Authors you read repeatedly

[fqgouvea]

Apart from the Bible…

Sayers (both Wimsey and the rest), Dante (thanks to Sayers), Tolkien, Gene Wolfe (really requires re-reading!), many mathematics books, Robert Jenson’s theological essays.

There are authors I have read through and enjoyed but that don’t seem to call so much for re-reading. Many more deserve re-reading, such as Trollope, but I haven’t finished reading them the first time!

[kelly41]

Emily Bronte wuthering heights is probably the one I've read the most times

[dneal]

@TSherbs - any favorites or some you would recommend? I read Frost primarily, and I have a like for haiku's that don't feel the need to follow the strict format but keep to the notion of simplicity.

@fqgouvea - RE: Gene Wolfe... Basically similar question as the one to TSherbs... Any specific recommendations from him?

[Ron Z]

Dante (thanks to Sayers)

I've heard that her translation of Dante is the best to read. I just reread Lewis' Surprised by Joy. I last read it my senior year of high school. What a difference being at the other end of life makes in how you see the book.

[fqgouvea]

@TSherbs - any favorites or some you would recommend? I read Frost primarily, and I have a like for haiku's that don't feel the need to follow the strict format but keep to the notion of simplicity.

@fqgouvea - RE: Gene Wolfe... Basically similar question as the one to TSherbs... Any specific recommendations from him?

I’m such a Wolfe fanboy that it’s tempting to say it’s all good. But certainly some things are more accessible, so let’s try.

For most readers the best place to start is The Book of the New Sun. This was four books originally, but these days it’s found in two volumes, called “Shadow and Claw” and “Sword and Citadel”. They are enjoyable on a first reading, but there are lots and lots of deeper layers.

For someone who really likes Greek mythology, there’s “Soldier of the Mist”, about a mercenary in the ancient world who has lost his short-term memory.

For someone who likes time travel stories, “Free Live Free” is fun.

Finally, if short stories are your thing, try “Stories from the Old Hotel”.

[fqgouvea]

Dante (thanks to Sayers)

I've heard that her translation of Dante is the best to read. I just reread Lewis' Surprised by Joy. I last read it my senior year of high school. What a difference being at the other end of life makes in how you see the book.

Sayers’ translation has the great virtues of being readable and not taking itself (and Dante) too seriously. Hollander is good too. I haven’t had the chance to try Esolen’s translation yet.

That said, my son, many years ago, decided to read Longfellow’s translation and claimed to enjoy it.

Whatever you do, the key thing is NOT to stop with the Inferno (which DLS, characteristically, calls “Hell”).

[Kaputnik]

There are some that I have read many times, but have not gone back to in some time. When I was young, I read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings repeatedly, then put it away for a decade or two. Took it out again before going to see the modern movies (which I thought were horrible, but that's another story), still enjoyed the books, but haven't read them again since.

I've read John Mortimer's Rumpole stories often, but again not in some time; I must go through them again. And I've been meaning to take out the Sherlock Holmes stories once more. I still have the complete collection of them that my father gave me some fifty years ago.

My favorite single novel, and one that I read from time to time, is Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. The theme, that the greatest sin is cowardice, seems very meaningful to me. I don't speak or read Russian, and the translation I first encountered, by Michael Glenny, is less complete, and apparently less accurate, than the one I found later by Burgin and O'Connor. But I still prefer the Glenny translation, which somehow seems more "alive" to me.

Every now and then I'll read some of Saki's short stories, or O. Henry's. I like G.K. Chesterton, but haven't read many of his essays. Even in his fiction, though, I enjoy his skill in making a case for his opinions, even when he fails to persuade me.

I return to the Kai Lung books of Ernest Bramah every few years. Since Dorothy Sayers is mentioned above, I think I first saw Kai Lung mentioned in her Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries.

And oh yes, how could I forget James Branch Cabell? Jurgen, Figures of Earth, Something about Eve, the Silver Stallion, all wonderful. He wrote some that weren't so wonderful also, but I'm surprised that he seems not to be widely known.

[TSherbs]

@TSherbs - any favorites or some you would recommend? I read Frost primarily, and I have a like for haiku's that don't feel the need to follow the strict format but keep to the notion of simplicity.

Maybe any of the Mountain Poets of China (for elemental simplicity)



Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

[dneal]

@TSherbs - any favorites or some you would recommend? I read Frost primarily, and I have a like for haiku's that don't feel the need to follow the strict format but keep to the notion of simplicity.

Maybe any of the Mountain Poets of China (for elemental simplicity)



Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

My intent not clear
an unexpected surprise
gratitude proffered

--edit--

So I was chuckling with the wife (who is a poet, which begs a digression to Emerson's frequent Thinker/Poet theme...) that my draft response was easily reworded to a haiku (admittedly mediocre, and getting the 5/7/5 format was completely accidental). Anyway, I really meant something along the lines of Kerouac's "American Haiku" (just a simple 3-line poem without the rules), but I realize I was not clear at all. It dawned on me during the chat that a haiku is something like David Shield's description of an aphorism in his book Reality Hunger:

“The aphorism is one of the earliest literary forms—the residue of complex thoughts filtered down to a single metaphor.”

There is a similarity with a haiku. Maybe that's why I like them almost as much as I like a good maxim/aphorism/etc...

[BoBo Olson]

Ring of Fire books, invented by Eric Flint.
A small dying W.Virginia mining town falls back from the year 2000 to 1632 in the middle of the 30 years war with out breaking a very, very, very valuable light bulb. I'd often said, I was going to study the 30 years War a bit....now I don't have too, was done for me by a committee of writers.

He wrote the first few by himself.....the fan mag, the Grantville Gazettes are fantastic on the whole, written by fans with good understanding of 1630's culture and history & industrial aspects of that era. The key to our civilization is sulfuric acid, and they were using the stuff under a different name in the 1630's. .....just in case you need to get into cannons, that is the place to get the nitty gritty. Water powered computers is a neat path we didn't have to take.

Some 27 of those books out. I've read half the first batch often....most of the 20 I have more than twice. Got to get the other 5 or 6. Only got 60 of the Gazettes, and some how they have 30 more. Intertwining short stories. If one buys pens and inks it cuts into book buying.
Go to www.Baen.com to get your electronic books, still reasonable prices....and the first book '1632' is free in their free library.

Lois McMasters Bejould, The Vor books, where a five foot, fragile boned hero has to make due with brains. The Warrior's Apprentice, I've read more than the 12 times I've read Huck Finn, or Stranger in a Strange Land.
She is a great author. I've read the Sharing Knife series of 4 books quite often. Being away from English language book stores, have fallen behind on the new books of the last 20 years. Got to go on line.....got to.

[BlkWhiteFilmPix]

The Joe Pickett series by C. J. Box.

William Kent Krueger's series of novels about Minnesota sheriff Corcoran O'Connor

John le Carré

The Jack Ryan Jr. series that Tom Clancy started before his passing. Writers who co-authored with Clancy continue the series.

Paper and audio versions of Wayne Dyer's books. He narrated many of his audio books.

[VertOlive]

Ohhh. Tolkien. Flannery O’Connor, Michael O’Brien whose Fr. Elijah was a turning point for me personally. Rilke and Neruda, both are poets. Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis; I read something from his four volumes daily. Also daily: Wheelock’s Latin.

Just a note: I love the Esolen translation of the Divine Comedy and the Heaney translation of Beowulf (he also did his own recording of Beowulf—excellent to my ear and can be heard on You Tube).

[VertOlive]

@TSherbs - any favorites or some you would recommend? I read Frost primarily, and I have a like for haiku's that don't feel the need to follow the strict format but keep to the notion of simplicity.

@fqgouvea - RE: Gene Wolfe... Basically similar question as the one to TSherbs... Any specific recommendations from him?

I know you didn’t ask me, but Pablo Neruda might be of interest.

[corgicoupe]

The "last book you read" topic got me to thinking about authors (or books) you read again. Now I'm not talking about the latest installment by a favorite, but those you have read and go back to. I usually read 3 or 4 books at a time - some variation of a new book (fiction and/or non), an old fiction revisited, and one or two compendiums of a "classic".

A few come to mind.

J.R.R. Tolkien and Robert E. Howard - Favorites since childhood. Tolkien's absurd level of detail and connections, and the stories themselves stand alone in the field; and I go through the books again every couple of years. The Silmarillion is my "go-to" usually. Howard, one of the earliest "pulp-fiction" writers always amazes me at how a young man in rural Texas could learn about other parts of the world and write so vividly you would think he had been there. The adventures of his El-Borak character in British-controlled Afghanistan proved to be an incredibly accurate depiction of the region and peoples.

Mark Twain - I'm a fan of his wit and curmudgeonly insight, and work through The Complete Mark Twain repeatedly. I have come to enjoy the short stories and speeches in particular, and am reminded of About Barbers once a month... as will any man who experiences the peculiar environment of the old-school barber shop.

Emerson - Another "complete" anthology of his essays, letters and other writings; my wife and I read his essays aloud to each other. Although criticized by his unorthodox style, there is a cadence - or "melody" - to his prose that is soothing once you find it. The words can wash over you like song lyrics you didn't quite catch, or are unsure of. You find new meaning, or things that you didn't pick up on each time. I've been reading him for over 30 years.

Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes - Short and profound thoughts to start your morning (although Watterson more often simply prompts a smile).

So, what authors do you find worth of a re-read; and why?

Candace Robb series called Owen Archer Mysteries, set in the 14th century

[TSherbs]

I know you didn’t ask me, but Pablo Neruda might be of interest.

oh yes. And Garcia Lorca. And Akhmatova.

[penwash]

The Darkwater Saga by Patrick W. Carr

... mind-bending... literally.