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Books you've read the most number of times

Started by MikeShaft, November 01, 2017, 01:31:00 AM

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MikeShaft

I'm terrible for rereading books. I'm sure I'd be twice as smart if I didn't just keep going over old ground word wise.
Do you do this? And which books. Here's a selection very much from the section marked "Junior and YA". I'll do some adult ones later after I've caught up with Bake Off.

Ghostbusters
The novelisation of the film by some poor underpaid writer probably. Aged 10 or so, I must've read this book thirty or forty times in the space of a couple of years. I sometimes think I might track a copy down on eBay and re read it. I bet it's awful. It also inspired my first attempt at launching a literary career with the novel "Ghost Catchers".

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
A couple of years later this became my rinse repeat. The first two books I must've read twenty or so times each. I still go back to the first four every so often. It's hard to underestimate the impact these books had on my mental development. I find them had to read now through over familiarity and also shame as I notice an idea or an idiomatic use of language I've subconsciously stolen along the years.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 and 3/4 - Sue Townsend
At the same time, or perhaps a little earlier, this became my bedtime rereading. It was genuinely empowering, and although I now realise it was very much a mother's translation of a teenage boy's thoughts, at the time it was amazing to realise everyone had these thoughts and policed their id vigorously. Sex was no longer a mystery to just me.

The Tiswas Book of Ghastly Ghosts
I ended up being banned from reading this due to nightmares. Proper shit me up. Didn't stop me though. I was probably 8.


greenman

Not very original but probably Lord of the Rings, the thirst three Dune books and I, Cladius, more recently add the Book of the New Sun to the rotation as well.

Red Dwarf - Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

Must be the book I've read the most in my life. I first read this when I was 9 or 10 and have since re-read it at least thirty times. As a massive fan of the series as a nipper, I was blown away this existed and loved the extra depth and little details Grant and Naylor added to the telly episodes. Stuff like Lister and Rimmer meeting each other before boarding the Dwarf felt like a secret world that devoted fans of the series were being given a glimpse into.

Since growing up, I've realised it's not the funniest and richest sci-fi novel ever written but it still holds a special place in my heart and certain sequences are guaranteed to make me laugh out loud. Also Chris Barrie's audiobook reading of it is a cracker.

MikeShaft

Quote from: Old Gold Tooth on November 01, 2017, 12:06:21 PM
Red Dwarf - Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers

Yes! I'd completely forgotten that. I too probably read it at least 20 or more times. I still have a crush on his girlfriend and her dry swallowable underwear.

Quote from: MikeShaft on November 01, 2017, 12:19:23 PM
Yes! I'd completely forgotten that. I too probably read it at least 20 or more times. I still have a crush on his girlfriend and her dry swallowable underwear.

Oh definitely. And the novel version of Kochanski is the definitive one for me - can still remember Lister's description of her as "when she smiled her face lit up like a pinball machine on full tilt." Lovely stuff.

Sebastian Cobb

Ha, re-read some of the Red Dwarf ones a while ago.

I don't think I've re-read many books repeatedly, although there's ones I read in my teens that I feel I could probably do with re-reading (like Catch 22).

I think I've read Neuromancer a few times. Although I find myself enjoying it less and finding the poor writing more of an obstacle on each go. It might be a very important piece of Cyberpunk/Scifi but it isn't a well written book imo. I remember Neal Stevenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age being much more readable and they're on the list for another go.

holyzombiejesus

Probably one of Steinbeck's novellas, either Cannery Row or Tortilla Flat. I should start a Steinbeck thread really. Having said that, as much as I like the guy, I don't have single noteworthy thing to say about his books, so probably won't.

Serge

As I mentioned in another thread, The Day Of The Triffids has been a favourite since I was a kid, so I'm sure that would probably be top of the list. I loved Mervyn Peake's Mr. Pye when I was a teenager, and must have read that at least ten times. In fact, it's been a long time since I read it, it's long overdue a revisit.

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas is obviously up there. As is Three Men In A Boat.

And all of Bill Bryson's travel books - Neither Here Nor There would probably be the one I've re-read the most, as it's a.) got most of my favourite jokes in and b.) it's about Europe. But I must have re-read all of the older ones at least half a dozen times each, and even the more recent 'Little Dribbling' I've read twice.


thraxx


Trainspotting and Das Boot.  Lost count how many times I've read those two.

grassbath

When I was 15 or 16, I became obsessed with A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon, and read it about four times. I do seem to remember it being quite good, but I don't really understand why it chimed with me so much.


Gurke and Hare

Right Ho, Jeeves is my comfort reading of choice. The speech scene (and even more so, Jeeves's description of it to Bertie) is possibly the funniest writing ever.

Serge

Quote from: grassbath on November 01, 2017, 09:43:06 PM
When I was 15 or 16, I became obsessed with A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon, and read it about four times. I do seem to remember it being quite good, but I don't really understand why it chimed with me so much.

I've never read it, though that's because I didn't even get on with 'Curious Incident...', but this is one of those books you see in every single charity shop, and I've always wondered if it was originally bought by people who loved 'Incident' but didn't love this. Is it vastly different in style or tone to 'Incident'?

Psmith

War of the Worlds,Pickwick Papers,The Code of the Woosters,The Big Sleep,Scoop,plays by Ibsen and Pinter.
They have been my constant companions for ever.

Dex Sawash

Dr Seuss ABC, probably 2-3000 times. Party trick is you give me a random letter and I will tell you what that page says. I'm a lot of fun at parties.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Quote from: Dex Sawash on November 02, 2017, 02:31:30 AM
Dr Seuss ABC, probably 2-3000 times. Party trick is you give me a random letter and I will tell you what that page says. I'm a lot of fun at parties.

Page 1= A,  Page 2= B, that sort of thing? Not that impressive , mate.


Talulah, really!

The book, volume, novel, work, page turner, potboiler that I, me, myself, the singular individual have read, perused, thumbed through, poured over the most, greatest number, the lion's share is Roget's Thesaurus.

Kishi the Bad Lampshade

Not counting children's books - I read and re-read so much before the internet that I wouldn't be able to tell you - I've read Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes at least eight times. It's about 600 pages and I can read it in about an hour now. Not the best novel ever written, but my favourite.

Serge

How do you read a 600 page book in an hour? That's a page every six seconds. I take that long over individual words sometimes!

I also re-read Adrian Mole and Hitchhiker's Guide a million times in late childhood, along with the Monty Python and Fawlty Towers scriptbooks. For some reason I was also really taken with a Pelican book called Inside the Black Room by Jack Vernon. It was a 60's psychology book about sensory deprivation experiments- they locked volunteers in a lightproof, soundproof room and documented the confusions, hallucinations,  increases in suggestibility and losses in weight they had. I've no idea why it "worked" for me in the way most other books didn't age 11-12. I'd love to say it kick-started an amazing career in psychology, but it didn't. But I still love the odd subject matters you can find in the old 60's and 70's Pelicans. I read one earlier this year that I found in Oxfam about Inuit communites in Alaska. Now, I'm sure there are better and more recent books on that subject available, but really, what was deal whereby there needed to be a mass-market paperback book out about Alaskan Inuits in 1975? The People's Land by Hugh Brody, if you're interested.

Kishi the Bad Lampshade

Quote from: Serge on November 10, 2017, 09:01:29 PM
How do you read a 600 page book in an hour? That's a page every six seconds. I take that long over individual words sometimes!

My edition has quite big print to be fair. And I know it so well that just skimming the page sort of...triggers my memory for it, if that makes sense?

Howj Begg

Eugh it is probably The Lord of the Rings. Wasted too many hours on that as a kid. Would never be fucked with it now.

Bhazor

Probably read Appleseed by John Clute six times by now. Still keep it in my bedside drawer for quick skims.


nedthemumbler

The borribles, asterix (all the older ones), triffids and z is for zachariah, also all the brysons, herriots, and loads more to be honest.  Books are comfort.

Serge

Quote from: Kishi the Bad Lampshade on November 13, 2017, 10:13:49 PM
My edition has quite big print to be fair. And I know it so well that just skimming the page sort of...triggers my memory for it, if that makes sense?

OK, yeah, I get what you mean with that. There are rarely any books I know that well, but I get a similar thing when rewatching certain comedy shows - I know the next line(s) of dialogue so well, I'm ahead of them in my head, but the pleasure is still there in hearing them again.

jobotic

Raymond Chandler and Ross MacDonald's novels.

Tintin and Asterix.

Neville Chamberlain

Another Tintin and Asterix fan, here. Literally have no idea how many times I've read them over the past 30 years! That said, I've read nothing from Asterix and Son onwards.

Janie Jones

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on November 01, 2017, 07:01:52 PM
Tortilla Flat.
Yes this would be in my top 5 most re-read and I think a lot of people love it as we do but it seems to get overlooked in favour of the Gatsbys and the Catchers and the Mockingbirds in lists of seminal and hugely popular American literature that most people read as young adults. It's laugh-out-loud funny, sexy, wise and mystical and anyone who doesn't cry when the Pirate's dogs see a vision of St Francis has a cold fish's heart like the Italian bootlegger who is endlessly cuckolded and swindled throughout the book.

Jockice

Quote from: Nice Relaxing Poo on November 02, 2017, 04:14:46 PM
Trainspotting maybe half a dozen times.

Snap. Although I have also picked it up and read individual chapters quite a few times too.

gilbertharding

The actual answer is probably either Tintin, Asterix or Thomas the Tank Engine.

Lagging slightly behind, Lord of the Rings (like everyone else) - but the copies I got at the time the first film came out are now safely at the Oxfam shop, so that's that.

As a 'discerning adult', I've re-read Scoop quite a few times. Never gets old. Also Great Apes, Brighton Rock, and plenty o'Wodehouse.

I'm sure I'll read A Dance to the Music of Time a third or fourth time before I die, too.