Re-Readable Books

Hugh Hewitt wants to hear from Bloggers about books that they re-read (I think that is more correct than "reread").

As I have gotten older I have gotten away from re-reading books because time is too precious. I have also found that I no longer feel obligated to finish every book I pick up. If I start a book now and I just can't get into it - then back on the bookshelf it goes. I used to not be able to do that. A bad book would stay on my bedside table until the task was complete but no more - life's too short for boring books.

When I was in high school I used to read Trinity by Leon Uris every year. I think it was my way of trying to connect with my Irish roots. However, I haven't picked up that book in 20-years - so I won't count it (now I try to connect with my Irish roots by drinking Guinness - brilliant!).

Today the fiction books I occasionally re-read include:

- The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. I try to read this each year just about the time the battle of Gettysburg occurred. This book puts me in mind of the sacrifices that were made by hundreds of thousands so that we would have the country we have today.

- Most things by Hemingway but especially A Moveable Feast (which I consider his finest work). I will also re-read Steinbeck's Cannery Row.

- One of my all-time favorites is The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. Bill Murray tried to do a "serious movie" based on this book and it got me interested in both the book and in Maugham (who is very under-rated - especially as a short story writer). I'm not 100% sure but I think the often colorful Larry, Darryl and his other brother Darryl from the show Newhart were some sort of strange tribute to the main character of The Razor's Edge (which of course has nothing to do with why I re-read it but I thought worth mentioning).

- The Harry Potter books are on my list of books I re-read and I have no shame about it! In fact when the new book comes out I'll be first in line. As it stands, I've read each book at least twice and will re-read a particular book right before the movie based on the book comes out (so I can see what the director chose to leave out of the movie). For the record - Prisoner of Azkaban was my favorite so far (both movie and book).

I think that maybe the key to a work of fiction being "re-readable" is length. If a book is short enough (say under 250 pages) - then I don't feel bad about spending the couple of sittings to re-read the book (of course that doesn't explain why I've re-read Lord of the Rings so many times). It doesn't seem to matter if the book was a classic (Hemingway) or pure entertainment (Harry Potter) - brevity seems to be the key to re-readability.