Top reread books

[diebitter]

My Top 5:

1. Dune - Frank Herbert

I just find this a rich and exciting read, and the Fremen are complete badasses too. Learnt a lot about deeper thinking about people's actions compared to their motivations from this book (I'm not kidding)


2. 1984 - George Orwell

He's not the greatest or the most beautiful writer, but his ideas and expression of them are extremely powerful and direct, and his clarity of thinking about what might be and the reality he brings to it are fantastic.


3. The Old Man and the Sea - Hemmingway

Just a beautiful piece of writing, that never gets tiresome or old.


4. It - Stephen King

I just find King's revisiting of childhood and childhood friendship a wonderful read. He explores these things more beautifully than any other writer I can think of, and it's all buried inside a pulp horror story. Anyone who hasn't read King cos it's lowbrow needs to read this, and stick with it.

Pennywise is pretty scary too.


5. You Only Live Twice - Ian Fleming

Actually, I reread all of the James Bond/Fleming books on a frequent cycle, and they are all pretty good reads. This one is the most startling though, and gives me the most pleasure. The story takes place after the events in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service', where Bond's new bride had been killed by Blofeld. Bond is down and out, and can't get a lead on Blofeld, and gets dispatched to Japan.

This is a fun read, and you get to see and hear about Japan from a Westerner's eyes (it's probably all completely wrong, but it's great fun), and the story is mental - about a 'garden of death' set up in Japan, where the suicide rates were highest, and suicide is a form of satisfying honour.


So what are your favourite rereads, and why?

[prod_man]

'ARRY POTTER!

[shakingspear]

I can't agree with you more about It.

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are pretty fun to read.

[Scary_Tiger]

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3. The Old Man and the Sea - Hemmingway

Just a beautiful piece of writing, that never gets tiresome or old.


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I don't see it. Absolutely agree on the first two though.

[mmbt0ne]

The only non-poker/non-religous book I've voluntarily read more than once is As I Lay Dying.

[Howard Beale]

I keep re-reading Patrick O'Brians' sea stories.

[kidcolin]

The only book I've reread substantially is To Kill a Mockingbird, and I'll reread it many more times.

[gisb0rne]

The Hobbit. The Chronicle of Narnia.

[NT!]

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The only non-poker/non-religous book I've voluntarily read more than once is As I Lay Dying.

[/ QUOTE ]

Kinda weird that the only fiction you re-read is freakin Faulkner of all people. AILD is an awesome book though.

I've read and reread a lot of Hannah Arendt's books (Totalitarianism, Eichmann in Jerusalem, On Revolution) because she's so good and so dense. For political philosophy I also really like Robert Paul Wolff.

Bukowski, Eliot and Ginsberg are the poets I always read when I'm shut inside for a while, or traveling.

Don't reread much fiction unless I just want something light and pleasant while I'm eating or playing cards or something, like Nick Hornby. Also Orson Scott Card is a good one to pass time.

Hemingway is one of the few fiction writers I reread and really get into. The Sun Also Rises and In Our Time are my favorites I guess.

NT

[El Diablo]

db,

American Psycho
Soul of a Chef

Off the top of my head, only two I've reread recently.