To re-read or not to re-read (revisited)

I started the last 'do you re-read?' thread, at which time I confessed to never having re-read a book (after 41 years and thousands of books).

I think it's only fitting that my first re-read will be David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. It's a beast, but it's also my favorite book, and DFW was one of the immense talents of our time. And, no, that's not hyperbole.

That's all. RIP, Dave.

I recently reread Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake for a group read. It's an interesting book to read a second time. One is in a 'different place' during a reread. Not planning any rereads in the very near future - too many books out there (still, one never knows)

I recently bought 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die and there's several "children's" books on the list . So I've decided to purchase the adult literature versions and reread them .

There are some books that I absolutely adore and I reread them periodically. Some I've only reread once and then I'm done with them, but there are my treasured multiple rereads, such as A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - never fails to send me into paroxysms of laughter, Good Omens - for a good chuckle, J.D. Robb 's futuristic police crime stories, and Meg Langslow mysteries by Donna Andrews.

I started to reread some of my old Enid Blyton favorites but it's hard to find those books in the US, so I have to get the ones I loved as a child, such as The Famous Five series, and the St Clare's series, the next time I am in London.

I am an avid "re-reader". The two I have reread the most are Stephen King's "the Stand" and Robert McCammon's "Swan Song". However, there are others that whose stories will gradually dim in my memory, so I will go back to them and refresh their place. The only time I have a hard time rereading something is if it is part of a series, because then I feel compelled to reread the entire series! And that can be awfully time consuming- especially when there are so many more books out there I haven't read yet!

I would like to get a copy of "Watership Down" by Richard Adams to reread. I read it when I was about 10 years old, and fell in love with it, but suprisingly I haven't read it since. It's time for a repeat =)

Some books simply beg for re-reading. Almost all of Faulkner, for instance. His stories are so intertwined that reading one often leads to reading another and then another, and then re-reading the one you started with, and so on.

Others are just so wonderful that I want to go back and "live there" again for a while, revisiting beloved characters and places.

As avaland points out, you are never the same person when you re-read a book as you were when you first encountered it, and besides (unless your brain is mush, like mine), the second time around you know how things turn out, and that influences your interaction with the story and characters.

Lately I've been in a reading funk and so have been re-reading things I know I will like - The Alienist, Needful Things, Salem's 'Lot & Necroscope. Maybe after a few of these, new books will have some appeal again.

I've decided to re-read Beckett's novel trilogy, Molly, Malone Dies, and the Unnameable. Some people have told me that reading these works is torture, but I find these characters and their situations comical and incredibly sad at the same time. I also like how in the midst of the monotony and monotonous repetition, Beckett will throw in a lyrical line or two: "Let me hear nothing of the moon, in my night there is no moon, and if it happens that I speak of the stars it is by mistake."

I remember loving this work when I first read it, but I was in graduate school, hyper-focused on the language, and way too cerebral. Now that I'm out, Beckett will hopefully not be so intense and I can take pleasure in the reading.

I do a lot of re-reading, especially Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Georgette Heyer. None of the touchstones are working - drat.

I usually re-read books when I'm stressed, similar to BookMarque's reading funk motive. I find comfort in familiarity and always pick up something new in a book too.

I'm an infrequent re-reader. I've mentioned previously that I re-read A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Sparrow every year or two. I do other re-reads when the mood hits, which is pretty rare, since there are so many good new books always coming out.

I did two re-reads this week for Banned Books Week--The Giver and Fahrenheit 451, both of which I enjoyed immensely.

Think I'll be back on new reads for a while, though.

I don't do a lot of re-reads simply because I have so much new stuff that I want to get to. There are some classics I've re-read in the last couple of years, though, because I remember them fondly from 20 years or so ago but don't really recall much about the specifics of the story. Recently I've re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, Slaughterhouse-Five, Fahrenheit 451 and The Handmaid's Tale. I bought a new copy of Watership Down about a year ago. I read and loved it when it first came out but remember little about it. It's not easy getting old(er)! :)

I also enjoy re-reads via audio on my drive to work as missing a thing or two isn't too much of an issue. I can't do new fiction audio while driving.

>7 Bookmarque:: Bookmarque, gee I thought I was the only one who sometimes gets into a reading funk where I don't feel like reading anything new incase I didn't like it, and would re-read my old favorites exactly because I know I'll like what I'm reading. After a short period of re-reads, I get back into wanting to bite into some new books.

I'm kind of the same way. Sometimes re-reading is like eating comfort food because you know exactly what to expect and you already know that you like it.

I am the same, re-reading is like visiting old friends in times I don't feel like meeting new ones ;-)

I re-read a lot, like several of the others here. Depending on the book, it can be comfort reading. When we evacuated during Hurricane Ike, we took along two boxes of my semi-rare young adult career romance novels from the 1940s to the 1960s. They're sweet, innocent, well-meaning, and quick to read. That's what I read the whole time we were evacuated, even though our kind hosts had a great sci-fi collection (that's what I normally read).

I re-read pretty much anything unless I really didn't like it!! I will usually read a book at least twice........often I choose after the second time to get rid of the book, so books that I will read more than twice stay in my house...

All of my 'favourite' books will have been read many many times......so much so that my alltime favourite books occasionally need new copies because I wear them out.....mainly through reading books in the bath AND in the shower. And on the yard (I work with horses so LOTS of mud lol)!!!!!!!!

I think if I re-read books I'd never get through my tbr pile - it never seems to get any smaller. On occasion I have re-read books and new insights hit me that I missed the first time around. I didn't get The Great Gatsby initially but on re-visiting it 20 years later I understood the characters much better. However, I have shared my favourite childhood books with my own children and found that the books have not stood the test of time and are pretty boring. I'm not talking about Enid Blyton - the kids and I still love all her books.

yea for Enid Blyton !

#9 karenmarie

I also do a lot of rereading and those three--Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Georgette Heyer-- are at the top of my list. I also reread Jane Austen (no touchstone!) regularly and Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre. and Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Narnia Chronicles --and much more! This must be why I so seldom give books away.

It's a wonder I ever have time to read anything new. ;-)

I just bought that last week. It is amazing! Well worth the price and the pictures of vintage book covers are great.

#19

I think you listed most of my favorites! I would throw in Villette and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Oh don't get me started, I love them all so much.

From a cursory calculation, a little more than a third of my reading is re-reading -- and that's been increasing slowly but steadily as I get older. The list of usual suspects is too long to list entire.

Lately, I've been working my way through Virgil's poetry -- some in Latin, some in translation -- for the umpteenth time. This is a holdover from my earlier, classical education.