If you are re-reading a book at the moment what is it?

[Cheesesandwine]

I am re-reading Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. Really enjoying it, lovely language with fantastic description of the mountains and farm land where the book is based.

I am now curious, do others re-read books? If you are re-reading a book are you enjoying it as much as you did first time round or less?

I am enjoying this more as more interested in her writing about the animals and plants than last time.

Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz. One of his best and my favourites.

Glad you clarified that point!

I had to Madame

I'm happy to find this thread. I love re-reading, mainly as I have a terrible memory and also as it's comforting, especially if poorly or stressed.

I'm unwell and unhappy at the moment so re-reading the Chalet School books I just had a lovely long bath and read about when The Saints arrived and started a feud Also agree with Agatha Christie being good to re-read.

I also tend to re-read in series or authors, especially Susan Howatch Starbridge series as mentioned by PP. Also like her Cashelmara and Van Zale banking family books. In contrast, also love Irvine Welsh, particularly Trainspotting.

Other comforting re-reads which I tend to read every two/ three years are:

Gone with the wind
Vanity Fair
Bill Bryson books
James Clavell books
A prayer for Owen Meany

I also do the same, to a lesser extent, with films, especially Hitchcock.

(I loved it when the DC were little and could read things like The Moomins, Mrs Pepperpot and Dr Seuss to them over and over again)

I love re-reading. First time around I either read too fast or was too young to understand nuances, subtext etc. Second, third etc. times around I am analysing and enjoying the cleverness of the books. Re-reading is also good in times of illness or stress or when you don't want the risk of reading through the night to find out what happens next.

Funny how many of us are listing the same books. Dorothy L Sayers is in my opinion by far the best of the 'golden era' detective writers. I must be on tenth+ read through of the Harriet Vane books and find something new each time.

DaisyDalrymple as a PP suggested, start with Strong Poison, then Have His Carcase, then Gaudy Night and Busman's Honeymoon. Then you'll probably want to read the earlier stories for completeness.

Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham are fine but not usually tempted to re-read, and after the richness of DLS (whose later books are more popular/literary novels with a side helping of detection and cracking plot) Agatha Christie just feels so thin.

I also like re-reading children's books - HP, AOGG, Louisa May Alcott, Chalet School. A world where good is rewarded and evil thwarted is so very soothing. Some of Eva Ibbotson's books are the same.

I love to re-read a good book. I've read Pride and Prejudice a fair few times and I've lost count how many times I've read the Twilight and Harry Potter series. I find I appreciate a book more the second time round.
I can't re-read thrillers though, because I know how it's going to end, I don't enjoy it as much, because the suspense is lost

Bridget jones diary is a rip off ( or updated) version of pride and Predjudice.

I remember laying at Chelsea and Westminster hospital grimly reading jilly cooper and wishing I knew jilly - she'd be on my list for the perfect dinner table:)

The other week I re-read The Catcher in the Rye, which I thought was an amazing book first time round. Now I would class it as one of the most disappointing books I've read this year (must be age related). I am steeling myself to reread Middlemarch - I really don't want my evaluation of it to change.

A world where good is rewarded and evil thwarted is so very soothing. Some of Eva Ibbotson's books are the same.

Love them. Especially The Secret Countess and The Morning Gift.

We were liars by e.lockhart. There's something really beautiful and nostalgic about the settings but a very sad unpredictable ending.

One book that was like a different book on a second reading was Wuthering Heights.

First time: I was about 15; thought it the most romantic story ever.

Second time: I was older; thought the characters were deranged and Heathcliff a monster.

The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate (Nancy Mitford). It's like catching up with old friends, and understanding them better. I don't think I understood the half of the really dark, creepy undertones of Love in a Cold Climate when I was a teenager - the horrid Lady Montdore, the damaged and difficult-to-like Polly, the frankly creepy Boy Dougdale. I like the utterly unsentimental view of friendships Mitford portrays, as relationships that often spring from convenience and necessity rather than mutual liking - something I can identify with in my own life, and which was strangely comforting when I found myself without a 'best friend'.

Mitzy Those two are my favourites as well. Some of her others seem like a trial run of those.

Emma by Jane Austen.

I've read all her books several times (except Mansfield Park).

Jilly cooper is also my hospital book and my " oh god I wish I was one of her characters" She would be so much fun as a guest. And once, quite shamelessly I pinched one of her chat up lines and used it on a chap ( it worked)

I love Nancy Mitford too, and for quite a while wanted to be Linda:) always had a huge crush on Alfred though. Still do:)