Books you love to read again and again?

[Jografer]

Perdido Street Station.......its quality

I've tried to read this a couple of times, but always given up....

 

[Jografer]

Narnia series.....

... & for some god-forsaken reason 'Stalky & Co & 'Thy Servant a Dog'....

 

[KeyboardJockey]

Jesus. Are you a masochist?

Yes.

 

[DotCommunist]

I've tried to read this a couple of times, but always given up....

Then have a go with his first novel, King Rat. Its's shorter and in some ways lighter, but it is a great introduction to the twisty genre bending trickery, the grotesque images n that. And the way he makes landscapes alive, like entities in their own right. It's one of of those 'other London' type fantasies in the vein of Gaiman's Neverwhere.

Perdido Street Station is where he gets brilliant. As a spec. fiction fan I loved the fact that nothing made sense for a while, but the world and the characters are so well done that that doesn't matter. Then when you do grasp the narratives it becomes sick as fuck

 

[izz]

The Twins at St Clare's, and a couple of associated books

i used to love these when i was going to a rather crappy, but ordinarily crappy, comp. pure escapism.

i reread Annie Proulx, Wilkie Collins, The Women's Room, the odd Pratchett, the odd Gaiman, lots really. I love rereading, like getting to know a new friend properly

 

[senny dreadful]

Perdido Street Station.......its quality

Just finished that yesterday! Brilliant piece of mindfuckery.

I re-read Good Omens until my copy fell apart and I had to get a new one. Same with the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, actually. HHGG is a great book for reading at different stages in your life; you spot all the jokes you didn't see before.

 

[mod]

The Star Rover - Jack London
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

All of the above have several stories within the same book.

 

[Elpenor]

As a kid:

Various famous 5 books
Swallows and Amazons books - as said upthread they’re wonderful
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Chronicles of Narnia books
Emil and the Detectives
Asterix and Tintin books

As an adult:

Decline and Fall and most of Waugh’s stuff
Diary of a Nobody
Lots of William Boyd, Jonathan Coe and Douglas Coupland

 

[UrbaneFox]

Billy Liar

 

[Storm Fox]

His Dark Materials
Various Pratchett novels, especially Guards! Guards!, Fifth Elephant and Going Postal.
And attempt to read Lord of the Rings every few years, but I can never get through it.