Are there any books that you read make a point to read cover to cover, periodically?

Question

About every 4 years I read Richard Bach's "Illusions, The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" and Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend". Not because I forgot what they are about, but because they are fascinating to me.

Each of these, I have read at least 7 times in my 47 years of life.

Oh, Yeah! And George Orwell's "Animal Farm" at least 5 times.

Answer 1

~How can you not start reading Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey) again as soon as you finish. Most anything by Mark Twain deserves another go every couple years or so. The Jungle and The Octopus (Upton Sinclair) deserve a few passes. If plays count, add anything by Shaw, Shakespeare, Ibsen, and Odets to the list. There are others, of course, but this come to mind first.

A good book is like a good LP (you're 47 - you know what they are). It will wear out before you tire of it. And you find something new each time out.

Answer 2

Funny, I was just mentioning Bach's books the other day. What wonderful stuff. I read "Illusions" several times in high school.

You'd probably like a book that's popular now, called "The Secret", by Byrnne.

I have to have a Tolkein fix every so often, and have been through LOTR about 8 times.

For specific styles of escapism, I go to Capstick, Hemingway, and O. Henry, and of course, Louis L'Amour.

Answer 3

The Hobbit and also The Lord of The Rings trilogy I've read about 8 times. (had to read them again before I watched the movies in case I would not be able to visualize my own characters afterwards)
The West of Eden; Winter In Eden; & Return to Eden by Harry Harrison
Titan; Wizard; & Demon by John Varley
Both the above series are set in utterly fascinating worlds/societies.
The Talisman; & The Stand by Stephen King
Charlotte's Web
Watership Down
Wizard of OZ, including what I can find of the continuing series.
Of course Comic books & cartoon anthologies too.

Answer 4

Everything by Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Philip Wylie, Isaac Asimov, Will Durant, Bertrand Russell, Jack Kerouac, and some others.

Answer 5

Bible, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis (outloud to children), The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis, On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King, From Glory to Glory - The Salvation of the Soul by David W. Dyer

Answer 6

Yes. I call them "my comfort books." Gone with The Wind; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn , the Anne of Green Gables series, or some Stephen King, especially "The Stand."

Answer 7

I used to know Henry Miller. I think it's fantastic, what you do. Henry Miller said, that he'd rather be with someone who had only read ten great books in his life than someone who had read many, and none of them meant anything much to him.

I love that you love those books and have read them so, so, so many times! The only ones which I read over and over are Rilke's, "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge" and "The Aeneid," by Virgil, because I love it, and because I never want to lose all those years of Latin study, and that's about it, come to think of it. Oh, and I love to re-read Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own."

I like to read writers, meaning I'll take a writer and read his or her whole body of work; I find that so fulfilling, because I stay in that world, that mind for a long time; so in its way, it's like reading the same book. As a matter of fact, except for his "Baltazar and Bluminda,"--which is a great book-- I think the works of Jose Saramago are almost all the same story, in many settings, with slightly different people; I love that; I'm on his new one, called "Seeing," and then I'll have read them all. He's great!

For me, the things that I tend to read over and over and over are poems and plays. They seem always to be new, and I love to memorize poems, so that I have beautiful words at my brain-tips to enrich or help me to understand any situation.

I'm now curious to see what these books are that you read, and why and how they so fascinate you. I'm ignorant of them.

Answer 8

Earth's Children series starting with Clan of the Cave Bears by Jean Auel. I've read it at least 5 times and always discover something new each time I read it.

Answer 9

Tolkien's Lord of the Rings Trillogy I used to read at least once a year. Now I'm down to about once every two years. The history of his Middle Earth allows for many readings, and constant discoveries with each round.

Answer 10

Once a year since i was 12 (29 now) I have read "As the Crow Flies" by Jeffery Archer and "The Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay....Im on my 4th copy of the first and 3rd of the second :)