July 2024 List of the Month: Books We Love to Reread

Hi All! Our List of the month this July is devoted to the Books We Love to Reread.

Thank you to Lucy (knerd.knitter) for the suggestion!

Each participant may vote on ten titles (and add other, non-weighted titles). Please feel free to add notes, explaining what draws you back to each book. Given the subjective and personal nature of the list, there is no downvoting.

For a complete list of topics covered so far in our project, please see the new section for Lists of the Month on the Zeitgeist page

We would welcome suggestions for future lists. Please add them here, and we will keep them in mind, going forward.

Excellent choice of topic. The best one for a long time!

Since I'm not really an audiobook consumer, last month's list left me on the sidelines. But this one was a snap! Not that I'm likely to get many "seconds" on my picks ...

I like this list. Most of the books on my list are older because they are the ones I have had time to reread more often.

Good list.

What makes a good re-read? I'm discounting earlier instalments in series when a new one comes out. For me, it has to be comfortable reading - not necessarily a great read, but something that resonates with me and that I have accessible (basically, on my Kobo).

They really need to up the number of books one can nominate. I was just getting started when I hit ten. Having to choose between The Canterbury Tales and Magnus Magnusson's Scotland: The Story of a Nation almost ruined me, and I only got in two science books!

Great list to think about!

>5 Maddz: That's a great question! I suspect it varies depending upon the person.

For me, it has to be a book I enjoy greatly, of course. In thinking of books I reread regularly, I also find that they usually have a comforting/comfortable element, and that there is some aspect of the story that resonates with me. For instance, as one of three sisters, I have always found Little Women very meaningful, and very relatable. One of my favorite romances is Georgette Heyer's Arabella, about a vicar's daughter—I myself am a minister's child.

Of course, this doesn't always have to be the case. I've never been an orphan, but Anne of Green Gables is a perennial favorite! Something about the narrative of an individual with no home or family finding both is deeply satisfying, and also reassuring.

What about all of you? What makes something a good re-read for you?

I don't think any of my ten are "comfort reads." I guess my character emphasizes discovery too much. So my re-read books are ones that offer challenges to readers and new understanding on repeat reading. One is a math book! None are children's literature or YA.

To me, a re-readable book is one with un-soundable depths.

It doesn’t need to be either/or. I reread some books because they bring comfort and calm me down and help me find my inner peace. And I reread others because I know there is more to find in this book on every reread.

>10 AnnieMod: I'd agree with finding new nuances in a re-read. That's what I find with God Stalk and the rest of the series. Others of my choices are definitely more towards comfort - the literary equivalent of getting home from the office, kicking off the smart shoes you've worn most of the day and putting on bedroom slippers.

Others, like Pride and Prejudice are old friends - it was my set book for 'O' Level so it's a book I re-read every so often. I don't necessarily find anything new, but it's still a comfort.

I don’t tend to reread a lot of books, because life is short and there are more books on my TBR list than I’ll have time to finish in this lifetime. That said, I have a few comfort reads that I go back to over and over, plus I have a very unhealthy obsession with Murderbot.

Obsessions with Murderbot are super normal and common. Ask me how I know....

I don't know how to add more than 10, but the majority of mine are covered.

Not much point in adding more than ten since someone is going through and removing any from the list that aren't attached to people, even though Abigail said adding non-weighted titles was allowed.

Being a train guy and living in Pennsylvania, I have to go back to Set up running : the life of a Pennsylvania railroad engineman, 1904-1949 by John Orr. I have read it at least twice and I want to again. The only problem is that once I start "the world stops" and I can't let that happen right now.

I guess I ought to read directions. . . I'll do that while I'm watching the ball game tonight!

I got my own list up early this month, as is typical for me. As the crowd has accumulated, it has been especially interesting to me to see what other books in my library have been listed by other users as noteworthy re-reads.

>17 paradoxosalpha: it has been especially interesting to me to see what other books in my library have been listed by other users as noteworthy re-reads.

Agreed, although in my case, there is something of a twist. I too was early -- and, unusually, my list is about half and half fiction and non-fiction (and if I had been allowed more than ten items, the amount of non-fiction would have increased). Even so, at the time I posted, I had offered more non-fiction than anyone else. I still seem to be the only person to have posted two works that are basically specialized encyclopedias. :-)

Of my fiction works, all have multiple hits; most stand quite high on the list. Of my non-fiction, only one has gotten a single additional vote.

I also note that there are twenty books in my library that have been cited by someone. Of the ten in my library that are not on my list, there are six that I am quite sure I would never list, and a couple of others that are on my "someday, I hope, when my toleration for boredom is lower." :-)

I would really like some sort of weighted statistic for how many books in one's library are on someone else's list (by "weighted" I mean that it would place more weight on The Lord of the Rings, the most popular item on the list, than on Encyclopedia of the Wars of the Roses, by far the least popular of my nominees.

>12 Charon07: Me, too!