Lois’s answer to “For you - and for your readers: recommendations for books / series that are readable and rereadabl…” > Likes and Comments
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Some books I've reread a lot are:
The Uplift Series by David Brin
Julia Quinn romance novels
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Old Man's War series by John Scalzi
I suspect that other people's recommendations are not going to be of much use here. I reread books that appeal to me; the more they appeal to me, the more I reread them. But what appeals to me is entirely subjective and is unlikely to appeal to you. For instance, I've read a few of the books mentioned by Liz and Heather, but I don't reread them because they don't appeal to me much. The one thing we have in common here is that LMB books presumably appeal to all of us; but that doesn't seem to have implications for what else we reread, except that it may fall within the very wide boundaries of sf and fantasy.
One series I learned about through LMB is the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. I have re-read and re-listened to these books a number of times in the past couple of years.
Going back 20+ years, the Valdamar books by Mercedes Lackey.
I concur with recommendations being somewhat person-specific. However, besides these books, I always recommend Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's. They are time traveling historians (researching contemporary events in historical times) and are so funny.
With all due disclaimers about personal preferences being, well, very personal, I want to mention Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling. Not in the "mind blown, earth shattered" category for me, but maybe that's why it's been so nice to re-read it. Comfort reading indeed.
A recent series that reminds me a lot of Bujold books (and that I thus find very rereadable) is the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. They're not really like the Vorkosiverse in any concrete way... it's just something about the tone or the feeling that keeps me coming back. Another recent find are Naomi Novik's books. I like her Temeraire historical dragon books a lot, but I really love Spinning Silver and her recent 2/3rds-published Scholomance series. So good. I find Terry Pratchett very rereadable too.
If you like urban fantasy that gets dark at times, I recommend Patricia Brigg's two werewolf series: Mercedes Thompson and Alpha and Omega. I find despite the dark parts that I can still reread those about once a year.
If you like manga, I've been required to read all the currently-published World Trigger books to my children more times than I can count in the last few years, and I'm not tired of them.
For mystery, I find that I can reread Agatha Christie whenever I want to, because I forget the plots... But Sayers touched me the most. It's probably about time for another reread of those.
My go-to rereads as a young adult were what you'd expect - Middle-Earth, Narnia, Harry Potter, and also The Wheel of Time, the Death Gate Cycle, Pern, Tom Sawyer...
Oh, and from Diana Wynne Jones mentioned above: my favorite rereads are Hexwood, A Sudden Wild Magic, and the Chrestomanci books.
Check out Carrie Vaughn for urban paranormal stories. Also Tamora Pierce for strong female characters, she’s considered young adult but try her out.
Thanks so much for these recommendations, everyone! So helpful. While LMB is my favourite of all time, my tastes coincide with Liz and Lara. Can I also recommend The Expanse series by James S A Corey (sf) and completely different but with a lovely Bujold blend of humour, wisdom and hope is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
+1 to Murderbot by Martha Wells, Rivers of London by Aaronovitch. Georgette Heyer is very rereadable.
My rereads/listens aren't really much like your books. Lately it's been the In Death books by JD Robb (Nora Roberts). Sometimes it's books by Dick Francis. A few Anne McCaffrey. While the Vorkosigan books cover some 45 years in 17 books, the In Death books cover just a few years in over 50 books.
Subscribe comment no. 1 also lately the Paladin books by T. Kingfisher...
I'd recommend Victoria Goddard for the characters and the world building and the cleverness. I started reading her books with The Hands of the Emperor which is about a bureaucrat high in the Emperor's service - who is the first wide sea islander to enter the civil service. Reminds me of Cazaril in his sense of decency and service. She has written quite a few books set in that world. On her website she gives the intended reading order - starting with Hands and the chronological reading order. Very humane series, that cares about people and doesn't have the posturing, testosterone charged masculinity that some fantasies like for heroes.
I cannot recommend Sue Blom's Inca trilogy highly enough. Exemplary Fortune reminds me of Cazaril.
I also second Norine's recommendations as well as Naomi Novik & Katherine Addison's the Goblin Emperor trilogy.
What a great question - I'll be coming back to this to create my own want-to-read list.
I like how Lois mentioned that when you come back to a book after some time, you get different things from it - that it's a different book for you than it was the first time around. I especially notice bits of wisdom, or philosophy, that I have incorporated into my 'being' along the way - when I encounter it again it's like 'Oh! so that's where that came from!'
Favourite re-reads for me: Georgette Heyer, John Wyndham, Pern books by McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov.
"younger" books that I still enjoy and reread, albeit not so often -these often have the realization that I've absorbed something into who I am - The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander; Narnia; Harry Potter; the Hobbit & LOTR; The Keeping Days series by Norma Johnston.
I have no doubt that the Vorkosigan books will be on both the re-read and "oh! part of me comes from this book" lists :)
I'd like to add Elizabeth Moon - the Deeds of Paksenarrian.
An obscure series by this guy who’s actually an English professor - John Tolkien’s Hobbit
Not so similar to Bujold but on my reread pile are Modesitt's Recluse and Imager books. And Terry Pratchett of course
I'd like to back Modesitt's books too - in fact I'm about to start a reread of his Spellsinger series. But I'm an eclectic reader, who's only today finished rereading Dudley Pope's Royal Navy series about the adventures of Ramage fighting the French revolution. Alas, Pope died quite a few years ago but his stories integrate a lot of by-the-way explanations of naval terms that other authors just assume are understood.
I just re-read The Hallowed Hunt and loved it in a different way (probably my 7th time reading it). I also have re-read Katherine Addison. Another favorite series is the novels of The Company by Kage Baker (In the Garden of Iden).
I would not dare make any recommendations. I find that choosing a book to re-read depends on my mood. Recently, I picked up a book that I love so much that I have re-read it dozens of times. And found it unreadable. Not the author's fault of course. I was just not in the right state of mind
Over the years I've reread many times Alexei Panshin's trilogy "Star Well", "The Thurb Revolution", and "Masque World", which have definitely been comfort reading for me; and the hero Anthony Villiers is congenial, even as Penric is congenial, although the two of them have somewhat different personalities and lifestyles. I don't seem to have been rereading the Villiers books quite so often in recent years, I think because I know them too well by now, they've become over-familiar. But I'm still fond of them.
I've reread The Lord of the Rings more than twenty times, but must confess the last time I reread it, I no longer felt like it was teh best book in the world. I still reread Dorothy Sayers regularly. I recently reread Dune and felt it held up very well. Elizabeth Moon's books are very rereadable. I like the ones set in space better than the Paksenanarian books which started off strong, but went downhill after the first three.
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Some books I've reread a lot are:The Uplift Series by David Brin
Julia Quinn romance novels
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Old Man's War series by John Scalzi
I suspect that other people's recommendations are not going to be of much use here. I reread books that appeal to me; the more they appeal to me, the more I reread them. But what appeals to me is entirely subjective and is unlikely to appeal to you. For instance, I've read a few of the books mentioned by Liz and Heather, but I don't reread them because they don't appeal to me much. The one thing we have in common here is that LMB books presumably appeal to all of us; but that doesn't seem to have implications for what else we reread, except that it may fall within the very wide boundaries of sf and fantasy.
One series I learned about through LMB is the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. I have re-read and re-listened to these books a number of times in the past couple of years.Going back 20+ years, the Valdamar books by Mercedes Lackey.
I concur with recommendations being somewhat person-specific. However, besides these books, I always recommend Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's. They are time traveling historians (researching contemporary events in historical times) and are so funny.
With all due disclaimers about personal preferences being, well, very personal, I want to mention Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewelling. Not in the "mind blown, earth shattered" category for me, but maybe that's why it's been so nice to re-read it. Comfort reading indeed.
A recent series that reminds me a lot of Bujold books (and that I thus find very rereadable) is the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. They're not really like the Vorkosiverse in any concrete way... it's just something about the tone or the feeling that keeps me coming back. Another recent find are Naomi Novik's books. I like her Temeraire historical dragon books a lot, but I really love Spinning Silver and her recent 2/3rds-published Scholomance series. So good. I find Terry Pratchett very rereadable too.If you like urban fantasy that gets dark at times, I recommend Patricia Brigg's two werewolf series: Mercedes Thompson and Alpha and Omega. I find despite the dark parts that I can still reread those about once a year.
If you like manga, I've been required to read all the currently-published World Trigger books to my children more times than I can count in the last few years, and I'm not tired of them.
For mystery, I find that I can reread Agatha Christie whenever I want to, because I forget the plots... But Sayers touched me the most. It's probably about time for another reread of those.
My go-to rereads as a young adult were what you'd expect - Middle-Earth, Narnia, Harry Potter, and also The Wheel of Time, the Death Gate Cycle, Pern, Tom Sawyer...
Oh, and from Diana Wynne Jones mentioned above: my favorite rereads are Hexwood, A Sudden Wild Magic, and the Chrestomanci books.
Check out Carrie Vaughn for urban paranormal stories. Also Tamora Pierce for strong female characters, she’s considered young adult but try her out.
Thanks so much for these recommendations, everyone! So helpful. While LMB is my favourite of all time, my tastes coincide with Liz and Lara. Can I also recommend The Expanse series by James S A Corey (sf) and completely different but with a lovely Bujold blend of humour, wisdom and hope is A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles.
+1 to Murderbot by Martha Wells, Rivers of London by Aaronovitch. Georgette Heyer is very rereadable.
My rereads/listens aren't really much like your books. Lately it's been the In Death books by JD Robb (Nora Roberts). Sometimes it's books by Dick Francis. A few Anne McCaffrey. While the Vorkosigan books cover some 45 years in 17 books, the In Death books cover just a few years in over 50 books.
Subscribe comment no. 1 also lately the Paladin books by T. Kingfisher...
I'd recommend Victoria Goddard for the characters and the world building and the cleverness. I started reading her books with The Hands of the Emperor which is about a bureaucrat high in the Emperor's service - who is the first wide sea islander to enter the civil service. Reminds me of Cazaril in his sense of decency and service. She has written quite a few books set in that world. On her website she gives the intended reading order - starting with Hands and the chronological reading order. Very humane series, that cares about people and doesn't have the posturing, testosterone charged masculinity that some fantasies like for heroes.
I cannot recommend Sue Blom's Inca trilogy highly enough. Exemplary Fortune reminds me of Cazaril.
I also second Norine's recommendations as well as Naomi Novik & Katherine Addison's the Goblin Emperor trilogy.
What a great question - I'll be coming back to this to create my own want-to-read list.I like how Lois mentioned that when you come back to a book after some time, you get different things from it - that it's a different book for you than it was the first time around. I especially notice bits of wisdom, or philosophy, that I have incorporated into my 'being' along the way - when I encounter it again it's like 'Oh! so that's where that came from!'
Favourite re-reads for me: Georgette Heyer, John Wyndham, Pern books by McCaffrey, Isaac Asimov.
"younger" books that I still enjoy and reread, albeit not so often -these often have the realization that I've absorbed something into who I am - The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander; Narnia; Harry Potter; the Hobbit & LOTR; The Keeping Days series by Norma Johnston.
I have no doubt that the Vorkosigan books will be on both the re-read and "oh! part of me comes from this book" lists :)
I'd like to add Elizabeth Moon - the Deeds of Paksenarrian.
An obscure series by this guy who’s actually an English professor - John Tolkien’s Hobbit
Not so similar to Bujold but on my reread pile are Modesitt's Recluse and Imager books. And Terry Pratchett of course
I'd like to back Modesitt's books too - in fact I'm about to start a reread of his Spellsinger series. But I'm an eclectic reader, who's only today finished rereading Dudley Pope's Royal Navy series about the adventures of Ramage fighting the French revolution. Alas, Pope died quite a few years ago but his stories integrate a lot of by-the-way explanations of naval terms that other authors just assume are understood.
I just re-read The Hallowed Hunt and loved it in a different way (probably my 7th time reading it). I also have re-read Katherine Addison. Another favorite series is the novels of The Company by Kage Baker (In the Garden of Iden).
I would not dare make any recommendations. I find that choosing a book to re-read depends on my mood. Recently, I picked up a book that I love so much that I have re-read it dozens of times. And found it unreadable. Not the author's fault of course. I was just not in the right state of mind
Over the years I've reread many times Alexei Panshin's trilogy "Star Well", "The Thurb Revolution", and "Masque World", which have definitely been comfort reading for me; and the hero Anthony Villiers is congenial, even as Penric is congenial, although the two of them have somewhat different personalities and lifestyles. I don't seem to have been rereading the Villiers books quite so often in recent years, I think because I know them too well by now, they've become over-familiar. But I'm still fond of them.
I've reread The Lord of the Rings more than twenty times, but must confess the last time I reread it, I no longer felt like it was teh best book in the world. I still reread Dorothy Sayers regularly. I recently reread Dune and felt it held up very well. Elizabeth Moon's books are very rereadable. I like the ones set in space better than the Paksenanarian books which started off strong, but went downhill after the first three.
Having said that:
The World of the White Rat by T. Kingfisher.
The Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
The Fall of Ile Rien by Martha Wells
(Also The Books of the Raksura by Martha Wells, but maybe not right after Ile Rien because they are VERY different.)
Diana Wynne Jones is the queen of British fantasy now and forever and will always be my comfort reads, but specifically Deep Secret and Dark Lord of Derkholm.
The Memoirs of Lady Trent by Marie Brennan (you have to have at least a little fondness for the 19th century to enjoy these, but if you do, they're awesome.)
That seems like a good start. I'm curious what other people recommend.