What books do you regularly reread (since becoming an adult)?

JCornelius

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Not the *favorite books of all time* as such (nor the stuff embedded in childhood and the teen years), but the old fart adult B list capable of providing real pleasure time and time again on each reread?

I'll start off:
The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
From the Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker
The Whisperer in Darkness by H.P. Lovecraft
The Wells of Hell by Graham Masterton
 

GooseAmbassador

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Fantastic idea for a thread! :)

Halldor Laxness - Independent People. If I really had to name one book as my all-time favourite, it would be this. The story of an impoverished farmer in a remote corner of Iceland, covering his entire adult life from his twenties to old age. A meditation on life. The prose is almost painfully beautiful in places.

Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers; The Long Day Wanes (also known as the Malayan Trilogy); all four of the Enderby comedies.
Earthly Powers is fairly well-known, but I would like to give a special mention to the Enderby books. I doubt if I have ever read anything funnier! I read all four of them every couple of years, and it is always a sheer pleasure, like eating a delicious chocolate cake with lots of cream. If you like A Confederacy of Dunces, please try the Enderby novels. :)

Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The only book I have ever read where, as soon as I reached the end, I just turned back to the first page and started again.

Thomas Harris - Red Dragon; The Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal

PG Wodehouse - Psmith in the City; Leave It To Psmith

Iris Murdoch - The Sea, The Sea; The Book and the Brotherhood
 
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Brightdreamer

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i don't reread much lately (the to-be-read pile is already threatening to crush me in my sleep), but once in a while - largely for comfort reasons - I reread a few...

Tailchaser's Song and the Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn trilogy, by Tad Williams (nostalgia and escapism)

The Brian Robeson books (particularly Hatchet and Brian's Winter), by Gary Paulsen (they're my go-to books when I'm having tough times, both as an escape and a reminder that self-pity doesn't work as a survival strategy)

The Fire Rose, by Mercedes Lackey (one of those books I pick up to move and find myself reading again, without quite knowing why)
 

Marissa D

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I have a list of comfort re-read authors (Connie Willis, Georgette Heyer, D.E. Stevenson, Angela Thirkell) that are on-call for those times when life utterly sucks...but I also re-read

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Susanna Clarke)
The Moosepath League series (Van Reid)
The Mabinogion (Evangeline Walton)
 

LJD

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I re-read parts of Bridget Jones when I can't sleep. Otherwise? I don't re-read...
 

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Stephen King's The Stand and all the Flashman novels by George MacDonald Fraser are the books I keep coming back to every few years.
 

Laurel

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I don't reread books often. There are so many books that I haven't read even once yet.

I have reread a couple of my favorites, though:

The Harry Potter series
Slaughterhouse-Five

That's all I can think of right now—unless you count my own books for editing purposes. :)
 

Sonsofthepharaohs

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I don't re-read books very often, because the ones that would be worth reading again tend to stick, and I find the time could be better invested elsewhere. But I do have the odd short, guilty pleasure romance novel that I might binge on if I need a quick junk fix :D

I couldn't possibly divulge the titles though... :gone:
 

JCornelius

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/.../

Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers; The Long Day Wanes (also known as the Malayan Trilogy); all four of the Enderby comedies.
Earthly Powers is fairly well-known, but I would like to give a special mention to the Enderby books. I doubt if I have ever read anything funnier! I read all four of them every couple of years, and it is always a sheer pleasure, like eating a delicious chocolate cake with lots of cream. If you like A Confederacy of Dunces, please try the Enderby novels. :)

Douglas Adams - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. The only book I have ever read where, as soon as I reached the end, I just turned back to the first page and started again.

Thomas Harris - Red Dragon; The Silence of the Lambs; Hannibal

PG Wodehouse - Psmith in the City; Leave It To Psmith

Iris Murdoch - The Sea, The Sea; The Book and the Brotherhood

Oh yes, Dirk Gently has been re-read to shreds and back by me--but it belongs to the stuff discovered in pre-adult years, just like Mr. Wodehouse. But Burgess--yes--an adult discovery! Although I tend to lurk the neighboring territory of Kingsley Amis (they have their overlaps, for example "The Doctor is Sick" with "Jake's Thing" or "Girl, 20"), and the awesome "real-lit" forays of Brian Aldiss (the Squire Quartet*) and Michael Moorcock (the Colonel Pyat quartet).

...Interesting how some people readily re-read (or re-watch) stuff, while others feel that there’s too much unread and unwatched stuff out there to be able to afford the rereading etc.

I personally discover from time to time some awesome new stuff, but generally am very much aware of the territories in which I can find stuff I’ll likely love, and the territories in which it will be rather a waste of time to sift through the endless titles and authors until I possibly find something which doesn’t completely depress me with its style, content, and general banality (as in different from the banality that I crave).

Just like I know perfectly well the half a dozen genre (and temporal!) territories of music in which I’ll find what I need, and mostly ignore the remaining 80-90%, it’s the same with literature. Or films and TV. Can't stand 90% of films or TV, can stand 10%, of which I can fall in love with 1%, which I shall then readily re-watch.

I’d very much rather listen again to a certain album I’ve known inside out for decades, or try to discover similar albums and musicians, then try to force myself to find some shred of pleasure in most other musical areas which are alien to me.

I this sense I don’t really feel that OMG there’s so much to read and so little time. I can totally afford to reread favorite books because I know how rare it is to find something I really and truly enjoy to the extent that I’ll integrate it, allow it to become part of myself, and these are islands of stable joy to which I regularly return for another fix, before continuing the leisurely quest of finding what else was written in the decades and genres by the type of authors that I like….

It must be nice to be so open to new stuff from all directions, but that's not me. Not quite sealed in an existing bubble, but expanding it very carefully in very specific directions--that's me. And that's why I can afford to constantly re-read, re-watch, and re-listen to stuff and not feel that I'm losing out in any way...


___
*Starts with a novel about a semiotics conference. Wonderful low-key stuff.
 
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jjdebenedictis

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Terry Pratchett; I've re-read most of his adult books, and several of them get re-read every few years. I'm in the middle of Thud! right now.
 

neandermagnon

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One for your avatar - my entire Asterix collection. (Well they're graphic novels, right? :greenie ) BTW I love your avatar, but IMO Asterix is too tall. (bear in mind that I'm a biassed, proud shortarse :greenie ) Okay maybe Asterix books don't count as I started collecting them in childhood, but I don't reread them out of childhood nostalgia. I reread them just because I like them. Probably more than half of them I purchased as an adult anyway, so at least that half of my Asterix collection can count for this thread?

The Dirk Gently suggestion reminded me why I don't like posting in these threads (though I like reading them), because there's always one book that I fail to think of. I wrack my brains, knowing there's more books that I really love than I've included on my list. The Dirk Gently books were forgotten when I tried to think of my 5 all time favourite books for the other thread, and I never posted anything because the list felt incomplete, like I've missed something. I don't think they're the only books that I've missed off the list. I just have a really terrible memory. Anyway yeah, totally love these books and the only reason why I'm not constantly rereading them was because they weren't my copies to begin with and there's only so many times you can reread a book before you have to give it back. :cry: (Now I'm probably going to go out and buy them :greenie)

I confess to having read the entire Harry Potter series more times than was strictly necessary.

Andy Weir - The Martian. I just love this book so much. This is probably going to be top of any list about favourite books or books I've read multiple times.
 
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owlion

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I used to re-read books a lot more when I was a teen (more time, I guess), but since becoming an adult, I think I've re-read:
-The Abhorsen Trilogy (especially just before Goldenhand was released)
-Books by Haruki Murakami
-Books by Diana Wynne Jones
-The Redwall series
-Ring
-The Outsiders
-Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking-Glass
They're mostly books which I find relaxing, aside from Ring which was more for inspiration.
 

Carrie in PA

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The Bible, Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice, and very little else. I have such an extensive (and ever-growing) TBR pile that I tend not to reread. I've read Dean Koontz's Watchers several times, but not for a few years now, ditto Stephen King's The Stand.
 

Carrie in PA

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I used to re-read books a lot more when I was a teen (more time, I guess),

I was just thinking about this, and I'm thinking maybe I re-read a lot more several years ago because I didn't have the instant access to ebooks. So if I felt like reading, I'd grab something off my shelf, whereas now, I can press a button and have a shiny brand new book in seconds. :Shrug:
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Yeah, it was a lot easier to justify re-reading when the paper version was all we had. I've re-read Wildside by Steven Gould several times, and 1632 by Flint as well.

Haven't re-read anything since I got my kindle app, though.
 

Maggie Maxwell

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Terry Pratchett; I've re-read most of his adult books, and several of them get re-read every few years. I'm in the middle of Thud! right now.

Like others here, I'm not usually a rereader, but Pratchett, hands down, I will reread gladly anytime. In fact, if you handed me two books, one Pratchett and one I haven't read...I will probably take the Pratchett. Gaiman I will happily reread too, although I'm not sure if I'd always pick him over a new book. Actually, on those notes, I think Good Omens is due a reread.
 

BenPanced

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Armistead Maupin's Tales Of The City series. From the beginning, first book on through to the end. I can't just drop in on Further Tales (book 3) and skip up to Mary Ann In Autumn (book 8) then back to Tales (book 1) and finally up to The Days Of Anna Madrigal (book 9). When a book was released from #5 on, I would go back to the beginning and read through to the current book. I didn't even do that with them there Henry Porter books or whatever he's called.
 

Thecla

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I've reread a lot of books but regular rereads? Well, that's comfort reading, the books I've known more or less my whole life long, familiar as a pair of old pyjamas and a cup of cocoa, so much of Georgette Heyer, much of Agatha Christie or Dorothy L. Sayers or Josephine Tey's The Daughter of Time. If I want to sob my way through a packet of hankies, then Frances Hodgeson Burnett's A Little Princess or Ursula Moray Williams' Gobbolino the Witch's Cat or Rosemary Sutcliff's Sword at Sunset. If I want to make myself feel better, then something by P.G. Wodehouse about Lord Emsworth or Bertie Wooster, or possibly E. Nesbit's The Wouldbegoods.
 

cmi0616

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I've read Infinite Jest and The Corrections three times each as an adult (I'm only 22, so three times is quite regularly indeed, considering the lengths of those novels). The former is kind of structured so that the book is fully comprehensible only after a second reading, and the latter is just something I find a lot of fun to read.
 

JCornelius

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I've read Infinite Jest and The Corrections three times each as an adult (I'm only 22, so three times is quite regularly indeed, considering the lengths of those novels). The former is kind of structured so that the book is fully comprehensible only after a second reading, and the latter is just something I find a lot of fun to read.

When I was your age, my dear grasshopper, aside from constant rereads of Discipline and Punish and Society Must be Defended and periodically wondering what drugs one should take to begin to understand Bourdieu, in the postmodern fiction fields it was 70's Martin Amis and 80's Iain Banks, and you know the only 90's stuff that I read back then? Victor Pelevin! Because back then we had taste you know, we had morals, values, not like you kids today and your fancy smartypant phones and the stuff you call music. Probably wouldn't recognize a good grindcore album if it sent you a Facebook poke...
:D
 
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Roxxsmom

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Lord of the Rings.

The Harry Potter Books.

I used to re-read Anne McCaffrey's earlier dragonrider books every few years, but since I've become more aware of certain problematic things in them, I just can't anymore. Once seen, I can't unsee it.

Ella Leffland's Rumors of Peace.

CJ Cherryh's Chanuur series and Cyteen series.
 

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The Bartimaeus Sequence by Jonathan Stroud
The Diary of Anne Frank
A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin
And man, too many more to name.
 

cmi0616

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When I was your age, my dear grasshopper, aside from constant rereads of Discipline and Punish and Society Must be Defended and periodically wondering what drugs one should take to begin to understand Bourdieu, in the postmodern fiction fields it was 70's Martin Amis and 80's Iain Banks, and you know the only 90's stuff that I read back then? Victor Pelevin! Because back then we had taste you know, we had morals, values, not like you kids today and your fancy smartypant phones and the stuff you call music. Probably wouldn't recognize a good grindcore album if it sent you a Facebook poke...
:D

LOL. In fact, I've read The History of Sexuality more times than I'd care to count.

But all kidding aside, I do think my smartphone is kind of evil, at least from the perspective of a reader/writer. Thinking about ditching it.