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kuan
Sport climber
CA
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 27, 2006 - 03:49am PT
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I'm cleaning my apartment and putting some books away into storage. This is something I've been meaning to do for a while for the sake of freeing up shelfspace, but I just haven't gotten around to it. It's really so hard to do, since books are so much more than the pages they're written on. It reminds me of going through an old address book, and erasing the phone numbers of friends whom I no longer talk to, but have good memories of.
So I'm just curious. What are some books that you've read that you keep reading over and over again? And, if you feel like it, what is this book about? Why do you keep coming back to this book? Do you find yourself reading it at certain landmark times in your life, such as break ups, new beginnings, etc...
Since I'm putting mine away and going through them as I type this, I have several:
Watership Down, by Richard Adams
Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes
The Girls of Huntington House, by Blossom Elfman
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Giovanni's Room, by James Baldwin
The Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemingway
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Euroford
Trad climber
chicago
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Sep 27, 2006 - 07:40am PT
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enduring patagonia (why not climbing related?)
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SteveW
Trad climber
Denver, CO
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Sep 27, 2006 - 08:38am PT
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Anything by Terry Tempest Willams (no relation), but especially
The Open Space of Democracy. . .
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Aya
Uncategorizable climber
New York
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Sep 27, 2006 - 09:42am PT
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I have a whole bookshelf full of books I read over and over again - it's sort of the shelf of books I rotate through the bathroom...
But coming to mind as books in particular are the Lord of the Rings series, Little House on the Prairie and all of Roald Dahl's and John Bellairs' childrens books...
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paganmonkeyboy
Trad climber
the blighted lands of hatu
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Sep 27, 2006 - 09:55am PT
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Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins was always a fav of mine...
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Sep 27, 2006 - 10:26am PT
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They kept finding oil?
I've read Catch 22 about six times now. It is the masterpiece of 20th century American Lit. It's like an onion, layer after layer. First time I read it, it was the funniest book ever written. The last time I read it, it was the saddest.
"Help! Police!"
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Sep 27, 2006 - 10:33am PT
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Currently, more or less
Crime & Punishment F. Dostoyevsky
Neuromencer William Gibson
Snow Crash Neal Stephenson
Fierce Invalids home from hot Climates Robbins (sometimes JBP (as noted above)too
all the Clinton Mckinzie novels
It changes over time though, for decades The lord of the rings books were heavily in the rotation, may have read them 50 times in the last 36 years. Some things stay with you "Aragorn sped on up the hill..."
definite Heinlein, Asimov, Vonnegut, Burgess phases.
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Batrock
Trad climber
Burbank
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Sep 27, 2006 - 10:53am PT
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I'm pretty conservative and a Republican but I always come back to Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. I think his writing gritty and raw. I had always loved the mountains but in the past decade have come to love the desert even more and Abbey is partly responsible for that. Thanks Ed.
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sketchy
Trad climber
Vagrant
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Sep 27, 2006 - 10:53am PT
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Endurance, great for reminding me how good I have it.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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Sep 27, 2006 - 11:24am PT
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The Unbearable Lightness of Being Kundera
Love and Garbage Klima
The Stranger Camus
La Maladie de la Mort Duras
The Lorax Seuss
Love Story Seigal
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roslyn
Trad climber
washington
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Sep 27, 2006 - 11:28am PT
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jitterbug perfume is sitting beside my bed.............just about to start it again.
i'm a big dickens fan
tale of two cities
bleak house
oliver twist
bronte sisters too
jane eyre
wuthering heights
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WoodySt
Trad climber
Riverside
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Sep 27, 2006 - 11:31am PT
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Books by Joseph Conrad.
"The Magus" by John Fowles.
Shakespeare's tragedies.
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slobmonster
Trad climber
berkeley, ca
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Sep 27, 2006 - 11:33am PT
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Heart of Darkness
Oil Notes, by Rick Bass
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pissed
Trad climber
Lake Placid NY
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Sep 27, 2006 - 11:51am PT
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Its Not About The Bike - Lance
Rethinking Golf - Chuck Hogan
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Hootervillian
climber
the Hooterville World-Guardian
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Sep 27, 2006 - 12:03pm PT
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i'd say, Roth Portnoy's Complaint, but these days, with the internet, i can never get all the way through the dang thing.
anybody got a good liver and onions recipe?
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thedogfather
climber
Midwest
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Sep 27, 2006 - 12:05pm PT
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"Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman"
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
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kuan
Sport climber
CA
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 27, 2006 - 12:25pm PT
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Euroford, I meant this post is not climbing related. The book can be whatever.
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pFranzen
Boulder climber
Portland, OR
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Sep 27, 2006 - 12:25pm PT
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Snowcrash
The Fountainhead
1984
The Count of Monte Christo
100 Years of Solitude
Childhood's End
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dufas
Trad climber
san francisco
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Sep 27, 2006 - 12:28pm PT
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anything by Kesey
anything by Mailer
Tale of Two Cities
Gravity's Rainbow
McPhee's Geology Trilogy
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Sep 27, 2006 - 12:33pm PT
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fattrad, making that movie was doomed to failure from the start. That book was just too deep. If you'd never read the book it was probably OK.
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