What book have you read the most?

[Wade]

Just as the title states, what book (or books) do you enjoy enough to have read them more than once?

As for me, it is War of the Worlds (HG Wells), that I have read 5 times. I just absolutely love that book, and every time I read it, it is just as exciting as the first time I read it.

[Lisa]

I've been rereading some Heinlein. I read a lot of it probably 25 years ago. I still like him!

[Leonie]

That's a tricky one! I'd say possibly Lord of the Rings, but thats' mainly because it's one that I met when I was a kid in the 70's, but I have quite a list of multiple read books.

Basically, anything by Terry Pratchett, Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers has been a big favourite, Julian May's Milieu and Pliocene Exiles series... I could go on... and on... and on...

I am an enthusiastic re-reader.

[Trinity]

Lewis Carroll, without a doubt. I've read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass many, many times.

[Mickey]

When it comes to fiction, I only read them once and move on to another.

Vector Calculus books I have re-read several times a fascinating subject.

[Cheryl]

"Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley.....

[Cheryl]

Lisa wrote: "I've been rereading some Heinlein. I read a lot of it probably 25 years ago. I still like him!"

Am starting The Moon is a Harsh Mistress for our sci-fi/steam punk book club. Comments welcome; it came highly recommended.

[Weenie]

Have read George RR Martin's A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords three times each. They seem to get better with each reading!

[Zac]

I reread Cat's Cradle every few years. Love that $%&*#$% book.

[Nick]

Toss up between Ann McCaffrey's first three Dragon Riders of Pern series, and...

Stephen Donaldson's, Thomas Covenant Unbeliever series...

[mark, personal space invader]

I have read Cat's Cradle and Stand on Zanzibar several times each. The Passage, twice. the stories of Robert Aickman, at least twice each. many books by Tanith Lee & Jack Vance & Michael Moorcock twice as well.

and hey does seeing Catching Fire three times in the theater count? because I did that too, to my everlasting shame.

[John]

For me it would have to be the Hitchhiker' s Guide books, which I've read at least 4 or 5 times.

The runner up would be Wolfe's Long Sun books, which I've read 3 times.

[Wastrel]

I'd like to say The Lord of the Rings. But it's possible that it's some pulp fantasy book I reread obsessively in my early teens.

Candidates probably include Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Elfshadow, Sojourn and Dragonsinger.

EDIT: come to think of it, I guess Gemmell too, particularly Legend and The King Beyond the Gate

[Alexa]

With the release of a new book in any really good series, I will frequently go back and reread all the previous books in the series, just to re-acclimate myself. As far as stand-alones go the two I probably spent the most time with are Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. (I also spent a lot of time with Kate Elliott's Jaran, Carol Berg's Transformation, and Lois McMaster Bujold's Shards of Honour)

[JackM]

If I cheated, by including audio adaptations, Then it would be The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings and The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy. Physical wise, I've read them 3+. Audio especially HH,more times than I care to remember.

[Mary]

I re-read a lot. In fact, I don't review a book without reading it twice. But The Lord of the Rings has got to be the one I read the most. Chiefly in my teens, but I've continued to re-read it since then. (The things you miss. . . .)

[Kirsten]

I'm not sure what sci-fi I've read the most. Probably War of the Worlds, though I just re-read Island of Dr Moreau this year.

But other books I've read more than once are Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre.

[Bob]

A Princess of Mars, The Lord of the Rings and The Time Machine

I have LOTR as a nicely bound 3-volumes in one on my bookshelf, so it is easy to get to. The other two I have as e-books, as I am too lazy to go get the actual ones out of storage boxes in the basement.

[Daniel]

Hi everyone:
I'm just a crazy old Hippie artist and retired wholesaler/smuggler of exotic herbal resins, mind expanding potions and psychoactive mushrooms. I have read many hundreds of novels of all genres numerous times. I new J.R.R. Tolkien when my crazy Glaswegian artist partner and I owned and operated a small primitive and modern art gallery on Hollywell Sreet Oxford, during the absolutely amazing and drug fueled Hippie era. I must have read the Hobbit and the Lord of the rings at least ten times over the last forty seven years. Other than that I've read Arthur C. Clark's Childhood End three times.
Best regards to you all,
Danny Sinclair.
Otherwise known as Daniel Sinclair Pearson

[Daniel]

Meant to say, I Knew J.R.R. Tolkien.

[Mary JL]

Hard to list only three but---
1) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein.

2) Zenna Henderson's Pilgrimage: The Book of the People andThe People: No Different Flesh

3)Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

[Cath]

2) Zenna Henderson's Pilgrimage: The Book of the People and[book:The People: No Different Fle..."

What a coincidence. I'd never heard of Zenna Henderson... until yesterday. I'm currently reading Among Others by Jo Walton and one of the authors 'Mori' mentions - among many - is Zenna Henderson. I shall have to investigate.

I don't reread very much but The Hobbit is probably top of the list. Also Terry Pratchett's Sam Vimes books. And Pern of course.

[Maggie, space cruisin' for a bruisin']

For me, and in Sci-fi, it's probably Dune.In fantasy, probably Gardens of the Moon and various Tolkien. Otherwise I really like books that are alternate history/mystery like The Shadow of the Wind(I dont know how alternate that is, but its the one Ive read the most)
I have also read Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux about 10 times...

[CD]

If I just stick to SF the following come to mind as one's I've read and will read again multiple times:

Dune
Time Enough for Love
The Sheriff Of Purgatory
Time Storm

There are series or other works related to these authors or books, but as individual works those are my top four.

[Kirsten]

I really should re-read Dune. My mom loves it.

[Rob]

For me it's...

Lucifer's Hammer
The Mote in God's Eye

Guess I just love that old time SF rag.

[Micah]

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, hands down. I've lost count how many times I've read them. My wife and I used to read them to each other as well.

Aside from them it's hard to say, but probably one of Philip K Dick's SF novels. I've got all but maybe one of his in my library and I periodically go back to them and read two or three back-to-back. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say Ubik or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep would be tops. But it's hard to say...Galactic Pot-Healer (I've got a 1st edition hard back of that, as well as a trade paperback); A Maze of Death; Solar Lottery....they've all seen multiple reads.

[mark, personal space invader]

I love Maze of Death. don't see that one mentioned too often on lists of PKD favorites.

[spikeINflorida]

For human loss/grief: Clark's Childhood's End

For a soldier's sacrifice: Haldeman's Forever War & Peace

For my inner child: Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings

[Kirsten]

The book I've read the most isn't science fiction... it's Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

[Alexa]

Ah, I would have to agree with you Kirsten!

[Carolyn]

I don't re-read sf much (like Kirsten have also re-read Pride and Prejudice many times), but if I'm feeling down Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series always cheers me up (and has been re-read many times!) I love that this group has been reading them, and even though I've only just joined have, am enjoying re-visiting them again :)

[Carolyn]

The Mists of Avalon
The Harper Hall of Pern (the Dragonsinger trilogy)
Outlander and sequels
Kushiel's Dart and sequels
Probably others, but those are the first that come to mind.

[Kirsten]

Thanks, Alexa and Carolyn! I was afraid I would be out of place for not putting sci-fi down. I agree about Vorkosigan. I just discovered it last year and I think they're great! I'd love to see them turned into movies (maybe with that guy from Game of Thrones as Miles).

[[deleted user]]

The Forever War
Lord of Light
The Razor's Edge
The Lord of the Rings
Dune

These are the stand-outs.

[Josh]

Does nighttime storybook reading to the kids count? haha. Then I've read "You are Special" a dozen or more times. Great book that could be fantastical fiction. Personally, there are too many books to read to come back to read old friends. New worlds await..... but I will admit to recording a podcast with a buddy about our buddy reads. It forces us to really talk about a book's strengths and weaknesses. (for anyone interested it's reignofbooks.com)

[Mickey]

Does cookbooks count?
How to Cook Everything: The Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food -- With 1,000 Photos.

At least for the last two years.

[Josh]

Great food with 1,000 potatoes? I misread that.... but that would be a fun cookbook.

[Mickey]

As a single person, "one" has to do it all, laundry, cleaning, yard work, gardening and COOKING. Before retirement I lived at restaurants and fast food joints. My health paid a very heavy price for it. Also the new strains of wheat has been causing even greater health problems. Old heritage grains of wheat does not bother me, but getting harder and harder to find. So eating out is no longer possible. I am forced to go gluten free cooking and my health is improving greatly. It does take away from reading that is my main passion in life.

[spikeINflorida]

How bout cooook booooks in spaaaaace :]

[Mickey]

Roasted tribbles sounds delicious. However they are not gluten free since they eat triticale :(

[Josh]

Ha! Roasted Tribbles. Everything has gluten in it.....

[[deleted user]]

Dracula. I've read that book so often that it's almost a once a year event for my by this time. I just absolutely love it. That's a vampire done right. Last year I bought this awesome edition of it:

[Kirsten]

Rabindranauth wrote: "Dracula. I've read that book so often that it's almost a once a year event for my by this time. I just absolutely love it. That's a vampire done right. Last year I bought this awesome edition of it:
"

I have a wonderful audio edition of Dracula read by many audio readers and featuring Tim Curry and Alan Cumming.

[Frank]

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch and Time Enough for Love. I like Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch because you can open it anywhere and find something great.

[Sandy]

I read The Hobbit & LOTR first in when I was about 12. I re-read the whole series a couple times in jr. high & high school. Now I read the series every time a new movie comes out so I guess about 7 times now.

[Greg]

It's good to see mine hasn't been taken yet. I read The Omega Cage every couple of years. It's just such a great middle of the road pulp sci fi that I can't resist. It's short, to the point and brings a lot of tropes together smoothly.

[John]

My H.G. Wells omnibus has been read more times than I've bothered to keep track of, as has my collected Hitchhiker's Guide. Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun has been read three times in the past 10 years, and I'm about due for a 4th.

[Carolyn]

Carolyn wrote: "I don't re-read sf much (like Kirsten have also re-read Pride and Prejudice many times), but if I'm feeling down Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series always cheers me..."

I can't understand either why no one has made the movies yet. They'd be great - plenty of action! Maybe finding the leading man to play Miles was the problem, but you're right - Peter Dinklage would be great!

[Paul]

The original Foundation trilogy, three times.