Okay, I admit it: I’m a “rereader.” What is a rereader? Well, I’ve just cracked open The Lord of the Rings again this week (and when I say the LOTR, I include The Hobbit, always) for the thirty-something or other time. (I lost count somewhere in the mid-30s). Why in the world would you want to read a book, or series of books, that many times?!
Good question. First it must be noted that I’m hardly the only one who rereads LOTR. For Tolkien fans, reading the series over and over is a tradition and a ritual. I used to do it once a year. I believe I first read it when I was in sixth grade, something like 1978 or so.
I guess it’s like watching a movie you like again. The book is just so good you want to experience it again. In the case of LOTR, well, it’s pretty special. Often voted one of the greatest literary works of the 20th century. It’s just a story I need to revisit on occasion, because it’s so enjoyable to experience. (And as good a job as Peter Jackson did with the movies, nothing compares to the books.)
I’ve found though, that it’s not just the Tolkien books I do this with. I’ve got a small (but maybe growing) group of books I periodically revisit just because I want to read the stories again, because they were so good. Here’s a few in no particular order.
The Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series by Stephen R. Donaldson. Nearly on par with Tolkien’s works, Donaldson is a master storyteller and worldbuilder. His characters are deep and real. His world feels real like Tolkien, and instead of a hero, we get an anti-hero. Donaldon is currently finishing up the third series of books, having come back to it after something like 20 years. There are two books left. I think I’ve read this one something like 4 times, the first time in high school in the 80s.
There’s a handful of C.J. Cherryh books in the Company Wars series that I’ve read a number of times, including Downbelow Station, Rimrunners and especially Heavy Time and Hellburner. These are some of the best sci-fi books around, especially if you really want to feel like you are on some ship in space. Cherryh is a master at writing characters and keeping you in suspense. There’s no doubt I’ll revisit the series again. (In fact, I just recently read Rimrunners and Downbelow again.)
I’ve mentioned James P. Hogan before. Another author whose writing style I love, and he writes believable science fiction. The “Giants” series is wonderful in the first 3 books, and Inherit the Stars is a great mystery. But the two I’ve really enjoyed are Realtime Interrupt and The Multiplex Man (one of my favorite sci-fi books). I’ve dived into both of those books probably 3-4 times each.
I love the Hitchhiker novels by Douglas Adams, but I really like the Dirk Gently novels the best. I’ve read Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul a number of times. I revisit those on occasion (again, most recently early this year.)
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. A big one (and darn, another one I just read this year… it’s been a re-read year) but very enjoyable. And another one that begins with the protagonist not knowing who he is. I love that. First read that one in the 80s, too. Been through it a few times.
I know there are more, but those are the main ones. This year I’ve read a couple new books that may well get added to the list. Particularly John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War series which I really enjoyed, will certainly get read again. And Michael Rubens’s The Sheriff of Yrnameer was so incredibly enjoyable I may read it again this year, even though I just read it in the spring.
Circling back to Tolkien, it was those books that always stirred my creative juices. I always wanted to write my own great fantasy epic. I had a whole folder full of stuff I wrote in high school (and a bit after) that I kept for years. Hundreds of pages, notes, maps, drawings and all that. At one point I looked at and simply realized that it was all just a ripoff of Tolkien’s work in some manner, so I tossed the lot of it!
I still have some of those things in my head. But most of it was junk. I’m a sucker for the histories of Middle Earth and all the backstory stuff to a point. When Unfinished Tales came out, I immediately got that from the book club and devoured it (again this is the 80s). Many don’t like the Silmarillion, but I love it. I’ve read a few of the books Christopher Tolkien has edited, but I’ve found much of it to be repetitive. Although I did recently enjoy The Children of Hurin.
So when I’m writing for Marooned, I often get involved in these deeper stories/histories. Why did Ugofandian do what he did? How did Mars end up so and so and what’s the story behind this guy Inglenar, and the different colors of the Anfald and on and on. I’ve have pages of stuff written for Marooned that will likely never see the light of day because it’s too much exposition and not enough real story, I suppose. It’s my version of The Silmarillion I guess (although of course not nearly that much is written.) But I enjoy doing it, and I think it helps me write the characters.
But I always felt at some point that I would write my own epic fantasy story. Maybe that’s why I keep rereading this stories I love, because they inspire me. This week I’ve had something of a breakthrough in a story I’ve been thinking about for some time. It actually started with an idea I had for a comic right before Marooned, involving of all things a Jackalope who kicked butt with a staff. (My daughters don’t believe Jackalopes are real, the poor dears. I keep telling them they are.)
The point is, as I lay in bed this week thinking about that story, I began to run with other ideas I had in my head and it morphed into something completely different (where there is no Jackalope at all, sadly) but something that I’m actually excited about pursuing. It might actually be a mix of fantasy and science fiction. I’ve got a little bit of it chunked out, and I’ve been thinking a lot about it this week.
It’s still very early, but it’s something I hope to eventually write. If I do, I’ll definitely share some tidbits with you folks. Now back to more important things. Like, how will Thorin and Company ever get into that secret side door?
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I’m a sucker for the “Shannara” series from Terry Brooks. It may be LOTR Lite, but I’ve been reading (and re-reading) them since the 8th grade. The Harry Potter books are starting to show that same tendency, and I’m rediscovering the Myth Adventure series from Robert Asprin. Hey, if it was good once, it should still be good the second (and third and fourth and …nth) time, right? Yeah…
I read Shannara when I was young, but yeah, way too LOTR derivative. I don’t do Harry Potter, not interested at all.
But, read a lot of Robert Asprin in my day, and he is a really good author, and fun. Myth Adventure stuff is fun, and his Thieves World anthologies were really good. I’ve been meaning to track some of that stuff down.
I make sure my bookshelf always has a copy of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series and I try to re-read them at least once a year.
I’ve been back to LOTR several times and the Thomas Covenant series.
I’m going to have to take a look at a few of the series you mentioned up above. I prefer science fiction / space fantasy over traditional fantasy so I wouldn’t mind having a nice series to read again and again. Though now that I think of it, I have read Ender’s Game a few times along with Dune.
I’ll bet you are a very fast reader. I wish I read even double my current speed. My daughter just graduated HS and she has read faster than me for years. Since I don’t read too fast I can’t afford to reread much but I do it too. LOTR is one. Some Steven Brust, earlier ‘Dragaeran’ books are fun. Tho I guess you were focusing on Series, I loved Roger Zelazny’s Road Marks and anthology of shorts The Last Defender of Camelot but never read the The Chronicles of Amber. I’ll put them on my list.
I have been meaning to reread at least the first three “Riftwar Saga” by Raymond E. Feist. I LOVED those when I was twenty something.
Not being a fast reader and having two good friends who are very fast readers of my favorite genre (ie SF and Fantasy) I am blessed in that they loan me the ‘cream of the crop’ from their books and I save a bundle and skip the so so books.
@Chris – you would really like the Chronicles of Amber, I am almost sure of it. It’s more on the fantasy side. This is the book you want. It’s really two – the first 5 books (they are small “books” it’s not that huge) are the first story and characters. The second 5 are the next, and not quite as good. But definitely read the first.
Ender’s Game I liked a lot, as well as Dune.
@Utherkbn – I read pretty quickly. I’ve been reading novels since I was very young – it’s what got me through school
If I get a good paperback I really like, I can tear through it in 3-5 days easy. You’d love Amber too, I think. It’s his crowning achievement.
I hear good things about Riftwar too.
BTW guys, I buy a LOT of books used from Amazon dirt cheap. I almost never buy em new – no reason to, unless they are a new release I really want to read, and that’s very rare. (Although the Donaldson books fall into that category)
@Major Tom When I was in college I was on a major book reading binge and used to buy them used from a local bookstore. I could then sell them back when I was finished and buy more books. I guess it ended up being more like renting then buying and of course the really good ones I would keep.
BTW The Great Book of Amber is on my Amazon Wishlist and I’ll be picking it up soon.
i like svlad cjelli, too!
my favourite is old asimov’s foundation-robot saga.
Too bad you don’t do Potter, Tom. It’s not the literary work that LotR is, but there is a ton of stuff you can learn about character, structure, plot, and good old fashioned storytelling from Rowling. It wasn’t the most popular book in forever just for nothing.
But, I know. No one could get me to read the Twilight series either.
This story of yours, formerly of the Butt-kicking Jackalope, would this be comic or prose?
@Chris – there’s a local store here that does the same thing, and I do that too for books I don’t want to keep.
I laugh every time I think of the name Svlad Cjelli! I have to admit I tried reading Foundation a long time ago and got bored. I’ve read other Asimov stuff though.
Yeah Og, can’t do it. And as for popular stuff being good, I’ll just point to Twilight
It’s no guarantee, although I’ll take your word there’s some redeeming qualities.
My story will/would be prose. You’ll get an email from me soon on it.
I too am a big re-reader. I have read Stephen Kings “The Body” more times than I can remember (so many times that I wore out three paper backs before I found the hardback at a library sale) and I too am a fan of Douglas Adams Dirk Gently. I’ve read that about six or seven times and it’s a shame he died before finishing a third Dirk book.
Ah I should have put Stephen King’s The Stand on the list, too. One of my faves. And to this day I still lament the falling apart of The Dark Tower series. It could have been one of the great stories of our age, and it totally fell apart in the last couple books. So, so disappointing. But the first 3 books are some amazing reading. I may go back to them and just stop there.
I heard they were going to have someone finish Adams’ last Gently book, not sure what happened with that. Not sure I’d want it that way either.
Oh yeah, I forgot about the Dark Tower. I never finished reading the series when he finally completed it. I keep saying I will buy and read them, but never seem to add them to my queue. At this point I will have to start over from the beginning again. I have read The Stand a few times. I most vividly remember reading it for the first time at summer camp in the mid nineties. I remember because I was coming down with a summer cold.
There was an Adams book published postmortem that caries the working title and ten chapters of the last Gently novel. It’s called “The Salmon of Doubt” and also contains all the loose ends of Adams life, various works from letters to short stories all edited together in a single volume. It is something I would love to read, just haven’t been able to squeeze it in.
@Major Tom – How could I forget Dune? Very good.
@Vince, that’s right – Salmon. Forgot about that. I’ll have to put that on my list.
Yeah Dune was very enjoyable, I think it’s ripe for a reread.
Frankly, I’m not big on re-reading most books–only a very few special ones are worth re-reading, I think. I did recently re-read LOTR, and for some reason, it just didn’t come off the same as it did the first time I read it. Maybe it was because of the movies, I don’t know.