Quote:
Originally Posted by issybird
But it's the same bugaboo; will I actually reread it? As with the mysteries, rereading is something I rarely do anymore.
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There is a *lot* of stuff I want to read. Some books I've read over and over in the past, mainly because of the lack of physical space and money to buy new ones (during my university days). A few years ago when I got an e-reader, I've decided I'd start over.
I've bought ALL of my books as e-books, and started with the book that got me back into reading for pleasure in 2000: The Lord of the Rings.
(In between 1991 and 1999 I was in high school, and had to read about (edit:
10) books in Dutch, French, German and English each, and in the latter years 30 books in Dutch and English each... that was quite enough to read on top of homework and textbooks.)
Since then, I've been rereading everything I had in paper, alongside new stuff (I'm actually almost done), and I have decided that if a book I'm reading does not turn out to be an absolute favorite, there's only a small chance that I'll ever reread it. The chance of rereading a Fantasy series is becoming very slim... or it must turn out to be absolutely epic at the scale of Lord of the Rings.
At this time, I've only encountered very few books that I would put at this level:
Lord of the Rings (In comparison, I don't really like The Hobbit that much)
The Silmarillion
Shogun
Mushashi
Mutiny on the Bounty
A Christmas Carol
The first six Drizzt books
The Avatar Trilogy/Quintet
Stephen King's IT
I'm not going to waste any more time by rereading 'middle of the list' books.
For example, Eddings' The Belgariad and The Malloreon were quite good. The Elenium and The Tamuli were OK, but in a VERY similar vein, sharing many concepts. Fun reads, but not worth it to reread a third time.
Some fantasy series such as The Sword of Truth I might never even start, because the latter books get too many mediocre reviews and I dislike quitting a series in the middle.