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

[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.