A book you can read over and over again?

[JennaTooIs]

I don't have a lot of room for books so I'd like a few goodens I can reread. What are yours?

@kirkandpetal I came on to say the same thing 😅 also the same books, except I do like jump (Riders and Polo are the best by far)

Have you tried Fiona walker? Very similar

I also have a soft spot for rural historical romance, especially Audrey Howard but some Catherine Cookson novels (The girl, tilly trotter, tide of life) get read several times a year.

Off to hang my head in shame at my lack of literary sophistication.

I blame being made to read boring shite in my English literature degree!!

Oh I think the re-reading is good, I always notice thing s I didn’t notice the first or second time!

Me too! On The Beach haunted me for so long after reading. I wouldn’t say it’s comfort reading for me though.

My go to “I feel shit I need to be absorbed in another world and not think about anything,” type books are:

Jane Eyre
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume (read it every year since I was 12, same age as the main protagonist - now thirties and older than her at the end when she’s an adult 😭)
Back Home by Michelle Magorian
The Wind in the Willows
Watership Down
On Green Dolphin Street
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin
His Dark Materials trilogy
Jilly Cooper - the short ‘woman’s name,’ books eg Harriet, Prudence etc!

I am currently reading a few chapters a night of The Faraway Tree to my daughters and it’s bringing back so many cosy memories of my childhood! Love comfort reading ❤️

Yep, devoured the first six the start of last year and know I'll be reading them again. Given how many awards LMB has won she really should be better known.

That was in reply to @LadyPeterWimsey

I tend to re-read certain passages rather than entire books. A few favourites:

The speech Gussie gives in P G Wodehouse’s Right Ho Jeeves
The dialogue between Bertie and Jeeves
The dialogue bits in Dorian Gray, especially those involving Lord Henry
The scene in Pride and Prejudice where Lizzie is bullied and fights back
The scene where Pip is nursed by Joe in Great Expectations
David’s journey to London in David Copperfield
The Anthony Blanche scenes in Brideshead Revisited
The Treebeard chapter in Lord of the Rings
George Orwell’s essay on the toad, and his essay on Dickens
The chapter in Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall where Paul first arrives at the school
The bit in Kipling’s Kim where Kim and the Llama walk the great road
Patrick Fermor’s description of walking through the snow in Germany while reciting poetry
The opening chapter of Anthony Burgess’s first Enderby novel
The opening to D H Lawrence’s The Rainbow
Any lyrical descriptions of the English countryside in Thomas Hardy or D H Lawrence

**one of the very few movies that does justice to the book:)
@JoonT

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Travels with my Aunt
Jane of Lantern Hill
The Blue Castle
Almost anything by Noel Streatfeild, E M Brent-Dyer.

If you like Lois McMaster Bujold, you have to start reading Jodi Taylor. Fans of one tend to love the other.

The Secret Life of Bees. Love the audiobook too

I think only if it’s a kindle tablet rather than just an E-reader.

@Timetochangetheoil oh I loved Back Home! That was one of my rereads as a child/teenager. Don’t know what happened to my copy and tried to get it for dc1 about ten years ago and was unable to source it. Must look again.

The stand by Stephen King
To kill a mockingbird

There must be others, but I've just woke up.

Good to see someone else who has read John Scalzi. I got my dad that for his 65th birthday and him and mum keep threatening to 'go green'.

Can you find space for more books though op? Or library books, charity shop rotation or kindle.

Rereading books is nice for comfort but you would miss out hugely if you never read anything fresh. That's the bit that does your brain good, I think.

You must have a bit of wall you could put a shelf on, or arrange so you have space under your telly etc?

Thank you for all the suggestions! Can't wait to give some a read.

My flat is rented so unable to put shelves up unfortunately, and most of the flat is taken over by kids stuff lol. I don't like kindles, they take the joy out of reading books for me. But I will definitely start visiting the library/ charity shops.

Do you have a local library you can use? We can reserve online,they contact you when it's available and then you pick up- perfect.

Dorothy Dunnett, Lois McMaster Bujold and Heyer.

Ooh, I came to say a Town Like Alice too, I often reread it (2 books in one, the Malaya part and the Australia section).

Thanks for the reminder to get hold of On The Beach
and now Trustee from the Tool Room - as I’m sure I can trust a recommendation from other ‘Alice’ lovers

To kill a mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Outsiders - S E Hinton
Rumblefish - S E Hinton

What did you make of the latest: Among(st?) Our Weapons? I was so happy when it arrived but didn’t feel like I enjoyed it anything like as much as the others. Not sure if it was me or Ben A. having off days.

Thanks for reminding me of this, it's years since I've read it! Off to download.

Genesis of Shannara trilogy by Terry Brooks
Ballet Shoes
Circle of friends Maeve Binchy
The Stand Stephen King
Terry Pratchett especially the witches, Carpe Jugulum is my favourite.
Troy trilogy by David Gemmel

"Jane Austen, on the other hand. Can’t stand. Not read her since A level, when I used to have to force myself to read the set text (pride and prejudice), or was it persuasion. Possibly both. Dreadful."

This review of p&p still makes me laugh.."just a bunch of people going to each other's houses" well he's not wrong. 😂

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9377375/People-reveal-favourite-literary-criticism-time-hilarious-Twitter-thread.html

For chillinwiththevillians Re. Rivers of London. I read amongst our weapons really quickly and I did enjoy it. There is definitely something though that has shifted a bit. I read the graphic novels as well and I really like them. I'm not sure but I think the complexity of the Web of relationships between the characters was a bit overwhelming in this novel. It seemed a bit off to have both the mothers in the birth scene but not to do much with them. They are always so well written usually. I think the author still has a lot left to say but I think his focus was not as sharp as usual. Certainly not as sharp as in the graphic novels.