Read Again Books

We were visiting friends up in Canada and much of the discussion was about books, movies and television shows. Somewhere during the conversation the subject of books that we feel compelled to re-read every so often. I know that I must read Stevenson's Treasure Island and Kipling's Kim every two or three years. Others don't beckon quite so often but the Conan tales of Robert E. Howard have been read several times and The Lord of the Rings is in that same category. The Fu Manchu novels of Sax Rohmer I've read at least twice and some three times. And Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore. That surely is a favorite only because I've walked all over Exmoor, where the book is set and I've been to Doone Valley, the evil home of the Doones and the farm where John Ridd lived and the church where he married Lorna. I've read it several times but I must admit that it's a long book. My friends mentioned their books that they must read again. Ashenden by Somerset Maugham surprised me. It's a book that I have always meant to read but never got around to. It's called the first spy novel but I'm not sure that Erskine Childers The Riddle of the Sands doesn't predate it. Another book mentioned was Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Surely that's a favorite of many. If you have a book you read over and over why don't you let me know.