Re-readability--What books do you re-read? [Archive]

maestrowork

03-20-2005, 07:52 PM

There are only a few books I read over and over again (both fiction and non-fiction). They're like great movies (I just watched the Incredibles DVD for the fifth time -- call me obsessive, but that movie is GREAT), even though you know the plot and everything, you still want to read it again because it puts you in that moment, takes you away, touches you again and again -- never fails. You get to relive those moments again, and with the characters you love and care about. It's like seeing old friends and taking a trip together again. It doesn't matter if you have been on vacation with each other six, seven times already, it's still wonderful, and you take something different from the experience everytime.

One such book is "Conversation with God." I read that at least 3 times a year. It just pumps me up about life and such.

I've read "Cold Mountain" twice. It's just very well-written and it always inspires me to write better.

BlueTexas

03-20-2005, 07:55 PM

It doesn't matter if you have been on vacation with each other six, seven times already, it's still wonderful, and you take something different from the experience everytime.

I think that's the definition of 'magic' I was looking for. Great observation!

awatkins

03-20-2005, 08:00 PM

Several of Anne McAffrey's books, Pratchett, King...others. I have shelves of books that I've owned for 20-30 years or more that I reread every couple of years.

I also love Member of the Wedding and To Kill a Mockingbird. Love the way the words flow in those books!

MacAllister

03-20-2005, 08:05 PM

even though you know the plot and everything, you still want to read it again because it puts you in that moment, takes you away, touches you again and again -- never fails. You get to relive those moments again, and with the characters you love and care about. It's like seeing old friends and taking a trip together again. Yeah--those are the books I reread. There are a lot of them, and they range from King to Kingsolver--but they're old friends, each and every one.

triceretops

03-20-2005, 08:23 PM

Re-reads happen when I find real interesting characters starting off with some kind of farce or physical comedy. Even if it's sci-fi.

Joeseph Wambaugh--The Black Marble, The Onion Field.
Poul Anderson's Virgin Planet (for characterization)
Allan Dean Foster--Ice Rigger
Pete Benchley--The Island (serious, but halarious)
Spielberg--Close Encounters of the Third Kind

These are very strange, indeed, I know. But they were "no put down" reads to me and actually inpired me to write in the first place.

Triceratops

Fillanzea

03-20-2005, 08:45 PM

Comfort reading. For sure. Humor works-- Good Omens, the Hitchhiker's Guide series.
About 95% of the novels on my shelves are books I've only read once; I'm not a big re-reader, but I do tend to re-read books when I need reassurance and comfort.

CindyBidar

03-20-2005, 09:19 PM

I can re-read just about anything by Stephen King. I think I've read The Stand about eight times. (I also seem to catch a cold every time...talk about the power of suggestion!)

I re-read books about writing, and some other non-fic as well, but I don't re-read mysteries or thrillers. I think with those, once I know who dunnit, I lose interest.

I will also watch favorite movies over and over, but my husband absolutely will not watch a movie twice, which I find to be really odd...

Andin

03-20-2005, 10:13 PM

I tend to re-read a lot of non-fiction, but usually not all the way through the second time. I just skip through to the parts I have found most useful.

I have so many fiction books still to read that I haven't gotten to many of them a second time, though there are many that I would love to re-read.

Movies I watch over and over until I can just have it on in the background without really watching it and still know exactly what is happening.

RGame

03-20-2005, 10:41 PM

A couple of my rereads are books based on movies I had already seen before reading the book. Planet of the Apes and First Blood. Apes is much more a satire than the movie, and an almost completely different story. First Blood is nonstop action, but I think it's David Morrell's writing more than anything that makes it rereadable.

I've reread the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series about three times, although I'll probably never read the fifth book, Mostly Harmless, more than once.

Woody Allen's three humor books are very rereadable too.

Betty W01

03-20-2005, 10:46 PM

I reread the Bible regularly as well as books by Philip Yancey (especially Disappointment with God and Where Is God When It Hurts?), Elisabeth Elliott, and Madeleine L'Engle (her adult N-F books), for spiritual input.

I reread any writing book that I liked enough to buy (or keep, if I reviewed it) several times a year for career inspiration and reminders. (Special favorites include Jenna's Make a Real Living as a Freelance Writer and Outwitting Writer's Block, Marcia Yudkin's Writing Articles About the World Around You, and Moira Allen's The Writer's Guide to Queries, Pitches, and Proposals. I also love Eats Shoots and Leaves, although I don't own it yet.)

As for fiction, I reread a lot of Robin McKinley's books. I love almost everything she's written. (OK, not Deerskin or Sunshine...) She has a real way with words. My favorite is Beauty; I own it in hardcover (which never leaves the house) and paperback (for loaning out and taking on trips).

I reread A Little Princess from time to time (my childhood comfort book).

I'll reread almost anything by Rex Stout (just finished one of his books on tape, in fact - love the interaction between Archie and Nero Wolfe) and anything at all by Dee Henderson (especially like her O'Malley series).

I own and will reread a few of Agatha Christie's books (I love Ten Little Indians, even though I know whodunit, as well as the Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot books) and I adore the urban bard series by Mercedes Lackey.

One of my all-time favorites is the Amelia Peabody series, by Elizabeth Peters (which I have read in book form about 4 times and listened to on tape about six - love the sly humor, the characters, and the descriptions of Egyptian art, culture, and religion, as well as the acting ability of Barbara Rosenblat, who narrates them.)

I adore Mary Laswell's series about the ladies in The Ark, but only own one (Suds In Your Eye) and worry that the library will get rid of their copies of the others, since they're so old and seldom read.

I'm a sucker for well-written Regency romances and will reread anything by Georgette Heyer, Clare Darcy, or Elisabeth Mansfield. (In fact, I own most of their books...) And I like the Suzanne Brockmann SEAL Team 6 and Troubleshooters series', despite the steamy parts, because she does such a great job with character development, military fact-handling, and writing page-turning adventure.

Actually, I seldom keep a book I don't plan on rereading, unless it is for research. My house would drown under books otherwise. (And it's a close call as it is...)

I can't believe I forgot these - the Mrs. Pollifax series! I love them and have both read them and listened to them on tape. I want to be her when I grow up.

HConn

03-20-2005, 11:09 PM

I pretty much never reread anything. There are a few rare exceptions, but there are so many books out there I haven't read, that I don't like to revisit old territory.

Linoge

03-20-2005, 11:47 PM

I've reread most of my Stephen King novels. And though it's not a novel, I've read his On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft eleven times now. http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/smilies/smile.gif The man can make the most interesting characters and storylines, and that's why I trouble myself to go through roughly seven thousand pages per novel.

Also, Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club. The first time was for leisure, the second time was to memorize how to make napalm, dynamite, and assorted household bombs. >=)

johnnycannuk

03-21-2005, 12:55 AM

Hmmm, lets see:

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs. It's like a new novel every time I read it. ;)

Both of Dharma Bums and On the Road by Jack Kerouac. I usually do this before one of my many trips to San Francisco (for the Java One software development conference). Kerouac' prose sings a song I love to hear. And of course, San Fran screams beat, beat, beat. The beat.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson was a crazed story teller of the highest order, showing us like it was and wasn't and slapping us in the face to make sure we were paying attention. He's damn funny too - this is the only novel I have read that made me laugh out loud while reading it.

Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K. Dick. Or any of his short stories, like Paycheck or The Short Happy Life of Oxford Brown. Dick is one of my favourites authors and I could read his stuff forever. He's one of my inspirations to be a writer.

And, oddly enough, The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. He is a great storyteller and can make strange, biological science familiar and terrifying all at the same time. No matter what you think of the subject matter or his writting, I couldn't put this book down. No matter how many times I read it.

Mike

Medievalist

03-21-2005, 01:16 AM

There are books I have to re-read on at least an annual basis for school; Beowulf, various medieval romances, various Shakespeare plays, Webster, Marlowe, a few novels, typically Shelley's Frankenstein, various Restoration plays, Austen's Emma, Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, etc. Canterbury Tales, lots of poetry. The Tain and the Mabinogi. Tristram Shandy. Ulysses, Dickens. These are all things I like re-reading; others I have to read I don't exactly enjoy.

But on my own, I re-read Sidney's Arcadia, Religio Medici, The Hobbit and LOTR, Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles, Cherryh's Foreigner series, McKillip's Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy, once a year. Other books I re-read regularly include books by Bujold, Robin McKinley, a few Georgette Heyer novels, other Cherryh books. Probably there are others I can't remember--

James D. Macdonald

03-21-2005, 01:33 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?

JohnLynch

03-21-2005, 02:15 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?Nope :) Well we could, but I'd be I'd be the exception ;)

Beautiful writing: Meh. I shouldn't be noticing how good the writing is. I shouldn't think "wow, what a wonderful chapter that was, I wish I could write as well as that."

Dialog: Make your dialog not-bad and that'll do ;)

Characters: I have to love your characters. Because no matter how interesting the plot is (Harry Potter series), if I hate your characters (Harry Potter series) I won't be able to finish the book once let alone a second time. However I have had plenty of books where I didn't like certain main characters and whenever the book concentrated on them, I'd want to skip them (after a few re-readings they grew on me though). However if you kill a character I love you can expect me to stop reading that page :P

Plot: Most important thing. No matter how much I like your character, it's the plot I'll remember and that will make me think "I really want to read that again! I can't believe what happened, that was just so amazing! It's been a year now, I'm gunna re-read it"

For me, the most important thing is plot with characters a close second. It's the plot that will make me want to re-read your book. The better the plot, the more likely I am to want to re-read it.

Galoot

03-21-2005, 02:19 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?Nope. I've re-read Clancy novels. That's an exception to my usual habits, though.

BlueTexas

03-21-2005, 02:35 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?

I'd say that's true for me. If I stop and read a sentence in a book aloud just to hear how graceful it sounds to the ear more than once, I'll usually re-read it. If the plot was good enough for me to remember it a year later, I don't need to re-read it, do I?

Medievalist

03-21-2005, 02:39 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?

Yes, though I wasn't smart enough to notice that--but, yes, we can.

maestrowork

03-21-2005, 02:49 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?

Nope. I re-read for plot as well. But sure, a book is not re-read worthy for me if the characters, dialogue, and writer are not outstanding to begin with... Plot-wise, there's no suprise element anymore, of course, but if a plot is good, it will always be good. There's a lot of enjoyment in reading the story again.

BlueTexas

03-21-2005, 03:01 AM

Beautiful writing: Meh. I shouldn't be noticing how good the writing is. I shouldn't think "wow, what a wonderful chapter that was, I wish I could write as well as that."

You shouldn't? If I'm stopped dead in my tracks by the beauty of a sentence, that's a glorious thing. In reading good writing, maybe we don't notice it. In reading great writing, a writer should notice. How else do we grow? What else do we have to measure against? If all the books in the world were filled with crap, how else could we recognize greatness?

victoriastrauss

03-21-2005, 03:03 AM

I pretty much never reread anything. There are a few rare exceptions, but there are so many books out there I haven't read, that I don't like to revisit old territory.Same here. Also I've once too often had the experience of returning to a book that bowled me over and discovering that my taste has changed or my interests moved on. I'd rather retain the wonderful memory of the original reading than spoil it by re-reading and discovering that it wasn't as good as I remembered.

I think it was the horrible disappointment of re-reading Samuel Delany's Dhalgren that really turned me off re-reading for good. That book was like a religious experience when I read it as a teenager, but as an adult it just seemed self-indulgent and obscure.

- Victoria

Trapped in amber

03-21-2005, 03:12 AM

Every year, as the nights begin to draw in, I reread ghost stories. Mostly it's M.R. James, but also Edith Wharton and waaaay too many anthologies:scared:.
I have a shelf of books that I read frequently enough to want them all in one place and at hand, and those are definitely comfort books. It's healthier than chocolate.

Edit: I forgot to say why I reread them. It's because they can still send a shiver down my spine. They still touch me somehow, even after reading them so many times.

Dawno

03-21-2005, 03:13 AM

I re-read just about every book I've ever bought. Could explain why I have enough books to open a good sized used bookstore (but with just one copy of each I doubt it would be very commercially successful). I re-read all the Dune books annually along with all the Discworlds. I cycle through Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan books less frequently and foray into Ayn Rand about once every five years. I keep re-reading Stephen Baxter's Evolution and Sawyer's Neanderthal Parallax books...I should stop now, this post could go on for pages otherwise.

BradyH1861

03-21-2005, 03:14 AM

I have read Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove about once a year since I was 15. I have read W.E.B. Griffith's Brotherhood of War series three times. I'm sure there are others, but that is all that jumps out right now.

Brady H.

Jamesaritchie

03-21-2005, 03:30 AM

In the UJ thread this morning, UJ brought up that he'd rather have re-readability than a twist ending. That got me thinking...

Are there any books that you read over and over again, or try to read once a year? If there are, what's the magic in the book that makes you do it?

I've re-read Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King very often over the years. Thinking about why, it's the characters. They absolutely jump to life on the pages, and the connections to some of the same characters in his other books are still interesting, time after time.

When I need inspiration, I read We the Living by Ayn Rand. I'll have to read it again to see where the magic is...I'll be sure to post when I figure it out.

Meanwhile, I'd love to see where the magic that makes people re-read lies for other people...

I'm not sure what it is that makes me read a book over and over, but if I like the book enough to finish it, it's almost certain I'll read it more than once. The better a novel is the first time around, the more I like it on the second, or third, or fifth time around.

I've also yet to find a good novel that didn't teach me more on the second or third or fourth reading than on the first.

There are so many novels I've read more than once that I can't begin to count them, and they all get better each time, and I learn something new each time.

Characters, dialogue, story (not plot), and insight are, I suppose, the big factors, but mostly it's just a matter of enjoyment I can't really define.

I read all the Sherlock Holmes tales each year, as well as most of Mark Twain, and a good deal of Shakespeare, but as I said, there are literally hundreds of novels I've read more than once, and a great many I've read six or eight or ten times.

The book that may hold the recod, however, isn't a novel. It's "Walden" by Henry David Thoreau. I know I've read it twenty times, and I may have read it more.

I do occasionally find a novel that I like on first read, but that doesn't hold up on second read, anfd as a writer, I think it's extremely important to know this.

But by and large, I absolutely love re-reading old favorites, and the ones that do hold up through several reads are ones that deserve the reputation they've earned.

Medievalist

03-21-2005, 03:31 AM

In my late teens I embarked on a search for SF by women. This was in the late seventies and early eighties when there weren't all that many--I liked knowing women could and did write SF, and I liked the emphasis on characters instead of hardware. I found a few authors, among them Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books. These were packed away when I left for college, and remained in storage for years. When I read them again, a few years ago, I didn't like them. I came close to loathing them.

I can't stand anything by Bradley now, and am not impressed by most of McCaffrey's books--though the two I liked the best, the juveniles DragonSong and Dragon Singer are still enjoyable.

maestrowork

03-21-2005, 03:32 AM

Oh yeah, I forgot. I re-read Agatha Christie's mysteries all the time.

JohnLynch

03-21-2005, 04:20 AM

You shouldn't? If I'm stopped dead in my tracks by the beauty of a sentence, that's a glorious thing. In reading good writing, maybe we don't notice it. In reading great writing, a writer should notice. How else do we grow? What else do we have to measure against?I want the story to be so good I'm not stopping to think about the wording of a sentence. I want to be so caught up in the book, I'm not even seeing the words, I'm imagining the scene and actions and I desperately want to turn the page so I can find out what happens next (yes, I can get like that with books I've read a dozen times ;)). If I stop to ponder how well a sentence was formulated, I've been jerked out of the story. I've been interrupted. It'd be like watching a movie and pressing pause. In a great movie, you don't want to press pause, you want to take the phone off the hook and kick everyone out of the house.

As for how you can grow, well I can think about what styles and techniques the author used once I've finished reading for the day. But for the most part, I read for my enjoyment :)

Galoot

03-21-2005, 04:54 AM

I'm of two minds about beautiful prose.

There's a lot to be said for effortless reading, where the words seem to just flow into the brain. Asimov wrote like that. Simple and plain. The writing never got in the way.

But there's just as much to be said for paragraphs that make me go "wow." They don't have to be flowery, too wordy or distracting in order to do so, they just have to be extraordinary.

In movie terms, beautiful writing might translate to awesome special effects. The Terminator would be like an Asimov novel. Terminator 2 would be the flowery one. Both interesting stories, but the second packed an extra punch because of the amazing (for the time) effects. Another example would be the Lord of the Rings movies, which made my jaw drop even when the plot wasn't racing forward. If I pause a moment to say "look at those hills!"* it doesn't mean I'm brought out of the story. I'm just admiring the wonderful scenery.

Effects alone can't carry a movie any more than well crafted beautiful prose can carry a book. But when combined with exceptional characters, plot, theme and dialog, the end result always stands out.

(*I'm talking about New Zealand, not tight dresses.)

jdkiggins

03-21-2005, 05:28 AM

I read and re-read for great writing, characters, dialogue, and wonderful plots.

Joanne

jdkiggins

03-21-2005, 05:29 AM

I do love re-reading some of the classics, many of King's books, and the obit's just to make sure I'm not listed.

Joanne

alaskamatt17

03-21-2005, 05:34 AM

I've read Jurassic Park a few times, same with The Lost World.

I've re-read The Lord of the Rings twice. Let's see, I know there are others...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy occasionally calls me to flip back through and find a funny quote, but I haven't re-read the entire thing, yet.

I will re-read The Chronicles of Narnia and The Thief of Always. The former is obviously a classic (okay, several classics) of the fantasy genre, and the latter is just a very good book. I like it because of the characters, but also because a few of the scenes just stuck with me so strongly after I read it. If you haven't read this book, you'd be doing yourself a favor by picking it up (if you like fantasy, that is).

Wandering Sensei

03-21-2005, 05:35 AM

I'm rereading LotR yet again. I've also seen the movies a minimum of half a dozen times each.

I also read The Power of Intention over again. And The Elements of Style. But there are so many books on my shelves that I haven't read, that I give most of my attention to that.

mommie4a

03-21-2005, 05:48 AM

I keep Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindberg (spelling??), Notes on Love and Courage and a slim volume of love poems by Anne Sexton on my night table. I read them very frequently and I've owned all of them for over 20 years!

sandymae2000

03-21-2005, 05:55 AM

Hi!

Two thoughts on this thread:

1. Why are people so surprised to hear that people re-read books when the same people think nothing of watching a movie again and again?
2. Beautiful sentences are nice, true. But an intriguing plot can also be a reason to revisit a book. Think of Agatha Christie's "Murder of Roger Ackroyd" or even her "Murder on the Orient Express."

BTW I re-read Hemingway's early novels every couple of years for inspiration and Mary Roberts Rinehart for fun.

Sandy

katee

03-21-2005, 06:14 AM

I find that I "miss" certain characters when I haven't re-read a book I love in a while (hmmm, I wonder what Rachel's been up to lately?)

But a double whammy for me is a character that I miss plus a concept that really hooks me - especially in fantasy or SF.

I don't really looks for well written books - I prefer to not notice the writing at all! I guess I notice bad writing, but don't notice good.

Then again, when re-reading one of my fave books for about the 50th time (I kid you not) I got really excited when I noticed a sentence I didn't remember reading before.

Kate

brinkett

03-21-2005, 06:17 AM

I'll re-read favorite scenes from books. I can't recall re-reading an entire book, except as a child.

karenranney

03-21-2005, 06:42 AM

Normally, I don't read a book in the same genre as I'm writing. But I can't go cold turkey, so I'll reach for a comfort book. I have some books I could quote the dialogue word for word. I don't know why I read them, or why I feel so satisfied when I finish. If I had to choose, I think it would be characters. They've become old friends - like Stephanie Plum, or Harry Dresden.

jdkiggins

03-21-2005, 07:16 AM

Not really books, but I often re-read old copies of the Alfred Hitchkock Magazine and Ellery Queen.

Joanne

PattiTheWicked

03-21-2005, 07:41 AM

Are there any books that you read over and over again, or try to read once a year? If there are, what's the magic in the book that makes you do it?

I think it's the difference between what books I buy, and which ones I get from the library. My shelves are packed to the gills with things I know I'll read repeatedly, even if it's only once every couple of years. Books I absolutely have to read on a semi-regular basis are:

Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo
Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility
Stephen King's The Stand and The Green Mile
The entire LOTR series, plus The Hobbit
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander
Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove
AS Byatt's Possession

All of these are books I re-read simply because the characters speak to me. Even though I know what's going to happen, and I already know, for example, that eventually Eliza will end up with that dashing Mr. D'arcy, and that Frodo will eventually return to the Shire, and that Claire and Jamie will be together at last, it's still beautiful to watch them GET to that point.

Maybe it's about the ride, more than the destination.

katee

03-21-2005, 07:48 AM

brinkett - I know what you mean about re-reading scenes, I've done it myself. Though I usually prefer to read the entire book. There's one scene I love that comes 3/4 the way through the last book in a trilogy - but I reread the entire trilogy, because it makes that scene so much more worth it.

Patti - I'll happily reread Pride and Prejudice until the end of time. And I think it's a great way to sum it up. It's more about the journey. I will have to keep that in mind for my own writing.

Kate

WVWriterGirl

03-21-2005, 08:15 AM

Since it's a big deal that I get through a book the first time, it's really a BIG DEAL when I go back and read it a second time. I've read the entire Dark Tower series about six times (excepting the last book, since it hasn't been out long enough for me to get it on tape/CD from the library yet) by Stephen King, most of the Dune books by Frank Herbert (although I do like the Brian Herbert books published after his death as well), and I've read the David Eddings books (don't stone me) multiple times.

The books that have really taught me something that I've re-read in the past are The Lord of the Flies and Heart of Darkness. Through a combination of what I feel is superb characterization and storytelling, I think these books give a wonderful insight into human interaction and motivation, and I never fail to find something new in either book.

WVWG

PS - how could I forget Adams? The Hitchhiker books are great for sheer silliness when I'm in need of a cosmic lift!

aka eraser

03-21-2005, 09:03 AM

I've re-read the LOTR several times; Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn three times and Elizabeth Moon's The Deed of Paksenarrion a couple of times. Every decade or so I re-dive into a few of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe books too.

It's like visting old friends around a fire, sharing a bottle of Scotch.

TashaGoddard

03-21-2005, 09:27 AM

I am fortunate (in this sense, at least) to have a pretty bad memory. This means that I can reread a book or rewatch a film a number of times before the plot becomes very familiar. However, some big twists stick my head after just one viewing (either because I've been expecting it or it's a huge shock) - The Sixth Sense springs to mind.

We have probably 100 feet of shelves, filled with books and maybe 3 shelves filled with DVDs of films and TV series. There are many books that I reread over and over again, and most books that I buy I read at least twice. I will often reread all the books by a particular author in order (especially, but not exclusively, when they have the same character/s in them). Examples that spring immediately to mind are Faye Kellerman, Patricia Cornwall, Nicci French, Tess Gerritsen, Raymond E Feist (especially the Empire series that he cowrote with Janny Wurtz). There are also plenty of individual books that I reread time and time again (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Goodnight Mister Tom, The Lord of the Rings).

I can say that pretty much without a doubt that it's the characters that draw me back to these books. However, those characters would not mean anything to me if stuff didn't happen to them, nor would they mean anything if the writing detracted from my getting to know them (for me this can include overly literary fiction as well as extaordinarily badly written prose that stops me at every word or sentence with the desire to get out my red pen). The same goes for films and TV shows, for the most part (although I watch Die Hard practically once a month, just for the rush - and maybe a bit for Bruce Willis - in fact, actually, the characters are pretty important there, too).

And these days I'm very impatient about character - whereas in the past I would give an author or a TV show a chance to prove itself before giving up and could read for beautiful prose or plot over character; now I have to be drawn to the characters by the end of the first chapter or the end of the first episode, or I'll stop reading/watching and probably never try again.

So... yes. Character.

sgtsdaughter

03-21-2005, 09:32 AM

I reread Cold Sassy Tree and The Rules of Attraction. yeah, i know the soft southern prose of Burns verses the brutal shallow characters (and rauncy too) of Ellis are stark contrasts, but i dig them. both inspire me on many levels of writing, dialogue, and dialect. but really it's just about a good read . . .

Annessa

sharon

03-21-2005, 10:05 AM

I love it when I can read a sentence of a book and say, "I wish I'd written that!"

Lots of Stephen King fans here, including me. Top re-reads for me are also
'The Stand' and 'On Writing'. Great characters, writing, plot; all of it will bring me back to re-read and re-study.
My favorite book to re-read, however, is 'Oh, the places you'll go' by Dr. Seuss. My daughter gave it to me two years ago when I was doubting myself. It made me realize that she had more faith in me than I did. Now, everytime I look at it, it makes me sit up straighter and buckle down to work... both for her and myself. I guess there are lots of reasons to re-read certain books.:D

Julian Black

03-21-2005, 10:38 AM

There have been books that I re-read several times at one point in my life, but for whatever reasons I eventually quit doing so--I read everything available by Kurt Vonnegut several times over as a teenager, then stopped reading him entirely. In my early 20s, I read and re-read The Mists of Avalon and the first three books of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, but I no longer have any desire to read them again.

Some books have remained constants on my "to-be-read-again" list, however. Stephen King's on that list, particularly The Stand, but I'll re-read just about anything of his. Neil Gaiman's American Gods is overdue for re-reading, and I found myself looking at Neverwhere again yesterday.

There are other authors whose work I routinely revisit--Mark Twain, EM Forster, Jane Austen, Alexander Dumas, and PG Wodehouse, to name a few. I've also been infected by the cultural virus that is those infernal Harry Potter books--I successfully resisted them for years, but if I'm going to survive the 118 more days until the next one drops I'll have to read them again.

The common thread between Jane Austen and Stephen King and all the rest is that they know (or knew) how to tell a story--their books hook me in with characters I'm curious about; they pull me into another time and place; and even though I have read these books before I am still surprised by them and see something new each time.

This makes me think of a book I actually liked, but have no desire to read again--Johnathan Frantzen's The Corrections. While it was well-written and kept me turning the pages, I actively despised most of the characters. Since they were so irritating, I didn't mind watching them torment each other. Frantzen did a masterful job delineating all the ways in which they made each other (and themselves) miserable, but I don't want to read about it again.

Anatole Ghio

03-21-2005, 10:49 AM

Same here. Also I've once too often had the experience of returning to a book that bowled me over and discovering that my taste has changed or my interests moved on. I'd rather retain the wonderful memory of the original reading than spoil it by re-reading and discovering that it wasn't as good as I remembered.

I think it was the horrible disappointment of re-reading Samuel Delany's Dhalgren that really turned me off re-reading for good. That book was like a religious experience when I read it as a teenager, but as an adult it just seemed self-indulgent and obscure.

- Victoria

For me, if the plot was disappointing the first time around, I will not re-read the book a second time, but if the plot is outstanding, it will not be enough for me to re-read the book a second time.

There are few books I would priviledge with re-reading and in order for me to do that, all the elements must be operating at a high level, otherwise the book is marred and I would rather spend time reading something else.

There are exceptions, of course, where I've read something for the language, metaphor, and meaning... what makes them rare is the plot is the main instrument of carrying my interest through a novel the first time around. If the plot was deficient to begin with, I more than likely didn't finish the book. So while I could choose to re-read something with an inferior plot, the fact I finished it to begin with would mean the plot succeded on some level and would be a good enough reason for a re-read.

- Anatole

P.S. Meant to add about Dhalgran... it is both things. It is a religious experience, and it is something of an indulgent mess. I wouldn't re-read it, but I am glad I spent the better part of a year chipping away at it.

mommie4a

03-21-2005, 05:18 PM

Re: Dr. Seuss. A college roommate (with whom I didn't speak for the first six months of sharing an apartment, but who became and remains one of my closest friends) gave me a book just before graduation. It was Seuss's "Oh the Thinks You Can Think." I love the book and it's in one of my kids' rooms now. But what I sneak a peek at the most is the inscription my friend wrote in the book: "Think if you must. But we all think you are great." (umm - I had a reputation of overanalyzing things!) Sometimes it's just a tactile sense of a book or the cover or the memory of it that sticks with you and makes you want to hold it and gaze it every now and then, again and again.

BlueTexas

03-21-2005, 05:24 PM

This makes me think of a book I actually liked, but have no desire to read again--Johnathan Frantzen's The Corrections. While it was well-written and kept me turning the pages, I actively despised most of the characters. Since they were so irritating, I didn't mind watching them torment each other. Frantzen did a masterful job delineating all the ways in which they made each other (and themselves) miserable, but I don't want to read about it again.

He captured so many mid-western neurotic tendencies in that book that at times I could swear he knew some of my family members. That one did go on my re-read shelf.

Sassenach

03-21-2005, 05:34 PM

I've re-read my favorites innumerable times. Some, like 'Little Women', I've been reading and re-reading for 40+ years!

I'm in the middle of re-reading the 'Outlander' series--all 6000+ pages. This will make my fifth time through them, and I still enjoy the books.

brinkett

03-21-2005, 06:08 PM

And these days I'm very impatient about character - whereas in the past I would give an author or a TV show a chance to prove itself before giving up and could read for beautiful prose or plot over character; now I have to be drawn to the characters by the end of the first chapter or the end of the first episode, or I'll stop reading/watching and probably never try again.

So... yes. Character.

Character is definitely key for me, though I'll give the author a little more time to draw me in.

There are a few series that I continue to read despite the fact that some of the stories are less than stellar. The reason is the characters. If the books in a series always contain the same set of characters, I'll often want to know what's happening with them--the story is secondary. I'd never continue reading a series if the characters were cardboard but the stories were great. If the characters don't do anything for me, the book/series won't.

PattiTheWicked

03-21-2005, 07:05 PM

Character is definitely key for me, though I'll give the author a little more time to draw me in.

There are a few series that I continue to read despite the fact that some of the stories are less than stellar.

The Harry Potter series continues to draw me in. I can't help it. I'm as eager for the next book to come out as my twelve year old.

And when I read OOP the first time, I was a little disappointed by the change in personalities of the characters -- if I had to listen to Harry whine one more time that "no one understaaaaaaands me" I was going to scream. I was really hating him by the end of the book, although I thought all the other characters were becoming more and more intriguing.

Then it occured to me, on the second read, that JKR is no fool, and she's a master at foreshadowing.... when I realized that Harry's personality change -- and its possible cause -- is quite possibly integral to the plot of the last two books, then I looked at it from a new perspective.

Sarita

03-21-2005, 07:34 PM

There are quite a few I go back to time and again. The list is very strange, now that I think about it. And I think it has a lot to do with what many others mentioned, I like the characters, grew up thinking about them and would like to visit them again.

LOtR-Can't count how many times I've read this series. Has to be close to 20.
Road Fever by Tim Cahill-Mirrors many of the experiences I had living in South America, it's like going back.
Les Miserables-I first had to read this in English for a HS level 5 French class. I loved it so much, I re-read it in French, and have since re-read in English several times. This book teaches me so much every time I read it.
Good Omens-Because it's so bloody funny and any book that can make me laugh out loud the fourth time around has to be a winner!
A Room with a View-Because I'm a hopeless romantic. And George is such a charming Brit.
Sho-Gun-This was the first 'adult book' my dad gave to me. I'm very attached to it and the characters. It can still make me cry.

There are too many more, but this is my revised, short list.

JustSam

03-21-2005, 08:06 PM

The Harry Potter series
This is mainly just to see if I missed anything the first time 'round, which more often than not, I find is the case.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Just basically because this has to be the best book I have ever read. We had to study it for our As Level English exam and I hated it at first because we were rushed through it and told to read this chapter by this date. But when I re - read it after I loved it.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
As with 'To Kill A Mockingbird', I was made to read this at school too. I hated it at the time as well, but again, loved it when I re - read it later on.

There are probably more, but they are all I can think of right now.

Julian Black

03-21-2005, 10:12 PM

[Frantzen] captured so many mid-western neurotic tendencies in that book that at times I could swear he knew some of my family members. That one did go on my re-read shelf.
[laughs]

Oh, I had the exact same reaction--and that's why I didn't put it on my re-read shelf. It came just a little too close to home...

sellthepharm

03-22-2005, 04:58 AM

I'm a big fan of re-reading books. To me, a well-told story is something I can enjoy time and time again. My favorites:

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings - I've lost count how many times I've read this wonderful story.

Stephen R. Donaldson - The Thomas Covenant series - wonderful writing, fantastic story. When I saw his newest Covenant book (after almost twenty years of silence) I would've ran over women and children to get the last copy.

Oddly enough, I read and re-read both of these series as a young teen and was somewhat hesitant to pick them up again as a "mature adult" (late 30's). I was afraid the storylines would seem childish and poorly written and didn't want to tarnish a magical memory. I was pleasantly surprised to find the stories just as vibrant and fresh, if not moreso, than the day I first read them.

Others:

Some King
James Herriot (nonfiction) - Superbly written, a great pick-me-up
Certainly no Grisham - not a slam, just the truth

JanaLanier

03-22-2005, 05:20 AM

Julian Black

03-22-2005, 06:28 AM

Oddly enough, I read and re-read both of these series as a young teen and was somewhat hesitant to pick them up again as a "mature adult" (late 30's). I was afraid the storylines would seem childish and poorly written and didn't want to tarnish a magical memory. I was pleasantly surprised to find the stories just as vibrant and fresh, if not moreso, than the day I first read them.

Lately, I've taken to re-reading a lot of the books I liked as a kid--mostly children's and YA fiction. Part of that is getting back to my writer's roots, reconnecting with the books that made me want to be a writer when I was, say, nine or ten years old. I realized that there were some common elements in those books that still crop up in my writing almost 30 years later.

So I've read Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, Mary Norton's The Borrowers and its sequels, The Chronicles of Narnia, most of E.B. White's books, Pippi Longstocking, and a few others. Whenever I see one I remember fondly, I grab it.

When I first started doing this, I was a little nervous; I thought that reading these treasured books as an adult would wreck them, that the books wouldn't live up to my memories. As it turns out, I couldn't have been more wrong. The reason I remembered them so fondly was precisely because they were such good stories.

Jamesaritchie

03-22-2005, 04:27 PM

I think it's remarkable how many people mentioned Stephen King -- it's the same for me. I've read The Stand about ten times, and I've memorized sections of On Writing.

The classics I often return to -- Shakespeare and Austen come to mind.

And I always keep a copy of Yeats by my bedside. "When you are old and gray and full of sleep..."

I'm also a Stephen King re-reader. The last novel of his I re-read was "The Talisman," and before that I read "Bag of Bones" for the third time. And I've worn out copies of his short story collection by re-reading them so many times.

victoriastrauss

03-22-2005, 07:02 PM

So is there anyone besides HConn and me who never or rarely re-reads?

- Victoria

Liam Jackson

03-22-2005, 07:18 PM

You can add me to the list of King re-readers. I've been twice through It, The Stand, Black house, the Talisman, The Tommyknockers. I've read Salem's Lot three times to date, as well as Dreamcatcher, and four of the Dark Tower series (2 each) I've worn out On Writing. Can't remember how many times I've been through that book. Some of the funniest wisdom I'm read in a long, long time.

Other books that inspired a second look-
Jack London- Call of the Wild (2-3)
Peter Straub- Ghost Story (3-4)
Robert Mccammon- Swan Song (2)
L Ron Hubbard- Battefield Earth. A mistake. I shouldn't have gone back for dessert.) (1 1/2)
Steven Donaldson- Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (2)
Victoria Strauss- The Burning Land (2)
Roger Zalazny- Nine Princes in Amber. (3) (several volumes but short reads)
Robert Heinlein- Stranger in a Strange Land and Starship Trooper (2 each, I think)
Hemingway- Farewell to Arms (2) and Old Man and the Sea. (1) and working on the second
Joseph Heller- Catch 22 (2)
James Fenimore Cooper-The Deerslayer and Last of the Mohicans (2-3 each). Read it the first time at the age of eleven and pick it time and again as the years go by.
James McDonald- The Apocolypse Door (2 and counting)
Joseph Wambaugh- The New Centurions, The Blue Knight and Choirboys. (2 each that I can recall.)

oswann

03-22-2005, 08:55 PM

Some Jim Thompson if I want to depress myself even more than I usually am.

Os.

brinkett

03-22-2005, 09:14 PM

So is there anyone besides HConn and me who never or rarely re-reads?

Yeah, me. I'll occasionally re-read a favorite scene (occasionally meaning once or twice a year). I never re-read an entire book. I hardly have the time to read new books, let alone ones I've already read.

mommie4a

03-22-2005, 09:20 PM

Victoria - I never re-read whole books. No time! But I keep the Anne Sexton poetry and Hugh Prather books on my nighttable and look through them once in a while. Also, I have some philosophy books and a few, ahem, Nancy Friday books I look at for inspiration once in a while - not of the writing kind though!;)

stormie

03-22-2005, 10:23 PM

Count me in as a Stephen King re-reader, esp. The Shining. I also reread F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I got hooked on it way back in high school.

Roger J Carlson

03-22-2005, 11:01 PM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?That's hard to say. Every other Spring, I re-read The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (in that order for some reason). Certainly I read it for the characters, dialog and writing, but I also love watching the plot unfold, even though I've read it 15 times and know every twist.

I regularly re-read all of Heinlein, Anderson, E.E. Smith, H. Beam Piper (what little there is), and Raymond Feist. I've also read the Sherlock Holmes canon multiple times and most of Agatha Christie as well.

Certainly the depth of character, dialog, and writing vary between these authors, but what they have in common are great stories. That's what brings me back.

BTInternet

03-23-2005, 01:07 AM

There have been books that I re-read several times at one point in my life, but for whatever reasons I eventually quit doing so... In my early 20s, I read and re-read The Mists of Avalon and the first three books of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, but I no longer have any desire to read them again.

I have had that issue with other MZB (and I was a die-hard fan for a while).

My revisits are mostly of the old-friend sort, or the sort of reading where I'm working on something else and don't want to be distracted or have to put out effort to read. I reread a lot of Heinlein and Zelazny, especially A Night In the Lonesome October. I reread Narnia a lot, and Susan Cooper, and Charles de Lint (although again, not as much when I'm writing fantasy - I tend to mimic too easily!) I used to reread Spider Robinson a lot, less so these days although there are still stories that call to me. I'll reread a lot of space opera for fun - it's like watching Star Wars again; sure, I know what's going to happen but it's still *cool*.

BT

BTInternet

03-23-2005, 01:21 AM

Lately, I've taken to re-reading a lot of the books I liked as a kid--mostly children's and YA fiction. Part of that is getting back to my writer's roots, reconnecting with the books that made me want to be a writer when I was, say, nine or ten years old. I realized that there were some common elements in those books that still crop up in my writing almost 30 years later.

I've been doing this some lately too, and thanks to the Internet and such evil places as abebooks, I've been able to find some of the long-out-of-print childhood favorites (Phillip the Flower-Eating Phoenix is my latest find) and remind myself exactly why they were so good.

On this thread in general, I have to say that I would probably be less of a re-reader if I didn't read so bloody fast. It makes buying books an expensive habit, and my library's supply is pretty pitiful, so fortunately I *can* reread books and enjoy them.

Vipersniper

03-23-2005, 01:40 AM

:LilLove: I read Among Heros, Circle Of Fear, Standing In The Rainbow and The Sins Of The Father, I read a lot of books that Reader's Digest put out and the reason for why I liked Standing In The Rainbow so well is because Fannie Flagg has a handicapp and the story just leapt out at you from the pages. I also because I am a cancer survivor read Gilda Radner's book It's Always Something. It was poignant and sad with accurate description of what the cancer patient goes through.

Mr Underhill

03-23-2005, 04:37 AM

Can we generalize that folks re-read for characters, dialog, and beautiful writing, but not for plot?

Well, no. Since I'm a big fan of SF&F, I do pick up books I've read before to dive back into the ocean, as it were. That would fall into the beautiful writing bit , I suppose, plus the characters. I can't say I pick up novels again to re-examine the dialog, but I do like to re-read the Bard, or Ibsen or Chekhov for that purpose.

The books I really enjoy are the ones where another read uncovers a whole new layer of meaning. Watership Down was the first I recall discovering this aspect in, back when I was a teenager. (Hint: it's not really about rabbits.)

LoTR is of course one that I've read any number of times, partly to take another sojourn in Middle Earth, but partly to find new angles in, yes, the plot. Most recently I picked it up to race through before the last installment of the cinema version. One thing that struck me this last go-round is what I can only call the geopolitical strategy angle. The extent to which Sauron is tricked, partly by Gandalf and Aragorn, but also largely by chance occurrence, is remarkable. For instance you have the alliance of mutual suspicion between Sauron and Saruman. The capture of the two hobbits by the orc band, their escape, the defeat of Saruman, and finally Pippin looking into the palantir, all combine to look very suspicious, if you look at it from Sauron's point of view. It's that misdirection, and Sauron's paranoia and overconfidence, that make it possible for Frodo to cross Mordor. All of that is plot, and in earlier readings I hadn't thought about it too much - I was just along for the ride.

The Bible must be the book with the most astounding number of layers of meaning. Of course it's really 66 books, so it's got a bit of an unfair advantage, but still. People read that dozens upon dozens of times and still find something new. An example there was just pointed out to me by our pastor - we're taught as children that King Saul was a "bad man" and an evil king. But try reading 1 Samuel from the perspective that Samuel is a bitter old theocrat and Saul is a tragic hero (think MacBeth). He never really wanted to be king, the war against the Philistines is going badly, the man who put him on the throne openly challenges his authority, his children, the people and even God desert him - is it any wonder the poor sod goes mad? Then you have books like Job and the Song of Songs, which have many paradoxical interpretations, some of which can only be apprehended after decades of contemplation...

I also like to go back and read ER Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros every so often. That's a real treat for me.
I love complex books like these. I wonder how one writes such things. Probably not something one can consciously try to achieve.

Mistook

03-23-2005, 05:42 AM

I re-read a book for the same reasons i'll re-watch a movie. If by the end, there have been some very intriguing revelations about who these characters "really " were, and what was "really" going on, I have to go back and experience the story again - "knowing what I know now".

Very well written plots (with compelling characters) will encourage me to take the ride a second time, and I'll be wowed all over again by details I didn't catch the first time. Usually, if I read it twice, I'll read it again every three or four years.

Jamesaritchie

03-23-2005, 06:16 AM

I re-read hundreds of novels, and some few I read again each and every year, but I will admit to finding drawbacks in this habit. The main one is that I own several thousand novels that I haven't yet read, and re-reading other novels doesn't make the unread ones any easier to get through.

I try to split my time between re-reading old favorites and reading new novels, but no matter how you slice it, I'm still reading about half as many new novels as I could be. For me, it's far more than worth it, but I do wish my TBR pile would show more signs of shrinkage.

brokenfingers

03-23-2005, 08:04 AM

Mr Underhill

03-23-2005, 09:36 AM

Go together like a horse and carriage...

Oh, excuse me, I'm still mentally composing silly songs from JD McD's Lords of the Prance (http://absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9169&page=3) PublishAmerica-bashing thread.

Hmmmm, I truly believe that character and plot go hand in hand.
....
As I read through this thread I began to wonder if the ability of the reader to truly identify with the character was a major part of why people re-read some books.

What do you think?Well, since you ask brokenfingers, I think you must have been reading my mind. Or perhaps you were just reading my post, since I was about to say that in the two examples I gave, I'm looking at elements of the plot and meaning, but I was doing it through the lens of a character. King Saul in the one case. Sauron (!) in the other.

So that's a good reason to go back and re-read a book: try to get the story from the perspective of a character who is not the main POV character or protagonist. I suppose that's a writerly thing to do, which explains why I've only done it recently, since deciding to become a "real" writer.

triceretops

03-23-2005, 12:08 PM

Plot is something that might take time to develope throughout the story. Lovable Character's can instantly grab me from the first page, then I'm inclined to follow along for the ride. It's definitely characters that nab me up front. The second would be style--it doesn't have to be beautiful prose at all--just the writer's way of saying something differently or truly unexpected. Give me a great character right up front, with humor and great irony, and I'm hopelessly hooked. Plot would come last--I'll believe anything if you give me the first two.

Case in point: Joseph Wambaugh in The Black Marble; a hopeless drunk detective who gets his handcuffs hung up in his groin region while attending church, all in the first pages. The plot was centered around a crooked dog show, but I didn't care--the author had me from the character's first hello.

Triceratops

pepperlandgirl

03-23-2005, 12:55 PM

I have re-read Gone With the Wind every two years since I was ten. It's an amazing experience, because i can track how much I have changed by my reactions to the book and the main characters. Though Rhett will always be my archetype Hero and Scarlett will always be my favorite character of all time--oddly enough, it's for a different reason every time I read it.

There are a few other books from my school years that I would like to re-read, but honestly, they traumatized me so much (in the good way I guess) that I'm almost scared to. That would include Where the Red Fern Grows and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

I'll re-read several Stephen King novels. Mainly because he has so many that I can cycle through all of them on a five-year basis.

Honestly though, I feel like in the past two years, I haven't read a single thing. This is ridiculous because I'm an English major, and in the past two years, I've had three survey courses, one Shakespeare course, two novel courses, and a poetry course, and none of my professors are shy about assinging homework. It's a weird sensation and almost impossible to explain--but anyway, my point is, in the past few years I've been working so hard that I haven't had a chance to really read (or re-read) any novels.

stormie

03-23-2005, 05:08 PM

BlueTexas

03-23-2005, 05:08 PM

[laughs]

Oh, I had the exact same reaction [to The Corrections]--and that's why I didn't put it on my re-read shelf. It came just a little too close to home...

Ever toy with the idea of giving the book to the person who most resembles the character you liked the least? I have :)

hoyateach

03-23-2005, 05:57 PM

Read King's The Stand and Erich Segal's The Class and The Doctors several times in my teens. More recently have taken to re-reading the works of Dennis Lehane (his P.I. novels) and Barry Eisler. Eisler is fairly new, has 3 books out so far, all about a Japanese-American hitman named John Rain. It's just... really f***ing cool. :Thumbs:

Jamesaritchie

03-23-2005, 07:23 PM

I have re-read Gone With the Wind every two years since I was ten. It's an amazing experience, because i can track how much I have changed by my reactions to the book and the main characters. Though Rhett will always be my archetype Hero and Scarlett will always be my favorite character of all time--oddly enough, it's for a different reason every time I read it.

There are a few other books from my school years that I would like to re-read, but honestly, they traumatized me so much (in the good way I guess) that I'm almost scared to. That would include Where the Red Fern Grows

I've read Gone With the Wind four times. I'll never forget the first time I read it. As long as it is, I read it straight through. Just couldn't stop reading. I'm overdue to read it again.

Where the Red Fern Grows has always been one of my favorite books. I absolutely love it, and I have no idea how many times I've read it. I also loved the movie version almost as much as the book. The ORIGINAL movie version, not the horrible remake.

Jamesaritchie

03-23-2005, 07:30 PM

Hmmmm, I truly believe that character and plot go hand in hand.

If a story has an interesting character who just sits around and does nothing, I don’t really enjoy it. And if it has an interesting premise, but the characters are cliché and predictable, I don’t enjoy it either.

Interesting characters in interesting situations.

I know plot is a dirty word to some but nevertheless - plot is a natural outcome of writing a story. It’s the journey your character takes. The path he follows. Actually, it’s the map of the journey you are taking your reader on.

I don’t feel it’s important when you’re first writing your story, but by final draft time - I think a writer must be very aware of the path he’s taking the reader. How else can the writer maximize the reader’s enjoyment, making sure they have seen all there is to be seen on this particular journey? Making sure that they have not strayed or gotten lost - causing the reader to wonder where they are going and why they hired this guide in the first place?

As I read through this thread I began to wonder if the ability of the reader to truly identify with the character was a major part of why people re-read some books.

What do you think?

I think story is very important, but I don't consider plot and story anything like the same thing. I don't want characters who sit aorund and do nothing, but the plot itself doesn't particularly interest me. The story, however, does.

As for identifying with characters, this is the number one reason I enjoy a novel. Something about what the character does, or how he does it, or how he feels about it, has to make me identify with him, or I'm highly unlikely to enjoy the novel. I almost have to be able to say, "Yes, that's how I feel about it," or "Yes, that's exactly what I would have done under those circumstances," or, "Yes, I believe that."

A good writer can often make me feel or say these things, even if I wouldn't say or feel them otherwise, but it has to be there.

If I can't identify in some way with the protagonist, I'm highly unlikely to even finish a novel, let alone read it a second time.

oswann

03-24-2005, 03:28 PM

There are characters that I love and think that this this the priniciple reason why I will hook into a book or not. I haven't read a lot, but Laurence Sanders' Timothy Cone character is a fantastic little mixture of contradictions that I discovered by accident a few years ago and despite being written in a style that I normally don't enjoy (third person present tense) I have read and re-read the tattered little collection of short stories a number of times. I have even retyped chapters to dig around in the technique a little (thanks UJ :Thumbs: )

Os.

Julian Black

03-24-2005, 10:31 PM

There are a few other books from my school years that I would like to re-read, but honestly, they traumatized me so much (in the good way I guess) that I'm almost scared to. That would include Where the Red Fern Grows and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.I don't think I could read Where the Red Fern Grows again, even though it was one of my favorite books as a kid. I'm not sure I can put myself through that again. Some of Judy Blume's books are the same way.

Honestly though, I feel like in the past two years, I haven't read a single thing. This is ridiculous because I'm an English major, and in the past two years, I've had three survey courses, one Shakespeare course, two novel courses, and a poetry course, and none of my professors are shy about assinging homework. It's a weird sensation and almost impossible to explain--but anyway, my point is, in the past few years I've been working so hard that I haven't had a chance to really read (or re-read) any novels.I know exactly what you mean. I just dropped out of a graduate program in history, having spent the last five years returning to school to get my BA and then struggling to get into that program. I've read no more than two dozen novels in the last five years, including all five of the Harry Potter books. Everything else has been academic work in history or anthropology.

So now I'm out of academia, by choice. I'm doing research for a novel set in Restoration London, but beyond that I can read pretty much anything I want. It's a weird feeling, really.

Julian Black

03-24-2005, 10:45 PM

Ever toy with the idea of giving the book to the person who most resembles the character you liked the least? I have :)[laughs] Unfortunately, he's already read it, and utterly failed to see himself in it. The other person who comes to mind probably wouldn't read it at all.

My mother isn't so bad as she used to be, but when I read Mona Simpson's Anywhere But Here, Adele, the mother in that book, was like seeing her in print. No, my mom wasn't quite as brazen and shifty as Adele August, but she had her moments. Adele's obsession with having "nice things" and the right clothes and keeping up appearances at all costs was dead on. Throughout the book, whenever I read her dialogue, I heard it in my mother's voice.

I gave my mom a copy of Anywhere But Here; I don't know if she ever tried to read it or not. Granted, she's much more inclined to read about spies and serial killers. Maybe that ought to tell me something...

KTC

03-25-2005, 01:42 AM

alaskamatt17

03-25-2005, 12:43 PM

I just read a book today that I already want to read again. It's called End of an Era, by Robert J. Sawyer, and everything in it is wonderful. The writing flows well and never gets in the way of the story, the scenes are beautifully depicted, the characters are good, and the plot is outlandish. I think this is one book where I'd have to count the plot as a factor in my re-reading it. The characters alone probably wouldn't be enough to get me to pick it up again, likewise the writing. But the plot, complented by the previously mentioned attributes, gives this little book a lot of weight.

If I'm lucky, I'll be able to put off re-reading it for a week or two. But I can already feel it calling me back.

Galoot

03-25-2005, 01:11 PM

I just read a book today that I already want to read again. It's called End of an Era, by Robert J. Sawyer
How does it stack up to his other books?

I'm just starting with Sawyer (Factoring Humanity) and I'm finding his writing a bit...Canadian. I understand he takes pride in his self proclaimed role as "the only full time Canadian SF writer" and all, and a setting's just a setting, but it's distracting and I'm a Canuck.

I'm wondering if non-Canadians feel the same way. My WIP is set on Vancouver Island, but woods and mountains and rain can be just about anywhere so I don't think it'll come across all "rah-rah-Canada."

Jamesaritchie

03-25-2005, 04:29 PM

How does it stack up to his other books?

I'm just starting with Sawyer (Factoring Humanity) and I'm finding his writing a bit...Canadian. I understand he takes pride in his self proclaimed role as "the only full time Canadian SF writer" and all, and a setting's just a setting, but it's distracting and I'm a Canuck.

I'm wondering if non-Canadians feel the same way. My WIP is set on Vancouver Island, but woods and mountains and rain can be just about anywhere so I don't think it'll come across all "rah-rah-Canada."

I like Sawyer's writing quite a bit, and the "Canadianness" appeals to me. I also like his website almost as much as his writing.

alaskamatt17

03-25-2005, 09:09 PM

I haven't read any of Sawyer's other books, but if they're anywhere close to as good as this one, I need to. I did notice a lot of Canadianness, but it didn't bug me. There were even a couple of instances of the characters making light-hearted jabs at the United States, but it was justifiable because they were talking about how much more money the U.S. scientists get in the form of grants.

firehorse

03-25-2005, 10:09 PM

I love it when I can read a sentence of a book and say, "I wish I'd written that!" My sentiments exactly. For that reason, I re-read Marilynne Robinson's "Housekeeping" often.

I'll re-read other books when I'm looking at how a writer handled a specific topic, or how she evoked a specific emotion, but I rarely re-read for fun. I should do it more often. I think I'd like it :)

When I need to use fewer words (which is most of the time) I re-read Ron Hansen's "Mariette in Ecstasy."

Then there's Toni Morrison. Every time I re-read one of her books, I find deeper meaning. The woman is brilliant (guess that's a statement of the obvious). Not only do I wish I could write sentences like she does; I am in awe of everything about her writing.

I have a fascination with Mount Everest, so I re-read "Into Thin Air" at least once a year. In general, I like Krakauer's writing, but I wasn't as taken by "Beneath the Banner of Heaven."

Lately, I've carried around Betsy Lerner's "Forest for the Trees." Very reassuring book for writers.

Pencilone

03-26-2005, 01:36 AM

"Three men in a boat" by Jerome K. Jerome relaxes me no matter how I read it (I just open it randomly and have a cup of pure joy).

I also enjoy Agatha Christie's novels and Harry Potter. Stephen King and Philip Pullman.

I'm a bit obsessed with books about writing.

kikazaru

03-26-2005, 02:32 AM

For me, plot is secondary to character. If the central character is compelling, the plot merely has to be adequate and I am happy.

I don't have a lot of books that I reread, but I will reread anything by Georgette Heyer - her style of writing has gone out of fashion, but her humour and her characters speak to me.

I love Janet Evanovich and can always reread the Plum novels - and I will still laugh everytime.

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (the first 3) I will often just pick up and start in the middle - I know the plot - I just like to visit Jamie and Claire again.

Laurie Colwin's 2 books "Home Cooking" and "More Home Cooking" are also on my reread list. They are not fiction, but rather are a compilation of her columns written for Gourmet Magazine. She has a wonderful style, breezy amusing and gentle and writes about "How to Cook a Chicken" or "How to Make a Perfect Cake" with a personal anecdote about a meal or person connected with that recipe. They are very charming and soothing to read.

Lenora Rose

03-27-2005, 10:03 AM

I don't keep books I don't intend to reread (Unless they're books I haven't read once yet in which case I'm keeping them until I've read them ocne and can determine if I WILL reread them, or reference).

The first think I noticed though, is there are books I keep and reread for all of the above reasons.

Beautiful prose:
Steven Brust's The Phoenix Guards series (Well, the first two books) actually force me to slow down and savour the words, the little twists and bends of dialogue. I find that less true in the Viscount of Adrilankha books in part because, in the first one at least, *less* happens, which means I'm distracted from enjoying the words by the fact that the plot hasn't moved for some pages. In the first two, the plot ticks over fast and inexorable, so I can take my time and savour the words, and trust the action to do its thing without my help. Instead now I'm sometimes distracted by reading fast to urge the plot to hurry up and do its thing. (Lesson one; Beautiful prose and a plot will get you further than beautiful prose alone. Including in letting you appreciate the beautiful prose). I have a similar reaction to Patricia A. McKillip Books; they're surprisingly slim for both modern fantasy and for how much happens in them, but the story still manages to take the time to read beautifully, in spite of being faster paced and more plot-busy than some books twice as thick.

Of course, Pamela Dean gets away with using elegant words to create a long slow scenario which ends, after 300 pages of set-up, with about 10 pages of BANG! and I adore her words, too. (I've likened her plotting style to a hunting cat; it's sitting there, mostly still. Once in a while the tail twitches or the haunches wriggle, but it's basically not moving. Then...)

Plot: I'd say offhand that this is why I reread different Diana Wynne Jones books. The stories are always twisting and turning. She has great characters who are distinct enough to let me enjoy following them through the plot twists, but it's the knots of the story that I want to savour. I probably wouldn't have quite the same reaction to the plotting if the characters were all stock figures. James Alan Gardner, too.

Character: Robin McKinley's forte. Also Gail Bowen's. Definitely the reason to revisit Pride and Prejudice, which I atually haven't reread, but only because I read it the first time in 2004.

I'm not sure I've ever reread just for dialogue; rather, that would be the excuse to reread a scene, not a novel.

OTOH, there's one other reason: Humour. DWJ gets that prize again, roughly half the time, as does Terry Pratchett (From Discworld book 4 one anyhow; the first three are less consistent). But Pterry also plots like a madman whose madness is that he's really saner than the rest of us, and his major characters are strange but solid (his general populations seem to have certain stock characteristics).

Douglas Adams does okay, but I have found the books became weaker on the most recent reading. Mostly because I didn't see anything I hadn't seen before, and what I had seen, no matter how snappy the dialogue or how tellignt he characterization, had a kind of stale feeling. No more depths, no layers not already explored. Likewise with Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. I'd learned the plot too well, and the last reread I couldn't find anything new or exciting. I won't reread Adams or TSNotD again for a good many many years. Probably decades.

And that's what all the above have that my not-rereads lack. Something that makes me feel there's more to explore the next time through. Favourite lines retain a freshness I don't anticipate finding in other stories. new meanings turn over. I first read the Hero and the Crown when it was new and I could barely follow the plot. I last reread it at Christmas, and I'm sure it's my most-reread book so far. Something was still fresh. There were things I'd simply not observed over the years, or hadn't registered because I didn't have the life experience to see their meaning.

The story I hope to reread the most often over many years to come is Brust and Bull's Freedom and Necessity (Only at 3 so far. Not counting individual scenes reread separately). Snappy Dialogue. Meaningful dialogue. Moments of sheer lovely prose (And moments of simple, unadorned prose as well. That's the fun of the style.) Characters who are not only wonderfully drawn, but whom you have to re-assess periodically because they're too human. A plot with multiple convolutions. Moments of humour, and moments of sheer powerful tragedy. Things I never noticed, so they feel new, and things I go in anticipating a chance to savour that taste just as fresh as the first time.

SJB

03-28-2005, 02:26 PM

I am constantly re-reading my favs. The ones I read over and over are endless. Here's a short list of them...

Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon
Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Feast of All Saints by Anne Rice
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
The Favourite Game by Leonard Cohen

Hey, Leonard Cohen is one of my favourite musicians- top equal with Don McLean, in fact. Is The Favourite Game a novel or poetry or...? Is it still in print? I would love to read a book of his. He's a master wordsmith.

[/off topic]

I reread almost everything - some books (eg. Kipling's Stalky & Co) I reread every few months, while others (G Eliot, Dickens, Tolstoy) I read yearly. Only a very dreadful book would not warrant revisiting... and I've been lucky enough to encounter only one such, Anita Desai's Fasting, Feasting. Absolute prose disaster, that one.

Why reread?

to see stuff I've missed
to meet again the characters I loved
to pretend that Tragic Event X isn't going to happen this time around!
for comfort and ease- nothing like travelling over near-memorised lines again as a form of relaxation, especially when you've spent two hours staring glassy-eyed at the 55th page of Constitutional and Administrative Law in New Zealand.
to remind myself what happened in a book if I have forgotten (rare)
to see whether my perceptions of the book will change on rereading- usually, I end up loving it more. Occasionally (as with DH Lawrence, often), the book won't seem as good the second time around.
because there is nothing else to do
to help send me to sleep
to avoid tackling the 200+ books on my "To Be Read" shelves.
Or something.

KTC

03-28-2005, 02:39 PM

SJB

03-28-2005, 02:58 PM

Hey SJB,

It is indeed a novel, written in this wild and perfect poetic form. I reread it often. In fact I'm halfway through a reading. I stop and lose track of the story because there are SO MANY perfect lines in it. Poetically, it is my all time favourite novel. It skitters here and there, which makes it so much like everything else Cohen does. It's perfect...you have to read it.

Here's the back cover...

First published in 1963, THE FAVOURITE GAME, Leonard Cohen's first novel, is a semiautobiographical portrait of a Montreal Jewish boy who confronts his vocation as a poet.
Richly satirical and funny, this brilliant novel charts Lawrence Breavman's personal odyssey as he discovers himself and the world around him. With sensitivity and compassion Cohen explores the inner and outer landscapes of a quest which finally allows its hero to discard family, friends, and mistresses in order to move on through life alone.
THE FAVOURITE GAME is a shrewd appraisal of the human comedy, where "the favourite game" is love.

He also has another novel, BEAUTIFUL LOSERS.

KTC, thank you SO much for replying! :) That sounds irresistible. I'm sold.

I definitely understand how you can stop and reread the same sentence of paragraph over and over, savouring each word (says she who will put a single Leonard Cohen song on repeat for hours, just so that she can be hit by the lyrics again and again).

Thanks for that! Now I have to wait ten hours till the shops open up here and I can order it (and Beautiful Losers. What a Cohenesque title). :cry: