Books And Stories that You've Read Once and Could Never Read Again.

[Ray Pullar]

I never thought of eating the book.

 

[Ray Pullar]

The Riddlemaster of Hed was another book I could never re-read because I accidentally placed it inside a washing-machine at a laundrette and it came out in soggy, grey chunks.

 

[Toby Frost]

The Dancing Floor by John Buchan suffered a similar fate with me.

Also, I'd go with Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake, which I read for completeness, but which actually feels like a weaker add-on to Titus Groan and Gormenghast.

 

[Pyan]

Also, I'd go with Titus Alone by Mervyn Peake, which I read for completeness, but which actually feels like a weaker add-on to Titus Groan and Gormenghast.

Agree - in fact, I'd go further, and say Gormanghast is a weak follow-on to TG, and TA is weaker still. I've read Titus Groan at least a dozen times, Gormenghast twice, and Titus Alone a rather sad 1½ times...

 

[Marc Vun Kannon]

The most painful story I ever read was The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, by LeGuin. A brilliantly done story about a horrific dilemma. Most genre fiction is stuff I wouldn't go back to a second time, because it's plot-driven, and there's nothing there to get out of it a second time that I didn't get out the first time. The amount of character-driven genre fiction is increasing, but it's a minority. I'm always hoping to find more.

 

[Toby Frost]

Agree - in fact, I'd go further, and say Gormanghast is a weak follow-on to TG, and TA is weaker still.

I think Gormenghast is inevitably weaker than Titus Groan because it lacks the surprise factor of meeting the castle for the first time. Also, it covers a long period and some of the newer characters - the professors especially - aren't as good as the original lot. But I think it is much better than Titus Alone, which for me barely holds up as a novel (I gather that Peake was very ill when he wrote it, and it had to be put together to a large extent). The other great problem with Titus Alone is simply that Gormenghast Castle and its inhabitants aren't in it at all.

 

[soulsinging]

One Flew Overt the Cuckoos Nest by Ken Kesey . I had to read that one for school and I absolutely hated it.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac. What a self indulgent, whingy book. I wish Sal had died in the first chapter.

Both of these are books I proclaimed to love in my 20's that I can now barely remember and, having occasionally flipped through them in a shop, have zero interest in re-reading.

Catch 22 Why? because I loath every single character in that whole novel.

This, on the other hand, is one of my all-time favorites. I think I only know 1-2 other people that liked it, almost everyone else I know that's tried hated it.

Interesting to see the Silmarillion pop up so much. I honestly enjoyed it more than LOTR itself in many ways. It is a pretty unusual book though.

I'll add Catcher in the Rye... talk about a whiner!

 

[Randy M.]

I enjoyed Catch-22 30+ years ago; no idea what I'd think of it now. Catcher in the Rye, on the other hand, I still thought was great when I reread it about 10 years ago.

Randy M.

 

[Vince W]

I'll add Catcher in the Rye... talk about a whiner!

Absolutely. I don't think I could ever put myself through reading that again.

 

[Toby Frost]

Now I think about it, I don't think I'd want to go back to quite a lot of the classic SF that I read when I was much younger. I enjoyed Clarke and Asimov enormously when I was about 12 (although I could tell that their later stuff was worse), but I would worry that I'd find it rather simplistic now. I'd probably say the same thing about the fantasy I used to like. People like Anne Mccaffrey aren't bad at all, but they are from a different time, and I wanted different things from novels back then.

 

[BAYLOR]

I enjoyed Catch-22 30+ years ago; no idea what I'd think of it now. Catcher in the Rye, on the other hand, I still thought was great when I reread it about 10 years ago.

Randy M.

In Catch 22 the character that I wanted most to see end up in front of a firing squad was Milo Minderbender. He was by far, the most vile and unredeemable character in that whole book.

 

[Bick]

The ASOIAF series, by GRRM. Vaguely interesting to read once, but I've never been tempted to re-read them, because of the continual facile shock tactics of killing people off.

Ditto, word-for-word what I first thought of for the same reasons. And also because why would you re-read the first few books again of a series that never finished?

Also, I would say The Ruins, by Scott Smith - this was well paced, exciting and a real page turner. But some of the imagery and suffering of characters in the book seemed gratuitous to me - it was truly horrific, and I don't like to read about agony described so vividly. I certainly wouldn't want to read it again. I don't even like to think about it much to be honest.

 

[BAYLOR]

Silas Marner by George Elliot I don't know what it is about George Elliot but her writing grates on me. I read this book in High school I did finish it but, reading it was a real tooth pull .

 

[Bick]

Silas Marner by George Elliot I don't know what it is about George Elliot but her writing grates on me. I read this book in High school I did finish it but, reading it was a real tooth pull .

There's a patch in the middle that does I think drag a bit - I recall struggling with the middle of Silas Marner myself, and probably wont re-read it either.