Book you've reread over and over OR Book you stopped reading and never finished

[Anonymous]

I left "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb in a hotel room in Dallas b/c it was so bad. Oprah had such depressing book club recommendations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've discarded so many books, for being boring, badly written, a rehash of an earlier book, too violent, too sexy, you name it.

I've reread books for being beautifully written and completely engrossing.

Are you wanting us to write you a list here?

This life is too short. I ditched it if it doesn't keep my interest or becomes a chore to read and no longer fun.

A professor (not mine and not of literature) told me this when I was 21 and struggling to try to read Faulkner for the 3rd time because I thought I should, but absolutely hating it. Reading can be hard and still be fun, but reading for pleasure should never be a chore.

[Anonymous]

I used to reread books often when I was younger. I could read something 5 times and not get enough. I now will reread things I hadn’t read in a decade and it’s enjoyable. Off the top of my head, common rereads throughout my life have been “Wuthering Heights,” “The Secret History,” “The Poisonwood Bible,” “The Namesake,” “Gone with the Wind,” the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the His Dark Materials trilogy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Read Jane Eyre a few times. It’s just so good.

Read half of Atlas Shrugged twice. It’s not good.

Yep! All of the Brontes were geniuses.

Ayn Rand was the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I could not finish Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. I got stuck at the reliving of the Spanish Flu. It just became so repetitive.

I generally do not reread - ther are so many books to READ there's little time for rereading.

But just in the past few months I realized I was really enjoying a detective/mystery series (Everyone in my Family has killed someone is the first book) and yet I had a nagging sense I was missing something. So I went back and reread them all and enjoyed them (for book 2 I had genuinely forgotten who the murderer was!). They are just sort of convoluted situations with a large cast of side characters.

Then my book club chose North Woods by Daniel Mason which I had read a year before and LOVED. I wasn't going to reread, but then someone else who had already read it said something like I just was blown awasy by the next to last chapter, which I didn't remember at all so I did a rereading and picked up so much more from it the second time around.

This is telling me I'm getting older and things aren't pentrating as much as they used to? Is this my signs of aging? (I"m 55 and read a lot - 80-100 books a year. i chose to believe I just have too much crammed in).

I SO enjoyed rereading classics when my kids were young Charlotte's Web is amazing. The Narnia books. The Hobbit (starting about age 11 I reread The Hobbit every few years into my 20s).

I read and just sort of slogged through the Lord of the rings as a young teenager, so I'm thinknig of rereading them.

I've also been casually picking up Agatha Christie books - some I've read before and some I haven't - and enjoying them whether I recognize/remember them or not.

Life After Life is one of the books I've read many times LOL.

[Anonymous]

I got 500 pages into Infinite Jest, realized I was halfway through and miserable (flipping back and forth to the end notes is terrible) and quit.

[Anonymous]

Reading a book over means you love it.

When I was a child, I saw this quote in my public library and it impressed me:

"He who loveth a book will never want a faithful friend, a wholesome counsellor, a cheerful companion, or an effectual comforter." -- Isaac Barrow

I discovered a book that I started reading as a young adult and I've never really finished because I'm always picking it up and reading sections of it. For decades now.

The story is realistic, the characters are unforgettable and the writing is simple but compelling.

A book can truly be a faithful friend.

Mine is "A Tree Grows In Brooklyn"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to reread books often when I was younger. I could read something 5 times and not get enough. I now will reread things I hadn’t read in a decade and it’s enjoyable. Off the top of my head, common rereads throughout my life have been “Wuthering Heights,” “The Secret History,” “The Poisonwood Bible,” “The Namesake,” “Gone with the Wind,” the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the His Dark Materials trilogy.

I second the his Dark Materials trilogy. I’ve read them three times at least!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I could not finish Life after Life by Kate Atkinson. I got stuck at the reliving of the Spanish Flu. It just became so repetitive.

I generally do not reread - ther are so many books to READ there's little time for rereading.

But just in the past few months I realized I was really enjoying a detective/mystery series (Everyone in my Family has killed someone is the first book) and yet I had a nagging sense I was missing something. So I went back and reread them all and enjoyed them (for book 2 I had genuinely forgotten who the murderer was!). They are just sort of convoluted situations with a large cast of side characters.

Then my book club chose North Woods by Daniel Mason which I had read a year before and LOVED. I wasn't going to reread, but then someone else who had already read it said something like I just was blown awasy by the next to last chapter, which I didn't remember at all so I did a rereading and picked up so much more from it the second time around.

This is telling me I'm getting older and things aren't pentrating as much as they used to? Is this my signs of aging? (I"m 55 and read a lot - 80-100 books a year. i chose to believe I just have too much crammed in).

I SO enjoyed rereading classics when my kids were young Charlotte's Web is amazing. The Narnia books. The Hobbit (starting about age 11 I reread The Hobbit every few years into my 20s).

I read and just sort of slogged through the Lord of the rings as a young teenager, so I'm thinknig of rereading them.

I've also been casually picking up Agatha Christie books - some I've read before and some I haven't - and enjoying them whether I recognize/remember them or not.

Life After Life is one of the books I've read many times LOL.

Meanwhile, for me, A gentleman in Moscow was a favorite and one I'd consider reading again. To each their own! LOL

[Anonymous]

Confederacy of the Dunces. Absolutely one of the worst books ever, could not get through it.

[Anonymous]

I read Little Women and Anne of Green Gables over and over even into college. Now I don't reread mostly because there is so much out there I usually want to read something new. But, I have been feeling like I might have a different take on books like the Great Gatsby after so many years. So, I may start rereading some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I got 500 pages into Infinite Jest, realized I was halfway through and miserable (flipping back and forth to the end notes is terrible) and quit.

Ha. I had to be in a remote place with limited sources of entertainment for a couple of months to make it through Infinite Jest. The brain has to work to read it, and that's not happening 24/7 these days. But it remains one of the most extraordinary reading experiences I've ever had. It is a wow book. And I still dip into it from time to time.

The book I never managed to get through is Ulysses. I mean, hello - periods, commas, paragraph breaks exist for a reason. Ulysses is just a thesaurus vomiting for 800 pages.

[Anonymous]

I have read ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’ every few years since the summer I first read them in HS in the early 1980’s. I keep trying ‘Emma’, but just stop. I don’t like it. I tend to identify with Elizabeth and Elinor, but just can’t stand Emma for some reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I left "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb in a hotel room in Dallas b/c it was so bad. Oprah had such depressing book club recommendations.

This one was truly terrible. I wish I had left it in a hotel room.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have read ‘Sense and Sensibility’ and ‘Pride and Prejudice’ every few years since the summer I first read them in HS in the early 1980’s. I keep trying ‘Emma’, but just stop. I don’t like it. I tend to identify with Elizabeth and Elinor, but just can’t stand Emma for some reason.

I chronically re-read Pride and Prejudice (my copy is in tatters with pages falling out) but also simply cannot get through Emma!

Other chronic re-reads include “To Kill A Mockingbird”, “Of Human Bondage” by Somerset Maugham, two little house on the prairie books: “On the Banks of plum creek” and “by the shores of silver lake”, the Crazy rich Asians series, a trashy romance book “The Hating Game” and some random Harry Potter fanfic:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/52884502?view_full_work=true