June 14th, 2010 / 7:50 am
Snippets

What book do you most often re-read?

138 Comments

  1. isaac

      Either Mother Night by Vonnegut or Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

  2. Rich

      Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren.

  3. Paul

      If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff (illustrated by Felicia Bond)

  4. ce.

      _Collected Stories of Amy Hempel_ or _Letters to a Young Poet_ by Rilke

  5. Morningstar

      Moby-Dick, or maybe Gravity’s Rainbow at this point. Maybe The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien. One of those.

  6. Amy

      I reread Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters every June. Otherwise, Helen Humphreys’s The Lost Garden, Jeanne Marie Laskas’s Fifty Acres and a Poodle, and a handful of Joan Didion essays.

  7. davis

      alice in wonderland; native son; proust; naked lunch

  8. Pete Michael Smith

      every time i get stressed out, I read Watership Down, by RIchard Adams. The first chapter is so quiet and green; it’s like reading a landscape. That is, until shit hits the fan and fur starts flying.

  9. A.C. Ford

      The Giver by Lois Lowry. That book just struck a nerve when I was a kid and I go back to it for inspiration quite often.

  10. Schulyer Prinz

      Life: a User’s Manual/ Moby-Dick/ Suttree.

  11. amoo

      anything twain.

  12. Schulyer Prinz

      Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens/The Necessary Angel.

  13. samuel peter north

      shark attack

      where the sidewalk ends

      the things they carried

  14. alan

      Byron’s Don Juan, Kafka, Confederacy of Dunces

  15. Richard

      Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer – it puts me right into the mindset and vision of the neo-noir voice that I often write in. Similarly, I re-read All The Beautiful Sinners by Stephen Graham Jones almost as often, especially the opening scene.

  16. brandon walter

      collected works of billy the kid – michael ondaatje

  17. rk

      i have a few i get to every year or so: absolam, absolam/ moby dick/ confidence man/ swann’s way / blood meridian/ humboldt’s gift/ beckett’s three novels/ the loser

  18. Carl W.

      Something Happened – Joseph Heller

  19. Brendan Connell

      Fiction: Water Margin

      Non-Fiction: The Diamond Sutra

  20. ce.

      I got this as a Christmas gift about 7 years ago and haven’t gotten around to it. I suppose I should, eh?

  21. T-Wrecks

      Coming Through Slaughter by Ondaatje.
      Also, Bright Existence by Brenda Hillman.

  22. d

      Evasion by Anonymous.

  23. stephen

      The Catcher in the Rye

  24. Salvatore Pane

      Another vote for Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

  25. Sam J. Miller

      Something Wicked This Way Comes.
      Macbeth.

  26. spiky

      Lover, by Bertha Harris, the greatest surrealist radical lesbian novel I know. Or, when I’m unhappy, Daniel Pinkwater’s novels, like Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars; or Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson.

  27. Joseph Riippi

      The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, BIll Waterson

      The Collected Fiction, Borges

  28. Adam

      Blood Meridian. The language works as a sort of reset for me.

  29. marshall

      Sphere, Michael Crichton.

  30. eric

      Suttree.

  31. isaac

      Either Mother Night by Vonnegut or Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

  32. matt nelson

      the phantom tollboth

  33. Rich

      Chicago: City on the Make by Nelson Algren.

  34. Paul Cunningham

      If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff (illustrated by Felicia Bond)

  35. Amber

      Alice in Wonderland and Borges’ short stories.

  36. ce.

      _Collected Stories of Amy Hempel_ or _Letters to a Young Poet_ by Rilke

  37. Morningstar

      Moby-Dick, or maybe Gravity’s Rainbow at this point. Maybe The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien. One of those.

  38. sean

      Ficciones, Invisible Cities.

  39. Amy

      I reread Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters every June. Otherwise, Helen Humphreys’s The Lost Garden, Jeanne Marie Laskas’s Fifty Acres and a Poodle, and a handful of Joan Didion essays.

  40. Trey

      haven’t read it recently, but I’ve probably read Fahrenheit 451 like 20 times.

  41. Rebecca Loudon

      Stranger in a Strange Land

  42. davis

      alice in wonderland; native son; proust; naked lunch

  43. jak cardini

      Budget Travel Through Space and Time : Albert Goldbarth

  44. jak cardini

      Garbage : A.R. Ammons

  45. Pete Michael Smith

      every time i get stressed out, I read Watership Down, by RIchard Adams. The first chapter is so quiet and green; it’s like reading a landscape. That is, until shit hits the fan and fur starts flying.

  46. Kinetta

      Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins

  47. A.C. Ford

      The Giver by Lois Lowry. That book just struck a nerve when I was a kid and I go back to it for inspiration quite often.

  48. ryanchang

      american psycho and rules of attraction by bret easton ellis, kafka and chekhov stories

  49. Schulyer Prinz

      Life: a User’s Manual/ Moby-Dick/ Suttree.

  50. amoo

      anything twain.

  51. Schulyer Prinz

      Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens/The Necessary Angel.

  52. Kyle Minor

      Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson
      American Pastoral and Sabbath’s Theater, Philip Roth
      Break It Down, Lydia Davis
      Elegy for the Southern Drawl, Rodney Jones
      Babylon in a Jar, Andrew Hudgins
      Airships, Barry Hannah

  53. Michael Kimball

      The End of the Story, Lydia Davis

  54. samuel peter north

      shark attack

      where the sidewalk ends

      the things they carried

  55. jereme

      portable nietzsche is what i re-read the most.

      maybe a close second is my old used book of robert service poetry. he was a lonely dude.

  56. alan

      Byron’s Don Juan, Kafka, Confederacy of Dunces

  57. Richard

      Kiss Me, Judas by Will Christopher Baer – it puts me right into the mindset and vision of the neo-noir voice that I often write in. Similarly, I re-read All The Beautiful Sinners by Stephen Graham Jones almost as often, especially the opening scene.

  58. bleh

      Gass.

  59. brandon walter

      collected works of billy the kid – michael ondaatje

  60. rk

      i have a few i get to every year or so: absolam, absolam/ moby dick/ confidence man/ swann’s way / blood meridian/ humboldt’s gift/ beckett’s three novels/ the loser

  61. James Greer

      Pale Fire (Nabokov)
      The Rings of Saturn (Sebald)
      These Demented Lands (Warner)
      Le Jardin des Plantes (C. Simon)
      Mahu ou le matériau (Pinget)

  62. Carl W.

      Something Happened – Joseph Heller

  63. David

      Coming Through Slaughter is amazing. Especially that last page.

  64. Brendan Connell

      Fiction: Water Margin

      Non-Fiction: The Diamond Sutra

  65. ce.

      I got this as a Christmas gift about 7 years ago and haven’t gotten around to it. I suppose I should, eh?

  66. T-Wrecks

      Coming Through Slaughter by Ondaatje.
      Also, Bright Existence by Brenda Hillman.

  67. d

      Evasion by Anonymous.

  68. stephen

      The Catcher in the Rye

  69. Merzmensch

      Everything by Daniil Kharms

  70. Salvatore Pane

      Another vote for Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates.

  71. Sam J. Miller

      Something Wicked This Way Comes.
      Macbeth.

  72. jackie corley

      the great gatsby
      i’m boring

  73. spiky

      Lover, by Bertha Harris, the greatest surrealist radical lesbian novel I know. Or, when I’m unhappy, Daniel Pinkwater’s novels, like Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars; or Finn Family Moomintroll, by Tove Jansson.

  74. Joseph Riippi

      The Complete Calvin and Hobbes, BIll Waterson

      The Collected Fiction, Borges

  75. Guest

      Blood Meridian. The language works as a sort of reset for me.

  76. Guest

      Sphere, Michael Crichton.

  77. Matt

      Jesus’s Son is the book I’ve read the most times– Once a year since I found it, with parts in between. I’ve read so much I almost can’t really read it– It just goes through me enjoyably, like an album you’ve listened to so many times that you put it on and its over before you know it.

  78. eric

      Suttree.

  79. Dan Wickett

      Animal Farm

  80. a quiet mile

      the phantom tollboth

  81. michael

      dubliners, airships, stu dybek’s childhood and other neighborhoods, dfw’s brief interviews w/ hideous men are like the 4 cds that never come out of the 6 cd changer

  82. demi-puppet

      infinite jest, essential works of emerson

  83. Amber

      Alice in Wonderland and Borges’ short stories.

  84. sean

      Ficciones, Invisible Cities.

  85. Trey

      haven’t read it recently, but I’ve probably read Fahrenheit 451 like 20 times.

  86. Rebecca Loudon

      Stranger in a Strange Land

  87. jak cardini

      Budget Travel Through Space and Time : Albert Goldbarth

  88. jak cardini

      Garbage : A.R. Ammons

  89. Kinetta

      Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins

  90. ryan chang

      american psycho and rules of attraction by bret easton ellis, kafka and chekhov stories

  91. Kyle Minor

      Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson
      American Pastoral and Sabbath’s Theater, Philip Roth
      Break It Down, Lydia Davis
      Elegy for the Southern Drawl, Rodney Jones
      Babylon in a Jar, Andrew Hudgins
      Airships, Barry Hannah

  92. Michael Kimball

      The End of the Story, Lydia Davis

  93. jereme

      portable nietzsche is what i re-read the most.

      maybe a close second is my old used book of robert service poetry. he was a lonely dude.

  94. bleh

      Gass.

  95. James Greer

      Pale Fire (Nabokov)
      The Rings of Saturn (Sebald)
      These Demented Lands (Warner)
      Le Jardin des Plantes (C. Simon)
      Mahu ou le matériau (Pinget)

  96. David

      Coming Through Slaughter is amazing. Especially that last page.

  97. Merzmensch

      Everything by Daniil Kharms

  98. jackie corley

      the great gatsby
      i’m boring

  99. alan

      have you committed it to memory?

  100. Matt

      Jesus’s Son is the book I’ve read the most times– Once a year since I found it, with parts in between. I’ve read so much I almost can’t really read it– It just goes through me enjoyably, like an album you’ve listened to so many times that you put it on and its over before you know it.

  101. Dan Wickett

      Animal Farm

  102. Emily Lloyd

      Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

  103. michael

      dubliners, airships, stu dybek’s childhood and other neighborhoods, dfw’s brief interviews w/ hideous men are like the 4 cds that never come out of the 6 cd changer

  104. demi-puppet

      infinite jest, essential works of emerson

  105. Sean K

      hi-five, was gonna say IJ & Walden. DFW’s work feels like it somehow is related to HDT, RWE’s writing. Have read only a pinch of Emerson, now feel compelled to read more.

  106. demi-puppet

      I agree, it does feel like there are strange connections. Did DFW ever even mention the transcendentalists? I’m not recalling anything. . .

  107. mimi

      Glad to see Coming Through Slaughter getting some props.

  108. mimi

      The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
      Jazz by Toni Morrison
      As I Lay Dying
      Nine Stories
      Flannery O’Connor’s short stories

  109. alan

      have you committed it to memory?

  110. Emily Lloyd

      Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

  111. sasha fletcher

      it’s good.

  112. Sean K

      hi-five, was gonna say IJ & Walden. DFW’s work feels like it somehow is related to HDT, RWE’s writing. Have read only a pinch of Emerson, now feel compelled to read more.

  113. demi-puppet

      I agree, it does feel like there are strange connections. Did DFW ever even mention the transcendentalists? I’m not recalling anything. . .

  114. Janey Smith

      Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of The Twentieth Century, Greil Marcus; On The Genealogy Of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche.

  115. mimi

      Glad to see Coming Through Slaughter getting some props.

  116. mimi

      The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
      Jazz by Toni Morrison
      As I Lay Dying
      Nine Stories
      Flannery O’Connor’s short stories

  117. jenniferstohlmann

      Do you remember when you told lies about taking baths and getting stabbed? We all stared at you and it was exactly like your list.

  118. jenniferstohlmann

      Autobiography of Red and Nomina from my big-girl life.
      Dancing on the Edge and Phantom Tollbooth from my little-girl life.

  119. ryanchang

      hehehe. it was an ‘in-class exercise’ as i recall

  120. jenniferstohlmann

      I think it was a getting-to-know-you/look-how-much-writers-love-to-lie first day of class shindig. And now here we are thread-jacking.

  121. Kevin Spaide

      Grace Paley
      The Member of the Wedding – Carson McCullers
      The Sun Also Rises – never get tired of that for some reason
      The Third Policeman

  122. sasha fletcher

      it’s good.

  123. Amy

      Oh, good one! That’s absolute bad-day-comfort material right there.

  124. Janey Smith

      Lipstick Traces: A Secret History Of The Twentieth Century, Greil Marcus; On The Genealogy Of Morals, Friedrich Nietzsche.

  125. jenniferstohlmann

      Do you remember when you told lies about taking baths and getting stabbed? We all stared at you and it was exactly like your list.

  126. jenniferstohlmann

      Autobiography of Red and Nomina from my big-girl life.
      Dancing on the Edge and Phantom Tollbooth from my little-girl life.

  127. ryan chang

      hehehe. it was an ‘in-class exercise’ as i recall

  128. jenniferstohlmann

      I think it was a getting-to-know-you/look-how-much-writers-love-to-lie first day of class shindig. And now here we are thread-jacking.

  129. Kevin Spaide

      Grace Paley
      The Member of the Wedding – Carson McCullers
      The Sun Also Rises – never get tired of that for some reason
      The Third Policeman

  130. Amy

      Oh, good one! That’s absolute bad-day-comfort material right there.

  131. Kevin O'Neill

      Lorrie Moore: Like Life.
      Jimmy Corrigan.
      Richard Yates shorts.
      Ballard: Atrocity Exhibition.

  132. Kevin O'Neill

      Lorrie Moore: Like Life.
      Jimmy Corrigan.
      Richard Yates shorts.
      Ballard: Atrocity Exhibition.

  133. Scottie

      Fight Club, I used to reread Rich Dad, Poor Dad over and over as a kid

  134. Scottie

      Fight Club, I used to reread Rich Dad, Poor Dad over and over as a kid

  135. Richard

      nice, i like you rebecca

  136. Richard

      i’ll echo JS, must have read that 5 times? 10?

  137. Richard

      nice, i like you rebecca

  138. Richard

      i’ll echo JS, must have read that 5 times? 10?