I often reread books and I almost always find some nuance or "flavor" that I either missed before or I have grown enough to appreciate now.
I do that all the time. Primarily due to my shit memory and the fact that when I come back to something it's like something brand new, but, you know, same difference, kinda.
Well, I reread the LOTR most every fall, for some reason. I also reread The Return of the Native by Hardy every now and then. I am not sure why but I seems to fit my mood when I do. I also every couple of years reread Lady of the Lake and The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott, the Longmire Mysteries, and the Anasazi Mysteries Trilogy by Gear and Gear. I just really enjoy them. There are others and, as I get older, that seems to happen more.
Okay, I know that Crichton is easy to read, but that's insanely fast. But Crichton could definitely be a fun author to re-read if you don't want to stress yourself out.
Oh. I have chronic insomnia. It isn't unusual for me to give up trying to sleep and just read a book until time to get ready for work.
One of my greatest joys is my limited storage capacity. Most of the books I own or inherited have to be stored in various boxes at various places. Going through them, I often can't help but take a couple with me to reread - until my apartment has to be cleaned out and the cycle begins anew. That said, I probably reread Dune every two years or so. That's probably the most frequent. I still consider it an almost perfect novel, even though I start seeing his repetitive language more and more since I finally started reading all the sequels to it (Heretics of Dune at the moment). Thus I shake my head from side to side reading them every once in a while.
I started Lost World last night. I am curious: do you folks consider Jurassic Park and Lost World to be sci-fi? It seems that it has affected scientific research in some ways: Sci-fi and Jurassic Park Have Driven Research
Oh man, I really need to re-read Dune and all the original sequels that follow. I've read Dune 3 times, but it's already been 15 or so years since the last time. Sure, I would consider a lot of Crichton's novels science fiction, including JP and LW. There was a really good retrospective on Crichton by Vanity Fair that was posted on the site's FB page earlier this month that you might find an interesting read.
Back in the 80s, it was Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. Every reread peeled back huge layers. Currently re-reading Malazan Book of the Fallen. Granted, a horse pill to swallow, but so much better on second read when you finally know what the hell is going on.. Erikson is a brilliant writer. But classics like Gateway, Neuromancer, and Perdido Street Station have not hit the bar for re-read. So many other net new books to read.
I'd love to reread MBoTF but the prospect is so daunting. It took me 14 months first time round, and that was non-stop, no breaks in between books. I don't think I'd fancy tackling this in audiobook format so I'd likely be looking at another 14 month+ stint, in which time I'd ordinarily read around 60 or so new 'standard length/not overly complex' books.
My GF got me a Kindle last Christmas with the complete MBotF on it. I travel a lot, so I get to it at airports, on planes, and in hotel rooms. Just finished The Bonehunters last week. Otherwise, I have my regular reading stack at home. Currently in KSR's New York 2140 and my daughter wanted to go to the bookstore last night after dinner so I picked up the new Neal Stephenson collab The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. which came out yesterday. The stack has been re-ordered. Speaking of re-reads, I re-read KSR's The Years of Rice and Salt a couple months ago. Love that book. "We all may be in a hallucination here, but that's no excuse to get delusional!"
I like to reread books I love. I get more out of them every time. Plus there are some books that I thought were just OK the first time, but something about it struck a chord so I reread it, and realized how truly awesome the book was. I felt this way with Catch-22. I've reread Dune a number of times. My favourite science fiction. Other SF I've reread are Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, and all the Foundation and Robot novels. I know a lot of people say that they don't like the Foundation books after the original trilogy, but I actually really love them all. I've also reread a bunch of James Clavell's historical novels more than once, especially Shogun and King Rat. Seen the screen versions of both, too.
I bought it very recently. It came up somewhere in a thread "Time Travel. Reimaging the Past" I found its blurb really appealing. I do want to read this before long.
I think you'll enjoy it. There is science, alternate history, questions of faith, and most of all: humor.
