Cover for the Standard Ebooks edition of Moby Dick.
Tyler Cowen recently estimated that he has read Moby Dick five times. Cowen named it The Great American Novel back in 2006.
I have been thinking of re-reading Moby Dick (I think I've read it only once.) Robert Anton Wilson told Eric Wagner to read James Joyce's Ulysses more than 40 times.
All of this made me think about what books I've read over and over again.
Illuminatus! would be a good example for me. I read it for the first time in the 1970s, probably not too terribly long after it came out, and I have read it many times since then. In fact, I've read all of Wilson's novels more than once (except for The Sex Magicians, which I will finally read when Hilaritas releases it soon), and I've read other RAW books more than once, too; I am re-reading Cosmic Trigger 2 now.
Other works of fiction I have read more than once: The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe; Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen; The Lord of the Rings, J.RR.. Tolkien; All Things Are Lights, Robert Shea; Pale Fire, Vladimir Nabokov; I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison (short story collection), The Gold Bug Variations, Richard Powers, Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson.
6 comments:
I agree with Tyler’s assessment of Moby Dick. I’ve read it 4 times and am planning on a fifth in the near future. The description of the tiny white speck deep in the water growing into the whale is one of my favorite passages in all of literature. I’ve read The Stranger four times, three times in English and once in French in high school French class. I’ve read Dune, Cosmic Trigger I, Lord of the Rings and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas more than four times. Lost track of the exact numbers. There are too many that I’ve read twice to list here. I’m currently reading Pynchon’s V for the second time. Trying to summon up the courage for a second reading of Gravity’s Rainbow. Dune and Cosmic Trigger have a special distinction. In both cases, as soon as I finished them for the first time, I went back to the beginning and read them again.
I'm pretty sure I've read "Dune" only once, but this comment reminded me that Dune tied for the Hugo with "This Immortal" (aka ".....And Call Me Conrad") by Roger Zelazny. I've read the Zelazny several times, it's one of my favorites of his.
I should read Moby Dick again. I've read Cosmic Trigger I, The Lord of the Rings, and Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein at least 6 times each, I stopped counting. There's quite a few books I've read at least 3 times including Illuminatus!, Schrodinger's Cat trilogy, Illuminati Papers, Historical Illuminatus trilogy, Ulysses, and Finnegans Wake.
Chronic City by Lethem is one I’ve reread a great deal(haven’t been counting); helpfully the audiobook has a fantastic reader and I’ve listened to that at least 5 times as well.
Prometheus many times. Also read this one twice, its excellent. "Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and the Conquest of Everest"
Prayers of the Heart by Ibn 'Arabi, Call It Courage by Armstrong Perry, The Tempest, Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby, and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Those last four I taught tenth graders for more than a decade.
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