[Closed] What's your most re-read book?

Either this one:
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or this one:
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The. Diesel Generator handbook ..................I
i can highly recommend it , its throbbing !

@CaptainFlashypants - Great Game again for the 4th time, such a pity none of today's politicians take the time to read it, they may have saved a lot of lives.
Read LOTR 7 or 8 times and the Silmarillion more (much better book IMO)
Plus the Calvin & Hobbs anthologies, over & over.
Thhgttg a few times and plenty of Pratchett''s books.

Apart from hundreds of childrens books - can recite the Gruffalo and Duck in the Truck (a skill that has lost it's use now the kids have grown up a bit)

Rarely read anything more than once but two that spring instantly to mind (and possibly the only two) are Complicity by Iain Banks and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter Thompson.

I always plan to read cycling books again but never get round to it, Ann Mustoe's A bike Ride would be in that list.

There's loads I've gone back to and read numerous times, and a great many I've only read once or twice.
Those I keep going back to include everything by William Gibson, a great many of Roger Zelazney's books, especially [i]Today We Choose Faces[/i], [i]Roadmarks[/i] and [i]Damnation Alley[/i], which I'm reading again at the mo' as an ebook.
Most of Larry Niven's Known Universe books, Neil Stephenson's [i]Zodiac, Snow Crash, Diamond Age[/i],
Iain M. Banks' Culture series, and loads of others over many years, some, like [i]Today We Choose Faces[/i], and Niven's [i]Time Out Of Mind[/i] probably several dozen times, because, and this is key, they're all pretty short!
Not like today, where an author feels it's not worth turning in a manuscript unless it goes to 600 pages, and it's part of at least a trilogy. Nobody writes short stories or novellas any more, sadly; there's a lot to be said for brevity.
The short version of [i]Damnation Alley[/i] is just as good as the expanded novel, and Arthur C. Clarke wrote [i]Against The Fall Of Night[/i], then later revised and expanded it as [i]The City And The Stars[/i]. I've read both, any number of times, and I enjoy them both, equally.
And neither are very long!

All quiet on the orient express - Magnus Mills

Most of Graham Greene.

I've read lord of the rings well over ten times since I was twelve. Other than that there are only really three books I revisit more than a couple if times, Grapes of Wrath, One Thousand Years of Solitude and Beowulf. Generally I read lots of shit so that's no measure of my literary worth.

For Whom The Bell Tolls, x 3

I, Claudius and Solzhenitsyn's Cancer Ward both x 2

Several here are on my reread list.

Most of Graham Greene.

End of the Affair's on my reread list! & Power & the Glory.

Chickenhawk - Robert Mason (Vienam war)and Into thin air - John Krakauer (Mountaineering)

Grapes of Wrath
Catch 22
Lord of the Rings
Dark Tower (7 book series, with 8th book released in 2012 that I just heard about: Dark Tower-The Wind Through the Keyhole

I'm glad I'm not the only one to say Fear and Loathing. Must be at least ten times by now - I've owned 5 copies over the years, but sooner or later it gets loaned and not returned.
(I'm sticking to literature here - non fiction, reference and kids books obviously get more attention!)
For me that is the mark of a great book - wanting others to read it, and replacing it when gone.

Second place is Jude the Obscure (on copy no. three now)

Then Tess, Under the Greenwood Tree, the Woodlanders etc - bit of a Hardy fan! The stories can be a tad trite and predictable, but the prose is just beautiful.

I read every book I like more than once, but as a counterpoint will happily abandon and bin anything I think is rubbish after a few pages (Dan Brown being one example - like wading through a semi-literate child's rushed homework )

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Joemc - I agree on Hardy's prose - also a fan. Far from the madding crowd several times - I did rather fancy Bathsheba everdene!

stox Henry Bowers is both a relative of mine and Harry the Spider.

Dan Brown being one example - like wading through a semi-literate child's rushed homework )

stox Henry Bowers is both a relative of mine and Harry the Spider.

Really??!!! Then that makes you my 2 favourite forum members 🙂
Related how if you don't mind my asking? ...

The Hobbit, LOTR
The first and Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.
Struggling to get through the Last Chronicles though..

The Collected Ghost Stories of M.R. James. Cover to cover, at least once a year. Love it.

I think that there's only a couple of books I recall re-reading:
Bernard Schlink: 'The Reader'
Cormac McCarthy: 'Blood Meridian'

River God, book that got me into Wilbur Smith.
Normally read it when on holiday relaxing.
Pretty much read every Wilbur Smith since

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More times than I care to remember, unfortunately I can be a bit too "Rob Gordon" sometimes

I reread lots of books & would struggle to name one I've read more than t'others-

When I was younger LOTR, the Hobbit & Redwall.

More recently all of the Iain M Banks (pretty much on rotation), the Scar & Perdido St Station, The Nights Dawn Trilogy, Neuromancer, Green River Rising, the Religion, Good Omens & Wilt.

When I was a kid, I borrowed Flight Underground (James Hamilton-Paterson) so often from the library that they eventually gave it to me.

I reread lots of books - all Neal Stephenson, especially Snow Crash and Cryptonomicon, but all of his at least 3 times. All Iain Banks of course, especially Feersum Endjinn, The Business and Against a Dark Backgound. Terry Pratchett too.

Basically, if I don't want to read it again, I didn't really enjoy it the first time.

I've re-read pretty much every book I have, mainly because I'm too lazy to go buy more.

Ones that I have re-read most would either be 1984, LOTR, or possibly some Iain Banks. I think I've read The Bridge once a year for the past six years.

There are many, many books that I've read twice through, most of them mentioned here already.

Honorable mentions

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes - I've started it twice but never finished it. I'd been reading it on and off for a month when the book was recalled to the Library so I couldn't renew it and finish it. Then I tracked down which translation I had been reading and bought it. The emigrated without it.

I think of the few that creep in to my 3 times or more bracket must include

The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Both classics IMO.

The only books I have every re-read...

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Just brilliant madness.
The Rum Diary - My fave holiday book to have a rum with.
Shantaram - My all time favourite.

A few, including 1984 for me.

My business (Fitted bedrooms etc.) is called Smartrooms101.

It [i]might[/i] take its inspiration from 1984

None of my customers have twigged yet

Peace at last 🙂 to my kids nightly. lord of the rings 367 times 😉

LOTR twice. Better the second time as you know what bits to skip... Tom Bombadil you f***ing waste of space!

Also the whole Game Of Thrones series. Bad as it is, I quite enjoyed a re-read with foreknowledge of what would happen. Dany pooping in the desert is still a terrible ending though 👿

Currently, it's [i]Where is the Green Sheep?[/i], but prior to The Boy arriving... as a kid I read the Famous Five, Secret Seven and Hardy Boys series probably a dozen times over. Terry Pratchett's [i]Diggers[/i], [i]Truckers[/i] and [i]Wings[/i] also got read a few times. As a teenager/adult, I've read a couple of the Discworld novels a few times and Stephen King's [i]IT[/i], [i]The Stand[/i] and [i]Pet Sematary[/i] four or five times each. Oh, and [i]Robinson Crusoe[/i].

These days I've generally got a backlog of books that I haven't read yet, so find it hard to justify re-visiting something I've read before.

twice

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I have re-read the entire Flashman series by George McDonald Fraser several times and always enjoy them immensely.

I am also enjoying re-visiting some Jack Vance - The Demon Princes is a favourite.

Planning to read some Steinbeck when I am on holiday - I am always amazed by the quality of his work.

P.s. may revisit Cider with Rosie. Did it for O level in 1985 and was inspired to read Laurie's other works. Saw him at Cheltenham Literature Festival a few years before he died. He was an entertaining old buffer.

Oh, if we're counting books I read to the offspring, then it's a lot easier - this is somewhere near the top of the list:

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Crow Road - Iain Banks
French Revolutions - Tim Moore as it always makes me laugh

'Bravo Two Zero' by Andy McNabb, it actually improves with every read.

French Revolutions, A piano in the Pyrenees from Tony Hawks, and I'm mid way through Dividing the great, again, after the rewind article this week.

The monkey wrench gang by Edward Abbey.

Related how if you don't mind my asking?

He was my Granddads uncle although I don't think they ever met, Bowers was probably already in the antarctic when he was born.

It's an astonishing read isn't it, three men all desperate to turn round and none of them willing to give up no matter how bad things got. I can't help thinking that if the three of them had accompanied Scott to the pole as a 4 man team they might have made it back. Unfortunately Cherry Garrads eyesight meant that was never going to happen.

Huxley's [i]Brave New World[/i]: IMO better than 1984

Two books I have tried to re-read , as I am convinced I didn't get them ...
On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Catcher in the Rye

I still don't get them ... I am truly sorry to say think that Holden Caulfield was just a little shit ....

'Bravo Two Zero' by Andy McNabb, it actually improves with every read.

Thank you , Mr Partridge ....

Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut
The Fan Man - Kotzwinkle
Fear and Loathing - Thompson

The road to Wigan pier & down and out in Paris and London by Eric Arthur Blair ( better know as George Orwell )

The Stranger - Camus

It's an astonishing read isn't it, three men all desperate to turn round and none of them willing to give up no matter how bad things got

It is. I can just re-read 'the winter journey' chapter over and over. It's inspiring.

I quite like re-reading books, I think it's because it's safer than trying something new which is, I fear, to my own detriment. 🙁 Particular favourites are -
The Dambusters, by Paul Brickhill - the first and still the best war story I've ever read, an incredible story cleverly told with gentle humour. He also wrote The Great Escape which is another corking read, if slightly different to the film.
The Hour, by Michael Hutchinson - THE best book about cycling I've read, in the "finish it the first time, turn to page one and start again" category. Heavily loaded with information, laugh-out-loud funny.
The Stand, and Different Seasons, by Stephen King - really enjoyed his earlier stuff when I was a lad, although he's gone a bit overblown for my liking of late. Loved The Stand, just an immense world to immerse yourself in - and Different Seasons has the stories on which Shawshank redemption and Stand By Me were based. Fantastic novellas, and for my money the best writing he's ever done.

-The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A Trilogy in Five Parts
-Dune
-Duck in the Truck - My 3ry olds favourite.

Starship troopers,
Fantastic and so much going on. Realy got the training down pat takes me back to my basic.
Not with monsters and space obviously. Althought the drill sargent was a total bastard 😆

When I was a kid I had what I called 'Sunday night' books which were familiar stories I would reread before facing another crap week at school. As an adult? I still have loads that fall into this category anything by Ian M Banks or Jack Vance being favourites.
What a great pity to lose Ian Banks, he seemed such a normal bloke but with extraordinary talent

Got to be The Hobbit. I've read TLOTR a couple of times but lost count of how often I read the Hobbit, especially as a child.

In more recent years though, most likely one of Brian Lumley's short story collections or Clive Barker's Books Of Blood, followed by H.P. Lovecraft's Omnibus series.
Short stories are great when you're short of time, so I tend to re-read them a lot.

I don't re-read that often, but those I do form a particular pattern:

Jon Stewart - Naked Pictures of Famous People
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Garrison Keiller - We Are Still Married/Radio Romance/Lake Wobegone Days
Woody Allen - Without Feathers
Groucho Marx - Beds, Memoirs of a Mangy Lover, Groucho & Me
Steve Martin - Pure Drivel, Born Standing Up, Shopgirl, The Pleasure of My Company

On Extended Wings - Diane Ackerman

An account of her struggles learning to fly light aircraft and getting her pilots licence. She's a poet by trade, and the prose is fantastic.

[i]On The Road - Jack Kerouac
Catcher in the Rye

I still don't get them[/i]

I thought On the Road was garbage!

ps. the best film ever of the best book ever, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, is on BBC1 tonight 🙂

I thought On the Road was garbage!

+1

DezB is not only a fox - he has a discerning literary taste. That's a proper power combo. 😉

I've tended to re-read everything I've enjoyed over the years, but I tend to speed read (skim?), I can easily miss details and pick it up the next time round, so enjoy them more the 2nd/3/4/10th time round.
Stuff I re-read numerous times though include all the Iain M. Banks books, the Pratchett discworld, David Brins uplift saga (Neil Stephenson's & China Mieville will be joining this list, as I've only just discovered 'them' [my loss]).

Though I'd guess what I've read the most time would be Asimov's Robot and Foundation series - purely as they were around the longest & to be fair are brilliant.

Quite a catch, me.

Don't I just know it, Dez. If you like jazz and long walks by moonlight, you'd be positively irresistable. 😉

Ah, sorry.. Dezzy Hates Jazz 🙁

Dammit!

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An amazing life well lived.

Anything by Nevil Shute plus Touring Bikes by Tony Oliver.

Lord of the Rings about 20 times 😯

Ian m banks
William Gibson
And guilty pleasures are
David gemmel and Bernard Cornwall .

On the Road and Briideshead Revisited. No doubt accounting for lots of travelling and a love of fine wine. Made me the wreck I am today.

20 times

I expect it was a book from my youth, maybe Call of the Wild

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Probably on about my 8th re-reading now. Still amazes me.

Electric Brae by Andrew Greig ...the man is infuriating he writes poetry non fiction thrillers romances but electric brae is where it all comes together best
Also Homage to Catalonia and Burmese Days by Orwell and when I was a teenager Lord of the Rings

PSA

for the other Cuckoo's Nest fans

BBC1 @ 11:50 tonight.

Great book, great film.

Good thread, has bulked up my amazon wishlist!...

my entry would probably be a Joseph Connolly, probably SOS, Summer things or winter nights...

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Adams)

Or

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

Or

Grapes of Wrath

Or

The Warriors (Sol Yurick)

Or

Weaveworld (Clive Barker)

Not sure which - read them all several times.

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Erm.
Erm..
Erm...
I've never read a book more than once.

Do you have too much time on your hands?? 😆

Often reread as I pick up stuff I missed first time through. Currently rereading The Passage by Justin Cronin, highly recommended, in preparation for reading The Twelve.

Probably most reread would be Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series and Clive Barker's Books of Blood. Read the LOTR a few times too.

I thought On the Road was garbage!

Good man ! But it inspired a generation apparently!

Loddrick - American Psycho . I absolutely hate that book. The film was 100 5 worse. And Less Than Zero is terrible.
Brett Easton writes like a 16 year old who has never had sex but tells everyone he is a playa!

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The song of Phaid the gambler by Mick Farren
Would make an awesome movie

Don't often read books more than once, there's too many books out there. Have read the following twice though;

Shantaram, Gregory Roberts
Norwegian Wood, Murakami
Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey
Master and Margarita, Bulgakov

Only read The Alchemist once, but now I've just seen it up there ^, it will be the next book I'll read. Thanks.