Post books that you read at least 3 times

Not too many recently. The most recent book I've read multiple times is Twilight which I've read three times.

If I were to go back to high school though, it would be a totally different story. I did tons of re-reading back then. Probably because I didn't have access to such a wonderful source of suggestions :-)

Invitation To A Beheading, The English Patient, and Paradise Lost.

I know I've read those a lot more than three times.

Dozens. All of Tamora Pierce's Tortall books, almost all of Robin McKinley's books, many of Patricia C. Wrede's books, most of Diane Duane's Young Wizards series, Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine trilogy and The Venetian's Wife...

And lots of other (and non-series) books, too. Those are just the ones I thought of offhand.

I am rereading less than I used to, now that, as demonlover said, I am getting so many suggestions for new things to read.

When I was a kid, I'd start every summer vacation by rereading The Swiss Family Robinson and The Black Stallion, followed by all seven Chronicles of Narnia books. I've lost count how many times that came out to.

As an adult, I've read Dean Koontz's Strangers and Phantoms countless times, Ender's Game about once a year, Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child at least three times, and the Harry Potter books a gazillion times. Kathryn Kurtz's Deryni series and David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series have also been read more than three times each. And Dave Barry's essays. I'm sure there are more, but I should probably stop before I've listed my entire library.

ive read the stand by stephen king and i know this much is true by wally lamb three times each- those are truly wonderful books

Pride and Prejudice
Harry Potter books 1 through 5
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
The Eyre Affair

I've also re-read The Stand 3+ times ...

Off the top of my head:

All of the Harry Potter books (I've long since lost count how many times I've read these).
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane also by Kate DiCamillo
The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor
Beast by Peter Benchley
Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I read books over and over and over, which is why I like to own them. :)

I've just finished reading The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (six books in all) for the 7th time. The first 6 times were merely because I enjoyed them so much, and I couldn't afford to buy even a few books for several years. This last time was merely a refresher for reading the first 2 (of 4) books of The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. The first of these (The Runes of the Earth), I've already got; the second book, Fatal Revenant, which does not touchstone yet, will be released in October.

I don't enjoy fantasy and sci-fi as much as I used to, but there's something about Steven R. Donaldson's style that keeps me coming back.

I've got quite a lot that I've been through at least three times:

~ volumes 1-5 of J.K Rowling's Harry Potter books (five times for the first four, four times for the fifth)
~ The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien (seven times, though I'm not too sure why)
~ Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (three times)
~ American Gods by Neil Gaiman (four times)
~ Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (three times)
~ The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (around twenty-six times; maybe as many as thirty for certain individual volumes)
~ The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (seven times for the first six, six times for Merrick, and so on and so forth down to the end of the series, with each subsequent book having been read one time less than the one before it)
~ Stardust by Neil Gaiman (four times)
~ The Sandman by Neil Gaiman et al (seven times)
~ the first seven books in The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (three times)
~ The Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice (five times)
~ Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (three times)
~ Death: The High Cost of Living and Death: The Time of Your Life by Neil Gaiman et al (four times)
~ Pandora by Anne Rice (four times)
~ The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (ten times)
~ Griffin & Sabine by Nick Bantock (five times)
~ Vittorio the Vampire by Anne Rice (three times)
~ The Heralds of Valdemar trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (four times)
~ By the Sword by Mercedes Lackey (three times)
~ The Mage Winds Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (three times)
~ The Mage Storms Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (four times for the first one, three times for the other two)
~ Vows and Honor by Mercedes Lackey (three times)
~ The Mage Wars Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (three times)
~ The Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice (three times)
~ Owlflight by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon (three times)
~ The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore (three times)
~ volumes 1-3 of Bone by Jeff Smith (three times)
~ The Icewind Dale Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore (four times)
~ Gnomes by Wil Huygen (no idea, but at least three. Probably as many as seven or eight)
~ Death: At Death's Door by Jill Thompson (three times)
~ The Legacy by R.A. Salvatore
~ Firebird by Mercedes Lackey (three times)
~ Round the Year Storybook by various authors (absolutely no idea, but lots. I had stories from this book memorized, word for word, when I was little)

There are also several books I've reread at least three times but no longer own. The two that spring instantly to mind are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt}}.

I've done this with William Gibson and Nabokov.

also Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre , i'd love to read it again or if not read the whole thing some chapters.

another one is Master and Margarita because it's so beautiful.

Off the top of my head -

Gorky Park & Polar Star -- 3+ times each
Pride & Prejudice -- 1/2 dozen calls or so
Moon by James Herbert -- 3-4 times
I, Claudius & Claudius The God - 3-4 times for both
The Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy - 4-5 times for the first 3

Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein. I've read the covers completely off 2 paperback copies and am now working on my third. This is my true "comfort" book, the one I turn to when things are not right in my world, or when I just can't think of what to read.

Lad: a Dog is one I have read three times in three years, and have read certain chapters more times than I can count.

Cecile: Gates of Gold by Mary Casanova is the only historical fiction I can remember rereading many times.

I've also read Companions of the Night three times, though it hasn't held up so well since.

hmmm...

hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
Ender's Game
Jane Eyre
the harry potter books
Me Talk Pretty One Day
and of course, The Pokey Little Puppy

#16 drsol:
I like how you put that last one. :)

The One hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki
Forerunner Foray by Andre Norton

Escapes, rescues, and quests, one and all.

I'll never remember them all!
The little house books
the Anne of Green gables books
Gone with the wind
The Harry potter books of course
the Hobbit
I know there are others but I can't think of them right now.
Charlottes web
The Borrowers series
the Moffats series...

I've read The Sandman books by Neil Gaiman at least 3 times each. And most of his other books too, like Neverwhere and Anansi Boys.
I've read Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books countless times too.
I read the first four Harry Potter books at least 3 times each, but the later ones got a little too lengthy to read more than once or twice.

Lord of the Rings for me. I used to re-read it every two years. I like the good triumph over evil stuff.

Harry Potter, but not the last one yet.

The Little Prince

Thale's Folly audio book twice and printed once by Dorothy Gilman

I'm sure there are more but this is what comes to mind. When I was little, I loved fairy tales...

I've read each of these at least three times:

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Little Women by Louise May Alcott
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
Garden of Rama by Arthur c. Clarke
The Stand by Stephen King
The Harry Potter books

Like most everyone here, I know there are more! There are also many short stories that I have not included.

Lots of books.

But how about one that I read 3 times without pause? :-)

The book was The Gemini Contenders by Ludlum. I was in a foreign country, and it was a gift from other tourists we met --- the only book in English that I had available!

Like others, there are many I've reread numerous times, especially those books I first discovered in my youth. Among them:

War and Peace by Tolstoy
Candide by Voltaire
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Orlando and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Mademoiselle de Maupin by Theophile Gautier
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius (a standby book as a young teen-so gossipy and thus oddly comforting)
Utopia by Thomas More
Metamorphoses and Ars Amatoria by Ovid
Meditations of Marcus Aurelius
The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Narcissus and Goldmund by Hermann Hesse
Lavengro; the Scholar, the Gypsy, the Priest and The Romany Rye by George Borrow
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Uncle Silas by J. Sheridan LeFanu
The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Independent People by Halldor Laxness
Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Colette's Claudine books
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers
and most everything by Henry James, James Tiptree Jr.and Marguerite Duras (three authors who could hardly be more different!)
*edited to correct fractious touchstones

I've proably forgot some, but a comprenesive list would be -

The Lord of the Rings, probably +30 times since my early teens some 30 years ago
Left hand of darkness
A lot of the Discworld books, probably more than half of them
Pashazade - Effendi - Felaheen
Snow Crash
The Diamond Age
Cryptonomicon
Quicksilver - Confusion - The System of the World
The earthsea trilogy - Tehanu
Worlds of Exile and Illusion

Quite a few books from my youth -
The sands of Mars
Earthlight
A fall of moondust
To live forever
Space cadet
All of the Moomin books

MOST of my fiction library really. Anything I've owned for more than a couple of years has probably been read at least three times.

Lord of the Rings I stopped counting but I 'd guess somewhere between 10-20 times. Most of Terry practchett has had repeated re-readings, Alistair reynolds, Trudi canavan, Sue grafton also. Anything that has published as a series I like to re-read the whole series prior to the next new book so everything in my catalog that has the tag /*

in addition key authorsI try and re-re-read from time to time include Jeff noon C J Cherryh Michael Marshall SMith Douglas Adams too many to list them all!

I re-read a lot, though haven't done so quite as much since joinng LT because I get prompted to buy new books instead.

#26 - "I re-read a lot, though haven't done so quite as much since joinng LT because I get prompted to buy new books instead."

That is certainly true!!!

Let's see, what I remember

The Dune Series
The Lensman Series
The Vlad Taltos Series
The Saga of Pliocene Exile
The Lord of the Rings
Dracula
The Complete Sherlock Holmes
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Tarzan
The Wild Cards Series
A lot of the Eternal Champion - the older part.
Neuromancer
The Drenai Saga
Batman
All Ian Fleming's James Bond.
Conan
Watchmen
Kingdom Come
The Authority
Stormwatch
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Planetary
Squadron Supreme
Camelot 3000
The Dark Knight Returns
Manhunter
V For Vendetta
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Kingdom Come
The Forever War
Magician
Conan
Interview With the Vampire
Conan
Faerie Tale
Babel-17
Rynosseros
Jurassic Park
The Dark is Rising Series
The Great Book of Amber

Jane Eyre
Divind Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDoland
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Virgin in the Garden by A.S. Byatt
Still Life by A.S. Byatt
Journals of Sylvia Plath
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
Ghost Dance by Carole Maso
Ava by Carole Maso
The Art Lover by Carole Maso
Savage Beauty by Nancy Milford

Isn't it funny, or interesting, that if you gave a list of books you've read 3+ times to a "normal" person they would at the very least look at you like you have no life. But here, we all have obsenely long lists and it's what we call normal! :)

Carry on all!

Well, my list will not be very long, I am afraid, and that is due to the fact that there are SOOOOO many books I want to read and so little time....
I find that those I read more than once are books that belong to my youth. For example Pinocchio, Il giornalino di Gian Burrasca (sorry, I don't think it was ever translated into English), Lessico Famigliare by Natalia Ginzburg, The Count of Monte Cristo, all of the books belonging to a series I collect (Biblioteca dei miei ragazzi, in Italian), which date from the 20s on and used to belong to my mother.
These last ones, especially, are 'comfort reading' for me, and so I return to them periodically.

#30...I often re-read a good read when - in the sea of my library, I can't find ANYTHING that reels me in. It is a little Crazy. Like having a closet full of clothes and nothing to wear!

#31 Like you Paola, I want to read loads of books before time runs out.
From my youth:
Jane Eyre
Wuthering Heights
War and Peace
Little Women
David Copperfield
Great Expectations

I have reread some books I originally read as a teenager and gotten more out of them/a whole new perspective now that I'm older (e.g., Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Madame Bovary), but for the most part I would be unlikely to read books a third time (same reason as #31 and 33).

I do plan to read the new translation of War and Peace by Pevear and Volokhonsky when it comes out, so that will be third time (although when I read it as a teenager, I skipped the war scenes -- and ended up liking these best when I read it in my forties).

Reluctantly:
Great Expectations which was required in three different classes.

With pleasure:
All of William Shakespeare's tradegies and most of his comedies.
King James Bible
Brother to Dragons
In many different variations, selections, and combinded, Letter to an imaginary friend

I've lost count how many times I've read these, but it's 3+:

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys by Louisa May Alcott

Any of The Babysitter's Club books (those were all I would read when I was younger.

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

There's a book ( and it's a movie too), and I can't remember if it's "A Little Indian" or "The Little Indian", but I lost count how many times I've read that one.

Princess by Jean P. Sasson

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Aaand I think that's it. I like being on LT, it makes me feel normal! :p

#32, bleu: good comparison! :)

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
Nobody's Fool - Richard Russo
Joe - Larry Brown
Big Bad Love - Larry Brown
Education of a Wandering Man - Louis L'Amour
How to Read and Why - Harold Bloom
Where Shall Wisdom Be Found - Harold Bloom
How We Die - Sherwin B. Nuland
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Walk Across America - Peter Jenkins
The Russia House - John Le Carre
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
Ava's Man - Rick Bragg
Smoke - Donald E. Westlake
The Short Stories - Ernest Hemingway
The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets - David Simon
The Pugilist at Rest - Thom Jones
Winter:Notes from Montana Rick Bass
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I'll be lazy: just check my library and the rest that I own, but isn't on LT yet. However Terry Pratchett, David Eddings, Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and E.E. Smith (for whom I can't seem to get a touchstone, grrrr) have been re-read the most.

I read most of my Enid Blyton books too many times to mention when I was a kid. The books I read most as a teenager were Alle nennen mich Pony (sorry wrong touchsstone and I can't find the right one among the 350 "others") and Die Rote Zora.
I'm not much of a re-reader nowadays because, as others have pointed out already, there are just too many books I haven't read yet. One that I re-read occasionally and had to read for school about 5 times was Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind (touchstones doesn't want to load...). And Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse and Die Verwandlung by Franz Kafka are two more from school that I read countless times.

Thalia (#40): Just curious here ... what class/school had you read Das Parfum? I read it in English, and it didn't exactly strike me as the kind of thing that would be taught in school.

As for others, there are so many books I want to read that I also have not done much re-reading in the past decade. A few I have read twice, but the only books I think I have read 3+ times are:

most of my Doctor Who novelisations of the TV series as a child/teenager/young man

all 7 of the Chronicles of Narnia

complete Sherlock Holmes stories in 3 volumes

>41 KromesTomes:: In German class. We read books from different time periods and Das Parfum was one of the choices for modern literature, if I remember correctly. I can't remember what the other choices were. I was around 18 or 19 at the time and it was by far the most interesting book on the whole list.

Oh yes! I forgot to mention Sherlock Holmes, all of the stories and the four novels, among the books that I read more than once.
Thanks for mentioning it, John!

ooh, and Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

May have to look through my fiction catalogue and see if any more come to mind (am pretty sure no non-fictions will make the list, unless you count Ladybird books I probably read numerous times as a child but no longer have!)

And I forgot: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll.

I keep my re-reads by the bedside. I usually read myself to sleep, and I don't want a new page-turner. I want an old comfortable friend that can lull me with familiar descriptions, well-remembered pleasures, smiles not belly laughs, touching my heart with out tears. A few of my best friends:

Blue Sword - Robin McKinley
Swiftly Tilting Planet - Madeleine L'Engle
Hollow Hills - Mary Stewart
Madam, Will You Talk? - Mary Stewart
Most of Louis L'Amour's books
A few of my Star Trek novels (notably Ismael)
Semi Tough - Dan Jenkins
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Mask of Apollo - Mary Renault

'Forty Acres and No Mule' - love that book.

So here's a question. What's your reason for rereading? Is it for comfort? To refresh your memory? To see how the book looks through your current eyes? (In my case, it's usually all of the above.)

#49> mostly because I enjoyed those books so much that rereading them makes me feel good.

Ehm, lack of time or money to buy new ones mainly. Getting them from the library isn't much of an option since they find wide open spaces more important then books for some reason... (It is actually a pretty good library, it's just that we think they could have done more.)
I don
t mind re-reading much since I'm a sloppy reader and have a horrible memory besides.

#49 sflax - I reread because I enjoyed a story and want to go back over it again. With many of my favourite series, I also have a strong attachment to the main characters and enjoy revisiting them, so to speak.

All the same reasons you do, sflax. And sometimes a favorite book will whisper a part of the story I especially like and it makes me want to read the whole book again.

I'm not much of a re-reader any more mostly because I have the money for more books than I used to. When I was strapped for cash I would often re-read books. Probably I honed in on the ones I did because they were so excellent the first time around. Certainly I have had other books in my collection as long that haven't merited a second read.

I seem to be lacking a few genes that most LTers have -- the ability to re-read, and re-read, and re-read (Yawn!, Impatience, I know whats coming, my TBR list beckons!) and the ability to read several books at ones (Focus, people! just focus)

That being said -- about the only one I can admit to having read at least three times is#16 drsol's Pokey Little Puppy

my motivations for re-reading depend on the situation. Sometimes it's financial, others it's because I wish to refresh my memory for a book club. However I re-read 3 of the Harry Potter books this weekend while recovering from the flu because they were like a security blanket. They made me feel better. There is nothing better than curling up on the couch with a quilt, cup of soup, and good book that you know you will love.

One Hundred Years of Solitude
All J.K. Rowling Harry Potter books!
All of the Lord of the Rings books!

#49 - Why do I reread? I really liked the way lefty33 put it in #53 - "sometimes a favorite book will whisper a part of the story I especially like and it makes me want to read the whole book again".
That is certainly true for me.

Also, before LT I sometimes felt short on new books to read (actually a major reason for start LTing in the first place) and then I choose to reread those I liked the most.

And as Xicanti in #52 I feel a strong attachment to the characters and want to revisit them.

Or, sometimes when down with flu or something when unable to concentrate on a new book because of fever I retreat to the comfort reads.

Plus I sometimes want to know how I will percieve a book now when I have a wider or different frame of reference, or...

I could go on forever, but I have to work;-)

Mostly because I read fairly fast and don't take in all the details on the first pass, it can take 3 readings just to be familiar with the plot. Then I re-read for enjoyment, if its a book I like then I want to repeat that enjoyment, I'm less diligent about finishing them though. For example I often now skip Frodo in the marshes!

I try not to spend too much of my income on books - an LT heresey I know - so I often re-read instead of buying the next new book.

I re-read series' when the next instalment comes along, to stay fresh with the details.

Why keep them if you aren't going to re-read them?!

hahaha jhowell, Focus, people! just focus

I guess some of us (myself included) have a bit of ADD.. can you have ADD and still have the ability to sit for 9+ hours straight with your nose in a book?

For me it's not so much about my ability or inability to focus, I read multiple books at a time so I can better match my particular moods. Sometimes I want a thriller, sometimes a cozy chick-lit type deal, other times I want something goofy. All this can happen in a given week.

Diana Gabaldon - the first three Outlander Dragonfly in Amber Voyager then they went off the boil
Mary Stewart - I read and re-read these when I was younger
My Family and other Animals by Gerald Durrell an all-time favourite - my dad used to read it to me then I read and re-read it - I keep scouring second-hand bookshops for it.

When visiting my parents though the years, I repeatedly read several 1950s era books. Dad lives in a one BR apartment these days and so I stay nearby at my sister's place. Thus, it's been a long time since I "checked out" these old favorites from Dad's library:

Century of conflict: The struggle between the French and British in colonial America... by Joseph Lister Rutledge

THE WHITE AND THE GOLD the French Regime in Canada by Thomas B. Costain

The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas.

Whatever their true merits, I suspect these books will always be sentimental favorites.

I reread books which are comfort books - you know, the kind of book you pick up when you're zapped with a headcold and want the couch and an afghan. The best of these for me is E.F. Benson's Mapp & Lucia series, a series of six books set mostly in Tilling, England (based on Rye) between the wars. Comedy of manners stuff but with a great wry and campy wit. I think I read The Lord of the Rings about 15 times in my teens. Like Thalia, I reread my Enid Blytons a ton of times when I was young. Jane Austen is also a chronic reread, particularly in the winter, for some reason.

59

Rather a silly question for LT, reading_fox :)

Why keep clothes, recipes, photos, pots,shoes, tools or whatever that you don't use? Because you like 'em, collect 'em, or might use them sometime.

"Why keep ... or whatever that you don't use?"

I don't.

I'm a big fan of if its not needed, chuck it.
The Other Half is a hoarder olong the lines of it might be useful someday - to me if that day hasn't arrived within 6 months or so its bin fodder.

Books get a longer allowance, but if I don't intend to re-read them they are scheduled for making space for others.

SO I ask again - as we all agreed on another thread they aren't there for decoracation - if you aren't going to re-read them why keep them?

#66 - you may change your mind about re-reading books, for example if you give one another go because you decide it didn't fit your mood first time round.

and for non-fiction, they may be useful for reference, even if you don't intend to read them from cover to cover again.

Back to the main thread, the Foundation trilogy by Asimov is a series I have read several times (not sure if I have read all of them 3+ times, but the early ones certainly).

>SO I ask again - as we all agreed on another thread they aren't there for decoracation - if you aren't going to re-read them why keep them?

Bluetyson answered that question.

"Because you like 'em, collect 'em, or might use them sometime."

It might not be what you like/want to do, but there are plenty of us who do.

The Iliad and the Odyssey, I have four translations of each
The Daughter of Time great historical fiction
I own all of the Judge Dee mysteries by Robert van Gulik and have read most of them three times
The Guns of August and The Proud Tower Barbara Tuchman classics
Inherit the Wind
American Political Tradition
The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File
Eric Ambler's Dirty Story and Background to Fear
The Making of the President series
numerous Robert Heinlein
The Coming Fury
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
That is a representative but not complete list. Some books are just like old friends and you say hello once in a while.

Hotel New Hampshire

sorrow floats.

#70 - "Some books are just like old friends and you say hello once in a while." Perfect. That sums up perfectly my re-reading tendencies, especially at bedtime.

A couple more that I thought of are The Water Method Man by John Irving and The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler. I used to keep the Chandler by the bed and just open it randomly to a really great scene (it's that full of them). Similar to when my husband and I can't decide which movie to watch and end up having a 'scene night' where we take turns playng favorite scenes from moves we have.

Gone with the Wind (too many times to count beginning when I was about 10)
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Gone with the Wind (too many times to count beginning when I was about 10)
Time and Again by Jack Finney
Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

#72 Thank you

#53 lefty33, I really like that: "And sometimes a favorite book will whisper a part of the story I especially like and it makes me want to read the whole book again." I know exactly what you mean!

I have not reread a book in many, many years. But during my "angst-filled youth" I reread A Clockwork Orange many times. In fact, I even carried the paperback around in my jacket in order to have constant access to this book. Ah, youth...so dramatic!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (Quite possibly my MOST favorite book in the world! Raskolnikov is such a character in conflict!! I actually own several copies of this book)
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
Beowulf (which is right up there with Crime and Punishment)

I own all of these books and I cannot travel long term without them! I feel like Mel Gibson in Conspiracy Theory...they physically need to be out where I can see them...needless to say, my bookshelf is getting cramped.

I've read Wittgenstein's Mistress by David Markson about 15 times...I've read most of the other books by him at least four times... The Review of Contemporary Fiction (Summer 1990): John Barth, David Markson issue was so good, I had to buy that.

I obsessively read the Complete Sherlock Holmes at least once a year.

I read and re-read anything by Raymond Chandler as often as possible, at least 6 times already. And I've read most of Dashiel Hammett's works more than five times.

To kill a mockingbird - at least 11 times

Chronicles of narnia - 3 times for each book in the series

Moby Dick - at least 10 times

Harry Potter books - the first four in the series i read about twice each.

Lord of the Rings - twice for each book in the series

Interview With the Vampire, Vampire Lestat and The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice - about three times each.

Also Bridget Jones's Diary - read at least once a year since i bought it so that's about 5 readings in all. It just gets better and funnier with each re-reading.

I have read The Lord of the Rings many times. Also The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay.

I forgot to say (in mye previous message) that I have read John Irving's World According to Garp several times. Other books I have read more than once include The Chronicles of Narnia and also C.S. Lewis's adult science fiction series: Out of the Silent Planet, Peralandra, That Hideous Strength.
I also read Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward Angel more than once in my college years. Likewise Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge.

I have read many books at least three times, and many far more than that! (I'm mad about re-reading! :) )
Among my favourite re-reads are:
-The Lord of the Rings
-All the Harry Potters
-Gone with the Wind
-Pride and Prejudice (actually all the Jane Austins!)
-Tess of the D'Urbevilles
-The Prisoner of Zenda
-Any Regency romance by Georgette Heyer!

There are several books that I have read countless times, but the all-time favorite is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott I have yet to tire of reading it!
Jeanette

Some of my favorite books that I've re-read many times include-
"Twilight," and "New Moon" by Stephanie Meyer and all of the
"Harry Potter" books in the series!

One contemporary book I've read three times is Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Which, given how long it is, and how many footnotes there are, is saying something.

booklady2266, I LOVED Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell!!!!

I do a lot of reviewing, and the books I like I read (lightly) three times. Once for fun, second time for general review, third time to make sure I'm being fair. Those books recently include Synergy, by M. D. Benoit and Lady of the Lakes, by J. C. Hall.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Celine
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Demian by Hermann Hesse
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
A Mirror for Witches by Esther Forbes
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
Shield of Three Lions by Pamela Kaufman
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

I'm actually surprised by the number of books I've read at least three times. I'm not obsessive. Really...

(EDIT: added authors)

The Big Sea by Langston Hughes
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
A Call To Assembly by Willie Ruff
A Word or Two Before You Go by Jacques Barzun
Clarissa: or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
Sometimes A Great Notion byKen Kesey
Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
From Slavery to Freedom A History of Negro Americans by John Hope Franklin
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

This is a partial list off the top of my head, but I know there are others. Sometimes when you read a book you love, you can't bear for it to end and you read and re-read and come back to it and read it again.

Ulysses, A portrait of the artist as a young man
Moby Dick
Tarzan of the Apes and many more Burroughs
The annotated Sherlock Holmes; the four novels and the fifty-six short stories complete
Player Piano and several other early Vonneguts

The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger Can't wait to pick it up again for the 4th time!

#91 So true! I cry every time I come to the end of The Master and Margarita or Villette simply because the book is about to end. I have read both books so often that they're part of the landscape of my memories. The characters are dear friends.

Oh LillyJames, I love The master and Margarita, one of the BEST books I have ever read.

Villette broke my heart. I don't believe Paul Emmanuel came back to Lucy.

Indeed, Belle, I don't believe he came back either. But, although it's heartbreaking, I know Lucy survived and that gives me strength. (I identify rather strongly with Lucy Snowe.) :)

aluvalibri, it's always good to meet another person who loves The Master and Margarita! It and Villette are the two books without which I can't live. I think it may be time to reread one or both yet again. ;)

Almost half of all the reading I do is re-reading, because I think, counterintuitive as it may seem, that's the only way I make progress.

Every year I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, to see if I still feel how I do about it, but that's more like an experiment when you try a food you often react badly to, just to see if you still react that way.

I've read David Markson's Reader's Block and Vanishing Point and This is Not a Novel at least three times each.

Mating by Norman Rush and The Last Samurai by Helen Dewitt . . . Memoir From Antproof Case maybe six times, and Mark Helprin's other books I've reread at least twice.