The Sword and Laser discussion

There are certain books I go back to often.... Which books do you go back to more than once?

For me:
The Deed of Paksenarrion
Nine Princes in Amber
Lord of Light
On Basilisk Station
Jhereg
The Stars My Destination
Sorcerer & Gentleman
Pawn's Dream

Strangely, a lot more Sword represented than Laser, even though I tend to read roughly equal amounts overall.

Perhaps Fantasy tends to be more escapist? - That is most often what I am looking for when re-reading something.

I think for the most part, the books I tend to reread a lot (not just the ones that get a second go round), tend to be more simple and fun. I turn to them when I'm frazzled and my mind is racing and I even have trouble following a simple conversation from one end to the other.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld books.

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series.

David Eddings Malloreon series. Yeah, I know I'm weird. Most prefer the first series. Chock full of stereotypes, but simple and fun.

A Bad Spell in Yurt I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I've read this book so many times I can't even estimate the number anymore.

I don't know if fantasy tends to be more escapist, but then my list is also weighted towards fantasy. :)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (entire "trilogy"), Dune (through God Emperor), Vorkosigan books (Brothers in Arms through A Civil Campaign for maximum arc-y goodness), Watership Down.

I reread Ender's Game at least once a year. Everytime I reread it I learn something new about live and the human character from the book.

I reread The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy every year. I also reread some other favourites maybe once every other year; Robin Hobb's the Farseer trilogy, Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, Brent Weeks's Nightangel trilogy among others.

I used to reread The Lord of the Rings every year around christmas, but I haven't done that in a couple of years...

I like re-reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind.

Susan wrote: "I like re-reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind."

What about all the other books in the series? Do you like to reread them?

Kevin wrote: "Susan wrote: "I like re-reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind."

What about all the other books in the series? Do you like to reread them?"

I haven't read the whole series yet, but I have re-read book two as well.

I like re-reading:

Sevenwaters series by Juliet Marillier
Magician by Raymond E Feist
Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

I make a point of re-reading one Heinlein book a year now. I just finished Citizen of the Galaxy today for the third or fourth time.

When I first started reading fantasy I came across a set of books called Thieves Worlds, a set of shared world stories created by Robert Asprin. I continually go back and read them especially the first five they have some of my favorite characters in them and throughout my gaming life I have continually used names from these novels.

What I definetly re-read once every year is: Once a Hero by Michael Stackpole.

And sometimes Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends or different books from BattleTech or Star Wars.

Almost yearly I re-read The Deed of Paksenarrion, The Darkangel Trilogy, and The Lord of the Rings. I used to read Kulla-Gulla and the rest in the serie over and over when I was younger, but been a long time since I open those books now.
Just can't stay away from The Redemption of Althalus, not sure why but Althalus is just so charming.

I do re-read some books before reading the last book if I've had to wait a long time between books.

i dont re-read often as my TBR shelf is increasing in size but books i have re-read and probably will again are:

Perdido Street Station
2001: A Space Odyssey
Battlefield Earth
most of the Philip K Dick's i own.

Every year I make an effort to re-read a David and Leigh Eddings series. I've read The Belgariad, The Mallorean, The Elenium and The Tamuli at least a dozen times.

I don't do as much rereading these days, but in the spring I did revisit Edgar Rice Burroughs' entire Barsoom series for the thousandth time.

And it'll probably be time for J.R.R. Tolkien soon, especially with the Hobbit movie upcoming.

I often reread authors not just certain books...Zelanzy,Cook, Hamilton, Tolkien, Stirling, McDevitt, Feist, Banks, Cherryh,are all good choices for me.

American Gods and The Magician. :)

I make it a point now to regularly reread Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling and the Sprawl and Bridge trilogies by William Gibson

Wow...It's been a long time since I really had time to re-read anything, but I recently started re-reading Atlas Shrugged, first read in high school.

All the bitter polarity of our own political process in this election year, and posturing about the role (large, limited, or otherwise) in private enterprise, made me want to take a look at this again...Well, that and playing the first two Bioshock games, which are basically a view of an Objectivist utopia gone seriously dystopian, made me want to revisit Rands philosophy and worldview (which I find well intentioned, but incredibly naive on a re-read.)

Aside from that, the books I've probably re-read the most times are: Dune (Too many times to count, including the first four books...They get incredibly depressing after that), Creighton's The Andromeda Strain (at least half-a-dozen), The Hobbit (4-5x), and Jean Shepherd's brilliant collection of short stories:In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash (the source material for the film classic, "A Christmas Story.")

Keep wanting to re-read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, again as well...

Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead. Two of my all time favorites.

Susan wrote: "Kevin wrote: "Susan wrote: "I like re-reading Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind."

What about all the other books in the series? Do you like to reread them?"

I haven't read the whole series ye..."

I also enjoy rereading Wizard's First Rule once and awhile. I've read the entire series once through. I've re-read through Temple of the Winds once. WFR is really the best book of the series, so I don't bother to re-read past it anymore.

Others I enjoy re-reading include:
The Giver by Lois Lowry
A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Devereux (guilty pleasure!)
The Harry Potter series
Elantris / Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson
Myst: The Book of Atrus by Rand Miller
Matilda by Roald Dahl
The Starlight Crystal by Christopher Pike

Kind of a random mix of stuff!

The Dune series;
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series;
Larry Niven's Man-Kzin Wars, Ringworld, Tales of Known Space, Protector, World of Ptavvs

thats a lot of scifi. didnt realize it until just then

The Lord of the Rings every few years, but I'm planning on re-reading The Hobbit soon as well. And Fahrenheit 451.

I am not a huge rereader but I just finished Replayby Ken Grimwood. I did so on a whim I ran across it as I was sorting through books to give to charity. I had the sudden urge to read it. Glad I did it has held up pretty well.

I wasn't intending to reread Foundation but I enjoyed my experience rereading Replay that I will start rereading it this weekend.

I have reread the Hyperion Cantos several times as well as Startide Rising and Uplift War by David Brin.

I have also reread the first four novels in the Miles Vorkosigan series.

I also reread Raymond Chandler occasionally.

The Dark Tower Series
Dune
On the Historical Fiction side I like Bernard Cornwell's The Winter King and Saxon Stories

Contact
The War of the Worlds
Dune
It
The Mists of Avalon
Lost Horizon
The Lord of the Rings
Rendezvous With Rama
A Fall of Moondust
Anything by Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.

These are the books that I go back to time and time again.

For me, it's Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun:

Litany of the Long Sun

and

Epiphany of the Long Sun

I've reread and relistened to a song of ice and fire well over ten times since first picking it up in 1997 (only been thru dance twice though) reread wheel if time Multiple times. loved doing it in advance of the last book. l try to go back to lotr every few years. I loved to reread eddings when I was a kid. I have only read the first two malazan books and at some point will set everything aside and attempt to plow through it all from the begjnning without break for other books.

I don't find myself wanting to reread a lot of books, but there a few exceptions.

Snow Crash
The Hobbit
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the whole series)

I like Marc (who started the thread) find myself also re-reading more Sword as the years go by. I'm not sure why, as the Sword novels I re-read are always longer and denser than any of the Laser.
Every ten years or so I read the whole Lord of the Rings sage over again...not sure why, but it just seems to happen.
I wish my list was Laser heavy...I'd have fewer characters to remember and an easier time powering through the novels, but I'll give this some serious thought and see if I can indeed figure this out.

My list of things I've re-read recently, very similar to others

- Lord of the Rings (too many times to count)
- ASOIAF
- Malazan book of the fallen first 3 books
- Dune
- Hyperion Cantos
- Altered Carbon
- Iain Banks Culture books (Consider Phlebas etc)
- Watership Down (FTW!)
- Magician trilogy
- Enders Game
- The First Law series

Basically all of my favourites - also I re-read Anne Macaffery's Dragonflight recently and loved it, I'd forgotten how good those books are.

I can see myself adding the Kingkiller chronicles as well given time

For me it's The Hobbit, On Writing and Night Shift by Stephen King.

I've read 1984 and Clockwork Orange a few times, but that was years ago. I don't feel compelled to re-read them anymore.

I often reread Tolkien's books annd the Harry Potter series. About two years ago I started re-reading all of Stephen Kings books in order of their publication date so that I could catch all the tie ins to his Dark Tower series.

For me, I find myself returning to a few books that are "comfort" books...they calm me down when I'm over-anxious and allow me to distract myself with "old friends." These include:
The Harry Potter books (as narrated by Jim Dale)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (as narrated by Stephen Fry)
Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow

I also have re-read the books in the Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire series multiple times, when preparing for a new book to come out. I think I just today decided to re-read WoT again, given that the final tome is coming out. I was on the fence at first, was thinking of just going through the Encyclopaedia WoT, but for the last book, I think reading is more appropriate.

1.The First Law trilogy
(Joe Abercrombie)
2. The Commonwealth Saga
(Peter F Hamilton)
3. Discworld
(Terry Pratchett)
4. Song of Ice And Fire
(George R R Martin)

As others have said these are my comfort reads. The books i tend to go to when i am feeling low and want to curl up with something undemanding and familiar.

I reread many of my books. I actually set myself a challenge to read 100 books this year that I'd never read before to try to curb my rereading tendencies.
I reread The Princess Bride frequently. And I read at least one Tamora Pierce book every month or so. Diana Wynne Jones is another author I reread. And Jonathan Maberry (yes, one of these things is not like the others)

I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy annually from 1977 until 1989 or 1990 and a handful of times since then.

Beyond that there isn't anything that I make a point of reading regularly.

I read about 100 books a year thanks to lots of time on public transportation commuting to and from work. Fortunately my town has an excellent public library and is part of a large network of libraries in other local communities. So I am able to read at this pace while only buying 3-4 books a year (which I typically donate to the library when I am done).

any novel from the black company series

I've probably read David and Leigh Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series more times than any other book/series.

The first 10 books in the Wheel of Time series have been read probably a half dozen times.

I've alos re-read R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series, the first two books in his Aspect Emperor series and his detective novel Disciple of the Dog a few times.

I'm a compulsive rereader. I've reread TLOTR God knows how many times in 3 languages. Actually,I prefer rereading to reading. Some books get better with rereading, like good wine.

A few books I've reread lately are, ironically, all dystopias. It's Fahrenheit 451 and also a recent one, Memoria. A Corporation of Lies that I found here on Goodreads and really liked. Also 1984 Apparently, I'm going through a dystopian stage :)))

I see that like me many re-read LOTHRTolkien, J.R.Rover and over.

A feel good book that I return to isGood Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch.

Foucault's Pendulumis also a book I re-read. The plot is so rich that you always discover something new.

Neuromancer Is also a book I like to re-read.

I have a terrible memory so I often can't remember what happens in a book. I might remember the basic story...so and so kills the dark lord Zog or whatever but not the details.

I re read a lot of books, mainly true crime actually as I can read a chapter before bed and I am not tempted to sit up until 3 am to try and finish. The downside with a crap memory is I often have to go back and re-read previous chapters of novels so I can keep up with what is going on.

Books I have read multiple times:
Any/All of the Discworld series,
The Phantom of the Opera
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
Dune (Which reminds me I should pick up the other ones of that series.)
Wuthering Heights
Dracula, Frankenstein etc, although usually there is a fairly big gap between rereading.
Some of the Star Trek books.
Watership Down (and I STILL cry)

I've re-read the Harry Potter series a few times.

I recently re-read the first three Green Rider series books before reading the newest book Blackveil. The last one came out like five years ago and I couldn't remember much about what happened.

Sometime before the first part of the Hobbit movie comes out, I hope to re-read the book.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Lord of the Rings
The Dark Tower (the series)
Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better than Life
The Stand
Crime and Punishment

Those are probably the books I've re-read the most.

Recent (within two years) re-reads:
The Mote in Gods Eye
Lord of Light
Downbelow Station
The Chanur Saga (C.J. Cherryh)
The Honor Harrington series (David Weber) through Echoes of Honor. (One read seems to be enough for subsequent books in the series.)
Red Sky at Morning (David Bradford) Not SF&F, but superb.
Heinlein's juveniles
Dune
Ringworld
A Song of Ice and Fire

I don't reread as much as I used to. There's just too much new stuff released ever week.

Illusion is my most consistent reread. Not only do I love everything Paula Volsky writes, I own this book in multiple copies, multiple formats, and always keep at least one on two different continents. Which helps with the rereading since its always available.

Wolfwalker and its series are the only other things I regularly reread. Every couple of years I start at the beginning and read up through Wolf's Bane and bawl the whole way through.

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
It's too amusing to read only once.. I laugh as hard every time.
Also The Sandman: The Dream Hunters. I think that this short story has been my most frequent read in the last few years. I love Gaiman's way of writing and the story is beautiful.

The books I reread are like old comfy house shoes. So warm and comfortable you just sigh when you slip them on.

The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
The Wheel of Time
The Black Company series
Orphans of Chaos trilogy
Magician:Apprentice & Magician:Master
Spinward Fringe
Fairy Tale by Raymond E. Feist

Spinward Fringe is a recent addition but I can see some others moving onto that list as well.

I'd love to read the Mistress of the Empire series by Feist again but so much to enjoy as it is!