What is Your Favorite Book, and How Many Times Have You Read It?

[terryweide]

So what book is it? Since I started this topic, I'll go first. My all time favorite author was Roger Zelazny, and my favorite book of his is Nine Princes in Amber, first published in 1970. Over the years, I've probably read it at least 20 times, enough to have parts of it memorized, and also there's a sound recording of the book with Zelazny doing the reading, that I've listened to at least six times. Anybody else read a book that many or more times?

Just curious. Terry, over and out...

 

[Leto]

In SFF world :
- Dune and its sequels written by Frank Herbert -read from 25 to 15 times depending on the book and on the time I've got my hand on it.
In general lit :
- The World according to Garp by John Irving (12 times), Philosophy in the Bedroom by Marquis de Sade (7 times) and several San-Antonio crime novels.

 

[Rosemary]

Well I have two favourite 'series books' which are well read.

'The Axis Trilogy' and 'The Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy' - a follow-on series by Sara Douglass. I have re-read all of these only 6 times so far but they are usually the ones I pick up when I am between books.

WOT would have to be the most read. Re-reading all of the previous books before the next one is due for release. Oh and plus the Prequel! So, to be quiet honest I have lost track of how many times I have re-read these !!

 

[sanityassassin]

lord of the rings by jrr toilken read at least 15 times and various david gemmell books like legend and wolf in shaddow ive read about 10 times each witches abroad ive proberly read about 10 times each as well

 

[cade]

So what book is it? Since I started this topic, I'll go first. My all time favorite author was Roger Zelazny, and my favorite book of his is Nine Princes in Amber, first published in 1970. Over the years, I've probably read it at least 20 times, enough to have parts of it memorized, and also there's a sound recording of the book with Zelazny doing the reading, that I've listened to at least six times. Anybody else read a book that many or more times?

Just curious. Terry, over and out...

The Dispossessed (Ursula LeGuin) - roughly once a year for past 10 years, for its politics and passion, and find myself rereading Iain Banks's and Ken MacLeod's books again and again, though haven't settled into annual visit. I was voting in our first reader's forum at New Scientist for best science fiction books, and found your thread when I began wondering if anyone else was running a similar debate so do head over there and get Zelazny on the list. Don't think anyone's nominated him yet. Link is http://community.newscientist.com
Cade

 

[terryweide]

Cade,

Much as I love Zelazny, I'm not sure I'd nominate him in the category of pure "space" opera. I'd probably go with either Asimov and Fondation, or with one of Heinlein's numerous books. Since no one in that forum has mentioned Heinlein, perhaps I will. Terry

 

[Thadlerian]

My favourite book? That's no question for me.
That's Watership Down by Richard Adams, of course. I think I've read it six or seven times.

I should mention Cannery Row by John Steinbeck too, it's my second favourite. Read it three times.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Within the sf/fantasy world, I'd have to say my favorite is Kage Baker's Company series (can't single out one book in the series). I've read through the series at least four or five times since I discovered it.

Outside the sf/fantasy genre, my favorite book by far is a book called The Longest Cave, by Roger Brucker and Richard Watson. It is the true story of the connection of two cave systems in Kentucky by a group of spelunkers over a period of around twenty years. It's just a really neat book about friendship and persistence and the joy of reaching a long-held goal. Probably, if you've never been inside a cave it would be difficult to understand how cool they are, but this book just captivated me the first time I read it. I can't say for sure how many times I've read it, but it has to be at least 10 to 15 times over the years. If I owned a copy it would probably be more.

 

[Brys]

Either Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake or Memories of Ice by Steven Erikson. Just to show a change in the trend - I've only read them once. The only books I have ever re-read are Gardens of the Moon and Deadhouse Gates (also by Steven Erikson). I don't really have enough time to re-read books much though, and as I have nearly 100 books to read, I'd feel guilty about spending time reading books I've already read.

Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber was a great novel, though.

How do you all have time to re-read these books so much? Perhaps I'm just a slow reader, but I thought I was about average speed for these forums.

 

[Rane Longfox]

My favorite book is Erikson's "Memories of Ice", which I have read five or six times. My most-read book, however, is Gardens of the Moon, by the same author, which I have read 16 times!!

 

[terryweide]

How do you all have time to re-read these books so much? Perhaps I'm just a slow reader, but I thought I was about average speed for these forums.

Remember that in reference to my favorite, Nine Prices in Amber, it came out in 1970. That's 35 years ago now. I probably read it for the first time in 1974, meaning I've had 31 years to reread it when I wanted to. I think that with a lot of people, if they discover a favorite book or series, they will read that book/books many times over the years. I suppose it's a desire to revisit a fictional world of fantasy and creativity that for whatever reason, spoke the most to them personally or may have had played the greatest role in opening the doors to their imaginations. I've read Nine Princes and the first Amber series so many times I halfway think Amber is a real place. Maybe it is--if nowhere else, it does live in my imagination.

As to reading speed, I got a humbling experience in that regard myself a few years back. I belong to a local Great Books discussion group, a group that reads the classics of Western and World literature, Plato, Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, etc. Pick a classic author, and we've probably read him/her.

Anyway, at one of the book meetings, a question was asked as to the overall number of books each member of the group had read to date. I gave it some thought and said, "Well, if you count all the books I've read since grade school on up, I very well could have read a little over 2,000." Smug person that I am, I thought 2,000 was quite a bit. A lady sitting across the table from me, however, looked aghast, and said, "Is that all?" She'd read more like 10,000. Bottom line--some people read, and if they read fast, or if they're the type that truly does get immersed in a book, you're not going to catch them in terms of overall books read.

However, I'll suggest reading speed is a personal matter. Just because you or I may not have read as many books as someone else, does not mean our reading experiences are any less valid than theirs. Also, their ability to analyze a book or to discuss it, may not be any better than your ability or mine. In other words, some people read a lot because they like to read, and that's wonderful, but it doesn't necessarily transform them into super geniuses.

Think I'll stop now as I seem to have gone off on a tangent. Good question, though. Best wishes, Terry

 

[ommigosh]

I might go for Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy as my favourite book. Must have read it at least ten times now. It still makes me laugh and has a lot of classic moments in it. At the time (about a quarter of a century ago!) it was quite groundbreaking in that it brought humour to SF in a big way. The writing style is just so laid back and superb that it leaves you always wanting more (of which there is plenty with several sequels of varying charm). It is really great to see people delightfully discovering the book for the first time even now after the recent film version.

 

[Esioul]

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and Anna Karennina by Leo Tolstoy. Also That Hideous Strengh by C S Lewis.

 

[Prefx]

Dan Simmon's Hyperion just stuck with me. I'm the type of person who can't stand rereading unless I forget main point of the plots/certan instances, but I read that thing at least a dozen times from cover to back.

 

[Jason_Taverner]

swan song 3 times I do hope everyone has read it

 

[Animaiden]

Well, I don't have a favorie most read book. The Belgariad and Mallorean series' by David Edings are my absoulte favorite. I have read them (note: all 10 books) about 10 times now. Hmm, I think I need to read them again.

For an actual single book, has to be Dealing with Dragons by Patrica Wrede. I've probably read it about 15 times so far.

 

[MoonLover]

My most read books would have to be;
Lord of the Rings - at least 20 times
Watership Down - a dozen times
Jonathan Livingstone Seagull - hundreds of times! (it's my bible!)
Other books that I've re-read include all of Sara Douglass, Robin Hobb's and Anne Rice's works.

Karen

 

[Teir]

Favourite book?!........um..tick tick tick BOOM !..
*teir's brain tries to formulate an answer and in the process blows itself up*

I'm not even going to try to narrow that down to a single novel. But i find that even if a book is one of those I put on a pedestal, it doesn't mean I will re-read it. Just like with movies I tend to have those which can only be viewed or read once. Maybe i'll go through the book to read certain sections or lines when i get the need, but to read them again doesn't feel right.....i know this sounds weird but there are books which, for myself, shouldn't be read over and over, at least for a while. It steals the emotion and importance away.....
Then again, there are those that you can do that with.
ok, i'm raving now, sorry guys

 

[Culhwch]

Couldn't name a single book, so I'll name a handful that I tend to reread annually. The Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, A Song of Ice and Fire by George Martin, and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. All read and read again probably around ten times apiece....

 

[GOLLUM]

Well Terry, I don't reread books as a rule but the only one I've read probably 4 times is LOTR. Not my fav book ever BUT I read this a number of times when I was younger. These days I don't reread really, even Erikson's books.....