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[In honor of Mad Doc Grotsnik, who always starts really interesting threads about various forms of visual entertainment]

I have lots of books in my library that I've read once and never wanted to go back to, but there are a few that I revisit periodically. One that comes to mind is John Dies At The End. Beneath all the infantile penis and poop jokes is a legitimately unsettling horror story, under which is a well-written mystery with an unreliable narrator, under which is a (to me) heartwarming coming-of-age story. I find something new to appreciate every time I read it.

How about you? What books do you keep revisiting?

John Dies at the End is an enjoyable book, really liked the sequels as well.

The books I revist are 1984, Brave New World, The Laithe of Heaven, and Straw Dogs.

Discworld. Pretty much all of it, but especially anything from Guards Guards! onwards, as that’s when Pterry really found his feets.

And I’m honoured!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Discworld. Pretty much all of it, but especially anything from Guards Guards! onwards, as that’s when Pterry really found his feets.

And I’m honoured!

Yeah I would also say this, I don't think a year has gone by that I've not read at least one Pratchett book. If Pratchett was part of the national curriculum I think our country would be a better place.

I've not reread them recently but Patrick O' Brien's Aubrey and Maturin novels are very easy to revisit. They are brilliant as standalone books but it's very easy to get caught up in the story and have to read a dozen more.

I've also reread a lot of Ian Rankin's Rebus detective novels, again very enjoyable. The character is great and the music references are spot on.

Books I re-read

Hobbit, Lord of the Rings
Dune (first book mostly. Sometimes the rest of the original works, extended stuff from his son I’ve only read once)
Anything on my shelf from William Gibson, re-read by trilogy.
Startide Rising, sometimes with Sundiver/Uplift War
Snow Crash

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Discworld. Pretty much all of it, but especially anything from Guards Guards! onwards, as that’s when Pterry really found his feets.

My first Discworld novel was Witches Abroad, and I read it from cover to cover every day for three weeks of summer vacation that year.

 Nevelon wrote:
Books I re-read

Hobbit, Lord of the Rings
Dune (first book mostly. Sometimes the rest of the original works, extended stuff from his son I’ve only read once)
Anything on my shelf from William Gibson, re-read by trilogy.
Startide Rising, sometimes with Sundiver/Uplift War
Snow Crash

Dune is probably my favourite book and I reread it regularly (often with Messiah and Children, but not often beyond that).
My second favourite is The Wizard of Earthsea and sequels and I reread those a lot too.

Tolkien and Pratchett are gimmes. I quite like certain Tom Clancy novels (Hunt for Red October particularly), although the Ryanverse series is patchy, especially after the Zombie Clancy novels started appearing (aside, can we make “Zom Clancy” a thing?!)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and Watership Down; one of the best fantasy adventure novels of all time.

Magical science fiction doesn't get better than David Weber's In Fury Born. A highly advanced cyborg commando fights a war (as one does) and then is possessed by an ancient Greek vengeance demon. later, they integrate with a semisentient clone AI. It absolutely should not, but it works brilliantly.

The whole glorious mess is wrapped up in brutal, desperate combat. It really is fantastic, and I go through it at least once a year.

Yep, Discworld above all else.

I've read Joe Abercrombie's work multiple times and will definitely keep doing so, he's awesome. Very proud of my signed copy of The Heroes.

Neil Gaiman is brilliant. I swear there is not a single wasted word in Anansi Boys, it's just polished to perfection.

I do like me a Tom Clancy too. The main Jack Ryan series, not so keen on OpCentre and his various other offshoots.

Masters of Doom, by David Kushner. I've read it so many times that its shaped my life, and for the better.

Mentioned already

William Gibsons cyberpunk stuff
David Brin Startide Rising & Uplift War
Neil Stephenson Snow Crash (despite his inability to do endings, the rest of the story is so good it doesn't matter)
David Weber In Fury Born (Gitzbitah has it right)

and some other Gems

Walter John Williams Voice of the Whirlwind (often with the follow up short in the collection Facets and Hardware set earlier in the same universe)

CJ Cherryh Rim Runners (and a bunch of her other novels too SF, Space Opera, Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, so much to choose from)

Andre Norton Year of the Unicorn

RJ Blain Playing With Fire

 stonehorse wrote:


The books I revist are 1984, Brave New World,

Those are especially relevant considering the events of the last 2 years.

Alongside Clancy, Tolkien and Pratchett I offer:

Peter F Hamilton
Raymond E Feist
Iain M Banks

Basically anything with a decent middle initial

I’m also currently enjoying rereading some classics to my son, such as Anne McCaffery and David Eddings.

stonehorse wrote:John Dies at the End is an enjoyable book, really liked the sequels as well.

The books I revist are 1984, Brave New World, The Laithe of Heaven, and Straw Dogs.

I've read and enjoyed the sequels, but it's the first one that I always come back to.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Discworld. Pretty much all of it, but especially anything from Guards Guards! onwards, as that’s when Pterry really found his feets.

And I’m honoured!

Terry Pratchett comes up a lot in the Nerdosphere, but I've not actually read any of his work. I guess I'll have to correct that.

Lots of interesting books coming up in this thread. I'll have to give some of these a read.

Best thing about Discworld? Whilst there is an ongoing development of world and characters, each book can be enjoyed as a single novel.

Guards Guards! is always going to be my recommendation because as said, it’s when I feel it went from Really Good to Genuinely Great.

I have read the entire hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series around 56~ times, I’m either insane or it’s just really good, most likely both.

 Some_Call_Me_Tim wrote:
I have read the entire hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series around 56~ times, I’m either insane or it’s just really good, most likely both.

You may very well enjoy Discworld then, assuming you haven’t already. They’re not identical, but there’s enough common ground (fantasy based critique of society by a Fundamentally Good Person, complete with amusing footnotes).

No I will never stop Shilling For Pterry. Ever.

 Some_Call_Me_Tim wrote:
I have read the entire hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series around 56~ times, I’m either insane or it’s just really good, most likely both.

I’ve read it a few times. Actually it’s the book sitting next to my recliner right now. I finished the restaurant, but stalled on starting the next book in the series. Not sure where my motivation to re-read it went.

I've got a few that I've either re-read at least once, or plan to once I have the time:

The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion: Tolkien's stuff is awesome, and needs little explanation as to why I love it.
Ringworld: I enjoyed this book immensely the first time I read it, and probably even more the second. I eventually need to read all of Niven's Known Space stories.
Star Wars Legends' Thrawn trilogy (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command): Best Star Wars books ever written, hands down. This is what we should have gotten as a sequel trilogy instead of the dumpster fire that Disney made.
Star Trek Vanguard series: My favorite Star Trek book series ever.
Destroyermen (the whole series): I really need to reread these now that all of them are out. Just an incredibly fun series of books.
Halo novels (particularly the first five of them): The Fall of Reach does a really good job of establishing the backstory of the games; The Flood is great for not only going over the events of Halo: CE in book form, but showing things that didn't appear in the game as well. The other three (First Strike, Ghosts of Onyx, and Contact Harvest) are just great reads that expand the story yet further. None of the other Halo novels are as good as these ones, although most are not trash either.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Some_Call_Me_Tim wrote:
I have read the entire hitchhikers guide to the galaxy series around 56~ times, I’m either insane or it’s just really good, most likely both.

I’ve read it a few times. Actually it’s the book sitting next to my recliner right now. I finished the restaurant, but stalled on starting the next book in the series. Not sure where my motivation to re-read it went.

Mine usually vanishes with the other side effects of being native to Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha. The first few books tend to be a bit melancholy, but whimsical fun. But it crashes out in misery for no apparent in-universe reason. (The author related reasons are sad and not my business).

Happily I own the older version of the Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide (published before Mostly Harmless), so it usually just ends with a small mercy to Marvin.

Some of my favorite re-reads are there already, so I will just chime in with my absolute favorites: the Vorkosigan series of scifi novels by Lois McMaster Bujold. I go back to them quite frequently, never stop being entertaining and insightful, and I just love to spend time with the characters.

Another good pick there

How different are the Terry Pratchett books from the Hitchhiker’s Guide books? I’ve put off reading Pratchett because I didn’t want to be as disappointed as I was with HHGTTG, and many of the quotes sound good when I haven’t read the context.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
How different are the Terry Pratchett books from the Hitchhiker’s Guide books? I’ve put off reading Pratchett because I didn’t want to be as disappointed as I was with HHGTTG, and many of the quotes sound good when I haven’t read the context.

Quite different. Pratchett is playing around with fantasy tropes rather than having a Typically English passive observer in an uncaring universe.

That said, I'd suggest middle-Pratchett as the starting point [Guards Guards, Wyrd Sisters, Reaper Man, or some of the stand-alones like Pyramids], and avoid early Pratchett (the first two are a completely different tone and world, and the next three are a short but laborious transition to finding his voice.). I'd also wouldn't start with late Pratchett as they tend toward very thinly veiled Real World soap-box allegories. A lot of the classic fantasy is replaced with recreating industrial/modern era institutions with no explicable infrastructure for... reasons. Much of the fun is just missing and replaced with 'Fantasy Racism is Bad!' And the only response is... 'Ok, and? Oh. That's... it.'

The last few I'd just not bother with- Unseen Academicals was poor and forgettable, Snuff I gave up in disgust (the only one I never finished) and Raising Steam was a fairly sad end to his career.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
How different are the Terry Pratchett books from the Hitchhiker’s Guide books? I’ve put off reading Pratchett because I didn’t want to be as disappointed as I was with HHGTTG, and many of the quotes sound good when I haven’t read the context.

They're similar in terms of tone and theme. One of the reasons I prefer the Discworld novels over HHGTG is they work better as actual stories. I like HHGTG for the ideas and the humour, but they never seemed like particularly strong stories to me.

Worthing Saga - Orson Scott Card (Yeah the guy is a total ass hole that doesn't live the message in basically all his books but this book (which si really a novela and 2 collections of short stories) is just so good).

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. - Douglas Adams. All of them. This is my travel book. If I get on a plane or a long car ride this is what I read. I have no read it so many times that I can flip to any page and within 3 words know exactly whats going on.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
How different are the Terry Pratchett books from the Hitchhiker’s Guide books? I’ve put off reading Pratchett because I didn’t want to be as disappointed as I was with HHGTTG, and many of the quotes sound good when I haven’t read the context.

There are lots of good Pratchett stories to start on but I would suggest Small God's as a first one. It's a great book and not part of a long story arc and it's a great one to read.

So, it looks like I’ll start with either Guards! Guards! or Small Gods, depending on which I find first, or is most in the middle of his work.

There aren't that many things I'll come back to and commit to going all the way through again. The Wheel of Time is something of a comfort read for me, since it was my first run at big epic fantasy, and the Dresden Files and Hitchhiker's Guide make me laugh. (I never got that into Discworld, I read a few but the balance of story to satire was kind of off to me and I felt like I was missing context in a way I didn't with Hitchhiker's Guide, despite the similarities.)

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
So, it looks like I’ll start with either Guards! Guards! or Small Gods, depending on which I find first, or is most in the middle of his work.

If you come across Reaper Man or Pyramids in your noble quest, they are also excellent starting points

I got my Reaper Man signed once upon a time. Although given that the man was some kind of book signing machine, it’s almost more likely to find signed than unsigned versions of his books