, but I realized the other day that I don't have the last three. They are on my list to get when U have extra money.
The top of my list is Icefire and Quicksilver by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. Both are fantastic novels that I've read at least 7 times each (one a year) since 2000.
I have a large collection of Star Trek and Star Wars books, most of which I've reread multiple times. Same with the first Pern novels, the Ender books, the Animorphs books, Werewolf RPG books, Harry Potter... you know, there are so many that I really can't list them all. Every book I own and have kept, I've read over and over again. I read very quickly, which means that I can go through all my 300-odd books within a year. (Or I used to be able to anyways.) Coming to college and having less than 50 books with me is sad :(
I am loving this. Thanks to y'all I now have several books on my list of must reads. I love to ask the other people in the SciFi section of the bookstore what their favorite book is. If I haven't read it and it looks good...that's what I buy! Not all of these end up on my re-read list, but some of them have.
My favorites to read over and over are:
Harry Potter series
Pern series (especially the early books: Lessa and F'lar's group)
The Snow Queen and The Summer Queen: two books by Joan DeVinge (by the way, I bought these books because they had a quote from Anne McCaffrey on the cover that said they were books she wished she had written, so that was enough of an endorsement for me...if you decide to read these know that the first one doesn't end so well. It's better if you look at them as one book and keep reading to the end of the second one.)
Clan of the Cave Bear (books 1, 2, and 3, then it just got painful)
Illusion by Paula Volsky
I re-read:
Tolkien
Pratchet
Eddings (especially the older series... the new one isn't as good)
R.R. Salvatore
Ed Green
and many many more....