Do You Re-read Books?

[Dru Edwards]

Do you re-read books? When I was pre-teen I did, such as some Hardy Boys and other books. Since then I don't think I've re-read a single book ... non-education or Bible related anyway. So much on my list to read now.

I've been thinking about re-reading some Stephen King. I have all his books (except his newest one) and perhaps The Stand, It, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Tommyknockers, or the Dark Tower series need a re-read. I recall all those very fondly.

What about you? What have you re-read and what would you like to?

[Jim W]

Sometimes; it depends on the book. I read "The Battle Cry of Freedom", then re read specific parts of it a few times for a "refresher"; that's one example.

[pieterh]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Do you re-read books? When I was pre-teen I did, such as some Hardy Boys and other books. Since then I don't think I've re-read a single book ... non-education or Bible related anyway. So much on my list to read now.

I've been thinking about re-reading some Stephen King. I have all his books (except his newest one) and perhaps The Stand, It, The Eyes of the Dragon, The Tommyknockers, or the Dark Tower series need a re-read. I recall all those very fondly.

What about you? What have you re-read and what would you like to?

I do like to delve back in to old favourites, and that includes Stephen King, one of my all time favourites.

Terry Pratchett and Iain Banks too; there is something magical about reading a book by a favourite author for the first time but it’s also rewarding going back and anticipating particularly well written passages. For me, Terry Pratchett never gets old.

In more recent years I’ve been reading more popular science and popular economics books (Freakonomics, books by Brian Cox, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins etc). I enjoy reading them again if only because I don’t get what they are talking about first time (quantum theory for example).

So short answer, yes I re-read books all the time. It’s the not so good ones that don’t get picked up again...

[TomB'sox]

Yes, I just finished reading a series of 8 books and found I got so much more out of them the second time as when I read something knowing what is generally going to happen, I recognize it as important pre-shadowing of the future whereas the first time I would just read over and not recognize the significance of what I just read.

[Kerbie]

Yes, I've reread several. The one that first comes to mind is William L. Shirer's, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany. At 1245 pages... not an easy task, but a fascinating book.

[pieterh]

“It” is a favourite of mine - it’s so large in scope it almost demands at least one re-read.

Last year I started to reread the Dark Tower series but got bogged down in V: Wolves of the Calla. I should try to get back in to it at some point but the ending of the whole sequence was such a weird anti-climax I’m not sure if I should...

[catdaddy]

I haven't re-read many, but because I've been an avid reader since childhood, and I've managed to become old enough to have outlived my memories of some of the books I read 30 or 40 years ago, I've re-read some of those I liked best. Over the past several years I've re-read Isaac Asimov's Foundation/Robot series, and am currently re-reading John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series. I expect that if I'm lucky to live long enough, I'll be re-reading a lot more books.

The only books I've re-read where a much shorter period of time elapsed between the first and second readings was in 2013 when I re-read Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and After The Flood in expectation of the publishing of the third book in her "MaddAddam" trilogy.

[Bob Womack]

I lost count of the number of times I'd read the Lord of the Rings trilogy after I read it ten times. But there are others that have begged me to re-read, most of them history.

I got into a yearly read of "Little Ship, Big War" by Edward Stafford because it shows day-in-day out life on a destroyer escort during WWII.

I did the same for "Clear the Bridge," "Wahoo," and "Thunder Below," because they showed life onboard America's three most exciting submarines in WWII.

I did the same for "On a Wing and a Prayer" by Harry Crosby because it was the first comprehensive account of flight ops and the operations of the 100th Bomber Group and the 8th Air Force in WWII.

Truth be told, if a history book is worth its salt it usually gets a re-read.

Bob

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by pieterh

“It” is a favourite of mine - it’s so large in scope it almost demands at least one re-read.

Last year I started to reread the Dark Tower series but got bogged down in V: Wolves of the Calla. I should try to get back in to it at some point but the ending of the whole sequence was such a weird anti-climax I’m not sure if I should...

Hey Pieter, yes, I've thought about re-reading The Dark Tower series but it's a big commitment.

[DCCougar]

I read a lot. I don't re-read.

[Nyghthawk]

Tolkien, King, Twain, Dickens, the list is long. Yeah, if it's a great book I re-read them. I re-read Huck Finn recently. I had forgotten how much I like it.

[woodbox]

Rarely.
So many books, so little time.

I remember this quote:

“ If you want to know about someone, ask them what they read.
But if you REALLY want to know them, ask what they have read again. “

[David Eastwood]

Hi, my name is David, and I’m a re-reader

One of the things I promised myself when I retired was more reading time, and that’s certainly come to pass. Lockdown doesn’t hurt that endeavour, either.

I’ve just finished revisiting Sir Francis Chichester’s two primary works - The Lonely Sea and the Sky, and Gipsy Moth Circles the World. I read these multiple times as a youth, and it was great to revisit them half a century later. In a similar vein, I also re-read C.S. Forester’s Hornblower series a couple of years ago.

There’s a pile of Kipling waiting also, along with Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series (Master and Commander, et al).

At some point, I will definitely return to C.J. Sansom’s magnificent Shardlake series - and there are many others.

[M19]

I read The Lord of the Rings every fall for years...until the movies came out <hangs head in shame>...and haven't read it since.
Foundation series and Robot series by Asimov. Actually, LOTS of Asimov.

Dune.
Earthsea Trilogy
That Hideous Strength by Lewis
The Singing Wilderness and The Lonely Land by Sigurd Olson.


Yeah, if I like it I reread it.

[Riverwolf]

Originally Posted by woodbox

Rarely.So many books, so little time.

Some I do.
I am rereading Swan Song by Robert McCammon now.
Just reread The Stand.
Both were time relative I thought.

On a related note- I refuse to finish a bad book or bad movie.