Are there certain books that you've kept and read more than once?  Books that you get just as much out of the second (or third, or more) time around?  There are a number that I've kept and found myself going back to periodically.  Anyone else?

I've read the Lord of the Rings twice, the first time almost 30 years ago, and then in the 90's.

Amazing books.

Big LOTR fan here Rose...I read it once a year :).

Jan,

I just posted the  letter below in the thread on major disappointments, because a number of members mentioned  that LOTR was a disappointment. Thought you'd appreciate it :o)

27 years ago, when I first tried to read Lord of  the Rings, I hated it...second time I tried and hated it. In case you might wonder why I would  even try a third time, my family was so into it  that it's all they talked about, and I being the English major, couldn't be the only one. So for the last time I decided to read 100 pages of the Hobbit (prequel  to Lord  of the Rings) before I made a decision....and amazing...I fell in love!!! I continued to read the remaining  Trilogy, and  to this day, I say they are the best books I've ever read. I re-read them in the 90's.

Go figure...............

Isn't that funny.  I read LOTR first and loved it.  I then tried reading The Hobbit and just couldn't get past the prologue so I put it away.  I went back a few years later and skipped the prologue.  I was hooked.  

I went so far as to go out and buy the HC 50th Anniversary edition of LOTR.  It's now one of my prized possessions as it has 7 or so autographs of the LOTR movie cast inside.

Wow, that is a prize!

I read the classics when I'm out of sorts or can't seem to get interested in anything else. I'll go back to Dickens every time, Tale of Two Cities, Bleak House, David Copperfield. I've read the Sherlock Holmes stories more times than I can count.

I've also started re-reading things I read 50 - 60 years ago, since I'm sure that my perspective has changed in that time. <grin>

I've read the first 3 Sue Grafton alphabet mysteries more than once, and most of Agatha Christie's mysteries more than once. I read The Shining twice. I've read some histories more than once, Bruce Catton's Civil War trilogy, for example, and I read Team of Rivals twice.

Les

Edited for typos

I read To Kill a Mockingbird in high school English class.  I read it again last year with my bookclub and was amazed how twenty years can give a totally different perspective on this book.  Definitely worth reading again if it's been many years since you first read it.

It's so funny you said that, Karen, because I saw the title of this thread and *immediately* thought "To Kill a Mockingbird."  I've read it 4 times over the years and it will never leave my shelf.

Two other books I've read more than once:

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (I love this book)

The Phantom Tollbooth (One of the funniest, most subtle childrens books EVER written - I think I've read it about 7 or 8 times.  I actually have 3 copies of it.  Every 3rd - 6th grade teacher my kids have (or will have) get a copy of this book from me if they've never read it.  My 4th grade teacher read it aloud to us.

I have read To Kill a Mockingbird a few times.  And I have read several of the Laura Ingals Wilder books as a child and then again with me daughter.   (They were as good as I remembered!)

My answer would be pretty much none, althought I did go back and re-read the Harry Potter books before I read the last one.

I don't have nearly enough time to read and get through my TBR list (that grows exponentially each month) and to also re-read books that I've finished.

I know.  I'm odd

I have also read To Kill a Mockingbird several times, as well as Rebecca, The Scarlett Letter, and the Little House series.

the books i end up re-reading tend to mostly be from series.  i have some that i love and re-read every few years, and sometimes when a series gets kind of long i like to re-read them all from the beginning before the new one comes out.  i did that the last time a new Anita Blake was coming out from Laurell K. Hamilton.  the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, and the Dragon Rider series by Anne McCaffrey are a couple of the ones i re-read semi-regularly.

I loved the "Little House on the Prairie" books so much growing up that I go back about every year or two and re-read the whole series. I also love the "Sarah Plain and Tall" books and the "Anne of Green Gables" books for reading again and again. I second the "To Kill A Mockingbird"- I have read the book at least 6-7 times and have watched the movie over a dozen times. Each time I find something new to me in either the book or the film.     

I'm with Pat: I've read Anne of Green Gables series over and over and the Little House Series, too.  So, much so, that I went ahead and bought the box sets of both of them.  I also reread "Pride and Prejudice" at least once a year too.  That is my all time favorite book,

I have read LOTR right after the second movie came out.  I bought it in the 3-in-1 paperback because I said if I was going to read it I had to read all of them back to back and I'm glad I did.  It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. 

Two that have been mentioned here already: To Kill A Mockingbird, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,

I've also read The Stand by Stephen King twice but that's because it came out in an edition with a chapter that had originally been deleted. Come to think of it, I read the original twice and the new edition once.

Gone With The Wind.....read that 3 times

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb.......3 times.

All 17 Calvin and Hobbes cartoon compilations that I recently re-read. Very funny stuff. I miss Calvin and Hobbes. Here is a link to another funny comic that addresses the missing Calvin and Hobbes.......

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19798680?cat=lio&d=080120

Oh Toni, I *loved* Calivin and Hobbes.  I have some of those books I look through now and then, along with "The Far Side" collections. 

One more addition to much read books:  The Little House books - how could I have forgotten those????

I read East of Eden by John Steinbeck once a year. I also Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott, and His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman once every other year.

Earlier Dick Francis books (all except 90's and newer)

Madeleine L'Engle (Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door)

Madeleine Brent (ALL)

Peter O'Donnell (ALL)

Helen McInnes (While Still We Live)

Wilson Rawls (Where the Red Fern Grows)

Rebecca Wells (Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Mary O'Hara (My Friend Flicka, Thunderhead, The Green Grass of Wyoming)

Diana Gabaldon (Outlander Series)

I have read Pride & Predjudice  by Jane Austen (actually all of Jane Austen's books) many times,  The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks a few times, and recently have read Christ out of Egypt by Anne Rice 3 times since receiving it a few months ago from another member. Every time I pick it up I start reading it and find I have finished it yet again... I don't usually re-read books right away like that.

Jane Eyre

Pride and Prejudice

I intend to read "Pilgrim's Progress" and "The Friendly Jane Austen" again.

The Hobbit

C.S. Lewis's space trilogy

Books I love to read again and again

Rosamunde Pilcher:

The Shell Seekers

Coming Home

Winter Solstice

and all of her short stories and other novels

I have also kept all of Sue Grafton mysteries and  reread the series in A to T order

I reread:

Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and The Secret Garden

Melani,  We're the 'Odd Couple' because I RARELY, and I mean rarely re-read a book.  Exceptions...like Les, the first few Sue Graftons.  Also 'To Kill a Mockingbird'.  And I have a copy of 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' on my shelf that I might re-visit.  I also think I will do 'Cold Sassy Tree' by Olive Ann Burns before I tackle "Leaving Cold Sassy'.  Just for a refresher.  Other than that, too many TBR books to go back to something I've already enjoyed. 

I reread very few books.   I am getting ready to reread Riding Lessons and Flying Changes by Sara Gruen.  I read these books years ago and for a long time after, looked for other books by this author.   When I read Water For Elephants I didn't connect it with these books for awhile.   When I did, I knew I wanted to go back and reread those books.  I feel SURE they will be as good the second time around. 

1. A Confederacy of Dunces- 3 times
2. Sula- 3 times
3. If Beale Street Could Talk- 2 times
4. Lord of Scoundrels-2 times
5. Black No More- 2 times

I've read alot of other books at least twice.  These were the ones I thought of right away.

 As a kid I read Jacob Have I Loved, Bridge to Terabithia, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret at least twice.