One of the bazillion topics we covered on our trip to and from Greencastle last Friday was books, and I think we may have stumbled upon the standard for a book's recommendation ....Would you read it again?
Over dinner and a glass of wine, we ventured into book territory. Finding a really great book is a treasure. There are books you read and enjoy, but then there are books that you hate to see end, or have to keep once you've finished them and some of those you just have to treat yourself to reading again. At least once. With all the books there are out there waiting to be read, to want to take the time to re-read a book is a true testimony to that book's worth.
I quickly grabbed my notebook and pen out of my purse and made some notes. I thought I'd share some of the titles here.
I'll put an asterisk next to the books that I've read more than once. The others are now in my book queue and were either read and loved by more than one of the group or read more than once by one of us. Does that make sense?
*The Shell Seekers, by Rosamunde Pilcher
Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell
Shogun, by James Clavell
*A Week in Winter, by Marcia Willet
*The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffner and Annie Barrows
The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand
*Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier
*Fall of Giants, by Ken Follett (read once, listening again)
*The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
*Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
The General's Daughter, Plum Island and The Gold Coast, by Nelson DeMille
So, there's a list. Now I'll put the question out there... What books have you read more than once?
Love,
Kim
7 comments:
TWO Ayn Rands? Yikes!
I'll have to think about the ones I've re-read as an adult, but I do remember reading Heidi and The Secret Garden several times as a girl. I don't think anyone reads Heidi any more and I read it so many times it may explain my craving for cheese and bread.
Oh, wait. . . To Kill a Mockingbird. I have read that many times and certainly will again.
I think the only ones I've re-read are children's books when I read them to my children. I've accidentally read a book partway through only to realize I'd already read it and they changed the cover art from the hardback to the paperback. Now that's annoying. There are a few I'd like to re-read that I read too young.
Your list has some winners on it!
i love to read books over and over. Narnia, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Georgette Heyer, Mary Wesley, Nancy A therton, Debbie Macomber (but only the knitting ones), Madeline L'Engle, Dodie Smith, Natalie Babbit, Mary O'hara, etc. can you say 'escapism'? :o)
"The Shell Seekers" was the first one to come to my mind! Loved that one. And I want to reread "To Kill a Mockingbird"...oh, and I have reread "Of Human Bondage" and "Treasure Island". Maybe any of Pat Conroy's books. I know all the same words as Pat Conroy. Why can't I put them together like he does?
Your list is amazing similar to what mine would be. Guernsey struck a particular chord. The book that so few people read, because they saw the movie, is Our of Africa. BUT the book is so much more. I have to have a copy available at all times, and I have multiple copies and read most all of her other works. I estimate I have read it at least seven times.
It is written in second person, as in :"when you as a young person, full of hope" can not recommend it strongly enough.
So happy to see Ayn Rand! I've read a lot of books so far in my life, but I've only read two more than once. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and Misery (Stephen King--surprised?!?) And I've read both of them at least eight times each. Weird.
I'm also about to go back to the Chronicles of Narnia--there's just nothing like a good epic series!
I've read at least once a year " The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas and also her "Prayers for sale" They both have some quilting in them.
I think you would love "These is my Words" The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prime, 1881-1901. Arizona Territories. by Nancy E. Turner. She has two sequels. Alene
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