Yes

I reread Ferris Beach by Jill McCorkle and Great Expectations at least every two years. Those are also the books I recommend to everyone to read and re-read.

Melinda

Murfreesboro TN

Yes

Rereading is partly about rereading an actual book and partly about rereading one of your past moments. Chose a book that you _loved_ when you were a teenager or in college and reread it, yes, for the different perspective on the text, but also to gain a different perspective on your younger self. It's time traveling.

If the book or film is layered enough, it requires rereading or rewatching.

I'm actually a big fan of rewatching Hitchcock films, which I do on a regular basis. Even though I've now seen many a number of times, I'm always surprised and I can actively watch or read the film more closely since I already know what's going on.

Wendy

new york city

Yes

On the Road by Jack Kerouac is definitely my annual reread. I am a huge fan of the Russian Golden Age of Lit. but On the Road speaks to the tortured young American in myself.

Terence

Keansburg, N.J.

Yes

I re-read really good books because in some way, they never lose their punch.

Recently, I re-read The Count of Monte Christo. It still takes me completely into another world and allows me to relax.

Meredith

New Haven, CT

No

Something Kurt said really resonated with me, I too am a slow reader and agonize about the decision to reread or new-read. I've enjoyed rereading books from middle and high school: Catcher in the Rye; Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sula. To this extent Anne Fadiman's father was abosolutey correct, the rereads revealed more about who I was at each reading than any nuance in the text. Also rereading books from my youth has the added benefit of being short-ish and relatively easy reads, which adds to the pleasure of reading from the perspective of a slow reader and a graduate student.

Julie

Cleveland, OH

Yes

Like Kurt, I always have an endless list of books I want to read. I just went to two libray booksales and the pile of books sitting in my room make me wanr to hyperventilate. When will I have time?!! nevertheless, sometimes i actually get 'homesick' for a particular book, sometimes in reponse to a mood or a season. I read 'The Wind In the Willows' about once a year. For me it is the ultimate escape to place of whimsy and charm, both of which are in short supply in 2011.

Mary Jo

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Yes

Not counting the countless Doc Savage and Spider pulps, I think my favorite reread has been "My Wicked Wicked Ways" by Errol Flynn. I first read it in Junior High school and have been back to it six or seven times in the last 40 years. It's an interesting accounting of an extrodinary life of a boyhood hero, and it's a fun read. If only...

Gene

Parma, Ohio

Yes

I am more of a reader than a movie watcher and as a rule not a big rereader. But sometimes a book becomes more than just a book and the characters more than just a story; they become friends and role models or reminder of the best selves we strive toward with out ever quite succeeding. For me that book is "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russel. I have worn copies out with my reading. As I change with time so does my appreciation of the characters. Each revisit is like falling in love all over with the person dearest to your heart. It shows the new facets time has cut into mind, showing off the ever growing complexities of the gem of your mind.

Kara

Pittsburgh,PA

Yes

Movies and books with great dialogue or creative use of symbolism and metaphor are my weakness, as a visual artist and writer I think I am just drawn to "colorful" works.

Movie example - the Rock Horror Picture show. I literally have watched this movie over 60 times, I think it's classic for its shamelessly ostentatious main character and for its equally shameless cheesiness :-). Other movies I've watched over and over - Pulp Fiction, Fight Club, The Lost Boys and Gangs of New York. Book Wise, one of my all time favorites is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy and The Prophet by Khalil Girbran.

Sequoia

Ohio

No

I rarely, if ever re-read books. However, most recently I did begin to reread my most favorite book (and movie) this year -- that is the Help by Kathryn Stockett. I loved the book and as the premier of the movie loomed near, I began to reread the book but of course not with same intensity as the first read. I continued my reread after seeing the movie which I absolutely loved and the reread has opened my eyes to things I did catch the first time around. I re-watch movies more often. My top 3: Shawshank Redemption, Dirty Dancing and Forrest Gump, all three of which are in my library and have watched more times than I can count.

Debra

Washington, DC

No

I agree with Kurt. There are so many books I've never read that I just go to my "unread" stack. Although I have favorite movies, once I know how it goes I guess I consider it a waste of valuable time to re-watch unless it's one of those middle of the night moments when I can't sleep or I'm with someone who plays it.

I do remember reading Jane Eyre about 17 times in seventh grade. I do love romance and melodrama at times. I think that was a schoolgirl phase.

I have a passion for owning more books than I ever read so I rarely go back. Perhaps it's time to revisit the classics however....

Connie

St Charles MN

No

But there is one book I've read several times and will continue to read...

Kathy

Saint Paul, MN

No

I AM WITH YOU....I am a slow reader and very curious...but as for movies....I still enjoy watching "TO Kill a Mockingbird" over and over...I love to go back to the "Old times" when everything wasn't labeled...Boo Radley was just "different" and mysterious, and eventually "included" ....not abused,or neglected, mentally retarded, autistic...etc. Also love the gentle man..Atticus. Innocent children.

Laurel

Minnesota

Yes

I always return to Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine when I can't find something new to turn me on to reading. I love all of her work and have read every book several times, but Love Medicine just catches me somehow. She even published a new version of it that included chapters that opened the story up even further.

When I was in high school, it was Wuthering Heights. In college, it was Catch 22 (11 times).

Barbara

Baltimore MD

No

I'm with Kurt. There are just too many still unread, unseen.

Suzanne

Sebastopol, California

Yes

I re-view movies very regularly because I like to see how they were made, now that I know a little more about film making. My favorite work to revisit is "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown".

Terri

Las Vegas, NV

No

One movie I never tire of watching is Lawrence of Arabia. The only book I have reread several times is The Magus by John Fowles. I am fascinated by how Fowles tricks and deceives his main character and the reader.

David

Santa Barbara CA

Yes

I have many favorite classic lit and science fiction books that I reread frequently. All of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Douglas Adams, Isaac Asimov, Tolkien,Wodehouse, Edgar Allen Poe, Dickens, Woolf. I have reread the Harry Potter books several times. I read quickly,so this does not impact my reading of new books.I find as I age I find something to see in a new light every time. Re-reading a loved old book is like comfort food.

Rebecca

Hershey, PA

No

I am just like you and for the same reasons. I can only think of two novels I have reread by choice (as opposed to Pride and Prejudice which seemed to be on every professor's reading list). They are James Hilton's Lost Horizon and E.M. Forster's Howard's End. I am sure that says something deep about me though I don't know what. Anyway, I like to think of our style as reflecting an embrace of variety and new experience and the rereaders as stuck in a rut.

Clare

Hartford, CT

Yes

Well, sort of. I reread mostly because I forget what happened in a book, and I rewatch movies cause I love them.

There is a book that I try to read every few years, and that's Reader's Block by David Markson. Every time I come back to this novel (or anything of his) I find I understand the allusions more. It's an "AH HA!" moment when I come across a name or passage that I finally understand.

Kelly

Moonachie, New Jersey