Do you like to read books a second (or third) time?

[mvccd1000]

I generally don't, but I'm re-reading part of a series this week, and in the May 27, 2012 weekly thread I noticed others who are reading books for the second (or more) time. That brought up the question:

What makes you enjoy a book for the second time around?

In my current case, I read 3 books with a new character by an author who had a previous character series I didn't know about. There were incidental mentions of the original character in the new series, so I went back and read those. Once I finished the 4 original books, I decided to reread the 3 that came later, now that I knew the locations and other supporting characters better. I'm enjoying them quite a bit the second time around. (The two series are the Lou Mason and Jack Davis series by Joel Goldman.)

Others I've read and enjoyed more than once are "Point of Impact" by Stephen Hunter (I've bought it, read it, and given it away three times - each time the person I've loaned it to has enjoyed it so much they just had to pass it on to someone else instead of returning it), and many of the early Travis McGee books by John D. MacDonald.

[krispos42]

1. Almost every single one

I have paperbacks that I've bought new and re-read so many times the covers have fallen off.

I LIKE being in fictional universes!

I have books (and serieses) that I've read over a dozen times. Probably some of those over 2 dozen times, although that's been a while.

[Staph]

2. I reread for many reasons.

The first time through a book is usually at high speed -- I can't wait to find out what happens next. The second (or third or fourth...) are to appreciate the language, the nuance, the characterization. To do all of those things that my junior high English teacher said that you were supposed to do to understand great literature.

There are some books I reread every year or two, like Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, David Copperfield, along with some not-so-great literature. I have some SF and mystery series that I dip back into from time to time, just to revisit that particular universe.

[fadedrose]

4. Your first paragraph is my main reason..

Sometimes I turn pages so fast to see what happens that I know I miss a lot of information, and when I read the book a second time, I slow down and really appreciate it unconcerned with how it ends...

I hardly ever read for the story or the plot - it's always the characters. I HAVE to like the characters and it's like talking to old friends...

[Curmudgeoness]

3. I reread some books every five to ten years.

If I really love a book, I want to enjoy it again, and that time span is long enough for me to forget all the details. I love to reread a good book because I know that I will enjoy it. There are too many so-so and lousy books that I have read, so an old friend is savored. I always find new things when I reread a book, nuances that I missed before.

There are other books that I read when I was younger, and I forget a lot about them. All I remember is that I loved them at that time in my life.....so I reread them with my different view on life that I have now. Sometimes I still love them, and other time, I don't see what I saw in the book.

My most reread books: "Pride and Prejudice" and "A Tale of Two Cities".

[Chemisse]

19. That's my approach too.

I reread books that were really outstanding, but only after a number of years have passed. It is a rare book that I read for a third time. Those that pop into my mind are:

Replay, by Ken Grimwood, Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, JRR Tolkein's The Hobbit and Trilogy, Call of the Wild by Jack London, and The Stand by Stephen King.

[Curmudgeoness]

20. You named two of mine that it is time to reread.

Pillars of the Earth is one of my all-time favorites that I have read twice, and The Stand is so awesome and it has been a long time for that one. I just reread Call of the Wild a year or two ago, and at the same time I reread Black Beauty (which I had forgotten a lot about since it had been so long).

Thanks for reminding me of past-due rereads.

[jp11]

5. Nope. I almost never reread books

the magic is gone, the newness of not knowing what happens, and I find I'm like 'oh yeah' and 'then this happens' which isn't really a good thing.

I think I read a series over after I finally got the last book, it took a few years for that to come out and the whole experience was 'worse' than just remembering the books I read and reading the last one. It was pretty much that experience that cinched me not rereading books.

I've strayed here and there to see if I can rekindle the magic of a book but it doesn't happen. I recall things too well, even if I don't remember every detail, it is the familiarity of it that ruins it for me.

I can however watch moves and tv shows over and over because I can disengage my mind and let it happen before me as opposed to books where I'm 'in' it rendering the story.

[raccoon]

6. Some books I do. I've read ALAS BABYLON several times. I like the way the characters

experience personal growth.

GOING WRONG by Ruth Rendell. I like the way Guy's thinking is so crazy...and the author makes it make sense!

IN COLD BLOOD --Well, some people would say it's fiction. LOL. Anyway, somehow it just grabs me.

[getting old in mke]

7. Sometimes, but rarely

there are just so many other books out there!

I have listened to some books that I have previously read, and listened to some twice.

But when it comes to eyeballs on paper (ewww), only a few, mostly because they evoke a time and place in my life when I first read them, rather than story. _Throw the Long Bomb!_ by Jack Laflin takes me back to Junior High School football in the late 60s. _The Hobbit_ and _Lord of the Rings_ by Tolkien my father read aloud to us over the course of a year when I was about 14. _Replay_ by Ken Grimwood I read (on and off) while waiting for daughter #1 to make her appearance. I'll reread a Harry Potter from time to time because it was a bridge to talk with the kids during the years when they'd rather not admit to having a father And _World War Z_ by Max Brooks evokes a particularly fun road trip with us and all three girls.

[dmallind]

8. Varies

Can't see the point of reading mysteries/procedurals more than once, but then again I'm not as big a fan of them as it seems most here are.

There are books I've found enjoyable but never been tempted to read again. Most of the non-fiction I read, principally history, falls into this category as does perfectly serviceable fiction of the "pageturner" stripe. A fair amount of "literature" too. I've read pretty much all Dickens' major works. None of them twice barring a couple I read at school.

But some, and not necessarily just the "great works", I can read over and over again. For me it's typically the ones where I can both delight in the language and see new aspects to the story with each reading. I'm on my second copy of Heller's "God Knows - must have read it a dozen times at least. Rushdie, Eco, Irving, Roth show up a lot. I re-read the Discworld novels and Rankin's far-fetched fiction in near constant no-particular-order rotation. It's rare indeed one of them is not among the 3 or 4 books I have going.

[dimbear]

9. I'm rereading "The Mysterious Island" but this time the original. Sometimes there's

a remarkable difference, although that's more marked in "20000 Leagues Under the Sea." Verne's politics weren't to the taste of American editors, so they disappeared.

[Curmudgeoness]

21. Where do you find the original Verne

"20000 Leagues Under the Sea"? That sounds like it would be interesting to read, especially if it was not proper for American editors.

[dimbear]

22. Great French site:

http://www.ebooksgratuits.com/ebooks.php

Lots of the classics, links to other sites: also useful the University of Quebec site, another site called liberliber. Ask again if you have any trouble finding a particular Verne.

[violetsurf]

10. layering and depth

The more complex a book is, the more disposed I'll be to read it more than once. I've found this often happens with books in the "paranoid fiction" or "conspiracy theory" vein - Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo, etc.

[JitterbugPerfume]

11. A good book is like an old friend

and need to be revisited occasionally.

[mvccd1000]

12. Great way to look at it.

And so true!

[Little Star]

18. After re-reading this thread I got a giggle fit...

I thought "does the sun rise every morning?"

I don't know, it just tickled my funny bone, thinking that perhaps most of us may not re-read books & series we enjoy.

If you wait long enough to re-read, it's just like reading something you've never read before. Maybe that part has something to do with my age. lol

[Little Star]

13. I must have re-read The Travis McGee Series...

at least 3 times already. Love that series!

But yes, I re-read almost all my book series. I only re-read stand alones if I really enjoyed them.

I hoard bin's of books just so that I can re-read them.

Now with my Kindle, I start any new series on there and new stand alones too. I already have enough bins full of books, for sure!

[mtnester]

14. I reread books all the time, particularly if they are a series and the new one is coming out

It is almost imperative that a quick review for writers like Auel, King, Galbadon, Rice ....you miss sometimes the tiny details that become oh so important later.... And some of my trash romance writers...I have gone back and re-read something they did 20+ years ago.

That said, it sometimes saddens me to do so, as I can clearly see where the writer went from creativity to mass $$ production mode. Sometimes, character development and storyline takes time...YES, I want to read your fantastically descriptive words about mealtime in the Renaissance/prehistoric/gilded age times....it becomes sad to see when that stopped. Jean Auel's final Clan series book was as disappointing as it gets in that kind of respect.

[AngryOldDem]

15. I do.

It's like revisiting old friends.

[pscot]

16. Not as much now as I used to

But I keep going back to Shakespeare, Austen,Thucydides, Aeschylus, Kafka, Borges, Isaac Babel, The Odyssey, Gilgamesh, the bible; I really enjoy poetry, from Rumi to Burns to Morgenstern (famous double play combo of the 1923 Cubs).

[fe6252fes]

17. awesome...

[SheilaT]

23. Sometimes. It just depends. Like others who responded here

I have certain favorites that just draw me into their world.

Replay by Ken Grimwood is one of my all time favorites and I've read it a lot of times.

Norah Lofts is a writer (dead now, alas) who wrote about life in England, mainly historical novels most of which I've read several times.

I do read a lot of science fiction and for me much of that is worthy of rereading.

I think it's a matter of if the writer has created a world rich enough -- at least for the specific reader -- that it feels real. I know that for me a good book is one that I can have my own imaginary conversations with the characters. If I can't, it's not a good book for me.

Oh, and I really like books set in any one of the many places where I've lived.

[Mz Pip]

24. I have a few I reread every decade or so.

Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clark

Forsyte Saga - John Galsworthy

City- Clifford Simak

I've read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy 3 times but I doubt I will read it again.

My dad used to read Huckleberry Finn once a year. He said he got something new out of it everytime he read it.

[mvccd1000]

25. Interesting point about Mark Twain.

Before kindles came around, I used to go back to free websites like the literature network and read through his works. Huck Finn is a great one (hell, ALL of his are great ones), but I really liked "A Connecticut Yankee in KING Arthur's Court."

http://www.online-literature.com/author_index.php

[Tom Ripley]

28. It recently dawned on me that "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" was another one of...

Twain's well-placed and richly-deserved twists of the knife into Walter Scott's legacy.

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

26. I have re-read Dante about every five years for the last forty years

Last edited Tue Jul 10, 2012, 12:24 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm reminded of something Martin Luther said, that he re-read The Epistle to the Romans almost every day, and almost every time he got something new out of it.

Similarly, I read Dante about every five years, and every time I get something new out of it. I have two and a third translations: Dorothy Sayer's translation (yes, the woman who wrote the Lord Peter Wimsey detective stories), John Ciardi's translation, and Robert Pinsky's translation of The Inferno. Sayer's poetry is not very good, but her notes are brilliant (she was a scholar, not a poet); Ciardi's poetry is pretty good, but his notes aren't great (he was a poet, not a scholar); Pinsky's poetry is better than Ciardi's, his notes are the worst of the lot.

When I was 16, I had to read The Brothers Karamazov. I hated it. It said nothing to me. Ten years later, in a theology class in graduate school, I had to re-read part of it, "the Parable of the Grand Inquisitor", which I really liked. When I was 50, I re-read the whole of The Brothers Karamazov, and found it fascinating. At 50, I was ready for the book; at 16 I was not. (Thomas Aquinas said that no one under the age of 50 should study philosophy. I have always suspected he said that after reading too many undergraduate philosophy papers. Incidentally, Aquinas himself died at 49.)

I recently finished re-reading Lois McMaster Bujold's Memory and A Civil Campaign, two of my favorite novels.

[Tom Ripley]

27. Madame Bovary, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Ladies Man, In Cold Blood, and

a few more dozens of times