For those of you who know me, or who have requested that I review one of your novels, you undoubtedly know that I always bemoan how my “to-be-read” list is pretty out of control. Personally, I blame BookBub, since it literally sends me an email every single day where I can select some free reads to add to my Kindle with just the push of a button. Soooo tempting.
As of right now, I have hundreds of books on my TBR list, so I’m not really in the position to reread any of my favorite books. I’ve also never really been one to read books more than once. The way I see it, there’s countless novels out there just waiting to be read, so why would I want to waste time reading something I’ve already read?
That being said, there are some of those few select novels that I’ve been known to read more than once, and I thought it’d be fun to share them all with you! Now, keep in mind that I’m not including children’s books, because frankly I can’t even remember how many times I’ve reread One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, or Green Eggs and Ham.
So let’s start off with the cream of the crop, the novel that I have undoubtedly read more than any other, Pride and Prejudice. I know, I’m such a romance novel fan cliché. Oh well! All in all, I’ve read this little beauty four times, which in the grand scheme of things really isn’t that much. However, when you also consider the number of times I’ve watched the 6 hour Colin Firth version of the movie? Well, I mean let’s face it that’s pretty much like rereading it. I first read this book back when I was a teenager, as my brother’s girlfriend at the time turned me onto it with said Colin Firth movie. The first time I read it again was of course for high school English class. It was kind of humorous that in a class of about 25 students, almost every single female in the class loved it, whereas literally every single male in the class thought it was boring. Couldn’t help but draw a comparison to You’ve Got Mail with that one.
As if reading this book twice in English wasn’t enough, later on in life I decided it’d be fun to try it out in both French and Chinese. If you ever try and read a book in a language other than your mother tongue, I’m of the mind that it’s great to try one where you’re already pretty familiar with the story line so it’s easier to follow along.
That brings me to the second book I’ve read more than once: the Hunger Games. Now, keep in mind that while I’ve read the entire trilogy, I’ve only reread book one. I first read the trilogy while I was in China for graduate school, and finished all three in the span of a week. So, after returning to the US upon graduation I figured a fun way to keep up with my Chinese would be to tackle the first Hunger Games book in Chinese. It was kind of funny how useful the revolutionary vocabulary from my Chinese History class was. Hands down though, the best part was the phonetic pronunciation of the names in Mandarin. Katniss roughly became “Kah-tuh-ni-suh”. Loved it.
And finally, another one of my favorite books of all time, Crocodile on the Sandbank. I’ve only read this book twice, but it has everything I love in a novel. Looking back, it was actually probably the first “series” I ever read. It dealt with archaeologists in 1920s Egypt, had some romance, mystery, comedy and suspense. Man, now that I think about it I kind of want to pick that one up again. I think rereading it the first time around only took one day. Maybe….maybe I have some extra time to fit that one in?
Well, there you have it. This is my list of the only full length novels I’ve ever read more than once. I know, not that abundant of a list, but what can I say? I’m busy!! And now how about y’all? What books out there have you read more than once? Feel free to share in the comment section below!
Romance Novels for the Beach 