Do you re-read books? Via Personal Political, this list of twenty books re-read by Britons (from The Guardian). I’ll do what Suze has, and italicise the ones I’ve read and bold the ones I’ve re-read.
The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling
The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien [numerous times]
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien [I seem to have lost my copy of this book, though]
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
1984 by George Orwell [twice]
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte [never got beyond the first chapter with this one!]
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson [this is in the To Read pile]
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee [favourite ever]
Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews [read as a teen]
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell [re-read many times as a young teen, but not since; might have to borrow a copy from the library, for nostalgic reasons]
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Bible [have read bits but not the whole thing, so I don’t know if it counts as having been read, as such]
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams [true confessions time, have never read this! Although thanks to Tom for the DVDs!]
Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding [far better than the movie, IMHO]
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens [read in school in Malaysia]
Thirteen out of twenty, not too bad, I suppose.
7 Comments
I confess I reread books all the time, the best ones have layers you only discover on multiple readings. I only buy books I’m likely to reread, and I have full bookcases in most rooms of my house. There are some books I reread every year, like To Kill a Mockingbird and Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter mysteries (I started Busman’s Honeymoon again this morning, I hate to think how many times I have read that).
May I encourage you: to not worry about the rest of Wuthering Heights, far inferior to Jane Eyre, IMHO; and to read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galexy series? My favourite of the latter was So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish, I’d love to know what you think of it. I tried Catch-22, I made it through about 2 pages and found it far too self-conscious.
I haven’t really read the Lord Peter series, Sheena. Do you really have to stick to the correct order, or does it not matter? Will have to start reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide then…
Or just listen to those CDs…
I used to re-read a lot but there are just too many books to get through and too little time. Having said that, I re-read “Jane Eyre” earlier this year and I ought to re-read “The Awakening” by Kate Chopin and “The Great Gatsby”. Oh, and M.G. Lewis’s “The Monk” and all of Jane Austen and….aaargh!
The earlier mysteries are pretty much interchangeable (though it’s best to read Clouds of Witness early on), but once you hit Strong Poison, in which Peter meets Harriet, it’s probably easier to follow their romance if you read those in sequence. But ones like Murder Must Advertise and The Nine Tailors (my two Harriet-less favourites) can be read at any time.
I’m gad to see I’m not the only librarian who couldn’t get into Wuthering heights. I loved Jane Eyre but the others? Pah…
As for Gone with the Wind – I did read it but thought Scarlett was a selfish b*tch and refused to read it again.
I read 1984 under sufferance at school. It is so depressing I never want to read it again! LOL!
I’ve read one or two of Dickens, but again, I find them depressing so haven’t really read that many.
Tom, I read The Awakening while I was in China – must re-read that one! Haven’t read The Great Gatsby nor The Monk!
Sheena, I’ll see what the public library has, and try and read them in order 🙂
Penny until now I have always felt a bit embarrassed to admit I haven’t read Wuthering Heights 😉 I think I have a beat-up copy of Gone with the Wind. Maybe someday.. I enjoyed 1984 but I know what you mean about depressing!
The order for the Peter-Harriet ones is:
Strong Poison
Have His Carcase
Murder Must Advertise (Harriet’s not in this, but it takes place during the five years or so of their romance)
Gaudy Night
Busman’s Honeymoon
Thrones, Dominations (written partly by Jill Paton Walsh)
A Presumption of Death (by Jill Paton Walsh, based on notes by Dorothy Sayers)
If you lived a bit closer I’d happily lend you my copies…