Maybe you’ve heard of C. S. Lewis. Some people consider him to have been a fairly smart man. A literary superhero, even, who once wrote, “An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only. . . . We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness” (from On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature).
I love C. S. Lewis. I love to read. And, because I’m a writer, I don’t want to be “unliterary.” But here comes a confession: I don’t often re-read books. Percentage-wise, at least. There are so many books I’ve yet to experience for the first time, ya know? Most years, I read 70-100 books, yet my to-be-read list keeps getting longer and longer—Oh, wretched man that I am!
However, over the years, there have been more than 70 books I’ve read more than once—some more than twice (indicated with an asterisk in the list below). That’s not counting picture books, which I’ve read numerous times to my children and grandchildren; those are too numerous to list. And also not counting the Bible, which I’ve read through many times, in numerous versions. So, while I’m sure I’ve forgotten some, the following are books I know I have read at least twice:
A Diary of Private Prayer (Baillie)*
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare)*
All’s Well That Ends Well (Shakespeare)
Ancient Prophets and Modern Problems (Brengle)*
Bird by Bird (Lamott)
Celebration of Discipline (Foster)
Guest of the Soul (Brengle)*
Hamlet (Shakespeare)*
Hand Me Another Brick (Swindoll)
Heart Talks on Holiness (Brengle)*
Helps to Holiness (Brengle)*
Henry V (Shakespeare)*
Hinds’ Feet on High Places (Hurnard)
How Green Was My Valley (Llewellyn)
In Shady Groves (Lehman)
Julius Caesar (Shakespeare)*
King Lear (Shakespeare)
Knowing God (Packer)*
Leadership Prayers (Kriegbaum)
Leap Over a Wall (Peterson)
Love’s Labours Lost (Shakespeare)*
Love Slaves (Brengle)*
Macbeth (Shakespeare)*
Mere Christianity (Lewis)*
Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)*
My Side of the Mountain (George)*
My Utmost for His Highest (Chambers)*
On Writing Well (Zinsser)*
Othello (Shakespeare)*
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Dillard)
Prayer: The Heart’s True Home (Foster)
Ragman and Other Cries of Faith (Wangerin)
Resurrection Life and Power (Brengle)*
Riders of the Purple Sage (Grey)
Robinson Crusoe (Defoe)*
Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare)*
Sit Walk Stand (Nee)*
Spiritual Leadership (Sanders)
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Twain)
The Call of the Wild (London)
The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (Smith)
The Chronicles of Narnia, 7 vol. (Lewis)
The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh (Milne)*
The Contemplative Pastor (Peterson)
The Daughter of Time (Tey)
The Divine Hours, 3 vol. (Tickle)*
The Elements of Style (Strunk/White)*
The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare)*
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (Cleary)*
The Pilgrim’s Progress (Bunyan)
The Pursuit of God (Tozer)*
The Screwtape Letters (Lewis)
The Soul-Winner’s Secret (Brengle)*
The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare)*
The Tempest (Shakespeare)*
The Way of Holiness (Brengle)*
The Way of the Heart (Nouwen)
The Way to Power and Poise (Jones)
The Writing Life (Dillard)*
Twelfth Night (Shakespeare)*
Walden (Thoreau)
When the Holy Ghost Is Come (Brengle)*
With Christ in the School of Prayer (Murray)*
So, how about you? Are you a re-reader? If so, what books have you read more than once? More than twice?
