Some non-genre fiction you reread?

Extollager

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I'm reading Dostoevsky's Demons again. Love this book! I wondered if others wanted to mention some works of fiction outside sf, horror, and fantasy that they return to again and again.
 
I read as much non-genre as genre. I like some of the so-called chick-lit stuff, especially Marian Keyes who I find ruinously funny. I read more thought-provoking stuff, too - like We Need To Talk about Kevin (gruesome but hard to put down). I read some crime - Val McDermid in particular. And plenty of classics which I return to. Oh, and cookery books - Nigel Slater in particular. And plays, I read those, too. :)
 
There are many non-genre classic authors, books i admire. I would re-read some books several times if i re-read books as much as you. I dont re-read often.

I love, rate highly for example first, second times and so on books like: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Easily the single most important book to me personally, my life experience. Not only because its a great modern classic novel.

The Stranger by Camus, The Star Rover by Jack London, The Lover by Margurite Duras, Medea by Euripides, Siddharta by Hesse, The Sufferings of Werter by Goethe
 
I've read Heart of Darkness a few times, I guess that would be one. Like Connavar, I don't re-read a lot. I've enjoyed re-reading a few Hemingway, Graham Greene and PG Wodehouse novels. Oh, and I intend, fairly soon, to re-read AB Guthrie Jr's "Big Sky" novels. These are great books; I can't recommend them highly enough.
 
Mainstream lit.:
Absalom, Absalom & As I Lay Dying & Intruder in the Dust by William Faulker
in our times by Ernest Hemingway
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber

Mystery:
The Maltese Falcon & Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Hound of the Baskervilles & The Adventures [/Memoirs] of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Long Goodbye & The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
The Underground Man by Ross Macdonald

Vaguely planned rereads (someday ... someday ... ):
Beloved by Toni Morrison
In the Lake of the Woods & The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Ironweed by William Kennedy

Short stories (sampling):
"Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
"My Oedipal Complex" by Frank O'Connor
"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson
"The Big Knockover" by Dashiell Hammett
"Haircut" & "Alibi Ike" by Ring Lardner
"The Fall River Murders" by Angela Carter



Randy M.
 
Oh gosh, off the top of my head:

Jane Eyre -- Charlotte Brontë
Great Expectations -- Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend -- Charles Dickens
Uncle Silas -- Joseph Sheridan LeFanu
Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility -- Jane Austen
Persuasion -- Jane Austen
Emma -- Jane Austen

Scaramouche -- Rafael Sabatini
Venetian Masque -- Rafael Sabatini

Strong Poison -- Dorothy L. Sayers
Have His Carcase -- Dorothy L. Sayers
Gaudy Night -- Dorothy L. Sayers
Enter a Murderer -- Ngaio Marsh
Light Thickens -- Ngaio Marsh
Night at the Vulcan -- Ngaio Marsh
Death at the Dolphin -- Ngaio Marsh


And for the very lightest reading, too many books by P. G. Wodehouse to mention, and ditto Georgette Heyer.
 
I read practically everything. Crime fiction, mysteries, mainstream novels, a lot of junior fiction/YA/MG books, occasional romance, plays and poetry, and of course SF and F and (not as much anymore) horror.

Crime fiction -- Jeffrey Deaver, Michael Palmer, Michael Connelly, Ann Rule

Mysteries -- (authors escape me in some of these so I'll just name characters) Mrs. Pollifax, Agatha Raisin/Hamish MacBeth, China Bayles, all the Agatha Christie ones, all the John D. MacDonald ones, all the Lawrence Block ones, several cozy shop mystery series whose character names also escape me at the moment.

Mainstream -- John Irving, Pat Conroy

Romance -- one of my favorite books of all time is Danielle Steel's The Ring, which is a three-generation historical romance that I find brilliant. I also reread Gone With the Wind and Scarlett from time to time.

Kid stuff -- Artemis Fowl, Simon Bloom, Trouble Twisters, Lemony Snicket, Inkheart, Hunger Games, Mysterious Benedict Society, you name it.
 
I don't have time to reread, but I already want to reread Glitterland and I haven't even finished reading it first time round yet. It's stupidly brilliant and has everything I love in it.

I used to reread the Redwall books all the time. Are they genre or not?!
 
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Apollo 13:Lost Moon - Jim Lovell
The General's Daughter - Nelson Demille


I think most of my re-reading has been fantasy books though. I do want to do a re-read of Gone with the Wind soon though.
 
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
Apollo 13:Lost Moon - Jim Lovell
The General's Daughter - Nelson Demille


I think most of my re-reading has been fantasy books though. I do want to do a re-read of Gone with the Wind soon though.

Me too. It's been ages since I read it. In fact... Digs it out of the bookcase. Oh yes. I reread Mocking Bird, too. And Captain Corelli's Mandolin which I adore.
 
Hadn't thought about this in a very long time, so I'm not sure how accurate my list would be; but it depends also on what you consider "non-genre". Would Shakespeare's "The Tempest" count? After all, it is fantasy, really, as are "Macbeth" or "Hamlet" -- each of which I've read several times (along with other of his plays and quite a few of his sonnets).

How about Spenser's The Faerie Queene? Again, fantasy (of a sort), and I've read it through three times, with several dips into portions of it over the years... and then there's The Shepheardes Calendar -- ditto. Dante's Commedia Divina -- twice, with an intention to read it at least a few times again. Several of Cabell's books don't actually fit as "genre" save by association, such as Beyond Life, which I've read at least eight or nine times; other of his books at least two or three. Heck, I've read the Malleus Maleficarum all the way through twice... though I suppose few besides myself would consider that fiction -- though, given the history of the thing, and the dubious reception it had even from the Church......

I've read all of Ann Radcliffe's novels at least once, and all but Gaston de Blondeville two or three times; The Romance of the Forest four; The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne five (though this was more by way of its availability at the time, and its brevity; still, I do like this one....). And, again, I have every intention of reading The Mysteries of Udolpho at least a couple of times again, being very fond of that one as well....

And I've read all of Poe several times over, both fiction and verse; again, I have a fondness for some of his sketches and nature studies, and even for some of his comic pieces (which makes me something of an oddball, I understand....) And no little of Washington Irving, for the matter of that....

I, too, have read most of the Holmesian canon at least two or three times since I first picked them up at age 12; not to mention other pieces by Doyle, of various sorts. And there's multiple readings of a lot of Hawthorne in there, too; not only his fantastic pieces, but a rather large selection of his tales and sketches....

Though it has been many, many years now, I have read The Secret Garden through at least four or five times... perhaps that one deserves a revisit again, too. And then there's Terhune's Lad: A Dog, which was a favorite of mine during my youth. And Joyce's Ulysses twice (never have got around to Finnegan's Wake, though I keep intending to). Loved it both times, once I got over my initial trepidation at tackling this supposedly "difficult" book... a reputation it really doesn't deserve; I found it a delight. (Again, though, given certain points of that one, I'm not sure it doesn't at least tangentially fit as "genre"....)

Then there are "non-genre" pieces by genre writers, such as Moorcock's The Brothel in Rosenstrasse (a personal favorite), and several of his essays; or Ellison's stories of juvies or his screenplays (sff and otherwise), essays, suspense or crime tales, etc.; all of which I've read more times than I can even remember. Ditto Bradbury's The Anthem Sprinters and other of his non-fantastic plays; or non-fantastic stories, for the matter of that. (I suppose I should leave out the essays, and perhaps the plays, but as I'm doing this off the cuff....) Some of Asimov's mysteries I read more than once when young, such as A Whiff of Death. And Ethel Lina White's Wax I read until the darned thing fell apart on me.... Various of Maurice Level's contes cruel over the years; and I'll probably revisit his Tales of Mystery and Horror (the single collection of his tales I own) once or twice again as, like Maupassant, they are fine exemplars of the short tale. And more of the latter writer's works than I can remember at this point -- a true master craftsman. A few (less than I'd like) of Balzac's works, such as the oft-reprinted "Le Grande Bretèche" and some of his Contes Drolatique....
 
It tends to be high-quality light stuff, when I do not have the energy for anything else. I rarely reread classics.
e.g.
The Flashman novels George MacDonald Fraser
Tom Sharpe: particularly Riotous Assembly, Indecent Exposure, the Throwback, Porterhouse Blue
 
I tend to reread stuff my childhood or just general YA because it's easy and hurts no one. I also reread crime (Karin Slaughter), particularly if I have forgotten who the killer/bad guy was - if I remember I only bother if I really love the book.

Every year without fail I reread Trixie Beldon (the entire series, minus the three we don't own). I can't explain why - I just love them.
 
Oh, Trixie Belden -- I loved her! I haven't seen those in years. They were a library series, not one I had myself, so they aren't in my childhood collection.
 
I read quite a bit of crime so usually if a favourite author has a new book coming out I'll reread a couple of the previous ones to reacquaint myself. I also love revisiting Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes even though I must have read them all at least 5 times. :p

Stuff I read during my childhood usually comes out when I've had a bad day or feeling down or ill and unable to concentrate on much. Sadly I also have entire audio book sets of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and Harry Potter which I listen to at work when I don't have the luxury of being able to concentrate fully but want something to listen to and music isn't doing it for me. :)
 

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