It's hard to think of many that I read over and over again like
Lord of the Rings I've lost track of how many times I've read that; over 15 and maybe as many as 20 times.
I've read the Harry Potter books several times; usually when a new movie or a new book is about to be released and I want a refresher. And of course, once I start, I end up reading the whole series again, usually over the course of a week or less.
Oddly enough, one of my favorite books that I have to have read at least half a dozen times, and probably more, is
Indo-European Studies by J.P. Mallory, who is one of the most respected anthropologists in the field, and is the main champion of a revised Marija Gimbutas
kurgan theory of the origins of the Indo-Europeans. That one, obviously, is not fiction. I've had a copy on my bookshelf for quite a while now.
Also I have a great fondness for Rafael Sabatini;
Scaramouche is my favorite of his, although
Captain Blood and
The Black Swan are also brilliant. As I said in another thread on the topic once:
Joshua Dyal said:
I dug through an old box in my basement and rediscovered my 1922 printing of Rafael Sabatini's Scaramouche and started rereading that. I really like that book. Now, I know Alexandre Dumas is often regarded as the King of Swashbuckling authors, and I can't argue that he doesn't deserve it, but dang, Rafael Sabatini has got to be the Archduke at least. Scaramouche takes place in France in the late 1700s and features a lot of revolutionary politics in the background. However, it is very background in a lot of ways, although it does set up some truly remarkable stuff; when the Third Estate of the Assembly (equivalent to the House of Commons in British Parliament) is formed, the scions of the First Estate (the House of Lords -- the second estate, the clergy, has no specific seats in the Assembly) turn to spadassassins, expert swordsmen who position themselves to end up in duels with their bourgeouis political rivals. The whole set-up of the Third Estate approaching a somewhat apolitical fencing master, who accepts based on his driving need for vengence, to be a "ringer" in this particular game sets up some of the best dialogue and action sequences ever put to a swashbuckling novel. There are parts of this book that I literally can't read sitting down; I have to get up and pace back and forth because I'm so excited. Other times, my wife asks me what the heck is going on because I'm reading with this silly grin on my face.
There was a movie that was very loosely based on the book with Stewart Granger, which redeems itself somewhat from monkeying with the brilliant plot by featuring what is supposedly the longest and certainly one of the most intricate classical fencing scenes ever put to film.
Some other Sabatini books have had better treatment by Hollywood; Captain Blood with Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone and Olivia de Haviland is still the mother of all pirate movies, and it follows the novel fairly closely (I'll be reading that one next) about the British doctor unjustly taken to Port Royale as a slave after aiding wounded revolutionaries. After escaping during a pirate attack, he and his croneys swim out to the pirate's ship and capture it, and then operate as "patriotic" pirates, who are only pirates because they have to be, not becausetheyaretruly... [head between legs... breathe... breathe...hyperventilating into paper bag...]
Uh, sorry there. Got a little excited. I do love my swashbuckling, I do. And as far as I'm concerned Rafael Sabatini does it as good as anyone I've seen. I actually prefer him slightly to Dumas.
Anyway, after I finish that, I'll be reading R.L. Stephenson's The Black Arrow. Oddly enough, I don't have any fantasy on my current schedule at all right now. I'll have to find a good one for October. Maybe a good spooky one.
EDIT: D'oh! It's a 1923 printing, not a 1922 printing! I was getting this mixed up with my copy of Captain Blood. As I said later, though, it's the fourteenth printing in less than two years; the first printing was 1921. Must have been a darn popular book in its day.
Also, one of my classics of childhood that I still reread over and over again is Edgar Rice Burroughs. Oddly, the first book in each of his series is brilliant, and then sadly the quality seems to drop off sharply. I still haven't ever managed to read all 24 of the Tarzan books, for instance. But
Tarzan of the Apes and
John Carter of Mars,
Pirates of Venus and
At the Earth's Core are still some of my favorite books to whip off my shelf and read when I need to kill a few hours.
And although he often frustrates me with his clumsy prose, I continually come back to Lovecraft for his brilliant ideas. "The DreamQuest of Unknown Kadath" is my favorite; a novella set in a Dunsanian sword & sorcery dreamland that's actually quite a bit different than his more well-known pseudo-horror stories.
Although he frustrates me even more, Robert Jordan has had several read throughs. He does just enough right to entice me to catch up again and see if he's ever done anything with his new novels. He rarely has, and I had already more than once written him off as unreadable and given up, but masochistically, I keep coming back for more. Currently I'm "rereading" on Audiobook as I commute to hopefully be caught up for the October release of book 11.
