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Original poster

Books you wish you could read for the 1st time again

209 replies

BusyTraybake · 05/03/2025 18:54

I am currently in bed recovering from surgery. I can expect to be immobile for 6 weeks and I am already bored out of my mind. I actually had a little cry earlier as I am so claustrophobic already.

I have found reading helps. Please recommend any books you wish you could read again for the first time.

Thanks in advance. In desperate in need of mental stimulation as I have turned to food which is not something I usually obsess over. Probably would be best for my overall recovery if I don’t pile on a pad of weight.

My answer to the question: never let me go, love in a time of cholera and persuasion

OP posts:
Vargas · 05/03/2025 22:55

Lostcat · 05/03/2025 20:16

We need to talk about kevin

Amazing book but I could not read it again!

RiRaAgusRuailleBuaille · 05/03/2025 22:54

The Magus - John Fowles
The Dumb House - John Burnside
The secret history - Donna Tartt
The Lost continent - bill bryson (first book I laughed out loud at)

Doitrightnow · 05/03/2025 22:54

JustMeHello · 05/03/2025 19:28

I remember how beautiful I found the language in The God of Small Things, especially so first time round. Some of the writing is so beautifully phrased and i love how she uses unusual combined words to make very evocative images.

I find threads like this so interesting because opinions vary so widely! I loathed The God of Small Things because of exactly the reason you loved it! I found the language ungrammatical and infuriating and hard to follow!

Vargas · 05/03/2025 22:53

minipie · 05/03/2025 20:03

Just seconding a few of the above

Pat Barker - especially Regeneration and The Silence of the Girls & sequel

Barbara Kingsolver - The Poisonwood Bible

Anthony Doerr - All the light we cannot see

All of Georgette Heyer (lightweight historical fluff but done well)

I loved all of these!

Vargas · 05/03/2025 22:52

Song of Achilles
The 1000 Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
The Kiterunner
The Marriage Portrait
Jane Austen - the big 4
Fatherland
Wolf Hall
The Pursuit of Love
And then there were none

To name a few!

Lupinslupinelady · 05/03/2025 22:49

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Bookworm by Lucy Mangan
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Any of Barbara Trapido’s books
Possession by AS Byatt

Dappy777 · 05/03/2025 22:48

Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice
Douglas Adams: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
P. G. Wodehouse: Right Ho Jeeves
Patrick Fermor: A Time of Gifts
Aldous Huxley: Chrome Yellow and his essays
George Orwell: Essays
Evelyn Waugh: Brideshead Revisited
Oscar Wilde: Dorian Gray
Virginia Woolf: Mrs Dalloway

crumpet · 05/03/2025 22:46

So many already listed, and a few others:
Rebecca
Lord of the Rings
Chalet School series
Georgette Heyer - any
Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities - vividly remember finishing this on a train with tears in my eyes, and I never cry
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series & Good Omens
Pride and Prejudice
Agatha Christie books - remember finding these at the age of 10 and being hooked
Alan Bennett’s diaries
Dorothy Dunnett’s Lymond and Niccolo series
Dorothy L Sayers Wimsey books
Life After Life
and so many more…

PurpleFlower1983 · 05/03/2025 22:40

Notellinganyone · 05/03/2025 20:04

He lost it from Atonement onwards, Saturdays and Solar are terrible novels!

Show quote history

Lessons is pretty good.

HumphreyCobblers · 05/03/2025 22:38

I loved all three of your examples OP.

How about Robertson Davies? Any of the trilogies. The Salterton is lighthearted but they are all wonderful. I adore all of them and would love the chance to read them for the first time again.

barumph · 05/03/2025 22:33

FawnDrench · 05/03/2025 22:15

Cujo
The grapes of wrath
All the light we cannot see
Me before you
The concrete blonde
The secret garden (from my childhood)

For my great nephews baby shower, his mum asked everyone to bring their favourite childhood book. Mine was The Secret Garden

barumph · 05/03/2025 22:31

Oh also Birdsong

barumph · 05/03/2025 22:30

Far from the Madding Crowd
Carter beats the devil
Catch 22

PurpleFlower1983 · 05/03/2025 22:29

Atonement
The Remains of the Day
Never Let Me Go
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Life After Life
Great Expectations
Jane Eyre

Sugarcube84 · 05/03/2025 22:28

Papillon by henri charriere, read it for the first time in college given to me by my boyfriend at the time. Maybe nostalgia of young love but still one of my favourite reads.

Bruisername · 05/03/2025 22:26

Nervous conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

she was shortlisted for the booker for the third in the trilogy but I thought the first was wonderful and the second two disappointing!!

Purplebunnie · 05/03/2025 22:23

nordicwannabe · 05/03/2025 21:10

Guy Gavriel Kay - the Lions of Al Rassan, A song for Arbonne, and the 2 books of The Sarantine Mosaic

The only book I've not enjoyed was Under Heaven and then I didn't bother reading the follow on.

There are times when his books have broken me a little

Purplebunnie · 05/03/2025 22:20

Arraminta · 05/03/2025 21:09

I loved her Pern when I was a teenager. Are the ones by her son rubbish?

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I have also read Pern from when I was a teenager. I found the sons books a bit samey.

I also enjoyed some of her other books, the Ship Who Sang and the Tower/Raven series

Ballgames · 05/03/2025 22:20

Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine

The Women (Kristen Hannah)

Swiftie1878 · 05/03/2025 22:18

The Kashmir Shawl
Brixton Beach
The Nightingale
Half of a Yellow Sun
Pride & Prejudice
Love Marriage
The List of Suspicious Things

TitusMoan · 05/03/2025 22:17

Notellinganyone · 05/03/2025 20:04

He lost it from Atonement onwards, Saturdays and Solar are terrible novels!

Show quote history

Agree, Solar is awful.

FawnDrench · 05/03/2025 22:15

Cujo
The grapes of wrath
All the light we cannot see
Me before you
The concrete blonde
The secret garden (from my childhood)

StrongandNorthern · 05/03/2025 22:13

Another vote for The Cazalet Chronicles (Elizabeth Jane Howard).
5 books.
First one is The Light Years.
Absolutly brilliant.

MrsCrawfordsCroissant · 05/03/2025 22:12

Adding to the Kate Atkinson recommendations with Behind the Scenes at the Museum.
Also Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris.

Wishing you a speedy recovery!

Adelstrop · 05/03/2025 22:10

A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
My Family and Other Animals - Gerald Durrell

So many more, but these are ‘happy’ reads that are beautifully written but will cheer you up (though if you read Never Let Me Go and didn’t have nightmares, you must have a strong literary disposition)