Favorite Rereads: Books You Read Over And Over Again

Author François Mauriac once said, "Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are' is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread."

With so many books to read, it's a wonder that so many of us take the time to reread. However, there are works of literature that are so good, compelling, and/or comforting that we can't help but pick them up again.

This week, we asked friends and readers on Facebook and Twitter what they enjoy rereading. Be it for comfort or simply for the fact that the novel is just so amazing, these books are the ones you come back to, time and time again.

Did we miss any of your favorite rereads? Let us know in the comments!

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The "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling

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This Reread

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

Why would anyone reread this? Ooh, this is one of mine, too

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Comments

[MSROADKILL612]

09:57 AM on 03/10/2011

Curiously, perhaps the most re-read books dont rate a mention, the bible, the tora and the koran

[MSROADKILL612]

09:44 AM on 03/10/2011

Here is my peeve. I have a huge collection and I put great thought into my recomendations. No one will admit to not being a reader. So I lend people a book, a year later they havnt looked at it. I have become very skeptical.

[MSROADKILL612]

09:16 AM on 03/10/2011

Any one a fan of Kathy Lette?

My fav line - "when i was a kid, my father was a gambler. We lived in a fibro house in Rooty Hill, overlooking the rent."

[MSROADKILL612]

08:26 AM on 03/10/2011

My problem is i just readem. Hopeless w/ titles and authors. maybe someone can help here.

Indian author and character, he scrapes by with an inheritance that his brother screwed him blind over, he works sort of but refuses payment as it would oblige him to be punctual etc., during his prayer an ablutions time he wears saffron robes, (dhota) which are like a cone of silence. The family must pretend he isnt there. His life work is translating one of the sanscrit epics or some such, but he never actually gets started. He fiddles around getting just the right exercise books etc. Its a delightful book about - well nothing really.

[MSROADKILL612]

08:07 AM on 03/10/2011

I always re-read my horoscope, parking tickets and potentially libelous emails I am about to send.

[MSROADKILL612]

08:02 AM on 03/10/2011

Whew - a thread where you can be reasonably sure you wont be moderated. I shall suggest Mein Kampfh as a test.

[MSROADKILL612]

07:58 AM on 03/10/2011

I love it when I take a skeptical punt on a 50c charity shop book and it charms me.

Couple of recent ones were The Searchers - a western sort of believe it or not - v well written & deep.

Charmain Clift & george Johnson, ?? Valley I think - set in china and tibet? Simple, earthy and eloquent.

Prob both out of print but amazing what you can find on the net - I found an O Henry story I was looking for online recently.

[John Shuck]

01:44 PM on 03/07/2011

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut

[psmitchell]

11:33 AM on 03/07/2011

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series;
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga;
Suzanne Brockmann's Troubleshooter Novels
Dorothy Dunnett's the Lymond Chronicles
Dorothy L. Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey series
Robert Crais' Elvis Cole/Joe Pike series
Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series
Eloisa James
Julie Anne Long
Barbara Samuel
Anne Stuart
Glenna McReynolds/Tara Janzen

[instarx]

01:18 PM on 03/05/2011

War and Peace!? You've got to be kidding.

Any and all of the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brien.

[phil turner]

01:54 AM on 03/03/2011

John Ffowles - The Magus
Robertson Davies - anything, really, but especially the 'Deptford Trilogy' (Fifth Business, The Manticore & World of Wonders)
Anthony Burgess - The doctor is Sick
Shelby Foote - The Civil War (3 volumes)

[Gregory Whitfield]

08:11 PM on 03/07/2011

Agreed! I was going to list the "Deptford Trilogy" having read them all three times. Another John Fowles novel is "The French Lieutenant's Woman" which I believe I have read three times, but years ago. These are the only novels I have read three times. And I am not a fast reader by any means.

[MSROADKILL612]

07:46 AM on 03/10/2011

The French Lieutenant­'s Woman - try the movie if havnt - may even improve on the book - and thats rare

[Bill Swadley]

06:00 PM on 02/25/2011

Rereading The Odyssey never crossed my mind as a good idea.

Before the movies came out, I was in the habit of rereading the Lord of the Rings trilogy every few years.

Vonnegut is a good reread, especially Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions, and The Sirens of Titan.

Certain early Stephen King and Grisham hold up to a second read.

[kareemachan]

03:06 PM on 02/25/2011

I gotta quit coming here, but I keep thinking of more books to add. Makes me wonder how I have time to read new ones! ;-)

Anything by Nevil Shute, Ngaio Marsh, Janwillem van der Wetering, Gerald Durrell.

And for a nice creepy read, 'The House on the Borderland' by William Hope Hodgson

[tploomis]

02:20 AM on 02/25/2011

Huckleberry Finn and Catcher in the Rye. I read both many times as a teenager and then again later as an older adult. Both stood up to the most recent reading, but both books were different -- the books hadn't changed -- I had.

[Matt Jacobs]

04:06 PM on 02/24/2011

I've reread Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It several times, and Young Men and Fire a few times. Both are fantastically written in a very poetic style.

I've also reread Lord of the Rings several times. They are great adventures, but I've also found that it's only with multiple reads that many aspects of the fantasy world become more clear, as there is just so much there.