Reading and Re-Reading

[rj_anderson]

[Crossposted from Tumblr, because I never seem to post anything here otherwise...]

 

Never mind all the books on your To Be Read shelf, because who knows why you’re reading them or if they’re going to be any good. I want to know what’s on your To Be Re-Read shelf — the books you loved so much you’re planning to revisit them for the second, third, or mumbletyseventh time.

 

My TBRR shelf right now consists of:

• Till We Have Faces, Out of the Silent Planet and Perelandra by C.S. Lewis
• The Golden Key and Other Stories and The Lost Princess by George MacDonald
• The Dragon With a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis (published hardcover, previously read in manuscript)
• Something Dark and Holy by Emily A. Duncan (still in manuscript, but final draft -- to be published in 2019)

And I’m also re-reading Elizabeth E. Wein’s The Sunbird aloud to my youngest son.

 

What’s in your TBRR pile lately, if you have one?

Comments

[miladygrey]

Oh sweet mercy, there's my library TBR pile, my stuff-I-picked-up-at-the-used-bookstore TBR pile, and the stuff I want to reread (hello, Ursula LeGuin). Right now, the books looming on my horizon are:

--Malice of Crows by Lila Bowen, weird fantasy Western with a biracial trans protagonist;
--Heaven's Crooked Finger by Hank Early, Southern gothic mystery whose hero was raised in a quasi-cult church in the rural Southern USA;
--The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear, fantasy with a clockwork/nonliving protagonist;
--Thunderhead by Neil Shusterman, YA science fiction about life and death and AI and ethics in a far-future "utopia";
--Words are My Business by Ursula LeGuin, a collection of her nonfiction writing and book reviews from 2000-2016; and
--Fire Kin by M.J. Scott, paranormal romance set in a city full of fae, vampires, Knights Templar, and people just trying to get by.

I read The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart on your recommendation a few months ago when I needed some happiness, and loved it with all my chocoholic heart.

[rj_anderson]

It's the re-reads I want to know about! Is Words Are My Business a re-read, or is there other LeGuin in your re-read pile?

I read Scythe and Thunderhead last week. As I discovered when I read Unwind a few years ago, Shusterman is brilliant, but agh, MY HEART.

And I am so glad you loved Dragon!

[miladygrey]

Words are My Business is not a reread, I did not know it existed until someone (Jo Walton on Tor, maybe?) mentioned it, and I lunged for the Place Hold button on my library page. I also want to reread The Dispossessed and The Lathe of Heaven, and my husband is rereading the Earthsea books. Other rereads poking at me gently are Alison Croggon's Pellinor series, Diana Wynne Jones' Tough Guide to Fantasyland, Lisa Mason's Summer of Love, and Guy Gavriel Kay's Tigana. But library books take precedence...

I saw there were more books in the Unwind series, but the first one shook me so badly I couldn't bring myself to read them. So I read Scythe instead. As you said, MY HEART.

[rj_anderson]

Earthsea is on my re-read list as well, although not until I get through the ones I have piled up on my bedside table already. I have so many beloved books that I re-read every few years, I have to rotate them. :)

And yes on UNWIND. That scene, you know the one, where it's about a million times worse for what is NOT said as what actually is -- I'm still haunted by it.

[maplemood]

I'm planning on rereading the Earthsea series as soon as I can, and I actually now own a copy of The Winter Prince by Elizabeth E. Wein that I've been meaning to reread since I got it; I first read that book around five or six years ago, and it's stuck with me ever since.

[rj_anderson]

Have you read the other books in the series after Winter Prince? I love A Coalition of Lions a lot -- Goewin is one of my favorite characters -- and as I'm being reminded while reading The Sunbird, Telemakos is a sweetheart.

[maplemood]

The only other one I've read is The Lion Hunter, as it was the only other book in the series my library had. I do plan on getting my hands on the entire series one day!

[kerravonsen]

Nice to see you here...

My most often re-read books, hmmm. In no particular order:

* "Scout's Progress" by Sharon Lee & Steve Miller (my favourite of the Liaden Universe stories, but I tend to re-read them all, especially when a new one comes out)
* "The Beacon At Alexandria" by Gillian Bradshaw (my favourite historical novel ever) Closely followed by her "Island of Ghosts".
* "The Curse of Chalion" and "The Paladin of Souls" by Lois McMaster Bujold (oddly, I tend to re-read Paladin more often than Curse)
* "Tinker" by Wen Spencer -- which shouldn't be good, but is. (And then I go and re-read all the other books in the series... which is alas quite short, and I want to find out what happens next)
* random Regency romances by Georgette Heyer. I mean, I can't really pick a particular one that I re-read more than others. I've also learned that it isn't a good idea to read more than three in a row, or they all start sounding the same. In that sense, she is a limited pleasure.

Hmmm, re-reading some George MacDonald would be good. Not sure whether I would take another tilt at "Phantases" or "Lilith", tumble into "At The Back of the North Wind", or dip into the short stories. I don't feel like re-reading "Princess and the Goblin" or "Princess and Curdie" at the moment, I think they got re-read-out...

[rj_anderson]

I really need to re-read CURSE and PALADIN both: I've only read them once (but I liked PALADIN best, too).

And yes, I can definitely see that with Heyer. I have a bunch that I wouldn't mind re-reading one of these days, but in small doses.

I have never brought myself to re-read LILITH or PHANTASTES, having not cared for them at all the first time around, but I've read NORTH WIND a couple of times and might do so again. Still not anywhere near as compelling for me as the CURDIE books and the short stories, though.

And I have never read Bradshaw! Do you think I would like her?

[kerravonsen]

I have never brought myself to re-read LILITH or PHANTASTES, having not cared for them at all the first time around

I can get that. I want to try again with them because I found them evocative as well as hard to understand.

And I have never read Bradshaw! Do you think I would like her?

You know how people say "the past is a foriegn country"? With her, the past is an alien planet... where the world-building is very well done. Yes, you would like her. Especially "The Beacon at Alexandria", I think, because strong female protagonist, disguise, adventure, friendship, and understated romance. Besides Beacon and "Island of Ghosts", I'd recommend "The Sand-Reckoner" (about Archimedes!), "Cleopatra's Heir", "Wolf Hunt" (historical fantasy) and "Dangerous Notes" (near-future SF with an overtone of Greek myth). Oh, and she also wrote an Arthurian trilogy (which I how I discovered her, actually) which I don't tend to re-read because Tragic Ending of Arthur Saga makes me sad.

[sartorias]

Lord of the Rings

Jane Austen

P.G. Wodehouse

Stalky & Co, by Kipling

C.S. Lewis's various non fiction

For contemporary writers:

THE GOBLIN EMPEROR

Bujold

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword.

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey Maturin series, up to about sixteen.

[rj_anderson]

Oh yes, I reread all the Vorkosigan books up to CIVIL CAMPAIGN last year and really need to revisit GOBLIN EMPEROR as well. LotR and Lewis are a perennial given.

[kerravonsen]

Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword.

(points to icon). Yes.

[writerjenn]

I just finished rereading Dani Shapiro's DEVOTION, which I enjoyed just as much as I thought I would. I'd been looking forward to rereading it. Also reread Delia Ephron's SISTER MOTHER HUSBAND DOG. Obviously it's my time to revisit memoirs and personal essays.

[rj_anderson]

I have not heard of either of those! Curious now.

[writerjenn]

DEVOTION is a memoir about seeking spirituality and meaning despite doubt + agnosticism. She focuses mostly on Judaism and Buddhism (with forays into yoga and meditation), but for me it's not about particular religions so much as it's about the hunger for meaning and connection that we all have.
SISTER MOTHER HUSBAND DOG is a series of personal essays, mostly about family, and it's probably of greater interest if you've read Delia or Nora Ephron before, but it's an interesting take on several different kinds of relationships, either way.

[imbecamiel]

I'm actually re-reading Till We Have Faces right now! I've got a few of Lewis's nonfiction books on my re-read list as well, since it's been a few years.

I've been getting an itch to re-read some of the Scarlet Pimpernel books too, lately... Those tend to be a recurring theme when I'm in an intensely nostalgic mood for characters I've loved for a long, long time and can fall back in love with at the drop of a hat.

I've also been meaning to re-read some of Randy Alcorn's nonfiction, particularly his Heaven.

[ladyherenya]

Lately my rereading has been very unplanned - I've just been pulling things off my shelves and reading bits of them as the mood has struck me. Today it was Komarr, before that it was Have His Carcase and Michelle Magorian's A Little Love Song.

But there are a few books I have bought recently and am planning to reread properly:
The Curse of Chalion - I don't remember liking this one much, but that was some years ago and I've really liked all the Bujold I've read since, so I thought I should give it another go.
Power of Three by Diana Wynne Jones.
Cotillion by Georgette Heyer.
Maybe Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small quartet.

And I think it's time to reread Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief books. I meant to do that last year and dind't.

[laurenthemself]

I find Anne Bishop's Black Jewels books really soothing and, since I just finished the latest of her Others books, I may do a reread of hers.

Um. Probably something by Stephen King but which one exactly varies. Usually The Stand.

And I have not recently reread anything by Jacqueline Carey so I should do the thing.