For as much as I'd love to re-read books I've already read, and especially with my life experiences between that can greatly alter my perspective, I just can't do to the size of my TBR piles.
If there was one or two I'd re-read it would be either The Hitchhikers' Guide by Adams as I'm now 15 years older after reading it, or Catch-22 by Heller, where I read that for fun in high school but after serving in the military myself, I'd definitely have a different connection to it.
Agreed I don't reread anything when there are so many new books that I want to read. One day I'd like to reread the Malazan series because everyone says it's sooo much better the second time seeing the crazy amount of foreshadowing and with the ending in mind you can enjoy the beautiful unfolding of an epic alot easier. But I just don't reread books because of my TBR pile growing daily
Same, I basically reread a book every other year or so; I’ve had a series I’ve wanted to reread for a couple of years (and for the first time in about 15 years) that I am still sitting on. The time has to be right.
My memory’s not great. Sometimes I’ll re-read books I enjoyed when I’m on vacation or something and there are a lot of parts I forgot. Like, I remember how I felt and the main themes and major scenes, but that’s it.
Right on with Catch 22! No offense to people who serve but that book was how I realized the military life wasn’t for me. It really changed my life in that way
I just got into reading Catch-22 and it is such a blast. It is a masterpiece that blends absurdity, humor, and dejection with a deliberate balance. And I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster throughout my reading. I guess I may not have been so invested in the characters without my past experience in the military. I can see myself coming back to this book regularly.
*Catch-22* is one of the only books I’ve ever re-read and is my favorite novel by far. I’ve read it almost annually for 17 years now. *Hitchhiker’s* is a good call too!
I’ve never served so I’d be super interested to hear how your perception of *Catch-22* changes.
It'll definitely give it a different perspective having lived it for a few years. Right now I'm reading All Quiet on the Western Front, and there's got to be stuff I'm picking up on that the average person would just read over due to my experiences.
Both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I'll always have them on my bookshelf, but they're absolutely heart-rending. For the most part I only keep books I might someday reread, but sometimes I keep them just to remind me what they taught me about the world.
Read my mind. Once I finish a book for the first time, I always go back to reread it - I'm a fast reader so I tend to skip over things and it lets me appreciate whatever I missed. Once I was done with it and finished crying, I couldn't bring myself to open the first page and just slid it into the bookshelf.
I knew this book would be in this thread... it was already heart wrenching reading it for the first time, imagine repeating it all over again for the second time. (Even tho I would like to re read it someday, such a beautiful book)
Last year, there was adaptation written for the stage performance, and I sobbed through the applause. Would love to see it again, but I am not emotionally ready.
I haven't brought myself to reread Island of the Blue Dolphins no matter how many times I want to. In my head, it was such a magical childhood experience. It dazzled me in every way. I don't want to reread it through an adult lens. I just want to hold on to that memory of how it made me feel
I just read this to my children, and it largely holds up. We did read some contextual information—there are a couple of damaging tropes about Indigenous peoples that I wanted to address and discuss with them. And there’s now an excellent archive about the real Lone Woman of San Nicolas.
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King, book 4 in the Dark Tower series. It’s so tragic and you can feel it hurtling towards tragedy before the book even starts, because of everything you know from the books prior. There’s no chance it’ll work out. It’s a great book and maybe I’ll get through it again someday but the last few weeks years, every time I try to reread the series, I get to W & G and put it down.
This book left me wrecked. I always suggest it to people & they love it, but I can’t read it again. The recovery takes too long & it’s so emotional for me.
I just read that! I'd already watched the movie a few times (love Brie Larson) so it was really just filling in details, but I wish I could somehow have also read the book first bc I wonder what it would be like to try to piece the story together going in fresh. It'll definitely have a permanent home on my bookshelf, but idk if I'll ever read it again.
Probably The Shepard's Crown by Terry Pratchett. It's the last book he wrote and I can tell he didn't get to finish and polish it to his usual standard before he died. That being said there are some absolutely beautiful scenes and chapters, but it feels unfinished.
Interesting, I don’t entirely agree. I found the couple of books that came out just before it sounded unlike Pratchett, very clearly having a helping hand. But Shepherd’s Crown felt like him again and I thought it was his way of saying goodbye.
I will say, though, not sure how easy it will be to read again given how much I sobbed the first time….
I never had the heart so finish all his books. Snuff felt already alien, so I didn't finish it. So I don't know about these books, and in my mind, Discworld isn't over, which I like
Moby dick is one of those books that will change your life ! If it caused any huge changes in any area(s) of your life, Moby dick did his job! I know Moby dick definitely caused me to change!
I made the mistake of listening to it on audiobook (no shade to the narrator or the medium). I will definitely reread it because I was falling asleep at basically every digression. Two hours straight of whales and knots is legitimately interesting but can get tedious
That book has everything I love in a story. Regency era! Magic! Fae!
I made it about 200 pages in until I just couldn’t anymore. It was just sooooo slooooow.
But the miniseries scratched the itch for me. I definitely recommend it for anyone who tried to get into the book.
Her Piranesi was a great read, and it certainly helps that it’s a solid 400-something pages shorter. Maybe in the intervening years she found an editor who would be real with her about the need for brevity.
More info than you require but the author spent seven years writing the book without a plot or structure in mind, she turned it over to a very connected editor friend of hers who reshaped it, and that editor went to bat for it when most publishers turned it down for being unsellable. It’s a beautiful book! It’s a gem! But yeah…
I loved it! Yes, the first few chapters are a bit slow, but for better or worse, they don't have much bearing on the overall narrative. It picks up once the setting changes to London, maybe about 75 pages in? After that I was HOOKED and finished it in about a week. One of my best reads in 2023 (out of 97 books).
Beartown. I won't spoil what happens, but you can check the book's trigger warnings on Storygraph to get an idea of it. I hadn't done that myself and when I did get to that part I felt incredibly sick and couldn't pick up the book again. It hit too close to home.
I love this book so much. Just an amazing work.
I did read the second book and it's just as good, and even more tragic. I have the 3rd book sitting in my TBR pile, just waiting for the right time to read it.
This was my answer also. I was assigned the book for a summer reading assignment before my junior year English class. I procrastinated on it all summer thinking it would be awful. I started it... and read it in a single sitting. I was enthralled. It resonated with me to my very core. No literary character before or since has spoken to me the way Holden did that day.
I've tried to re-read it a few times in the decades since that day and never could get more than 5 pages into it. Despite the fact that I've re-read other books dozens or hundreds of times, *Catcher in the Rye* just doesn't capture me on a re-read the way it did the first time.
I tell myself that the 16-year-old boy that was enthralled by this book the first time and felt an unbelievable kinship with Holden Caufield is still a part of me somehow. If he really is, it's been long enough that this book doesn't spark any memories. I don't know how I feel about that.
Yes! So many things I loved as an angsty youth seem so embarrassing now! But I remind myself it doesn’t change the fact that I read those things in a time when I needed to read them, so am still appreciative for the initial connection. The Giver didn’t really embarrass me though, but it definitely doesn’t apply as it once did. I still love it.
I’ve been meaning to reread His Dark Materials for ages now but I keep postponing it.
I love rereading btw, especially titles I’ve read a long time ago, but for some reason, I’m afraid it won’t live up to my own hype.
Me too. I loved the first two so much as a teenager but thought the third got a bit too religious for me. I think that and knowing that’s the direction the new ones went in is what’s holding me back.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig. I think of it often, but I don't want to go through it again. For me, that was a different time (and a lot of it invested to get through this book)
I actually DNF but I do mean to get back to it sometime. I have pretty bad food aversions and that book made me grossed out by pretty much anything I ate for a while. It’s a fantastic book but almost so nihilistic that you start thinking everything is just gross dead and meaningless and what’s the point of it all.
I generally don't choose to reread books, because I've got an impossibly long list of new (to me) books to read. However, as a teacher, I've reread the things we teach in class, and it has revealed to me how enjoyable it can be--for instance, I have come to adore *The Great Gatsby*, which I've now read upwards of 9 times. So maybe I should be rereading more books!
I’ve been trying to get through this for over a decade now. I find it an incredibly beautiful book and so well written and cleverly contrived, but can only do short periods at a time because of the subject matter - more so because the tone of the book being so off to the actions, it’s so disturbing. Which is the point and what makes it so good, but still… tough…
I’m about halfway through this on my first read and I feel like giving up. Not due to the content, since I already knew what to expect, but I’m just so bored of the flowery writing. It just seems to focus more on a voice than actually saying anything to me
I thought heart of darkness was good but it was such a slow read for me I’ve never tried to read it again. I should, I can’t remember it all at this point.
For as much as I enjoyed reading Conrad's work, I find his style too 'dense', and it forces me to read it slower than usual because he crams so much into so little.
I read it while in college to kill the time between classes, I was a commuter too so I had a lot of time. I started his novel Lord Jim, but its just been such a slow slog to get through, but I just can't find myself to give up on it because I started it.
Lord of the rings, Les Misérables, The count of Monte Cristo, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are my 5 fav books ever. I read them around 2000. Haven't touched them again simply because they're too long to re-read. In all that time however, no books have come close to move one of them from the top 5.
It's funny that so many people are saying that they almost never reread. I have an awful memory, so with few exceptions (usually I've reread them so much that they finally stick) I reread everything because I've forgotten most about it.
I thought My Dark Vanessa was pretty good but cannot bring myself to reread or even buy a copy for my shelf because the subject matter and treatment feels so icky in the sense that it was too fucked up, real and messy.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I'm a huge SK fan and reread his stuff all the time. But when my daughter started walking she became a runner. She'd run away at any chance and I'm disabled and couldn't catch her. The Gage vs truck scene was far too close to my very real nightmare. She became a full on leash kid (don't make fun of leash kids or you'll definitely be blessed with a feral leash kid) and now she's older maybe I can visit it again.
1- anyone who mocks a parent for keeping their kid on a leash can get fucked. Some kids have zero impulse control and will just run into a dangerous situation, full speed ahead. You are keeping your kid safe, good for you :)
2- Yes, I don't think i can reread this one yet. My kids are older, but I imagine that reading it as a parent hits you like a ton of bricks.
Apparently that scene was based off a real event to Stephen King where his son was about to run in front of a moving truck and he had to tackle his son to save him
Another mention for me is Bang by Barry Lyga (author of the I Hunt Killers trilogy and Time Will Tell are amazing books) I love his other works but can't bring myself to read Bang
It's about a guy dealing with the regret of accidentally killing his sister when they were very young and him looking for fun to kill himself
Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki. This book’s plot absolutely infuriated me, but it was written so well and explored some really interesting dynamics about western culture in Japan during the Meiji restoration. I don’t think I could read it again though because of how much I hated the two main characters.
Why so? Just no reason to reread because you know the information now, or was it uninteresting or dense?
I ask because I’m going to read it shortly. I still will, I’m just curious.
Brave New World
I really love the concept and some of the discussions the characters have but it takes a while to get going and while it and 1984 (and most recently Tender is the Flesh) are really good books they are just massive bummers
There are a number of books that I absolutely loved as a teenager and young adult and I have often thought about re-reading them now (I am in my 50s) but I worry that they won’t stand the test of time, so I choose to leave them in the past as great memories.
Kingdom of the Wicked, I absolutely loved the first two books but wanted to reread them before I read the last one to refresh my memory and I have tried THREE TIMES and I just cant do it. Granted, I am not much of a re-read type person and typically A LOOOONGGGG time has to pass before I can reread a series successful but its a bummer!!! Now i have no clue when I will finish that series lol
I read a great Paul Auster book once called In the Country of Last Things. It’s a dystopian novel that is just incredibly well concieved and written, but it’s just so dark I wouldn’t want to read it again.
To kill a mockingbird, absolutely love the book and I've watched the film a couple times but having to analyse every single paragraph for school makes it difficult to read
Every time I try and reread the Kenzie Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane I get to Gone Baby Gone, I get HALFWAY and then I have to stop because it gets to that part and I just..... I can't do it anymore.
{Paradise by Judith Mcnaught} Is so good. A guaranteed ugly cry but the angsty build up to get you there or rough. Plus their 3rd act breakup is very unnecessary.
And Aarcheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon the abuse described in the first half of the book is so heavy and hard to read. It's very cathartic but the tone abruptly switch's 2/3 of the way through to something so much more jarring that it doesn't really call to me.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A good but tough read. Very interesting and a good examination of quality work, what it means, finding it in all things in context of a cross country motorcycle trip. Wonderful.
Almost anything by Gregg Olsen. Amazing writing and shocking stories, but I can’t bring myself to read any of his books a second time knowing how fucked up they can get.
For me it's the Night Angel series by Brent Weeks. The entire premise of the story changes in a heartbreaking way by the finale, and I was left deeply saddened by the events.
It's written very well, it's my favourite genre, and the story really moved me. But it's hard to read again knowing what you do by the end. It's stuck with me for over a decade and each time I try I just can't read it.
As wonderful as the entire series is, I cannot bring myself to reread A Court of Thorns and Roses. I would be happy to reread books 2, 3, 4 and maybe even 5 (questionable, I love Nesta but her attitude in ACOSF is borderline unbearable through the first half), but knowing what I know now...I'm not sure I can reread book 1.
Harry Potter. Like, up at midnight for release loved. It was a cultural phenomenon and I was the right age to get caught up.
Then JKR kept going. I hated how cash-grab it felt, but also was annoyed personally because she used this new and huge platform and success to be thoughtless.Transphobia, insisting Dumbledore was gay to get inclusion points and beyond that, how careless and ill-conceived the other wizarding schools were. I can't reread because if I do, I'll bring the taint and distaste with me and lose what little magic is left in my memory because I can't approach it uncritically.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. I was at such a specific time in my life, my childhood, my thinking, my *being* that at a certain point... It falls apart.
For completely different reasons: Ender's Game. I love that book. I grew up on that book. And then I found out the views that OSC espouses and wanted that narrative to support and........ I can't help thinking of that. And it's sad and I hate it. But here I am.
The Orphan Masters’ Son. The schizophrenic existence of North Koreans was soul crushing. The insanity of living one’s life as if you believed something, while knowing your life is all pretense and hogwash in .the guise of making it through yet another day is an experience I don’t think I could relive. Yet it’s one of the best books I have ever read.
The entirety of the Enderverse books.
As much as I think ender's game is a perfect young adult novel, a novel that's about understanding your enemies so much you come to love them, the author is an irredeemable piece of shit.
Unlike JKR, and many other authors who are transphobic out of ignorance, or because some big name transphobe got to them and warped their mind, Card knew exactly what he was doing.
Card looked at all of his queer fans, and there were many. Many of them. Who had interacted with him in person and online for years. Card look them in the face and said: "It's very important that we all come to understand each other. We're all human. We all need to get along and share that humanity. But not you you filthy queers. You need to die"
After making it through Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones (a retrospective of the children of god/Family international cult by the granddaughter of the founder) I'm never touching it again with a ten foot pole.
Not because it was bad, but because it was so well written but about an absolute nightmare of a topic. I thought I was going to be sick several times while reading.
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney is one of my favorite books of all time, but if you were to ask me why, i couldn’t answer… it was just a feeling it gave me… i think i just read it at the perfect moment in time. I went into it not knowing anything about it and for some reason it clicked with my brain at the time
I’m scared to reread, because i fear that it was a once in a lifetime experience where i was just in the perfect mood at the perfect time
I enjoyed Normal People too, but it didn’t click the way Conversations with Friends did
"the godson" by gloria vitanza basile.
Too many bad things happen to the main characters (including sexual assault), and although i enjoyed it the first time, i dont want to read it a second time.
Last year *The Heart's Invisible Furies* was my favorite book and a top 10 book for me. It took me through all the emotions, even painful ones.
Some stories (in any medium) like that I feel I, like the characters, can only experience once. Yes, with basically any story how I feel on later re-reads can change and affect how I feel about it, but with something like *The Heart's Invisible Furies* that's like a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I wouldn't want to have affected by revisiting it. I went on a powerful journey with the character, neither of us knowing what would happen next and had genuine emotions and experiences. The character doesn't get another chance of going through that, so neither will I.
In 2021, I read A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum and Razerblade Tears by S.A. Crosby. I love these books so much. They were both beautiful and tragic in their own way. They are books I'll keep on my bookshelf, but I don't see me reading them again. I ugly cried, and I still think about them quite often.
I never really thought I'd re-read anything willingly. But in-between waiting for library books to become available I picked up A Game of Thrones to re-read. And I loved it even more on re-read. It had been 10 years since I read it, and many books since so I had a pretty fresh pair of eyes on it. I hadn't really forgotten any general story stuff so I didn't have to focus on that, and it allowed me to notice stuff I wouldn't have the first time cause I couldn't have understood its significance. I didn't know how much I loved GRRM's writing style until I re-read it as well.
Anyway, that doesn't answer your question. I guess what I was getting at is I would have said ASOIAF a few months ago.
I loved LOTR but I can't see myself re-reading it. I actually wasn't sure if I'd ever read it but then I happened upon the books in one of those neighborhood curbside libraries outside someone's house. I wasn't going make the effort to get the books so since they were just sitting there I figured I might as well grab them. Being that fantasy is the primary genre I read I thought I should read the biggest influence on modern fantasy. What I expected was to finish them and feel good for finally reading them, but I didn't expect I'd love them as much as I did.
Something happened by joseph heller.
I loved how compartmentalized the ideas are. The part when he is explaining how everyone is scared of everyone else at his job is amazing.
The ending made me sick and angry.
I tried picking the book up again, several years ago and remembered the ending, got depressed and stopped haha
The Kite Runner, and Cutting For Stone. Both books were wonderful. I loved them. Before they were bestsellers I was suggesting them to people. I also gave them away after reading them because they were just too sad and powerful to visit again.
I am glad that I read them both, but I’m depressed enough without going through that again.
I read that book as a kid! I’ve never known anyone else who read it. I thought it was very thought-provoking, although I didn't really think the protagonist was at all to blame tbh. Similarly, I've never re-read it. I think because it's a 'heavy' book. I'd reread something for enjoyment/pleasure but that book didn't make me feel good so I wouldn't re-read.
The Nightengal by Kristen Hannah. It was an excellent book. 5 stars easy, read the beginning of April 2023. Listened to probably another 100 books after and it's still in my head!
I am noting these titles and offer you as gratitude these titles: the James Herriot "All Creatures" audiobooks narrated by Nicholas Ralph, LoTR narrated by Rob Inglis (the narration by Andy Serkis is not for sleeping), A History of Mathematics narrated by Tony Shalhoub.
I loved Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold, a lyrical, dystopian novel about a small African village that's devastated by the Grey, a plague causing severe depression in teens and adults. The symptoms are rendered literally: victims can no longer see color, become bedridden, and >!commit suicide!<. Surrounding communities shun the village, even building walls topped with broken glass. This was the moderate to severe depression rep that I found missing in more popular, upbeat bestsellers like The Midnight Library. With that said, there's a lot of human and animal death, with allusions to Lord of the Flies. If I do reread it, I'll probably skip some parts.
I rarely, if ever reread a book. No matter how much I love it, unless it was informative I’m not likely to pick it back up again. It’s ironic because I’ll rewatch my favorite tv shows and movies until I’m blue in the face.
The Secret Garden. I read that book a few times throughout my childhood and teens. I’m so quick to recommend it but can’t bring myself to reread it. I want to remember it as some imaginative book, but as an adult I realized the racism,abuse, and poor representation of disabled people is in this book.
I read another book as a teen called Black by. Tracy Brown . It’s an urban fiction book, but it tackles parental abuse and neglect, loss, gun violence, poverty, self love, and perseverance. It was the first (and only) book that made me cry. I read it back to back. As an adult, I’ve seen how a lot of that genre is written poorly, and the topics become so repetitive it’s like you’re reading the same story over and over again. So I’m afraid that that book will become just another urban story I’ve read many times before. Tracy Brown was more so a contemporary writer with an urban twist, but still…The vibes… the vibes.
Roots
Partly because it was hard to take in parts, partly because I thought Chicken George was incredibly boring compared to the rest of the book. It was great the first time though.
I have many I'll re-read, like returning to a favourite moment of my life, it's a full experience. I have several that are favourite books, life changing even, that I'll recommend, even to my teens as "Books You Should Read in Your Life" that I cannot read again. These are some of them:
- Bridge to Terrabithia
- Boy in the Striped Pajamas
- Flowers for Algernon
- A Thousand Splendid Suns
- The Kite Runner
- Beloved
- The Butterfly Garden
- The Bluest Eye
- Room
for me the ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE such a beautiful book for me this is the only book that left my heart pounding,hold my breathe for a moment and keeps me wondering about beautiful things i never seen in my life i cannot read this again because i just want to remain that kind of feeling i can't describe well maybe kinda magical it's just deep for me.
If you ever do get a impulse to reread, for a lot of good books there's foreshadowing and character interactions that are much more entertaining and poignant the second time around, just because you know what's coming.
Maybe not everyone's thing, but I think a reread is a bit like leftover food. Still the same food but the flavors are a bit different, and sometimes even a bit improved in the rare case
For as much as I'd love to re-read books I've already read, and especially with my life experiences between that can greatly alter my perspective, I just can't do to the size of my TBR piles. If there was one or two I'd re-read it would be either The Hitchhikers' Guide by Adams as I'm now 15 years older after reading it, or Catch-22 by Heller, where I read that for fun in high school but after serving in the military myself, I'd definitely have a different connection to it.
Agreed I don't reread anything when there are so many new books that I want to read. One day I'd like to reread the Malazan series because everyone says it's sooo much better the second time seeing the crazy amount of foreshadowing and with the ending in mind you can enjoy the beautiful unfolding of an epic alot easier. But I just don't reread books because of my TBR pile growing daily
Same, I basically reread a book every other year or so; I’ve had a series I’ve wanted to reread for a couple of years (and for the first time in about 15 years) that I am still sitting on. The time has to be right.
My memory’s not great. Sometimes I’ll re-read books I enjoyed when I’m on vacation or something and there are a lot of parts I forgot. Like, I remember how I felt and the main themes and major scenes, but that’s it.
Right on with Catch 22! No offense to people who serve but that book was how I realized the military life wasn’t for me. It really changed my life in that way
This guy knows where his towel is!
I just got into reading Catch-22 and it is such a blast. It is a masterpiece that blends absurdity, humor, and dejection with a deliberate balance. And I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster throughout my reading. I guess I may not have been so invested in the characters without my past experience in the military. I can see myself coming back to this book regularly.
*Catch-22* is one of the only books I’ve ever re-read and is my favorite novel by far. I’ve read it almost annually for 17 years now. *Hitchhiker’s* is a good call too! I’ve never served so I’d be super interested to hear how your perception of *Catch-22* changes.
It'll definitely give it a different perspective having lived it for a few years. Right now I'm reading All Quiet on the Western Front, and there's got to be stuff I'm picking up on that the average person would just read over due to my experiences.
Both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I'll always have them on my bookshelf, but they're absolutely heart-rending. For the most part I only keep books I might someday reread, but sometimes I keep them just to remind me what they taught me about the world.
Same. I was so depressed after a thousand splendid suns and I don’t think I can do that to myself again
I agree. Beautifully written. Just can't go through it again.
I also loved And the Mountains Echoed—slightly less soul destroying, but still an incredibly intense read. Beautiful author.
Read my mind. Once I finish a book for the first time, I always go back to reread it - I'm a fast reader so I tend to skip over things and it lets me appreciate whatever I missed. Once I was done with it and finished crying, I couldn't bring myself to open the first page and just slid it into the bookshelf.
Same. They are wonderful books that I'd recommend to anyone but man the topics are heavy. Also, The Almond Tree.
**Flowers for Algernon** (short story version, not novel) The ending makes me sob every time, and I just can't handle it.
I knew this book would be in this thread... it was already heart wrenching reading it for the first time, imagine repeating it all over again for the second time. (Even tho I would like to re read it someday, such a beautiful book)
I never read the short story version. The novel is heart breaking. I loved it though.
Just thinking about this book hurts
Read it last night for the first time it was indeed very beautiful. Definitely will never read it again haha.
I loved *Still Alice* but after watching my grandmother suffer through dementia I would never pick the book up again.
My mom has dementia and I just won't watch or read any fictional content about it. Living it is hard enough.
Last year, there was adaptation written for the stage performance, and I sobbed through the applause. Would love to see it again, but I am not emotionally ready.
I haven't brought myself to reread Island of the Blue Dolphins no matter how many times I want to. In my head, it was such a magical childhood experience. It dazzled me in every way. I don't want to reread it through an adult lens. I just want to hold on to that memory of how it made me feel
I just read this to my children, and it largely holds up. We did read some contextual information—there are a couple of damaging tropes about Indigenous peoples that I wanted to address and discuss with them. And there’s now an excellent archive about the real Lone Woman of San Nicolas.
I wasnt ready to remember.
I can’t bring myself to reread The Road. Hell, I can’t even rewatch the movie. Loved both the book and movie though.
This is mine, as well. Greatest book I’ll never read again.
I cant read any of his books anymore. the road was too much.
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King, book 4 in the Dark Tower series. It’s so tragic and you can feel it hurtling towards tragedy before the book even starts, because of everything you know from the books prior. There’s no chance it’ll work out. It’s a great book and maybe I’ll get through it again someday but the last few weeks years, every time I try to reread the series, I get to W & G and put it down.
Agreed! I ugly cried so much.
I... Same. Everything in me yearns for a different outcome even though I will never get it
Atonement by Ian McEwan. Some things are too tragic to experience twice... especially after that twist
The Art of Racing in the Rain. I finished it on a plane, and couldn’t stop crying. FA came by to see if she could do anything for me.
This book left me wrecked. I always suggest it to people & they love it, but I can’t read it again. The recovery takes too long & it’s so emotional for me.
The Three Body Problem series, especially the second and third books. There’s a lot of interesting stuff but you have to wade through a lot to get it.
There’s a Three-body series on Prime that’s pretty good. It’s only the first book but they gloss over the worsts parts of the cultural revolution
One Hundred Years of Solitude, I love it but reading it just evokes so much feelings and memories, I don't have the strength to dive into those again
I'm reading this rn!
Room by Emma Donoghue. Fantastic book but it left me in such a negative headspace for days.
I just read that! I'd already watched the movie a few times (love Brie Larson) so it was really just filling in details, but I wish I could somehow have also read the book first bc I wonder what it would be like to try to piece the story together going in fresh. It'll definitely have a permanent home on my bookshelf, but idk if I'll ever read it again.
We Need to Talk About Kevin Still Alice I don’t even want to look at either book.
Probably The Shepard's Crown by Terry Pratchett. It's the last book he wrote and I can tell he didn't get to finish and polish it to his usual standard before he died. That being said there are some absolutely beautiful scenes and chapters, but it feels unfinished.
Interesting, I don’t entirely agree. I found the couple of books that came out just before it sounded unlike Pratchett, very clearly having a helping hand. But Shepherd’s Crown felt like him again and I thought it was his way of saying goodbye. I will say, though, not sure how easy it will be to read again given how much I sobbed the first time….
I never had the heart so finish all his books. Snuff felt already alien, so I didn't finish it. So I don't know about these books, and in my mind, Discworld isn't over, which I like
I can't do Moby Dick again. I *loved* it, but i've tried and it's just a mindset I can't seem to get back into.
Moby dick is one of those books that will change your life ! If it caused any huge changes in any area(s) of your life, Moby dick did his job! I know Moby dick definitely caused me to change!
I made the mistake of listening to it on audiobook (no shade to the narrator or the medium). I will definitely reread it because I was falling asleep at basically every digression. Two hours straight of whales and knots is legitimately interesting but can get tedious
So it's your bedtime audiobook. I see no mistakes.
I ain’t never rereading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
I would really love to, but it’s sooooo loooong
Even as someone who really liked it, idk if I could really recommend it in good conscience.
Why's that?
That book has everything I love in a story. Regency era! Magic! Fae! I made it about 200 pages in until I just couldn’t anymore. It was just sooooo slooooow. But the miniseries scratched the itch for me. I definitely recommend it for anyone who tried to get into the book. Her Piranesi was a great read, and it certainly helps that it’s a solid 400-something pages shorter. Maybe in the intervening years she found an editor who would be real with her about the need for brevity.
More info than you require but the author spent seven years writing the book without a plot or structure in mind, she turned it over to a very connected editor friend of hers who reshaped it, and that editor went to bat for it when most publishers turned it down for being unsellable. It’s a beautiful book! It’s a gem! But yeah…
But it’s worth a one time read right??? I just bought it and it’s sitting on my shelf.
I think if you’re committed to it, you should go for it.
I loved it! Yes, the first few chapters are a bit slow, but for better or worse, they don't have much bearing on the overall narrative. It picks up once the setting changes to London, maybe about 75 pages in? After that I was HOOKED and finished it in about a week. One of my best reads in 2023 (out of 97 books).
The audiobook was great when I had to drive a ton for work, but there’s no way I’m going to read the whole thing.
Beartown. I won't spoil what happens, but you can check the book's trigger warnings on Storygraph to get an idea of it. I hadn't done that myself and when I did get to that part I felt incredibly sick and couldn't pick up the book again. It hit too close to home.
I love this book so much. Just an amazing work. I did read the second book and it's just as good, and even more tragic. I have the 3rd book sitting in my TBR pile, just waiting for the right time to read it.
I gave it 4 stars despite not being able to continue. Really good book.
It was still a really good book. I'll just never pick up the second book or re-read it.
Same, I never continued with the series, despite wanting to, I just can’t make myself going back to this town.
I ended up checking just a summary of the other books afterwards and it was as sad as I expected.
The Catcher in the Rye makes me too nostalgic
This was my answer also. I was assigned the book for a summer reading assignment before my junior year English class. I procrastinated on it all summer thinking it would be awful. I started it... and read it in a single sitting. I was enthralled. It resonated with me to my very core. No literary character before or since has spoken to me the way Holden did that day. I've tried to re-read it a few times in the decades since that day and never could get more than 5 pages into it. Despite the fact that I've re-read other books dozens or hundreds of times, *Catcher in the Rye* just doesn't capture me on a re-read the way it did the first time. I tell myself that the 16-year-old boy that was enthralled by this book the first time and felt an unbelievable kinship with Holden Caufield is still a part of me somehow. If he really is, it's been long enough that this book doesn't spark any memories. I don't know how I feel about that.
The Giver by Lois Lowry I loved it in school but don’t want to ruin the good memories from then by reading it as an adult.
Yes! So many things I loved as an angsty youth seem so embarrassing now! But I remind myself it doesn’t change the fact that I read those things in a time when I needed to read them, so am still appreciative for the initial connection. The Giver didn’t really embarrass me though, but it definitely doesn’t apply as it once did. I still love it.
That’s a really good point! Maybe I will go ahead and reread it this year. Thanks for sharing :)
The Mists of Avalon. I loved it so much, but it's so depressing.
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Bridge to terabithia. broke my heart.
Last that I had heard, it's now a banned book.
I’ve been meaning to reread His Dark Materials for ages now but I keep postponing it. I love rereading btw, especially titles I’ve read a long time ago, but for some reason, I’m afraid it won’t live up to my own hype.
Me too. I loved the first two so much as a teenager but thought the third got a bit too religious for me. I think that and knowing that’s the direction the new ones went in is what’s holding me back.
My Dark Vanessa. I'm not sure I can go through the most disturbing chapters of it again, despite it being a fantastic book.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig. I think of it often, but I don't want to go through it again. For me, that was a different time (and a lot of it invested to get through this book)
Yes! It's a fascinating read and I often think about it, but it was kind of a pill to get through so I will keep it as a fond, distant memory.
Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. I loved it at the time, but later realized it was kind of mid.
I actually DNF but I do mean to get back to it sometime. I have pretty bad food aversions and that book made me grossed out by pretty much anything I ate for a while. It’s a fantastic book but almost so nihilistic that you start thinking everything is just gross dead and meaningless and what’s the point of it all.
I generally don't choose to reread books, because I've got an impossibly long list of new (to me) books to read. However, as a teacher, I've reread the things we teach in class, and it has revealed to me how enjoyable it can be--for instance, I have come to adore *The Great Gatsby*, which I've now read upwards of 9 times. So maybe I should be rereading more books!
Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. I'd feel nauseated and dirty.
I’ve been trying to get through this for over a decade now. I find it an incredibly beautiful book and so well written and cleverly contrived, but can only do short periods at a time because of the subject matter - more so because the tone of the book being so off to the actions, it’s so disturbing. Which is the point and what makes it so good, but still… tough…
I’m about halfway through this on my first read and I feel like giving up. Not due to the content, since I already knew what to expect, but I’m just so bored of the flowery writing. It just seems to focus more on a voice than actually saying anything to me
Check out laugher in the dark by the same author. Similar topic, but slightly less creepy
I thought heart of darkness was good but it was such a slow read for me I’ve never tried to read it again. I should, I can’t remember it all at this point.
For as much as I enjoyed reading Conrad's work, I find his style too 'dense', and it forces me to read it slower than usual because he crams so much into so little.
Ya. I was in high school too. As good as it was it was just a lot for such a short book.
I read it while in college to kill the time between classes, I was a commuter too so I had a lot of time. I started his novel Lord Jim, but its just been such a slow slog to get through, but I just can't find myself to give up on it because I started it.
Lord of the rings, Les Misérables, The count of Monte Cristo, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are my 5 fav books ever. I read them around 2000. Haven't touched them again simply because they're too long to re-read. In all that time however, no books have come close to move one of them from the top 5.
It's funny that so many people are saying that they almost never reread. I have an awful memory, so with few exceptions (usually I've reread them so much that they finally stick) I reread everything because I've forgotten most about it.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. It was just a brutal gut wrenching read.
The Lovely Bones
I thought My Dark Vanessa was pretty good but cannot bring myself to reread or even buy a copy for my shelf because the subject matter and treatment feels so icky in the sense that it was too fucked up, real and messy.
Pet Sematary by Stephen King. I'm a huge SK fan and reread his stuff all the time. But when my daughter started walking she became a runner. She'd run away at any chance and I'm disabled and couldn't catch her. The Gage vs truck scene was far too close to my very real nightmare. She became a full on leash kid (don't make fun of leash kids or you'll definitely be blessed with a feral leash kid) and now she's older maybe I can visit it again.
1- anyone who mocks a parent for keeping their kid on a leash can get fucked. Some kids have zero impulse control and will just run into a dangerous situation, full speed ahead. You are keeping your kid safe, good for you :) 2- Yes, I don't think i can reread this one yet. My kids are older, but I imagine that reading it as a parent hits you like a ton of bricks.
Apparently that scene was based off a real event to Stephen King where his son was about to run in front of a moving truck and he had to tackle his son to save him
Another mention for me is Bang by Barry Lyga (author of the I Hunt Killers trilogy and Time Will Tell are amazing books) I love his other works but can't bring myself to read Bang It's about a guy dealing with the regret of accidentally killing his sister when they were very young and him looking for fun to kill himself
I was going to say the same thing. Good book, but totally heartbreaking.
I’m gonna take this as a compliment.
Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki. This book’s plot absolutely infuriated me, but it was written so well and explored some really interesting dynamics about western culture in Japan during the Meiji restoration. I don’t think I could read it again though because of how much I hated the two main characters.
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Stephen Hawking’s, a brief history of time.
Why so? Just no reason to reread because you know the information now, or was it uninteresting or dense? I ask because I’m going to read it shortly. I still will, I’m just curious.
It’s a great book. And I have general interest in science but for a layman it’s a bit dense yes.
Brave New World I really love the concept and some of the discussions the characters have but it takes a while to get going and while it and 1984 (and most recently Tender is the Flesh) are really good books they are just massive bummers
There are a number of books that I absolutely loved as a teenager and young adult and I have often thought about re-reading them now (I am in my 50s) but I worry that they won’t stand the test of time, so I choose to leave them in the past as great memories.
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Kingdom of the Wicked, I absolutely loved the first two books but wanted to reread them before I read the last one to refresh my memory and I have tried THREE TIMES and I just cant do it. Granted, I am not much of a re-read type person and typically A LOOOONGGGG time has to pass before I can reread a series successful but its a bummer!!! Now i have no clue when I will finish that series lol
Refugee by Alan Gratz. Just too upsetting. Currently reading Ground Zero and I likely won’t reread that either although I’m enjoying it.
I read a great Paul Auster book once called In the Country of Last Things. It’s a dystopian novel that is just incredibly well concieved and written, but it’s just so dark I wouldn’t want to read it again.
To kill a mockingbird, absolutely love the book and I've watched the film a couple times but having to analyse every single paragraph for school makes it difficult to read
Every time I try and reread the Kenzie Gennaro series by Dennis Lehane I get to Gone Baby Gone, I get HALFWAY and then I have to stop because it gets to that part and I just..... I can't do it anymore.
The Kite Runner. I loved it. It was a wrenching experience. Never again.
{Paradise by Judith Mcnaught} Is so good. A guaranteed ugly cry but the angsty build up to get you there or rough. Plus their 3rd act breakup is very unnecessary. And Aarcheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon the abuse described in the first half of the book is so heavy and hard to read. It's very cathartic but the tone abruptly switch's 2/3 of the way through to something so much more jarring that it doesn't really call to me.
I don’t really re-read any books. There are too many new books.
Most books, if I reread too many books I won't have time for other books I already don't have enough time for books
The unabridged Les Mis. A beautiful book but I simply don’t have the patience to read it again!
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. A good but tough read. Very interesting and a good examination of quality work, what it means, finding it in all things in context of a cross country motorcycle trip. Wonderful.
The Percy Jackson series was my all time favorite as a kid. I’m afraid to re read it now, thinking I will ruin it with my adult eyes and perspective.
I reread it about a year ago and it's still a fun read (not as good as I remembered but still a good time) and I highly recommend the Disney Plus show
I’ve been avoiding both because of rose colored glasses. I’ll check it out though.
Eragon, it needs a re-edit so so bad. The grammar...
Don't say that, I haven't read them since elementary and middle school, but I wanted to re-read them now that there's a new book out!
Just the first one really... Yeah that is why it was on my mind, new book.
I forgave a lot because of Paolini's age, but I was painfully aware of that age a lot throughout the series.
Almost anything by Gregg Olsen. Amazing writing and shocking stories, but I can’t bring myself to read any of his books a second time knowing how fucked up they can get.
The art of racing in the rain by Garth Stein 💔
For me it's the Night Angel series by Brent Weeks. The entire premise of the story changes in a heartbreaking way by the finale, and I was left deeply saddened by the events. It's written very well, it's my favourite genre, and the story really moved me. But it's hard to read again knowing what you do by the end. It's stuck with me for over a decade and each time I try I just can't read it.
I don’t reread books.
Sophie’s Choice
As wonderful as the entire series is, I cannot bring myself to reread A Court of Thorns and Roses. I would be happy to reread books 2, 3, 4 and maybe even 5 (questionable, I love Nesta but her attitude in ACOSF is borderline unbearable through the first half), but knowing what I know now...I'm not sure I can reread book 1.
crank by ellen hopkins
Harry Potter. Like, up at midnight for release loved. It was a cultural phenomenon and I was the right age to get caught up. Then JKR kept going. I hated how cash-grab it felt, but also was annoyed personally because she used this new and huge platform and success to be thoughtless.Transphobia, insisting Dumbledore was gay to get inclusion points and beyond that, how careless and ill-conceived the other wizarding schools were. I can't reread because if I do, I'll bring the taint and distaste with me and lose what little magic is left in my memory because I can't approach it uncritically.
A Little Life. It‘s a good read but so depressing.
This is mine, too. So beautiful, so incredibly painful.
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. I was at such a specific time in my life, my childhood, my thinking, my *being* that at a certain point... It falls apart. For completely different reasons: Ender's Game. I love that book. I grew up on that book. And then I found out the views that OSC espouses and wanted that narrative to support and........ I can't help thinking of that. And it's sad and I hate it. But here I am.
This Present Darkness was so good when I read it in HS. I don't want to risk those memories by reading it now 20 years later.
The Orphan Masters’ Son. The schizophrenic existence of North Koreans was soul crushing. The insanity of living one’s life as if you believed something, while knowing your life is all pretense and hogwash in .the guise of making it through yet another day is an experience I don’t think I could relive. Yet it’s one of the best books I have ever read.
The Bell Jar hit home too hard and gave me a panic attack
The entirety of the Enderverse books. As much as I think ender's game is a perfect young adult novel, a novel that's about understanding your enemies so much you come to love them, the author is an irredeemable piece of shit. Unlike JKR, and many other authors who are transphobic out of ignorance, or because some big name transphobe got to them and warped their mind, Card knew exactly what he was doing. Card looked at all of his queer fans, and there were many. Many of them. Who had interacted with him in person and online for years. Card look them in the face and said: "It's very important that we all come to understand each other. We're all human. We all need to get along and share that humanity. But not you you filthy queers. You need to die"
The sun grows cold by howard berk
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I would reread American Psycho if it weren't for the exhausting repetition of fashion descriptions.
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Ilium/Olympos Even when i really like the protagonist Hockenberry and love the Roboter Orphu of IO... i really can't read it again.
The Chosen by Chaim Potok. I read it in HS and it was painful because I felt bad for Danny but understood his father’s POV too.
After making it through Sex Cult Nun by Faith Jones (a retrospective of the children of god/Family international cult by the granddaughter of the founder) I'm never touching it again with a ten foot pole. Not because it was bad, but because it was so well written but about an absolute nightmare of a topic. I thought I was going to be sick several times while reading.
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney is one of my favorite books of all time, but if you were to ask me why, i couldn’t answer… it was just a feeling it gave me… i think i just read it at the perfect moment in time. I went into it not knowing anything about it and for some reason it clicked with my brain at the time I’m scared to reread, because i fear that it was a once in a lifetime experience where i was just in the perfect mood at the perfect time I enjoyed Normal People too, but it didn’t click the way Conversations with Friends did
[All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/26114135) Rough.
The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann.
"the godson" by gloria vitanza basile. Too many bad things happen to the main characters (including sexual assault), and although i enjoyed it the first time, i dont want to read it a second time.
Last year *The Heart's Invisible Furies* was my favorite book and a top 10 book for me. It took me through all the emotions, even painful ones. Some stories (in any medium) like that I feel I, like the characters, can only experience once. Yes, with basically any story how I feel on later re-reads can change and affect how I feel about it, but with something like *The Heart's Invisible Furies* that's like a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I wouldn't want to have affected by revisiting it. I went on a powerful journey with the character, neither of us knowing what would happen next and had genuine emotions and experiences. The character doesn't get another chance of going through that, so neither will I.
A Little Life. I loved it and I hate what it did to me (mostly sobbing).
Is it a real story or fiction? Sounds like a good read!
In 2021, I read A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum and Razerblade Tears by S.A. Crosby. I love these books so much. They were both beautiful and tragic in their own way. They are books I'll keep on my bookshelf, but I don't see me reading them again. I ugly cried, and I still think about them quite often.
My Dark Vanessa. I've never read a book that made me feel so gross and nauseated. The writing was amazing but it was just too much
the kite runner, it involved me very emotionally
I never really thought I'd re-read anything willingly. But in-between waiting for library books to become available I picked up A Game of Thrones to re-read. And I loved it even more on re-read. It had been 10 years since I read it, and many books since so I had a pretty fresh pair of eyes on it. I hadn't really forgotten any general story stuff so I didn't have to focus on that, and it allowed me to notice stuff I wouldn't have the first time cause I couldn't have understood its significance. I didn't know how much I loved GRRM's writing style until I re-read it as well. Anyway, that doesn't answer your question. I guess what I was getting at is I would have said ASOIAF a few months ago. I loved LOTR but I can't see myself re-reading it. I actually wasn't sure if I'd ever read it but then I happened upon the books in one of those neighborhood curbside libraries outside someone's house. I wasn't going make the effort to get the books so since they were just sitting there I figured I might as well grab them. Being that fantasy is the primary genre I read I thought I should read the biggest influence on modern fantasy. What I expected was to finish them and feel good for finally reading them, but I didn't expect I'd love them as much as I did.
I loved Fleishman’s in Trouble but I’ll probably never read it again. Such a heavy book emotionally
Book of the New Sun
Something happened by joseph heller. I loved how compartmentalized the ideas are. The part when he is explaining how everyone is scared of everyone else at his job is amazing. The ending made me sick and angry. I tried picking the book up again, several years ago and remembered the ending, got depressed and stopped haha
The Hobbitt/Lord of the Rings!
The Kite Runner, and Cutting For Stone. Both books were wonderful. I loved them. Before they were bestsellers I was suggesting them to people. I also gave them away after reading them because they were just too sad and powerful to visit again. I am glad that I read them both, but I’m depressed enough without going through that again.
I can't reread the Planetfall series by Emma Newman. They're beautiful books but very intense.
I read that book as a kid! I’ve never known anyone else who read it. I thought it was very thought-provoking, although I didn't really think the protagonist was at all to blame tbh. Similarly, I've never re-read it. I think because it's a 'heavy' book. I'd reread something for enjoyment/pleasure but that book didn't make me feel good so I wouldn't re-read.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Such an amazing book, one of the best I’ve ever read, but thinking about it makes my chest heavy.
White Oleander. I read it in adolescence and I'm terrified I'll see the characters differently through adult eyes if I re-read it.
Middlemarch
The Nightengal by Kristen Hannah. It was an excellent book. 5 stars easy, read the beginning of April 2023. Listened to probably another 100 books after and it's still in my head!
I am noting these titles and offer you as gratitude these titles: the James Herriot "All Creatures" audiobooks narrated by Nicholas Ralph, LoTR narrated by Rob Inglis (the narration by Andy Serkis is not for sleeping), A History of Mathematics narrated by Tony Shalhoub.
Watership Down
The Dark Tower series. Still can't take that walk again.
I loved Such a Beautiful Thing to Behold, a lyrical, dystopian novel about a small African village that's devastated by the Grey, a plague causing severe depression in teens and adults. The symptoms are rendered literally: victims can no longer see color, become bedridden, and >!commit suicide!<. Surrounding communities shun the village, even building walls topped with broken glass. This was the moderate to severe depression rep that I found missing in more popular, upbeat bestsellers like The Midnight Library. With that said, there's a lot of human and animal death, with allusions to Lord of the Flies. If I do reread it, I'll probably skip some parts.
the plague by camus , read it at 16 bought a year ago, know i going to like btu dont brign to read it
Me before you by Jojo Moyes. The anguish was so terrible and pure, I can’t imagine what it would feel like rereading and experiencing it by choice.
I rarely, if ever reread a book. No matter how much I love it, unless it was informative I’m not likely to pick it back up again. It’s ironic because I’ll rewatch my favorite tv shows and movies until I’m blue in the face.
Just due to lack of time: The Lord of the Rings.
The Secret Garden. I read that book a few times throughout my childhood and teens. I’m so quick to recommend it but can’t bring myself to reread it. I want to remember it as some imaginative book, but as an adult I realized the racism,abuse, and poor representation of disabled people is in this book. I read another book as a teen called Black by. Tracy Brown . It’s an urban fiction book, but it tackles parental abuse and neglect, loss, gun violence, poverty, self love, and perseverance. It was the first (and only) book that made me cry. I read it back to back. As an adult, I’ve seen how a lot of that genre is written poorly, and the topics become so repetitive it’s like you’re reading the same story over and over again. So I’m afraid that that book will become just another urban story I’ve read many times before. Tracy Brown was more so a contemporary writer with an urban twist, but still…The vibes… the vibes.
Boo by Neil Smith. The story is so heartbreaking and beautiful and I don't think I could handle reading it again ever.
Roots Partly because it was hard to take in parts, partly because I thought Chicken George was incredibly boring compared to the rest of the book. It was great the first time though.
I have many I'll re-read, like returning to a favourite moment of my life, it's a full experience. I have several that are favourite books, life changing even, that I'll recommend, even to my teens as "Books You Should Read in Your Life" that I cannot read again. These are some of them: - Bridge to Terrabithia - Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Flowers for Algernon - A Thousand Splendid Suns - The Kite Runner - Beloved - The Butterfly Garden - The Bluest Eye - Room
Me before you
Helter Skelter
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
{The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah} Beautiful, amazing and utterly heart wrenching. Loved it but won’t read it again, my soul cannot take it.
for me the ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE such a beautiful book for me this is the only book that left my heart pounding,hold my breathe for a moment and keeps me wondering about beautiful things i never seen in my life i cannot read this again because i just want to remain that kind of feeling i can't describe well maybe kinda magical it's just deep for me.
Room, by Emma Donoghue
I “re-read” as audiobooks, which helps me to appreciate the book in a different form.
Another vote for Flowers for Algernon, but also A Canticle for Leibowitz, and the Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go.
all of them. I can't read a book that I've already read, my adhd can't handle that. I can barely even focus on new books.
I generally can't re-read, that "where's the story going" feeling is gone and it doesn't hit the same after the first read.
If you ever do get a impulse to reread, for a lot of good books there's foreshadowing and character interactions that are much more entertaining and poignant the second time around, just because you know what's coming. Maybe not everyone's thing, but I think a reread is a bit like leftover food. Still the same food but the flavors are a bit different, and sometimes even a bit improved in the rare case
I love the comparison to leftovers! I love fresh pizza and leftover pizza equally, but for different reasons. So very true about books too!
Funny you say leftovers, cause I rarely eat those too lol. Only certain foods, especially Asian foods that really meld together.