Books you return to again and again to re-read

My formative books are probably:

The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien (gosh, I used to re-read this book every year)
The Girl with the Curious Hair by David Foster Wallace (short story collection, read: Little Expressionless Animals. For essays, read: Consider the Lobster, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again)
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore (short story collection, read: Dance in America, People Like That Are the Only People Here)
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (pseudo-novel in short stories, read: Safari)
A Feast of Love by Charles Baxter (professor in college was a Baxter fan)

Books I'll gladly pick up again include:

The World According to Garp by John Irving (I love love love his prose)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by emily m. danforth (danforth's prose is also gorgeous and the story never fails to make me cry)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (my favorite HP book; I've read it so many times there's duct tape holding the spine together)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt (such an accomplished novel)
City of Thieves by David Benioff (I cannot sing the praises of this book enough - always makes me cry)
Emma by Jane Austen (I always get something new out of rereading it)
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (so funny and clever)

I've read a great many books, and even though I've loved so many of them, there are very few that I have the urge to reread. Every time I pick up a new book, I hope to add to that reread list. This is how it currently stands:

Howl's Moving Castle: I love the creativity and whimsy of this book. It is purely magical, and gives off the perfect fantasy atmosphere. It's a great influence for me.

Watership Down: It's so beautifully written and well-plotted, plus I love animals. The rabbits go on a thrilling quest, encountering dark obstacles and diverse landscapes. Bigwig was my favorite rabbit, and when I first read it I was on the edge of my seat hoping he wouldn't die.

Memoirs of a Geisha: I read this as a teen because I fell in love with the movie, and the book is even better (although I preferred the ending of the movie). Chiyo's voice as she tells the story is excellent.

The Phantom of the Opera: I've loved the musical since I was a kid, and I first read the book when I was 12. This story is a great influence for me, and it's obvious in any story I've written, no matter how different the story and characters. The Phantom of the book is actually frightening and hideously disfigured, and I enjoy Christine and Raoul's back stories. It's a magical, fascinating, and sad story

Phantom by Susan Kay: I enjoy this as a partner book to Phantom of the Opera, as it follows Erik's backstory as laid out in the original book very closely. Even though it's flawed (in its treatment of Roma and in the end of the book, which completely changes the events of the original book), it's still been am influence on me.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant: a very recent addition to my favorites list, this is a fantasy that tackles rough subjects such as colonialism, homophobia, and the lengths someone will go to make a difference while fearing becoming the same as the enemy. Baru and Tain Hu are my much - sought after fantasy lesbians (I wish there were more, hence why I chose to make all my books have lesbians), and I absolutely fell in love with Tain Hu's character. This book is thrilling, well-plotted, heartbreaking, and so meaningful. It has a large cast of characters (13 seditious dukes with their own motives, the secret ruling class of the Masks, etc), and I love the author's use of science in a low-tech fantasy setting. I don't think I'll ever get over that ending.

Honorable mention:

The Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner: I read this when I was young, and these were the books that got me into fantasy. I'm still eager to read the upcoming 5th and 6th books.

I'm not much of a rereader, usually. I prefer something new 99% of the time. However, there are a few books I will gladly read over and over and if you gave me them and a new book and told me to choose, I'd pick the old one.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, because I love all the references and the idea of virtual reality worlds.
Absolutely anything by Terry Pratchett, because Terry Pratchett. Especially the Discworld books, but honestly, just put anything with his name on it in front of me and I will take it.

And that's about it. Yes, I'm shallow. Nothing deep or meaningful or lifechanging here. I just absolutely adore these books.

I've got a houseful of books I intend to reread, and I've got reference books I frequently re-reference, but the only fiction I turn to again and again are the standouts from my childhood:

My Friend Mr. Leaky by J. B. S. Haldane

The Incredible Adventures of Professor Brainstawm by Norman Hunter

Little Brother and Little Sister collected by the brothers Grimm (I'm a sucker for the romantic ones)

Any of the Little House Books by Laura Ingals Wilder

I never read a novel twice. I never see a movie twice. Never is an exaggeration, but not by much.

I re-read Howard's End by E. M. Forster every three or four years. It is My Favorite Book, officially. What I love about it is that it grows with you. More life experience on your end reveals more depth on the book's end. It's truly the "everything you needed to know" book for life, for me.

Other than that, my favorite books to re-read are ...
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder
A Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
Outlander books 4-6 by Diana Gabaldon

Funny. There are lots of books I've read 2-3 times, that had a huge and lasting influence on me, but I haven't re-read them for ten or twenty years now. So I guess those don't go on the list.

I don't think I have ever read a book twice. If I really enjoyed it, the memory is enough.

Re-modernist said:

Have you heard of the Solar Pons?
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/more_eyes/solar_pons.html
He's basically Sherlock B-version, developed in the 1920's by August Derleth, and later taken over by Basil Copper. (Both are remembered mainly as a) THE post-lovecraftians, and b) for the Solar Pons, and few people know that Derleth wrote Twainian small town Americana sagas, while Copper wrote terrific hardboiled thrillers, and from their points of view the lovecraftian and holmsean stuff was just sideline hobbying...)
Some free bits of Solar Pons available here: http://www.general-ebooks.com/read/89993316

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I read a Solar Pons tale in an anthology some years back (the story about Pons investigating a man for killing seemingly random children - turned out the man could see the future, and was trying to prevent future despots and monsters), but never knew the backstory. Thank you for the link.

As for my reread favorites:
Tailchaser's Song (Tad Williams) - This was the one that made me want to write, and it gets a reread every so often. Same for Williams's Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy. (I'd probably reread his Shadowmarch quartet, but I keep misplacing parts of it... and the ending was a little off/overbearing on a few notes.)
Hatchet and Brian's Winter (Gary Paulsen) - These books helped me through a very difficult time, and I reread them for comfort now and again. It's all about adapting to difficult circumstances not by giving in or wasting energy on grief and anger and panic but by thinking and observing. (Brian's Return is also decent, though I didn't care as much for The River or Brian's Hunt.)
Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher (Bruce Coville) - One of my favorite MG/YA dragon stories of all time. (I also love Coville's anthologies and collections. I really wish he'd do a "grown-up" anthology one of these days, because he seems to focus on interesting stories rather than name-dropping.)
Dinotopia (James Gurney) - This was, and remains, one of those great sense-of-wonder experiences in my life, with Gurney's spectacular artwork and a story brimming with old-school lost world wonders.
Caverns of Socrates (Dennis L. McKiernan) - With a fantastic virtual game-world run by an increasingly insane computer and power struggles in real life as the game spirals out of control, this one strikes the best balance I've read between fantasy and sci-fi reality. It's just one of those books I find myself rereading. Plus, the idea of actually becoming a character in a fantasy world through VR and hypnosis is just plain awesome.

There are a few more, but these are the top of the heap.

Bufty said:

I don't think I have ever read a book twice. If I really enjoyed it, the memory is enough.

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My husband doesn't reread either, because he remembers everything too clearly to have any desire to read it again.

Me, I reread favorite books constantly as a child and young adult. I do it less so now, but there are still some I return to now and again. My memory is not as good as my husband's--never has been--and I find that I forget plot events fairly easily, so if I wait a year or two or three, the reread is usually rewarding. If the book is particularly well-written with a deeply layered plot and characterizations (Diana Gabaldon's books are like this), I get more out of it on second and subsequent readings. There's no way to absorb everything on the first read.

If you feel you have to read a book or see a film twenty or fifty times to satisfy yourself that you have fully grasped or absorbed what the writer intended, fair enough.

If I don't follow a film first time around I may (after thinking it over and if I found what I did follow to be interesting enough) decide to watch it a second time to see what I may have failed to observe but - no more. I expect flow and clarity to enable me to absorb what it is the writer intended me to absorb and in the sequence it was intended to be absorbed.

Raylan by Elmore Leonard. I don't reread it cover to cover, but I pick it up now and again and read sections. The writing and scenes inspire me more than those of any other novel.

I'd love to read Sounding by Hank Searles again, but I can't find a copy. I loved that story. It's the only book I've ever read in a single sitting.

The entire Harry Potter series. It's what got me into reading and fantasy as a kid, and it doesn't matter how many times I read it. I still love it.

This thread is kind of interesting. I don't reread for clarity or understanding; I reread and rewatch, both of which I've done incessantly as long as I can remember, for comfort.

Rereading something you love is comforting, calming, cozy - it''s like mashed potatoes or something. You know what's there, you know you like it, why not enjoy it again? No stress, no possibility it'll disappoint...

Anything by Terry Pratchett, but especially the Night Watch series and the Witch series. Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (my favorite). LoTR.

I don't think I've read any other books many times. These just make me want to revisit the worlds over and over again.

cornflake said:

This thread is kind of interesting. I don't reread for clarity or understanding; I reread and rewatch, both of which I've done incessantly as long as I can remember, for comfort.

Rereading something you love is comforting, calming, cozy - it''s like mashed potatoes or something. You know what's there, you know you like it, why not enjoy it again? No stress, no possibility it'll disappoint...

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I'm the same way, which is probably why most of the books that come to mind are ones I first read as a child or teen.

All of Jane Austen's novels, but especially Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion
Jane Eyre
Beloved
All the Little House books
The Betsy-Tacy series
Louisa May Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

And more recently, the first three Harry Potter books and the first three in the Outlander ​series.

For me, re-reading the same story or book, like the short stories of Flannery O'Connor, isn't much different that listening to a favorite song over and over again. The reasons for it are very personal and not always easy to explain, and even though the work itself never changes, I have, and what I bring to it each subsequent visit changes as well.

cornflake said:

This thread is kind of interesting. I don't reread for clarity or understanding; I reread and rewatch, both of which I've done incessantly as long as I can remember, for comfort.

Rereading something you love is comforting, calming, cozy - it''s like mashed potatoes or something. You know what's there, you know you like it, why not enjoy it again? No stress, no possibility it'll disappoint...

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Same! If I reread a book, rewatch a movie, or listen to a song over and over again (like I'm doing with Kamelot right now), it's for the pure enjoyment of it, not to learn anything new. Of course, I often do find that I notice things I haven't noticed before, but that isn't the reason I do it. I just love the book, movie, song, etc.

Though, it is true that I get tired of movies in particular if I watch them a certain amount of times, and I understand not wanting to reread books. I mean, there are so many books out there that are waiting for us to read them, and there's only so much time. But sometimes I just have the urge to reread something because I love it so much. It's as if I'm going back to my roots or something.

Praaaaaaaatchett. I couldn't even tell you how many times I've been through Lords and Ladies or The Hogfather.

jlmott said:

For me, re-reading the same story or book, like the short stories of Flannery O'Connor, isn't much different that listening to a favorite song over and over again. The reasons for it are very personal and not always easy to explain, and even though the work itself never changes, I have, and what I bring to it each subsequent visit changes as well.

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Ditto. Some are just like coming home again. The one I most constantly reread is Pride and Prejudice, but I reread others now and then. I've been a fan of Dick Francis' for years and used to have every one of his novels. I gave most away when I last moved and have been kicking myself ever since, especially now that I'm writing again. He was a superb mystery writer. I think I learned more about writing at his feet than anywhere else.