Enjoying older stories

[Plane Sailing]

So, I'm in the process of clearing out some space on my bookshelves by donating some of my old (and not-so-old) books to a charity shop. Some of them I've not read for decades (West of the Sun by Edgar Pangbourne?), others I've read recently and they were OK but not one I'd re-read (Surface Detail by Ian M Banks).

There are some that caught my eye because I've not read them in a while, and I thought I'd give them a go again. So I picked up the first book of the Belgariad, and much to my surprise I'm really enjoying it. It has a bit of the 'old friend' about it, and the narrative is moving at an interesting enough pace. It is a nice change from the inches-thick novels of recent years too!

So, have you picked up some older stories from your libraries, and found them at least as enjoyable now as the first time you read them?

What are the evergreens on your bookshelf?

Cheers

 

[Bullgrit]

Artifact of Evil by Gary Gygax. It has that "old friend" feel for me. I get the same kind of enjoyment from it when I read it again, nowadays, as it did when I originally read it in the 80s.

Bullgrit

 

[ggroy]

(Not fiction, but it has an "old friend" feel to me).

"Calculus Made Easy" by Sylvanus P. Thompson.

I use to obsessively read and work problems out of this book when I was 10 years old.

 

[Dragonwriter]

So far, anything by Tim Powers. I'm slowly building my library and I've loved everything of his I've managed to get my hands on. I even read one of his books (Dinner at Deviant's Palace) aloud to my family on a long driving trip... various lines from that book then became part of the family lingo, everyone liked it so much.

Also: Small Gods, Reaper Man and Mort by Terry Pratchett.

 

[Umbran]

What are the evergreens on your bookshelf?

Hm... Tolkien, of course.

Svaha, by Charles de Lint.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury - the man was a wordsmith the likes of which we don't see these days.

Watership Down, by Richard Adams.

 

[Cor Azer]

Tolkien, Adams, Martin, and Salvatore are the only series I've read more than twice, but my Salvatore books finally went during the last cleaing/purge, so just the first three right now, along with one or two Steven King anthologies.

 

[Mark CMG]

So I picked up the first book of the Belgariad, and much to my surprise I'm really enjoying it. It has a bit of the 'old friend' about it, and the narrative is moving at an interesting enough pace. It is a nice change from the inches-thick novels of recent years too!

I liked that but much more enjoyed the Elenium series from Eddings.

So, have you picked up some older stories from your libraries, and found them at least as enjoyable now as the first time you read them?

What are the evergreens on your bookshelf?

I'm re-reading some R. E. Howard Conan stories currently.

Watership Down, by Richard Adams.

I re-read that last year between semesters and enjoyed it also.

 

[Croesus]

What are the evergreens on your bookshelf?

My tastes have changed over the years, but when it comes to fiction, I probably re-read more books than I read new. As you say, re-reading stories is comfortable and familiar.

-Timothy Zahn: pretty much everything except his Star Wars books
-Anne McCaffrey: her Harper Hall trilogy
-David Weber/Steve White: their Starfire books
-Walter Jon Williams: Dread Empire series
-Stephen Brust: the early Jhereg books (before they got "deep")
-Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: Mote in God's Eye
-Isaac Asimov: Foundation trilogy, his Opus collections
-Gordon R. Dickson: Dorsai
-Keith Laumer: his Bolo stories
-Frank Herbert: Dune

 

[Gronin]

books or authors that I never seem to get tired of rereading

1/ Tolkien (LoTR --- although often only parts)

2/ Weber and White -- Starfire Series (although most of Webers stuff works for me)

3/ David Gemmell -- almost anything but in particular "Legend" and "Morningstar"

4/ Orson Scott Card --- Ender's Game

5/ Gordon R. Dickson --- especially his Childe Cycle novels but pretty much anything

6/ John Steakley -- "Armor" and "Vampire$" (don't be put off of the book if you saw the movie --- movie was horrible but the book was excellent)

Given that I am about to turn 50 I suspect this list will grow exponentially now that my memory is starting to fade -- truly everything old is new.

 

[Gronin]

My tastes have changed over the years, but when it comes to fiction, I probably re-read more books than I read new. As you say, re-reading stories is comfortable and familiar.

-Timothy Zahn: pretty much everything except his Star Wars books
-Anne McCaffrey: her Harper Hall trilogy
-David Weber/Steve White: their Starfire books
-Walter Jon Williams: Dread Empire series
-Stephen Brust: the early Jhereg books (before they got "deep")
-Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle: Mote in God's Eye
-Isaac Asimov: Foundation trilogy, his Opus collections
-Gordon R. Dickson: Dorsai
-Keith Laumer: his Bolo stories
-Frank Herbert: Dune

nice list --- just want to echo the support for the Foundation Trilogy and Dune -- I forgot about those and have read both several times -- esp Dune.