'Go To' Books you return to time and time again

caspermac

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 25, 2011
Messages
154
Reaction score
2
Location
Scotland
Hello,
I hope this hasn't already been talked about in another thread.
I was wondering if you have any books that you return to again and again?
Mine are the Belgariad and the Mallorean series by David Eddings, I must have read them all about ten or eleven times now. They're not the best books in the world but they're my go to books when I cant find anything else to read.
 

Mutive

Blissfully Clueless
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 8, 2011
Messages
5,261
Reaction score
3,208
Location
Seattle, WA
I love the Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. It just makes me feel warm and fuzzy. I also LOVE the Iliad and have read it close to a dozen times. That said, I've read almost everything on my (very large) bookshelf at least twice.
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon (4 times), Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor (3 times), A Taste of Blood Wine by Freda Warrington (4 times at least).

There are others. I think of my go-to books as old friends.
 

crunchyblanket

the Juggernaut of Imperfection
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 18, 2011
Messages
4,870
Reaction score
766
Location
London's grey and pleasant land
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Insomnia by Stephen King
American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I'm sure there are others but those are the ones that spring to mind.
 

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 4, 2009
Messages
22,611
Reaction score
7,289
Location
Wash., D.C. area
I haven't re-read a book in years! Being a slow reader there simply isn't much time and there is too much else I want to get to.

However, I do plan on re-reading War and Peace and The Once and Future King at some point.
 

Adam

Not dead.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Nov 24, 2008
Messages
7,640
Reaction score
2,900
Terry Pratchett. No particular book. :)
 

icerose

Lost in School Work
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jun 23, 2005
Messages
11,549
Reaction score
1,646
Location
Middle of Nowhere, Utah
I have go to authors but not go to books. There are far too many books out there to keep reading the same ones. Not to mention I remember too much of the story to make it enjoyable.
 

Alpha Echo

I should be writing.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
9,615
Reaction score
1,852
Location
East Coast
Little Women

This...but...

I have go to authors but not go to books. There are far too many books out there to keep reading the same ones. Not to mention I remember too much of the story to make it enjoyable.

This also. I have a stack of books I'd love to reread. Some from AP Lit that I loved or classics or just ones that I adore.

But I read so many books, and I love so many books, and new ones are always grabbing my attention. I have so many books on my to-read list that I'm always torn - do I read a new one or reread one I loved?

I usually go with the new one.

I've reread The Time Traveler's Wife and In Her Shoes. Little Women and Jane Eyre. Oh, and Cathy Lamb. I love her, and I've reread a couple of her books.
 

Satori1977

Listening to the Voices In My Head
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,975
Reaction score
662
Location
I can see the Rocky Mountains
I have a huge TBR pile, so I rarely reread books. But there are a few exceptions. Watchers by Dean Koontz. Don't even know how many times I have read it. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. Only read it twice, but I am itching to read it again. Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Love her, love her books. She has so many I need to read, but I keep going back to this one. And I am starting to reread the first Harry Potter to my daughter.
 

William Haskins

poet
Kind Benefactor
Absolute Sage
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 12, 2005
Messages
29,097
Reaction score
8,846
Age
58
Website
www.poisonpen.net
i re-read 6 books every year, without fail:

orwell's nineteen eighty-four and animal farm
twain's the adventures of huckleberry finn
golding's lord of the flies
camus' the stranger
voltaire's candide

these represent a sort of mini-canon for me.
 

firedrake

practical experience, FTW
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 19, 2009
Messages
9,251
Reaction score
7,297
Rivals - Jilly Cooper
Eon - Greg Bear
The Great Game - Peter Hopkirk
Zemindar - Valerie Fitzgerald
Csardas - Diane Pearson

and, now and then

Lord of the Rings
 

September

my word processor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 4, 2011
Messages
87
Reaction score
6
Location
Right behind you
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
In The Night Garden - Catherynne M. Valente
Just about everything by Neil Gaiman
 
Joined
Aug 7, 2005
Messages
47,985
Reaction score
13,245
i re-read 6 books every year, without fail:

orwell's nineteen eighty-four and animal farm
twain's the adventures of huckleberry finn
golding's lord of the flies
camus' the stranger
voltaire's candide

these represent a sort of mini-canon for me.
...which is on my currently-reading pile right now.
 

Mr Flibble

They've been very bad, Mr Flibble
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
18,889
Reaction score
5,029
Location
We couldn't possibly do that. Who'd clear up the m
Website
francisknightbooks.co.uk
Terry Pratchett. No particular book. :)


Me too! I can remember the story, but that's not what matters on the re-read. It's how he tells it.

Also, Merchanter's Luck by CJ Cherryh. *sigh* A couple of her other books too--she's strangely hit or miss for me, but when she hits, hoo boy!
 

Strychnine

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
149
Reaction score
21
Location
New Zealand
I usually re-read like this because I get all nostalgic about my intermediate/high school years, so I read Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, Garth Nix's Abhorsen books, and Rebecca.
 

Kitty27

So Goth That I Was Born Black
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Sep 13, 2009
Messages
4,092
Reaction score
951
Location
In The Darkside's Light
The Bluest Eye and Beloved By Toni Morrison

Invisible Man By Ralph Ellison

Anything By Donald Goines. A lot of my friends look down on him because his stuff is old school urban lit. But I love the realness and cred he brings. I grew up in that world in a different time,but the same issues he wrote about were still present.

Mama Black Widow by Iceberg Slim. A masterpiece and so heartbreaking but I can't stop reading it.

Interview With The Vampire By Anne Rice. I LOVE this book.

The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman By Earnest Gaines

A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens
 

druid12000

You're out of your tree...
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 23, 2011
Messages
7,213
Reaction score
507
Location
The dark side of the moon, making sinister plans..
Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show and Imajica. Both master works of art as far as I'm concerned. I've read both probably five times apiece and always find new tidbits that I missed the first few times.
Stephen King's The Stand, because it's brilliant and terrifying and can be read a hundred times.
Lovecraft. Anything by him. I don't really know why either. He's so dry, but it's delicious too.
Charles DeLint, Memory and Dream. The first of his stories I ever read and I was hooked.
 

Mr. Anonymous

Just a guy with a pen & a delusion
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 13, 2008
Messages
2,781
Reaction score
668
I don't really have go-to books in the sense of reading and re-reading. However, for each of my novels I draw inspiration from other novels that I look upon as sort of older siblings to my own books.

For To Grandma's House With Socrates, I had in mind Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), and The Life of Pi (Martel), and Peter Pan (Barrie.)

For my wip novel, Away We Go, I have in mind Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro), The Lessons (Alderman), and A Separate Peace (Knowles.)
 

DreamWeaver

Shakespearean Fool
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Apr 11, 2005
Messages
2,916
Reaction score
403
Every October I read Roger Zelazny's "A Night in the Lonesome October."

Other books I re-read regularly:
The Lord of the Rings
All the Harry Potter books, but I've probably read The Deathly Hallows the most often.
Pride and Prejudice
Madame Bovary
The Last of the Mohicans
The Three Musketeers
Dune
Selections from The Complete Works of Shakespeare