Your Most Read Book!!!

[harri2000]

Okay so it's quite common to watch a film a few times, but do any of you have a book that you would or have read several times over???

I have two books that fall into this category. The first being 'Fluke' by the Horror novelist James Herbert, and then there's a Sci-Fi classic 'Enders Game' by Orson Scott Card.

Any recommendations from you guys that we might discuss?

 

[Alan B'Stard]

Cloud Atlas was once on a list of books started but never finished in the Grauniaud which I took as a challenge, ended up reading it twice and also buying an audio version as well, soon to be made into a film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_%28novel%29

 

[mickyboy]

My most read book was another James Herbert novel - The Rats.

Might have to dig it out and pass a few hours by one of these days.

Also read Quadrophenia a few times when i was younger.

 

[tek-monkey]

Imajica - Clive Barker. Also Dune (Frank Herbert).

Have read the Rats loads of times, preferred Domain though. Fluke I first read at 10, suprised me when I read the Rats a few weeks later!

 

[harri2000]

My most read book was another James Herbert novel - The Rats.

Oh yes.... I loved the whole Trilogy ... Rats, Lair and Domain.

I may need to get hold of them again too!!

 

[Em L]

I also loved Imajica, Dean Koontz - Dark Rivers of the Heart, Stephen King - The Stand, John Ajvide Lindqvist - Let the Right One In, and was disturbed how much I enjoyed Bret Easton Ellis - American Psycho

 

[Withnail]

"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him."

I once started reading Catch 22 immediately after finishing it - that was not the first time i had read it, nor was it to be the last. Quality.

 

[Florence]

Currently on about my 6th run through the Harry Potter books.
Sorry.
I also reread Weaveworld and Imajica a few times.
A lot of people don't understand the pleasure you get from reading a book again.

 

[Em L]

Most people I know can't even work their way through a book once, never mind over and over. I must have over 600 books in my living room and I think thats probably a conservative estimate! Luckily my kids take after me, they have a crammed book shelf all of their own

 

[ToriRat]

I keep rereading the Terry Goodkind sword of truth series and also Simon R Greens Deathstalker opus. I'd say every book I own has been read at least twice.

Oh and John Varley- Titan, Wizard and Demon are simply fabulous

 

[Scoot Doggy Dogg]

"It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him."

I once started reading Catch 22 immediately after finishing it - that was not the first time i had read it, nor was it to be the last. Quality.

Exactly my first thought when I started thinking of books I have read more than once.

Unlike most I would guess, I also enjoyed Closing Time too.

 

[harri2000]

Most people I know can't even work their way through a book once, never mind over and over. I must have over 600 books in my living room and I think thats probably a conservative estimate! Luckily my kids take after me, they have a crammed book shelf all of their own

I can feel a book swap coming on here!!! hehe

Don't have quite that many, but my kids like reading too. Callum is currently hooked on the 'Skullduggery Pleasant' series.

 

[Withnail]

Cloud Atlas was once on a list of books started but never finished in the Grauniaud which I took as a challenge, ended up reading it twice and also buying an audio version as well, soon to be made into a film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_%28novel%29

This is actually the last work of fiction i read. I don't remember it overly well except for remembering enjoying it despite not being that into sci-fi (the latter part of it that is).

I read it after having read Black Swan Green, which, though i enjoyed, i thought rather an odd book, solely because i could only envisage it being of interest to quite a narrow demographic. If you haven't read it i would recommend it, seeing as you fall into said demographic.

I now have to revise my estimates as to the last time i read a work of fiction - i had reckoned it to be the best part of a decade but it must be more like half that.

 

[Alan B'Stard]

Cloud Atlas was once on a list of books started but never finished in the Grauniaud which I took as a challenge, ended up reading it twice and also buying an audio version as well, soon to be made into a film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Atlas_%28novel%29

This is actually the last work of fiction i read. I don't remember it overly well except for remembering enjoying it despite not being that into sci-fi (the latter part of it that is).

I read it after having read Black Swan Green, which, though i enjoyed, i thought rather an odd book, solely because i could only envisage it being of interest to quite a narrow demographic. If you haven't read it i would recommend it, seeing as you fall into said demographic.

I now have to revise my estimates as to the last time i read a work of fiction - i had reckoned it to be the best part of a decade but it must be more like half that.

I read Black Swan Green afterwards and thought it was OK, the bit's I enjoyed were the charecter overlaps with Cloud Atlas more than anything, that's certainly the most I remember.

The only other book I've read over and over again has been Brave New World and possibly the Communist Manifesto.

 

[Withnail]

I had the (mis?) fortune of reading literature at polyversity. My approach to reading was to read once to enjoy the book, twice to see how it was written and a third time to see whether it was still enjoyable once you'd appreciated how it had been written. It is an approach i would recommend if you have the time, but one that is impractical if you don't.

With something like The Heart of Darkness(~90 pages), which anybody who has watched Apocalypse Now! not only should read but REALLY SHOULD read, it is easily done - with Middlemarch(~900 pages), which anybody who has lived in England should also read, it's a bigger ask.

It is a very instructive approach though, and one i would recommend if you are deadline-free. I can pretty much guarantee that if a book can withstand three readings it is a book of note, even if only to yourself.

My only note of caution to this kind of suspension of the suspension of disbelief is summed up by our dear old Wordsworth;

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:
We murder to dissect.

Books are good if you believe them to be so.

Innit.


P.S. I appreciate it's not exactly, well not entirely, well maybe even just plain not, Chick Lit - but everybody should read Catch 22 - you'll love it.

 

[tek-monkey]

I had the (mis?) fortune of reading literature at polyversity. My approach to reading was to read once to enjoy the book, twice to see how it was written and a third time to see whether it was still enjoyable once you'd appreciated how it had been written. It is an approach i would recommend if you have the time, but one that is impractical if you don't.

Every time I read Imajica I see something new. Be it as simple as a name I misjudged (happens often!) or an angle to the story I hadn't first comprehended, every reading feels different. There are few books I can put into that category, frequent house moves have meant my library is at a minimum, but as said Dune is another. The rats books are classics, but work more on my memories than on new interpretation. I loved them as a kid and they have a permanent place in my mind that its nice to revisit.

 

[Withnail]

The rats books are classics, but work more on my memories than on new interpretation. I loved them as a kid and they have a permanent place in my mind that its nice to revisit.

I have the same thing with Winnie the Pooh.

 

[age'd parent]

I can't belive that no one mentioned Terry Pratchett, I have every one of his on my Kindle and am working through them for the second time,
some of them for the third time.
That said I also have most pf Frank Herbert's books as well, Charlaine Harris the Sooky Stackhouse novels is another light reading about vampires etc, that I like,
but I have about 200 books on the Kindle now waiting to be read, every thing from Treasure island to Ben Elton.
I am still looking for Gormenghast (spelling?) by Mervyn Peake now there's a book that needs to be read twice.

 

[shoes]

I can't belive that no one mentioned Terry Pratchett, I have every one of his on my Kindle and am working through them for the second time,
some of them for the third time.
That said I also have most pf Frank Herbert's books as well, Charlaine Harris the Sooky Stackhouse novels is another light reading about vampires etc, that I like,
but I have about 200 books on the Kindle now waiting to be read, every thing from Treasure island to Ben Elton.
I am still looking for Gormenghast (spelling?) by Mervyn Peake now there's a book that needs to be read twice.

Funnily enough I got the whole discworld series last week for the kindle (software, that is).

Not started them yet but I have read quite a few before.

 

[tek-monkey]

TBH I'm at least 5 reads through most TP books, some (thinking Small Gods) more like 10!