Yes

Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein teaches something new every time...
mostly about how to love better

Tim

Greensboro, Vermont

Yes

I find comfort in books that I think are wonderful. Annually, I reread every book of Jane Austen with the exception of "Northinger Abbey."

I have seen "Room with a View" 14 times. The first time I saw it, I cried as the opening credits rolled because I felt it was going to be great, and it has been.

Susann

New York, NY

Yes

Great films require repeated viewing. "All "About Eve"
"Sunset Boulevard"
"Citizen Kane"
"Duck Soup" (can easily be broken into specific scenes)
"The Godfather Part II"

Seen each dozens of times, and I've seen, heard, or discovered some new subtle bit of writing, directing or acting business every time. One viewing doesn't do them justice.

Mark

Jersey City

Yes

If I were stranded on a deserted island and I only had one book to read over and over again it would be Annie Dillard's, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. I am actually not a re-reader per se, but her books are so visually thick with language- like you have to chew through the paragraphs-that I could easily read them over and over again and catch something new each time.

DB

Staten Island, NY

Yes

I love rewatching Lonesome Dove with Robert Duvall & Tmy Lee Jones. I always come away with something new or newly discovered again.

Joan

Palisades NY

No

To many good books to read! And when I think I know something that is going to happen I tend to be impatient.

veronica

chattanooga, tn

Yes

I, like Kurt, was NOT a re-reader -- so many books, so little time.

Until several people in my office were jointly reading a book I'd read years before -- John Irving's "A Prayer for Owen Meany." As my co-workers discussed the book, I realized how much of it I'd forgotten but knew I had adored reading it.

So I pulled it off the shelf and enjoyed it all over again. Sure, some portions were familiar but in a good way. And some parts were also brand new.

It broke my heart a second time, just as it had the first

Victoria

NY, NY

Yes

Airport- both the book and the movie. Arthur Hailey really knows how to bring you and in and keep you.

The other is "the Godfather". The book is tremendous- and if you haven't read it, it will put the movies in better context.

Bill

New York City, NY

Yes

Since first discovering the incredible Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian following the release of the movie : "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" in 2003, I have read the entire twenty-volume canon, in order of publishing, five times. (That is, one original read and four re-reads.) The initial read and the first couple of re-reads took on the order of six months of real time, in addition to the other minutiae of life. The later re-reads have been more leisurely, the most recent taking just over a year. Some of the books are better than others, but I view the entire collection as a single giant novel.

I continue to read lots of other fiction and non-fiction contemporaneously.

I expect that I will continue to re-read the O'Brian canon.

Also on my re-read list:

* I have re-read another canon - the complete and unabridged Sherlock Holmes stories and novels of Arthur Conan-Doyle - more times than I can recall, certainly more than ten.

Some other books with at least 3 reads:

* Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, Robot novels and many short stories.
* Frank Herbert's Dune hexology (Yes, the first is the best, but they are all good).
* many by Robert Heinlein: Have Space Suit - Will Travel, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land

Movies:

* 2001 - A Space Odyssey, >= 5X
* Bladerunner - >= 5X
* American Beauty, 3X
* The Deer Hunter, 3X

Television:

* The Rockford Files
* Hill Street Blues
* Homicide: Life on the Street
* Just Shoot Me

Mark

Pittsburgh, PA

Yes

Why must we pick a favorite? I usually refuse to pick ONE, but the book that comes to mind most readily is To Kill a Mockingbird. I'd read it in high school, then probably 15 years later, and then about 10 years after that when my son read it in middles school. Another was Wuthering Heights, which I discovered after seeing Lawrence Olivier play Heathcliff in the movie when I was 13 at a slumber party. He was gorgeous! I read it again in my 20s, and loved it more. On the third reading, in my 40s, I tired of the brooding, though I still loved the writing. Just don't think I'll read that one again. Dickens is also great to reread--he gets alternately funnier and more bitingly serious each time.

Sue

Takoma Park, MD

No

p.s. about Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid. There is a great chapter called "Columbus in Chains," where the author (and the preteenage girl main character) are turning interpretation of history on its head a bit. It's funny too.

http://yumerism.wikispaces.com/file/view/columbus+in+chains.pdf

sara

Brentwood MD

No

I'm like Kurt - feel the tug so often of books I haven't yet read - that I rarely reread books. Sometimes I regret it hough and Ann Fadiman's works rang true, especially her father's admonition that you see more of yourself every time you re-read a book.

There is one book I've re-read multiple times - The Dairy of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. When I was Anne's age and I read it, I identified strongly with her. As the years passed, with every re-reading (or re-reading of a part of it), I became more understanding of her parents and saw the situation very differently from how it had affected me as a pre-teen.

Laura

Washington, DC

No

Not often, but I keep the ones I know I might want to reread. Occasionally I give up a book and then have to reacquire it-- example, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
The book I've reread the most is Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John (novel), because I used to teach it in a freshman composition class at Howard University. It wasn't yet really well known and students were unlikely to find papers to plagiarize from -- that's part of the reason I kept teaching it. But the more I read it, the more I loved it!
The movies I rewatched the most are Harold and Maude and Chuck and Buck. But I guess I'm not as much of a movie rewatcher.

sara

Brentwood MD

Yes

I have read Moby Dick 5 times in my life. Roughly once each decade. Each reading brings new insights into myself, Melville, others , and literature. I love that book and read the whole thing aloud to my wife while visiting her comatose mother. Now she loves it too. I will read it again in four years.

Stu

Lancaster PA

No

I am not OFTEN a rereader, but I am OCCASIONALLY a rereader, meaning of select works. I've read "War and Peace" and also "Brothers Karamazov" multiple times and always slowly. It's in so doing that the actual humor embedded in these works is ever the more evident. My slow readings of familiar works are very precious to me.

Jennifer

Eugene, OR

Yes

Books: some I read when I was young, & reading them again yrs. later is akin to reading something for 1st time. But even closely-spaced (in time) re-reads reveals an entirely new experience. In fact, I don't consider the act to be "re-reading"; each is a read. Proust, Joyce, Dostoyevsky - how can you only read them once?!
Movies: just as I go back to art museums/galleries over & over, film demands multiple views. "Tree of the Wooden Clog" & "The Big Sleep" & "Les Enfants du Paradis" I these 3 films alone I've watched perhaps 100 times.

Kevin

D.C.

Yes

I've probably read "We the Living" by Ayn Rand 15 times. I love to reread good books that I, for some reason or other, seem to connect with.

Jessica

Washington, DC

No

I am an avid, but slow reader. I have been working my way through the "Classics" with a friend from junior college for the past 14 years! I also belong to a book club. There are so many books I still wish to read that I rarely re-read even my favorites. I have accumulated an extensive library, however, and am a frequent patron of my county library -- no e-books for me, thank you -- so they are always close at hand.

DeeDee

Goshen, NJ

Yes

I reread some books for a couple of reasons:
- If it's a book I love, the words and the story are a comfort to me.
-Like what was mentioned, I pick up different details the 2nd and 3rd time around. Also, if it's been a long time since I've last read the book (5-10 years) my own experiences have changed the way I interpret the book. I love rereading something I read in high school or college, just to see if I've changed my mind about it.

Anne

Philadelphia

Yes

I rewatch movies frequently, but re-read book much less so. With regard to books, I can count on two hands the books that I have reread: The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, each of Jane Austen's six novels, and "The Great Gatsby." Rereading (1) takes much more time than rewatching a movie and (2) there are always new books I'd like to read. And, like Kurt, I'm a slow reader.

I do rewatch movies very frequently. My record is "Brokeback Mountain" (18 times and counting), followed closely by "The Wizard of Oz," "Cabaret," "The Big Sleep," "Ruthless People," and "The Philadelphia Story." I've rewatched most of the film versions of Jane Austen's novels many times as well.

I agree with Anne Fadiman that I don't get much "new" out of rereading a book; I've reread them mostly just to enjoy them again. I find, however, that I often "get" more on rewatching a movie many times--more nuance, new character insights, and a better appreciation of the director's skills.

Scott

Philadelphia, PA