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What books can you read over & over again?


abasio

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Most books I come across are good enough to read once but I would never think about reading them again. Usually they are written quite well but nothing special but have a gripping story. But once you know the story it would be pointless to ready again.

 

Some books though break the mould, either the story is so good that while I am reading it a second or so time you still hope it will turn out different (usually these have sad endings or a character I hate who lives but I want to die :P) or the writing is so sublime that I can just get lost in the words.

 

So what books can you just read over and over again?

 

For me it is

 

Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

I love his in depth descriptions of such little things, like the creases in people's clothing or their hairslides. The story is hauntingly beautiful as well and no matter how many times I read it I still wonder if the ending will be different this time (it never is though :()

 

C.S. Lewis - Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra

Another wonderfully written books & I always enjoy reading the descriptions of what people used to think Mars/Venus were like before we discovered the boring truth.

 

H.G. Wells - The Time Machine and The Invisible Man

Nice passages, wonderful discriptions and the irony is never lost.

 

Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Series

Such imagination, talented writing and it is easy to get totally wrapped up in the stories and find you have read all 7 too many times.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Silmarillion

I have always loved reading the history of Middle Earth over and over to gain a better understanding of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy which are other books I can read numerous times.

 

Embarassingly I can also read many Warhammer 40,000 books over and over as I love the grim dark imagery and the utter hopelessness that the stories entertain. They might not be very well written and are just action movies in space but something about them hits the right spot with me :)

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Well, can't say I'm a fan of re-reading, however what never gets boring is the stuff from Osho. Better than cure.

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Well, can't say I'm a fan of re-reading, however what never gets boring is the stuff from Osho. Better than cure.

Some books just beg to be re-read though :ph34r:

I am reading Haruki Murakami - After Dark at the moment and I really feel like I will read it again. The atmosphere when reading it is brilliant :rolleyes:

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Hesse's Siddhartha is probably the only book I've read more than twice, although I've read a lot of books twice. I think I read Delany's Nova three times. Have plans to read several books again, including The Count of Monte Cristo, which was sheer awesomeness.

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Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby jr. Have read it almost as many times as I've watched the film.

...and then there's The Bible ;)

I didn't even know there is a book and not only the movie? Did they make the movie after the book or vice versa?

 

There are plenty of books I've read several times. I will try to break it down to the essentials ;):

 

Stephen King - Tommyknockers: my favourite book ever!! I love his novells anyway and read most of them several times but this is the best. Other great books by him are It and The Stand.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord Of The Rings

Michael Ende - Neverending Story

Michael Crichton - Andromeda

Herrmann Hesse - Stephenwolf

Thomas Mann - Buddenbrocks

Jules Vernes - 20000 Miles Under The Sea

Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting and Ecstasy

 

There are lots more, maybe I should add that I don't mind reading books again and again if I like them so...

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I didn't even know there is a book and not only the movie? Did they make the movie after the book or vice versa?

 

There are plenty of books I've read several times. I will try to break it down to the essentials ;):

 

Stephen King - Tommyknockers: my favourite book ever!! I love his novells anyway and read most of them several times but this is the best. Other great books by him are It and The Stand.

 

J.R.R. Tolkien - Lord Of The Rings

Michael Ende - Neverending Story

Michael Crichton - Andromeda

Herrmann Hesse - Stephenwolf

Thomas Mann - Buddenbrocks

Jules Vernes - 20000 Miles Under The Sea

Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting and Ecstasy

 

There are lots more, maybe I should add that I don't mind reading books again and again if I like them so...

Heeey, haven't read you in a while :)

 

The book was written way before the film. It was first published in 1979. The book wasn't very succesful, I believe, because it was never reprinted before 2003. The author, Huber Selby, jr., died in 2004. (The book is a bitch to get in Switzerland, by the way. It took the bookshop more than three weeks to get hold of it.)

 

That's also the reason why something in the film is a bit dodgy: They listen to very modern music, yet at the clinic they use EST, which wasn't used anymore after the 70ies, I guess...nevertheless, brilliant book, brilliant film!

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with sll the books out there, i have a prejudice about reading the same book twice, im studying in letters(in french tough) and really, even if i would love a book that much, i woudnt read it twice

This.

 

I used to work in one of the largest antique/second-hand bookstores (over a million books!) in our country and came in contact with alot of varied material from the past few hundred years. :D I amassed a sizeable collection and new reference points and would find it fairly difficult to re-read a title. Unless it was to increase understanding or relation that I lacked the first or second time through(Philosophical/Metaphysical/Scientific/Spiritual/Mechanical/blah blah many other works etc). There are just so many great varied and enriching books to read out there! Way too much to read in one lifetime even if all one did was sit and read while eating on the toilet in bed.

 

With that said, such a practice of re-reading can really be enriching at different stages of development or life because aspects of the title can really take on a new meaning/relation due to changes in the readers mind/life.

 

I guess it can be fun to relive a ficticious or constructed atmosphere (like with music) if it's particularly good. But I'd feel a bit guilty doing so. :unsure:

 

Another point I'd like to add to this is that rather than having to read a book to evoke these feelings(wonder, mystery, excitment, power, well-being etc etc etc) I'd rather work on having them come about naturally in my own life than living vicariously through a ficticious or temporary unfulfilling medium. Drug use to inspire feelings, moods and mind states is a bit similar here. They can be used as tools for inspiration or if development is imbalanced or insufficient but I feel they aren't the true way. The mind itself behind it all can be.

 

I generally get a bit guilty or bored reading fiction(unless it's really good literature or particularly atmospheric Sci-Fi/super-natural/mystical/fantasy stuff) nowadays. If the art piece or book is not inspired by a good/great/well-developed/inspired/artistic mind then it can feel about as productive as gossiping about other people's lives while they're not there.

 

Sorry, I don't(do) mean to tangent, ramble, jump all over the place, share some life feelings and generally come across as an elitist bastard.

 

Carry on with your discussion as though I were not here. :P

 

Jon

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Also Hesse's Siddhartha

Many times

Always as good as or better than before

Murakami's After the Quake stories

Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, although the last time was a long time ago

Krishnamurti's Commentaries on Living

Poetry, not that much poetry I am in love with, mostly Whitman, and the Chinese classics like Han Shan

Reread Heidegger's Being and Time several times but not necessarily because I liked it so, but because I wasn't getting it, still don't, not really

And classics like Tao Te Jing, Tibetan Book of Liberation, Ashtavakra Samhita

But most of all, Webster's

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  • 1 month later...

I only re-read books that I didn't fully understand or stand to gain something in particular by reading them again. In general the same goes for watching movies multiple times, unless I'm watching it with others.

 

So the only books I've ever read multiple times are Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground, which is a very short read, and 4 of Nietzsche's better books, which are a much longer read but require multiple readings to understand anything.

 

If I was ever going to read a fictional story again it would probably be Don Quixote, since I marveled at the beautiful writing style all the way through and it was an interesting plot with lots of details. Unfortunately I'll probably never take another 6 months to read it again.

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  • 4 months later...

"A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry, I want to read over and over again. A stunning book, and the writing is superb but I found it somewhat heartbreaking - the reality of the tragedies that beset the characters really got under my skin. I really recommend it to anyone who wants a genuinely good read, and a bit of an insight into what it's really like to live in a third world country in crisis.

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I have to date never read a fiction book twice :ph34r:(only "non"-fiction), I think I simple read to little to feel like repeating any I have already read, even I really liked it! Maybe I will one day! But then again, it would probably only happen if it is a short book and/or if I felt like I was missing the point the first time around...

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There are too many books and too little time, so I never re-read books.

 

However, there is one book which is a true pleasure to re-read...Jerome K. Jerome - Three Men in a Boat...short enough to not stretch out a re-read and delightful enough to invite that re-read.

 

I also want to re-read Ulysses one day, though I'm not sure that'll happen :ph34r:

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