Books You've Reread the Most Times

These are the ones I'm mostly sure of.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles Finney
-- all 4 or more times

The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
The Underground Man by Ross Macdonald
My Life and Hard Times by James Thurber
-- approximately 4 times

There might be 6 to 12 I've read 3 times. Individual short stories read 4+ times would make a very long list.


Randy M.
 
Well, I've planned to reread LOTR for about 20 years, so ... yeah.


Randy M.
 
It's a fine novel, Extollager, often used by teachers in the U.S. as an entry into Faulkner's work, some of which can be challenging. On first readings, I preferred The Sound and the Fury, and still do, but my estimation of the book rose when the professor mentioned AILD was a comedy. It was a forehead slapping moment and suddenly the book made much more sense.

Randy M.
 
I'll take my copy out of storage and put it where it will catch my eye, Randy.
 
The only books I can claim this for are poetry collections: Paul Celan's Mohn und Gedächtnis, Wisława Szymborska's View with a Grain of Sand, Annemette Kure Andersen's Fraktur and the Tao te ching.

I can find so many extra layers and meanings in these poets that, each time I read them, it's like reading something new.
 
I have never really thought about re-reading books. Would re-reading a book count as a book read that year for GoodReads even if you have read it before (I like to keep track of the count)? Just wondering. I might give it a try. I want to re-read The Shining, Pet Sematary and most of Stephen Kings older books as it's been over 20 years since I read them. A lot of older Dean Koontz books would fall into my re-read pile (digital pile for Kindle) as well.
 
If you reread a book on Goodreads it counts towards the book challenge. Out of the 58 books I've read so far this year, 8 have been rereads.
 
Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination , the best and most baroque space opera that was ever written.
Must have read and re read it at least 15 or more times since 1957.
 
I've re-read LOTR five times - finally quit when my excellent one book copy fell apart and I realized I just didn't feel like replacing it.

I've re-read the Wheel of Time series over and over but with differences. #1 was re-read 14 times, #2, 13 etcetera as I always re-read the series before the newest book was to come out which means I read the last book only once and haven't gone back to read the whole series again since.

I've re-read Outlander exactly the same as WoT so the first has been read 8 times, the second 7 and so on.

I've re-read Making Money, Monstrous Regiment, Guards! Guards!, Night Watch and Going Postal at least five times each - I'm considering going back to them again very soon too.

Other re-reads I've only done less than four times so those don't count. I love revisiting a book that I know will make me happy in some way.
 
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton
Dragonlance Chronicles - Weis & Hickman
Thrawn Trilogy - Timothy Zahn
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Silmarillion & LOTR - Tolkien
various Hardy Boys books...

I read Dragonlance and Thrawn within the last 2 years after not having read either since I was maybe 18. Still entertaining! Haven't read any of the others since I was probably 22. Might be about time!
 
A Stranger in a Strange Land,Robert Heinlein: I reread it roughly every two to three years so likely six or seven times

Hobbit/LOTR/Silmarillion, J.RR, Tolkien: Almost yearly rereads so 15+ times

A Spell for Chameleon, Piers Anthony: Read it six or seven times

Magician, Raymond E.Feist: Every few years at least six times

Neuromancer, William Gibson: I've bought nine copies cause i keep giving them away to people, I've read every copy I've ever bought

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card: at least five times

ASOIAF, GRRM: AGOT six or seven, ASOS/ACOK/AFFC five, ADWD four times, ADOS likely never at this rate

Dune,Frank Herbert: six or seven times, Children/Messiah at least four times

Redwall, Brian Jacques: Not sure honestly, I first read it when i was around ten years old, I remember reading it twice that summer alone. it's gotta be in the range of 8-10

Books I feel like i must have read at least four times
The Hitchiker's Guide, Douglas Adams
1984, George Orwell
Jurassic Park, Michael Chrighton
Ice wind Dale Trilogy, R.A.Salvatore
The Books of Swords, Fred Saberhagen
Abhorsen, Garth Nix
 
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Extollager said:
I'm going to ask, to start with, that Bible readers include only the entire Bible (whether the number of books is a Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Eastern Orthodox count). This means even that, if you are sure you've read the whole New Testament many times, you won't post that. Okay?
Click to expand...

I should have worded this better, since Jewish readers may regard the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians call the Old Testament) as the Bible. That was thoughtless of me -- sorry.
 
Here's your invitation now to list books you have read three times (or more, if you haven't already done so). Please note that this thread is open to books outside the genres of sf, fantasy, and horror, though they are admissible too.

Hammett's Red Harvest
Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely
Alexander's The Castle of Llyr and Taran Wanderer
Hamsun's Mysteries
Tutuola's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
Lange's The Silver Island of the Chippewa
 
@Extollager Interesting... Returning to the well... again and again.

@pyan LOTR 30-35?!?! I did not know anyone had surpassed my 25-30. No offence but, I suspect even Mr. Tolkien might question your sanity.

The books I've read at least four times:
The Lord of the Rings.
The Silmarillion. 15-20.
The Hobbit.
The Chronicles of Narnia.
The first five John Carter books.
James and the Giant Peach, Danny, the Champion of the World, and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl.
Shogun by James Clavell.
The Day of the Jackal, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, and The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth.
Ilium by Dan Simmons.
A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords by George R. R. Martin.
Most, if not all, of the eleven Conan books in the Lancer/Ace paperback series.
The Harry Potter series.
A Darkness at Sethanon (but not the other books in the Riftwar saga) by Raymond E. Feist.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
The Three Musketeers.
Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton.
The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White.
The Cat in the Hat.
Green Eggs and Ham.
Hop on Pop.
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.
Watership Down.

The books I've read three times:
The rest of the Riftwar saga.
The Belgariad by David Eddings.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Eternity in their Hearts by Don Richardson.
The Eyes of the Dragon and Different Seasons by Stephen King.
Caesar's Commentaries.
The Sword of Shanarra by Terry Brooks.
The first three Dragonlance Chronicles.
Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie.
Les Miserables.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope.
The Deerslayer and The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper.
A Feast for Crows by Martin.
Ribsy, The Mouse and the Motorcycle, Henry Huggins, and probably others by Beverly Cleary.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien.
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander.
The Hunt for the Red October and Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy.
Knute Rockne: Young Athlete by Guernsey Riper Jr.
Andy Jackson: Boy Soldier and George Washington: Our First Leader by Augusta Stevenson.
The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World: from Marathon to Waterloo by Edmund Creasy.
Dragonflight, Dragonquest, and The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey.
Magician by Feist.
Daughter of the Empire by Janny Wurts.
The Bourne Idendtity by Robert Ludlum.

Plays:
Much Ado About Nothing.
Henry IV, Part One.
Macbeth.
Hamlet.
Cyrano de Bergerac.
 
I have read The Gruffalo, and Room On The Broom, countless times. My kids used to insist on it at bedtime. I pretty much know them off by heart. Same with Fox In Socks. At one stage I would dream of tweetle beetles battling with paddles in bottle on a poodle eating noodles. Thank goodness they have moved on to other stuff.
 
A book that I have read more than a few times is Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. The first time was when I was at school, one of the books that I had to read for English Literature CSE. I cannot remember if I enjoyed it then, however since then I have, even though it is quite a dark read.
 
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