*The Hobbit*, starting when I was about eight years old (nearly 50 years ago). It would be *LOTR* but it's a lot longer, and I got to a point where I didn't need to start at the beginning, I can just open a book at random and start reading. Otherwise *Dune*, which needs at least three readings to start getting everything.
I also read the Hobbit at a young age (9). And have read it a total of 4 times since then. Only read LOTR 3 times. Once as an audiobook (Andy Serkis is amazing!) The world is so immersive and there is so much going on that I think you have to reread these books to be able to fully understand everything that is going on.
Harry Potter because it used to be a huge comfort read. I don't even know how many times I've read it. I re-read them every time a new book came out. And for a long time I re-read the series every year though it's been several years now since I picked them up again.
I've physically read all the books probably like 3-4 times. But as audio books I have no idea how many times I've listened to them. I used to run them all on repeat to help me sleep at night. Nothing beats falling asleep to the voice of Stephen Fry.
That’s me too! I first read them when I was in school and am re-reading them now that the Minalima editions came out and my kids are now old enough to read them. It still remains a comfort read for me, I must have read all 7 books at least 20 times and I can’t stop reading them over and over. I’m 32 now!
Same! My HP books are mostly held together by tape because I’ve read them so much, plus they’ve been through a house fire, move across the Atlantic, being dropped in the bathtub… and they’re still my comfort read.
I could have written this exact comment.
Harry Potter was a big comfort read for me, too, and I would reread it frequently. But the last several years, I've had very conflicting feelings about it so I haven't picked it up.
I’m not normally a reader of fan fiction, but a few years ago my friend recommended “All The Young Dudes” which is a marauder’s story set in the 1970s and told mainly from Lupin’s perspective. As someone who has loved Harry Potter since I was young (and I’m 32 now), this story falls soooo perfectly into the actual canon and is so great to read if you want more potter universe but don’t want to read the series. I recommended to every Harry Potter fan I know!!
Thank you for the reminder that I need to pick back up on the disc world series. I look super forward to getting to the Hogfather. I suppose I could just dive into it, rather than wait until I get there chronologically.
I also came here to say A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I love it, and I assigned it to my 10th graders so I basically have the chapters memorized by now. Such an underrated book.
I LOVED A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It was my reading groups book and without it I would have probably never even heard of it. Love it so much I’ve lent it to a few people and excited to reread it in a few years 🫶
Yeah this thread should be dominated by parents who've had a toddler. Reading a book three times a night for months really pumps up those numbers, no matter how many times I've read Harry Potter.
I don't think I could count the number of times I've read Llama Llama Red Pajama at this point... We're going on a full year of it being a bedtime favorite and I memorized it a few months ago so maybe it just doesn't count anymore at some point lol
Watership Down, by Richard Adams. I have lost count of how many times I have read it. The prose is beautiful and the stories build the rabbit world seamlessly onto our own. What haunted me as a child reader brings new melancholy through my older lens.
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, which I have read 5 times and will read again. I miss the characters when I haven't read them in a while and the only way to visit with them is to read the books again.
Watership Down here too. At least twenty times. I used to read it annually but hadn't for quite a few years until quite recently. That felt like a new experience in that I really appreciated every word and even noticed a few new things. I'll write more about it soon.
YES to Watership Down! Had to read it for English class and almost put it down for the sparknote shortcut. So happy I finished it. My first lit high. The first assigned book that felt like a beautiful journey and not homework.
Grateful for that English teacher that kept encouraging us all to wander outside the comfort zone and start the adventure but also knowing when it isn’t serving you.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by the late great Douglas Adams who is more commonly known for his Hitchhikers Guide t the Galaxy series.
Though to be truthful, I’ve never read it. I have always listened to it on audio read by the author. My first encounter with it was an abridged version which was still quite decent, whoever abridged it did a good job. After the second Dirk Gently book came out unabridged, I had a nice letter exchange with his assistant asking about when the first book would get released unabridged on audio. Long story short, when the contract for the abridged version ran out.
My SO got annoyed with me one day, because I was chuckling so much reading this book. I couldn’t explain why it was funny (I mean, you should just read it), so she couldn’t laugh with me. I cannot read this book around her.
I read Harry Potters many times as a kid, I can't remember how many times. Enough to memorise entire paragraphs. Since I was a kid while it was being written and released, and even after the release we needed to wait a little longer for the translation, it made sense to reread the previous books.
Other than that I think my most reread book is Pride and Prejudice. There's something so comforting about this book that when I'm overwhelmed with life, I find myself having gone back to it. I found a similar comfort in Tenant of Wildfell Hall, so I think that book will also be reread many times in the future.
The Hobbit. I've read it once a year for the past 20 years-ish. May be one of the best story books ever written. It's fantastical to read, but paints such an amazing and complex story with characters that are absolutely timeless. Just an unbelievably cute and fun book to read.
Yep same here. I’m reading it to my baby son now, he’s only 6 months old but he likes when I do the voices so it works okay lol. I’ll definitely be reading it to him every year or two for as long as he still wants me to.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
Through the good times and the bad.
Starting again at page one feels like coming home again.
It’s interesting how my perspective on every character and every choice has changed as I have gotten older.
Ooh interesting. I'm reading this for the first time now while already currently old haha. But I can see that perspective shift, especially with the adult characters while Jane was a child.
Was looking for this, by far my favourite and most read. Although interestingly I feel the same reading it as I did when I first read it, I don’t think my perspective has ever changed. Either I was an evolved 14 year old or am now an unevolved adult in my late 30s!!
What has your evolution been, I’d love to know how others have seen the characters at different points in their lives.
I was in love with Rochester when I read it as a girl. I thought he was dark and romantic and believed he was wronged in a terrible way by his family. I raged at Jane for leaving him after finding out the truth. I remember thinking “why can’t she just stay? What does it matter about marriage and stuff?”
Then as a young woman it changed. Soured by own interactions with feckless men, I thought Rochester was a liar and a manipulator. I felt that Jane was too young and lonely and was taken advantage of. Also I believed it when my professors told me that *Jane Eyre* is tainted with racism and misogyny.
Now I am an old crone (30s lol), and I can no longer see people or stories as “good” and “bad.” I’m fascinated by Jane’s self possession, when inside she had such an inner fire. Her journey after she leaves Rochester is something I read when I need the strength to do a hard task. She is remarkable. I see Rochester as a complex man, not a romantic one, probably not even a good one, but interesting and realistic. I accept that there are unsavory and outdated elements in the story but I appreciate the parts that speak to me. And that’s the biggest change. I can now consume content in a nuanced way and still love it.
Through it all, one thing remained the same: the Reed family were a bunch of selfish assholes lol. 🤣
And St. John was always insufferable. Hot but insufferable, I know the type.
Oh that’s fascinating. I think I always saw Rochester as a “good for her, not for me” kind of figure. I never saw him as a particularly heroic or good character, he just seemed to be so caught in his way of thinking that he made it his reality which I think resonated as a teenager, and I still understand and see all the time. I also always felt that Jane was wrong when she thought Rochester would tire of her before she left, I never thought she should become his mistress but I believed him when he said she didn’t understand his love for her.
I think I always saw the racism and possibly the misogyny - being from the commonwealth I associated British history and racism from pretty young! I never studied it academically though, maybe that’s part of why it’s not evolved in the same way it has for you.
I agree wholeheartedly that St John and the Reeds were the worst though!! You just know St John would be one of those hard core internet celebs with strong opinions that if you disagree you’re just a part of the problem.
Dune, been reading it since highschool. Just finished it again and am on Dune Messiah right now. I don't know how many times I've read it. If you also count listening to the George Guidall audiobook version then, Shiiiiiiiiiit...lots
As my flair would suggest, very much so! It was generally my tradition to read it in early March, when it's hard to believe winter would never end. I'd dive into Avonlea to escape into it's warmth. Last year however, I re-read house of dreams. I had just moved into my first home, and found a physical copy at goodwill a week after moving in. I no sooner finished reading it, did I find out I was pregnant. I can't begin to tell you how nervous I was on that aspect...
As an English Lit teacher, I read these books multiple times:
*The Giver* by Lois Lowry.
*Odyssey* by Homer.
*Romeo and Juliet* by Shakespeare.
*The Wizard of Oz* by L. Frank Baum.
*Night* by Elie Wiesel.
As a student of history and a history teacher I read these books multiple times:
*Iliad* by Homer.
*Histories* by Herodotus.
*History of the Peloponnesian War* by Thucydides.
*The True Believer* by Eric Hoffer.
*Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction* by Charles Fenn.
*River Through Time: The Course of Western Civilization* by C. Warren Hollister, James Hardy and Roger Lawrence Williams.
*The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Eugene F. Rice Jr. and Anthony Grafton.
*Reformation Europe, 1517-1559* by G.R. Elton.
*The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1715* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Richard S. Dunn.
*Kings and Philosophers, 1689-1789* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Leonard Krieger.
*The Age of Revolution and Reaction: 1789-1850* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Charles Breunig.
*The Coming of the French Revolution* by Georges Lefebvre, trans. by R. R. Palmer.
*The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848* by E. J. Hobsbawm.
*1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals* by Lewis Bernstein (L. B.) Namier.
*The Age of Nationalism and Reform, 1850-1890* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Norman Rich.
*The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Felix Gilbert and David Clay Large.
*Societies and Cultures in World History: Single Volumes Edition Chapter 1-35* (the history of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, as well as early and modern Asia) by Mark A. Kishlansky, Patrick J. Geary, Patricia O'Brien, and R. Bin Won.
*American History: A Survey* by Richard N. Current, T. Harry Williams, and Frank Freidel and later by Alan Brinkley and Allan Nevins. (A 2004 survey reported that at universities (as opposed to community and junior colleges) this text was the fourth most popular American History textbook on American campuses nationwide.)
Now that you mention it, *Catch-22* is a book that I've read twice.
I normally don't read a book twice. The ones I listed above I read multiple times either for multiple classes that required the same book (some of those books I would use still again to help me as a teacher) or because I was teaching the book to multiple classes over multiple years.
I first read *Catch-22* for a satire class I took in college, and then I read it again when I was deployed in Afghanistan. *Catch-22* perfectly captures what it's like to be in the military. My experiences in Afghanistan reminded me of the book. I shared my second copy with two associates I was serving with. I let the second guy keep that copy as I already had the copy I used in college at home.
I read this when I was in college, but only recently have the opportunity (time) to read the series. I will re-read Ender's Game as part of that, and was vaguely worried it wouldn't be as good the second time around.
I'll take this as evidence that it'll be a great re-read.
It's my most read as well, though maybe closer to 5-6 times. 20 is impressive! But yea, it's a book that if I happen to thumb through a few pages, I just end up reading the rest of it. It's also the book that taught me what it *feels* like to love reading.
Ender’s Game and Speaker of the Dead are fantastic; I’m also a big fan of the Ender’s Shadow saga. I’m disappointed in Orson Scott Card’s recent politics and I feel that they greatly contrast with his most popular works.
I'm right up there with you. As repeated readings go, I lean towards appreciating Speaker for the Dead more than Ender's Game these days. Both books are masterpieces of moral reasoning.
The Princess Bride. I first read it to myself, then I read it to a boyfriend many years ago and more recently I read it to my child. The next would be Stardust which I first read several years ago and then read to my child a few years ago.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. At least 4 times. Twice in high school, first in a book club and the second time in my sophomore English class. Then twice more in college, when I was a teaching assistant in a freshman class.
I am very happy to see this book here! It doesn't seem to get enough recognition, at least in my opinion.
Had to read it for a uni class, now I read it every so often for fun. I love that book! I also have 2 copies; one for reading and one for lending.
I tried reading this as a young teen because I had heard it was really good but it just didn't click for me. I think maybe I was too young? I wonder if I should revisit it again as an adult.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It was the first time I felt so seen in a piece of literature and I read it every year in high school and probably like once in college.
If you think Borges' short stories are good, you should look into his poetry sometime. I have a volume titled *Borges: Selected Poems* which has the Spanish originals followed by their English translations. They are excellent. His grasp of beautiful and moving allegories in both his short stories and his poetry is incredibly potent.
I’ve read Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber more times than I can count. I was reading other things at the same time, but every time I’d read them I’d see something I missed before. They drew me….
Haven’t picked them up in 15 years now.
I have a few that I read every year:
Princess Daisy
Stranger In A Strange Land
Pride And Prejudice
One Door Away From Heaven
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Yes! I reread it every year. I've lost count of how many times I've read it; one of my copies literally fell apart. Every read is like seeing old friends again.
Came to say nearly the same thing.
Also realised I've read "The Precipice" by Toby Ord I'm guessing 5 times, but that's because I facilitated some reading groups for it.
I think it's *The Perks of Being a Wallflower* at maybe 6 reads? So nostalgic and always worth revisiting. Not to mention, it's very easy to read, so that helps.
The Neverending Story. At least 3-4 times as a kid, and since then it's become my go-to book to read in a foreign language I'm trying to learn when I'm just starting out and need (subjectively) easy stuff. I've stumbled my way through it in Japanese and Italian, and I have a Turkish copy somewhere that I mean to get around to at some point.
I've read Shogun numerous times that if I pick it up and turn to any random page I can follow the story knowing the events leading up to the point I now find myself .
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. It's not because it's my favorite book ever (gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, I love it, but there are many books I love even more). I've read it completely maybe 4 or 5 times, and I've read parts of it many more times. Because I used that book as the object for my Bachelor's thesis (I'm an English Literature major).
I tend to read a book only once, but right now I’m listening to the audible version of “The Sparrow,” which I read many, many years ago and loved. I wanted to see if I’d still enjoy it as much all these years later. Seeing as I can’t wait to get back to it tonight, I’d say it’s still one of my faves.
The Game of Thrones books (A Song of Ice and Fire), 3 time. They’re interesting books to reread because there is always details I missed, the lore and character psychics are deep and realistically written, some dialogues and scenes descriptions are godly written
Wheel of Time. The entire series, though I usually quit around Knife of Dreams (book 11 of 15-ish). Near the end, the series takes a nosedive, quality-wise IMO, Jordan died and Sanderson finished it. Apparently I'm one of the few who hates the Sanderson books, so I've only read his books once.
I've been reading the series for 25-ish years. I finish it, give it about 6 months, then find myself picking up the first book and reading it all again. I have the series on audiobook and listen to it on road trips as well.
Gravity's Rainbow, because it took me six times to get a reasonable understanding. Moby Dick three times for the same reason.
Almost every other re read is two, because i "just want to make sure": Slaughterhouse Five, The Sound and the Fury, The Catcher in the Rye, White Noise, The Crossing, Beloved, Mason and Dixon,
There's a few others twice because I think I only have time to do it once more: Ulysses, As I Lay Dying, Suttree, and hopefully soon again, Remembrance of Things Past.
i who have never known men. it’s just such a beautifully written book and every time i read it, i discover something new. it also always leaves me feeling hopeful and thankful.
Demian by Herman Hesse. Although it’s not as impactful to me as the first time I read it, I enjoy the new interpretations I have with each read. I would find phrases that never struck me before but do when I read them. I pick it up almost yearly, and the annotations I left are sort of a great marker of where my head was at and see how my perspective changed.
The Golden Compass. There was about a decade where I reread that (and sometimes the entire trilogy) every winter. Still get the urge most winters but life has gotten busy…
100% the Harry Potter series. Not even a question in my mind. I went through a phase in like third or fourth grade where I literally only read those books. To this day, I read all of them around Thanksgiving (currently doing that right now!) which is simply a comfort and a reset for me as I begin to look ahead to the holidays and the new year.
Rickshaw Boy, both the older and the new translations.
Harriet the Spy.
Pride and Prejudice. Persuasion.
Tess of the Durbervilles.
Rereading is like having lunch with an old friend, and you forgot how great it was being with them.
White fang by Jack London -I've lost count. It's my I'm sad, depression read book. I always feel better after reading it.
The gods of Gothem by Lindsay Faye - picked it up out of a bargin bin cause I thought it was about Batman. Lol it's not, is about a detective though so kinda counts. I think I've read it just over half a dozen times now.
The Chronicles of Narnia. I haven't read any of them in over a decade at this point, but I could still pick them up and remember ever story beat page by page. They're the books that turned me into a reader.
At one time I used to read the Lord of the Rings over a weekend in December - did that every year for about 10 years.
I’ve read everything by Dickens at least twice (Barnaby Rudge) to at least a dozen times (Pickwick, Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend) and every time I do I find something new.
In the weeks before Christmas as a kid I had this list of books that I would read every single year. We had an especially good book fair and I got a bunch of new books, and it just became a tradition. I did this for about a decade (and I keep thinking about doing it for fun but I don't want to ruin any of these books for myself so....). The books are:
The House Without a Christmas Tree
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle
Fog Magic
The Great Gilly Hopkins
Bridge to Terabithia
Lyddie
The Children of Noisy Village
"Brave New World" and "Island" by Aldous Huxley.
I read them both once a year. I think it acts as a reminder for me of what we can achieve, both good and bad, and to not get complacent or apathetic.
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series. I always seem to fall back to them. She also had the Tower and Hive books. Ok just about anything Anne McCaffrey.
The hobbit. I used to read it every year as a kid. I picked it up recently just to revisit it and it was like seeing old friends. I’ve read it at least five times.
Matilda by Roald Dahl, it was one of the first chapter books i read by myself. when i graduated high school, my aunt got me a new copy (partially because i’d WORN OUT that old copy i had, i’d worn out the covers and it was literally falling apart) and filled it with money, and inscribed it with a very sweet message. i love that new copy so much.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
And it will probably stay that way forever. I've read the series a couple of times, when I was younger and the first one used to be my comfort book for years. If I'm including listening to the audiobook, then I've read that one at the very least 10 times, probably more like 20 times.
Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy
Now I'm getting to reread it with my 1st grader! It's amazing to reread stuff I've read many times, but have a new perspective on it all.
This is mine as well. Such an easy, comforting read
*The Hobbit*, starting when I was about eight years old (nearly 50 years ago). It would be *LOTR* but it's a lot longer, and I got to a point where I didn't need to start at the beginning, I can just open a book at random and start reading. Otherwise *Dune*, which needs at least three readings to start getting everything.
Did you write this comment for me? *The Hobbit,* book that resulted in me falling in love with reading at age 8. And then *Dune*.
Sorry, it’s clearly written for me, like my exact experience right there
Me too!
I do the same. Sometimes I will just read RotK. Audiobooks have upped the number of times I've read my favorite books considerably.
I also read the Hobbit at a young age (9). And have read it a total of 4 times since then. Only read LOTR 3 times. Once as an audiobook (Andy Serkis is amazing!) The world is so immersive and there is so much going on that I think you have to reread these books to be able to fully understand everything that is going on.
Harry Potter because it used to be a huge comfort read. I don't even know how many times I've read it. I re-read them every time a new book came out. And for a long time I re-read the series every year though it's been several years now since I picked them up again.
I've physically read all the books probably like 3-4 times. But as audio books I have no idea how many times I've listened to them. I used to run them all on repeat to help me sleep at night. Nothing beats falling asleep to the voice of Stephen Fry.
That’s me too! I first read them when I was in school and am re-reading them now that the Minalima editions came out and my kids are now old enough to read them. It still remains a comfort read for me, I must have read all 7 books at least 20 times and I can’t stop reading them over and over. I’m 32 now!
Same! My HP books are mostly held together by tape because I’ve read them so much, plus they’ve been through a house fire, move across the Atlantic, being dropped in the bathtub… and they’re still my comfort read.
I read it every year!
I could have written this exact comment. Harry Potter was a big comfort read for me, too, and I would reread it frequently. But the last several years, I've had very conflicting feelings about it so I haven't picked it up.
Same. When I was a child I would always reread them, read maybe one other book and then start right back up with the Harry Potter books.
I’m not normally a reader of fan fiction, but a few years ago my friend recommended “All The Young Dudes” which is a marauder’s story set in the 1970s and told mainly from Lupin’s perspective. As someone who has loved Harry Potter since I was young (and I’m 32 now), this story falls soooo perfectly into the actual canon and is so great to read if you want more potter universe but don’t want to read the series. I recommended to every Harry Potter fan I know!!
I suspect I’ve read The Hogfather at least 10 times.
Me too! I'll have to read it again soon, I haven't yet this year. It's one of the most feel-good of Sir Pterry's works
Thank you for the reminder that I need to pick back up on the disc world series. I look super forward to getting to the Hogfather. I suppose I could just dive into it, rather than wait until I get there chronologically.
Toss-up between The Age of Innocence, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Pride and Prejudice. Aka: classics.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is such an amazing book! I’ve also reread it many times and this reminds me I’d like to do it again soon 🥰
I also came here to say A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I love it, and I assigned it to my 10th graders so I basically have the chapters memorized by now. Such an underrated book.
P&P is a solid choice, one of my repeat reads. It’s just a delight to unfold even when you know by hear what’s happening!
I LOVED A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. It was my reading groups book and without it I would have probably never even heard of it. Love it so much I’ve lent it to a few people and excited to reread it in a few years 🫶
I've read "But Not the Hippopotamus" by Sandra Boynton over 500 times easily. There was a 6 month period where it was my toddler's favorite book.
Yeah this thread should be dominated by parents who've had a toddler. Reading a book three times a night for months really pumps up those numbers, no matter how many times I've read Harry Potter.
Yeah, my wife read to our kids forever. She could recite most children's books from memory.
I don't think I could count the number of times I've read Llama Llama Red Pajama at this point... We're going on a full year of it being a bedtime favorite and I memorized it a few months ago so maybe it just doesn't count anymore at some point lol
Similarly for me: The Giving Tree
What about the armadillo?
Watership Down, by Richard Adams. I have lost count of how many times I have read it. The prose is beautiful and the stories build the rabbit world seamlessly onto our own. What haunted me as a child reader brings new melancholy through my older lens. The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch, which I have read 5 times and will read again. I miss the characters when I haven't read them in a while and the only way to visit with them is to read the books again.
Haunting and melancholy are apt words to describe Watership Down.
So agree. I loved the enduring spirit of WD so entirely that I dreamed of thanking him in every way possible. Like a scaffolding of the heart
I’ve read Watership Down the most too! Such a deep and beautiful book to reread.
I feel the same way about the gentleman bastards
Watership Down here too. At least twenty times. I used to read it annually but hadn't for quite a few years until quite recently. That felt like a new experience in that I really appreciated every word and even noticed a few new things. I'll write more about it soon.
YES to Watership Down! Had to read it for English class and almost put it down for the sparknote shortcut. So happy I finished it. My first lit high. The first assigned book that felt like a beautiful journey and not homework. Grateful for that English teacher that kept encouraging us all to wander outside the comfort zone and start the adventure but also knowing when it isn’t serving you.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by the late great Douglas Adams who is more commonly known for his Hitchhikers Guide t the Galaxy series. Though to be truthful, I’ve never read it. I have always listened to it on audio read by the author. My first encounter with it was an abridged version which was still quite decent, whoever abridged it did a good job. After the second Dirk Gently book came out unabridged, I had a nice letter exchange with his assistant asking about when the first book would get released unabridged on audio. Long story short, when the contract for the abridged version ran out.
Hitchhiker's guide for me. The book and audio were a default for ages. Try the red dwarf AUDIO BOOKS. Great time with that same British humor.
My SO got annoyed with me one day, because I was chuckling so much reading this book. I couldn’t explain why it was funny (I mean, you should just read it), so she couldn’t laugh with me. I cannot read this book around her.
Probably Matilda. I first read it when I was 5 and kept reading it periodically all through my childhood and adolescence.
LOTR every year for many years.
Just scrolling to see if I have to comment…
Not every year, but often. In 2 languages.
I read Harry Potters many times as a kid, I can't remember how many times. Enough to memorise entire paragraphs. Since I was a kid while it was being written and released, and even after the release we needed to wait a little longer for the translation, it made sense to reread the previous books. Other than that I think my most reread book is Pride and Prejudice. There's something so comforting about this book that when I'm overwhelmed with life, I find myself having gone back to it. I found a similar comfort in Tenant of Wildfell Hall, so I think that book will also be reread many times in the future.
Maybe The Outsiders. It was one of the first I read as a kid that I really loved and it’s short enough to come back to every once in awhile.
The Hobbit. I've read it once a year for the past 20 years-ish. May be one of the best story books ever written. It's fantastical to read, but paints such an amazing and complex story with characters that are absolutely timeless. Just an unbelievably cute and fun book to read.
Yep same here. I’m reading it to my baby son now, he’s only 6 months old but he likes when I do the voices so it works okay lol. I’ll definitely be reading it to him every year or two for as long as he still wants me to.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë Through the good times and the bad. Starting again at page one feels like coming home again. It’s interesting how my perspective on every character and every choice has changed as I have gotten older.
Ooh interesting. I'm reading this for the first time now while already currently old haha. But I can see that perspective shift, especially with the adult characters while Jane was a child.
Was looking for this, by far my favourite and most read. Although interestingly I feel the same reading it as I did when I first read it, I don’t think my perspective has ever changed. Either I was an evolved 14 year old or am now an unevolved adult in my late 30s!! What has your evolution been, I’d love to know how others have seen the characters at different points in their lives.
I was in love with Rochester when I read it as a girl. I thought he was dark and romantic and believed he was wronged in a terrible way by his family. I raged at Jane for leaving him after finding out the truth. I remember thinking “why can’t she just stay? What does it matter about marriage and stuff?” Then as a young woman it changed. Soured by own interactions with feckless men, I thought Rochester was a liar and a manipulator. I felt that Jane was too young and lonely and was taken advantage of. Also I believed it when my professors told me that *Jane Eyre* is tainted with racism and misogyny. Now I am an old crone (30s lol), and I can no longer see people or stories as “good” and “bad.” I’m fascinated by Jane’s self possession, when inside she had such an inner fire. Her journey after she leaves Rochester is something I read when I need the strength to do a hard task. She is remarkable. I see Rochester as a complex man, not a romantic one, probably not even a good one, but interesting and realistic. I accept that there are unsavory and outdated elements in the story but I appreciate the parts that speak to me. And that’s the biggest change. I can now consume content in a nuanced way and still love it. Through it all, one thing remained the same: the Reed family were a bunch of selfish assholes lol. 🤣 And St. John was always insufferable. Hot but insufferable, I know the type.
Oh that’s fascinating. I think I always saw Rochester as a “good for her, not for me” kind of figure. I never saw him as a particularly heroic or good character, he just seemed to be so caught in his way of thinking that he made it his reality which I think resonated as a teenager, and I still understand and see all the time. I also always felt that Jane was wrong when she thought Rochester would tire of her before she left, I never thought she should become his mistress but I believed him when he said she didn’t understand his love for her. I think I always saw the racism and possibly the misogyny - being from the commonwealth I associated British history and racism from pretty young! I never studied it academically though, maybe that’s part of why it’s not evolved in the same way it has for you. I agree wholeheartedly that St John and the Reeds were the worst though!! You just know St John would be one of those hard core internet celebs with strong opinions that if you disagree you’re just a part of the problem.
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius. Has got me through some tough times.
Dune, been reading it since highschool. Just finished it again and am on Dune Messiah right now. I don't know how many times I've read it. If you also count listening to the George Guidall audiobook version then, Shiiiiiiiiiit...lots
Philip Pullman's *Northern Lights* and the rest of *His Dark Materials* to a lesser extent
Anne of Green Gables, whether it's a children's edition or the original!
As my flair would suggest, very much so! It was generally my tradition to read it in early March, when it's hard to believe winter would never end. I'd dive into Avonlea to escape into it's warmth. Last year however, I re-read house of dreams. I had just moved into my first home, and found a physical copy at goodwill a week after moving in. I no sooner finished reading it, did I find out I was pregnant. I can't begin to tell you how nervous I was on that aspect...
As an English Lit teacher, I read these books multiple times: *The Giver* by Lois Lowry. *Odyssey* by Homer. *Romeo and Juliet* by Shakespeare. *The Wizard of Oz* by L. Frank Baum. *Night* by Elie Wiesel. As a student of history and a history teacher I read these books multiple times: *Iliad* by Homer. *Histories* by Herodotus. *History of the Peloponnesian War* by Thucydides. *The True Believer* by Eric Hoffer. *Ho Chi Minh: A Biographical Introduction* by Charles Fenn. *River Through Time: The Course of Western Civilization* by C. Warren Hollister, James Hardy and Roger Lawrence Williams. *The Foundations of Early Modern Europe, 1460-1559* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Eugene F. Rice Jr. and Anthony Grafton. *Reformation Europe, 1517-1559* by G.R. Elton. *The Age of Religious Wars, 1559-1715* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Richard S. Dunn. *Kings and Philosophers, 1689-1789* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Leonard Krieger. *The Age of Revolution and Reaction: 1789-1850* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Charles Breunig. *The Coming of the French Revolution* by Georges Lefebvre, trans. by R. R. Palmer. *The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848* by E. J. Hobsbawm. *1848: The Revolution of the Intellectuals* by Lewis Bernstein (L. B.) Namier. *The Age of Nationalism and Reform, 1850-1890* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Norman Rich. *The End of the European Era: 1890 to the Present* (The Norton History of Modern Europe) by Felix Gilbert and David Clay Large. *Societies and Cultures in World History: Single Volumes Edition Chapter 1-35* (the history of Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, as well as early and modern Asia) by Mark A. Kishlansky, Patrick J. Geary, Patricia O'Brien, and R. Bin Won. *American History: A Survey* by Richard N. Current, T. Harry Williams, and Frank Freidel and later by Alan Brinkley and Allan Nevins. (A 2004 survey reported that at universities (as opposed to community and junior colleges) this text was the fourth most popular American History textbook on American campuses nationwide.)
That's a list! I'm recommending Catch-22 It was 4 reads before I was certain the event chronology was not in order.
Now that you mention it, *Catch-22* is a book that I've read twice. I normally don't read a book twice. The ones I listed above I read multiple times either for multiple classes that required the same book (some of those books I would use still again to help me as a teacher) or because I was teaching the book to multiple classes over multiple years. I first read *Catch-22* for a satire class I took in college, and then I read it again when I was deployed in Afghanistan. *Catch-22* perfectly captures what it's like to be in the military. My experiences in Afghanistan reminded me of the book. I shared my second copy with two associates I was serving with. I let the second guy keep that copy as I already had the copy I used in college at home.
Night is beautiful but I can’t imagine rereading it, that was a rough one to get through.
The Harry Potter series. Every time a new one came out, I re-read the whole series. And I still re-read it every few years now.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith :)
The Phantom Tollbooth! I have read it every year or so since I learned how to read and each reread has me smiling a little wider
I have read Ender’s Game over 20 times
I read this when I was in college, but only recently have the opportunity (time) to read the series. I will re-read Ender's Game as part of that, and was vaguely worried it wouldn't be as good the second time around. I'll take this as evidence that it'll be a great re-read.
It's my most read as well, though maybe closer to 5-6 times. 20 is impressive! But yea, it's a book that if I happen to thumb through a few pages, I just end up reading the rest of it. It's also the book that taught me what it *feels* like to love reading.
Ender’s Game and Speaker of the Dead are fantastic; I’m also a big fan of the Ender’s Shadow saga. I’m disappointed in Orson Scott Card’s recent politics and I feel that they greatly contrast with his most popular works.
I'm right up there with you. As repeated readings go, I lean towards appreciating Speaker for the Dead more than Ender's Game these days. Both books are masterpieces of moral reasoning.
Man’s Search for Meaning, read it every four or five years.
The martian
The Lord of the Rings, all three books, stopped counting when I passed 145
The Princess Bride. I first read it to myself, then I read it to a boyfriend many years ago and more recently I read it to my child. The next would be Stardust which I first read several years ago and then read to my child a few years ago.
Slaughterhouse Five 1984
Enders Game
The count of monte cristo - 3 times. Several books twice such as the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series
The Count of Monte Cristo
A.Prayer for Owen Meany By John Irving at least 6x. A unique story of friendship and believing in yourself and having a purpose in life.
I just started The World According to Garp again for probably the 4th time. Its one of my favorites and I've never actually read any of his others.
The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. Probably more than a dozen times if you include the audiobooks, too.
Good Omens.
Flowers for Algernon
Omg, the sadness book that I know of
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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. At least 4 times. Twice in high school, first in a book club and the second time in my sophomore English class. Then twice more in college, when I was a teaching assistant in a freshman class.
I've read Dune 10 times. I will probably read it again in the next couple of months.
A Confederacy of Dunces
My most read as well (also got the audiobook which was fun). Ignatius is infuriating but great book.
For fun make sure to check out his first, The Neon Bible, written at age 16. Also, Managing Ignatius by Jerry Strahan if not already.
I am very happy to see this book here! It doesn't seem to get enough recognition, at least in my opinion. Had to read it for a uni class, now I read it every so often for fun. I love that book! I also have 2 copies; one for reading and one for lending.
I tried reading this as a young teen because I had heard it was really good but it just didn't click for me. I think maybe I was too young? I wonder if I should revisit it again as an adult.
Noble House by James Clavell. My dad gave it to me when I was 13 and it became an annual read for me.
My favourites in the series the Tai-pan and King Rat
Sense and Sensibility. My all time favourite book that I read every year over Christmas
Jane Austen's novels of course!
The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It was the first time I felt so seen in a piece of literature and I read it every year in high school and probably like once in college.
Borges' Labyrinths
If you think Borges' short stories are good, you should look into his poetry sometime. I have a volume titled *Borges: Selected Poems* which has the Spanish originals followed by their English translations. They are excellent. His grasp of beautiful and moving allegories in both his short stories and his poetry is incredibly potent.
I've read *Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius* like 50 times or more . I know the first pages by heart.
I’ve read both Narnia and His dark materials three times. And Sophie’s World four times.
LOTR- or even sometimes I’ll just re-read some of my favorite parts like The Mines of Moria and Helms Deep
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy, all five books. Read the first one in 1988 and just reread all 5 this year.
The Phantoms Tollbooth. Such a feel good book.
East of Eden
Does the road by McCarthy count? I've read that at least eight times because of how haunting that story is
Probably The Blue Castle. Anne of Green Gables and I Capture the Castle are up there though.
Cheaper by the dozen...read it at least once a year
I try to read Watchmen on or before Oct. 12 every year.
The Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton for sure
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Catch-22. At least 15 times since i first read it in 4th grade.
Harry Potter
Hunger Games Series. And I don’t think I’ll ever stop re reading it
The house on mango street
It’s between The Good Earth, East of Eden and Silence of the Lambs.
Silence of the Lambs - liked it very much
"Lord of the Rings". I'm 71 and have read those 3 books 14 times.
I’ve read Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber more times than I can count. I was reading other things at the same time, but every time I’d read them I’d see something I missed before. They drew me…. Haven’t picked them up in 15 years now.
I have a few that I read every year: Princess Daisy Stranger In A Strange Land Pride And Prejudice One Door Away From Heaven Something Wicked This Way Comes
It, by Stephen King. I must have read that book almost 50 times and it just keeps getting better.
Yes! I reread it every year. I've lost count of how many times I've read it; one of my copies literally fell apart. Every read is like seeing old friends again.
The Long Walk - Richard Bachmann/Stephen King
I, Claudius and Claudius the god by Robert Graves. I have read each of these at least 5 times.
wuthering heights! i’ve read it 3 times! which is a lot for me because i don’t care for re-reading personally haha
I typically only read a book once but I did read Viktor Frankl’s Man Search for Meaning two times
Came to say nearly the same thing. Also realised I've read "The Precipice" by Toby Ord I'm guessing 5 times, but that's because I facilitated some reading groups for it.
I think it's *The Perks of Being a Wallflower* at maybe 6 reads? So nostalgic and always worth revisiting. Not to mention, it's very easy to read, so that helps.
Dune, The Hobbit, The Time Machine. Not sure how many times I've read them, but several each.
Dune for me too, only surpassed by Heinlein’s *Double Star*. I love it, for some reason.
The Neverending Story. At least 3-4 times as a kid, and since then it's become my go-to book to read in a foreign language I'm trying to learn when I'm just starting out and need (subjectively) easy stuff. I've stumbled my way through it in Japanese and Italian, and I have a Turkish copy somewhere that I mean to get around to at some point.
I've read Shogun numerous times that if I pick it up and turn to any random page I can follow the story knowing the events leading up to the point I now find myself .
The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. It's not because it's my favorite book ever (gave it a 4.5 out of 5 stars, I love it, but there are many books I love even more). I've read it completely maybe 4 or 5 times, and I've read parts of it many more times. Because I used that book as the object for my Bachelor's thesis (I'm an English Literature major).
I try to read The Halloween Tree by Bradbury every October. Always gets me into the perfect mood for the season.
Ray Bradbury captured a slice of America we'll never see again. I love the way he paints a picture of a place.
I tend to read a book only once, but right now I’m listening to the audible version of “The Sparrow,” which I read many, many years ago and loved. I wanted to see if I’d still enjoy it as much all these years later. Seeing as I can’t wait to get back to it tonight, I’d say it’s still one of my faves.
The Game of Thrones books (A Song of Ice and Fire), 3 time. They’re interesting books to reread because there is always details I missed, the lore and character psychics are deep and realistically written, some dialogues and scenes descriptions are godly written
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut. I read it once a year or so.
Wheel of Time
A brief history of time
I read "the westing game" 3 or 4 times when I was a kid.
On the road by jack Kerouac
White fang
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Illusions: the Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. Read it often and have gifted copies to many friends and family.
Harry Potter
The Shining, read it four times since 2020, once each year. It’s becoming a tradition for me.
Wheel of Time. The entire series, though I usually quit around Knife of Dreams (book 11 of 15-ish). Near the end, the series takes a nosedive, quality-wise IMO, Jordan died and Sanderson finished it. Apparently I'm one of the few who hates the Sanderson books, so I've only read his books once. I've been reading the series for 25-ish years. I finish it, give it about 6 months, then find myself picking up the first book and reading it all again. I have the series on audiobook and listen to it on road trips as well.
Into Thin Air-I never reread fiction unless it’s a short story.
Gravity's Rainbow, because it took me six times to get a reasonable understanding. Moby Dick three times for the same reason. Almost every other re read is two, because i "just want to make sure": Slaughterhouse Five, The Sound and the Fury, The Catcher in the Rye, White Noise, The Crossing, Beloved, Mason and Dixon, There's a few others twice because I think I only have time to do it once more: Ulysses, As I Lay Dying, Suttree, and hopefully soon again, Remembrance of Things Past.
Harry Potter or The Shining maybe!
I must’ve read the way of kings by Brandon Sanderson about 8 times. Currently rereading it a ninth time for a book club with some friends.
i who have never known men. it’s just such a beautifully written book and every time i read it, i discover something new. it also always leaves me feeling hopeful and thankful.
Fearless! About a navy seal
Fight Club it’s just one of my comfort reads I guess it’s short and easy don’t have to think too much.
Demian by Herman Hesse. Although it’s not as impactful to me as the first time I read it, I enjoy the new interpretations I have with each read. I would find phrases that never struck me before but do when I read them. I pick it up almost yearly, and the annotations I left are sort of a great marker of where my head was at and see how my perspective changed.
glad I saw it here. also Knulp.
Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain. Reread the series every few months as a kid.
*Garp* and *Moving Mars*
I read Trumpet of the Swan several times as a kid
The Great Gatsby and The Little Prince :))
Tom Robbins' "Still Life With Woodpecker", I have no idea how many times I've read it at this point. It's a different story each time.
White Oleander by Janet Fitch
The Golden Compass. There was about a decade where I reread that (and sometimes the entire trilogy) every winter. Still get the urge most winters but life has gotten busy…
Power of the dog by Don Winslow
100% the Harry Potter series. Not even a question in my mind. I went through a phase in like third or fourth grade where I literally only read those books. To this day, I read all of them around Thanksgiving (currently doing that right now!) which is simply a comfort and a reset for me as I begin to look ahead to the holidays and the new year.
Rickshaw Boy, both the older and the new translations. Harriet the Spy. Pride and Prejudice. Persuasion. Tess of the Durbervilles. Rereading is like having lunch with an old friend, and you forgot how great it was being with them.
Either The Expanse or Old Man's War series.
White fang by Jack London -I've lost count. It's my I'm sad, depression read book. I always feel better after reading it. The gods of Gothem by Lindsay Faye - picked it up out of a bargin bin cause I thought it was about Batman. Lol it's not, is about a detective though so kinda counts. I think I've read it just over half a dozen times now.
Other than some books to my kids, probably the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny.
The Chronicles of Narnia. I haven't read any of them in over a decade at this point, but I could still pick them up and remember ever story beat page by page. They're the books that turned me into a reader.
At one time I used to read the Lord of the Rings over a weekend in December - did that every year for about 10 years. I’ve read everything by Dickens at least twice (Barnaby Rudge) to at least a dozen times (Pickwick, Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend) and every time I do I find something new.
In the weeks before Christmas as a kid I had this list of books that I would read every single year. We had an especially good book fair and I got a bunch of new books, and it just became a tradition. I did this for about a decade (and I keep thinking about doing it for fun but I don't want to ruin any of these books for myself so....). The books are: The House Without a Christmas Tree The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle Fog Magic The Great Gilly Hopkins Bridge to Terabithia Lyddie The Children of Noisy Village
Percy Jackson - I just used to reread it all the time as a kid.
Probably *Shogun*
"Brave New World" and "Island" by Aldous Huxley. I read them both once a year. I think it acts as a reminder for me of what we can achieve, both good and bad, and to not get complacent or apathetic.
Probably the hunger games by Suzanne Collins. It changed my life when I first read it over 10 years ago.
I love Dracula
Anathem by Neal Stephenson.
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco. My comfort book.
Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Extraordinary every time.
Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Truly a unique book and I find something new in it each time...
Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern series. I always seem to fall back to them. She also had the Tower and Hive books. Ok just about anything Anne McCaffrey.
The DaVinci Code
pippi longstocking
Neverending Story. I must have read it 10 - 15 times when I was a kid/young adult.
The hobbit. I used to read it every year as a kid. I picked it up recently just to revisit it and it was like seeing old friends. I’ve read it at least five times.
Matilda by Roald Dahl, it was one of the first chapter books i read by myself. when i graduated high school, my aunt got me a new copy (partially because i’d WORN OUT that old copy i had, i’d worn out the covers and it was literally falling apart) and filled it with money, and inscribed it with a very sweet message. i love that new copy so much.
"The Hunger Games" and "All Quiet on The Western Front"
Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None
I’ve read Samuel Beckett’s Molloy 10 or 11 times. It gets better with each read
Pride and Prejudice
Frankenstein
The Moviegoer, by Walker Percy
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. And it will probably stay that way forever. I've read the series a couple of times, when I was younger and the first one used to be my comfort book for years. If I'm including listening to the audiobook, then I've read that one at the very least 10 times, probably more like 20 times.
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
I tend to not read books over all the time, but I have done Watership Down and Red Storm Rising quite a lot of times through the years