Readers - what is your "go to" book?

The one you've had on your bookshelf forever, the one that when you don't have time to go to the library or bookstore (or even just because) that you'll re-read over and over.

I have several, but my main picks are The Stand by Stephen King, and all the Earth's Children books by Jean Auel.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.  For a while there, I made a point of reading it once a year or so.

Not Wanted on the Voyage
Famous Last Words
The Sun Also Rises
The Great Gatsby

books i want to read again:
Prodigal Summer
The Poisonwood Bible
Pilgrim
The Robber Bride

okay, i could go on indefinitely.  good books are like old friends; always a pleasure to visit ;)

The Chronicles of Narnia books by C.S. Lewis. I've have my collection since I was a kid. The movies are great (Books 2 and 4) but you really have to experience the story telling in the books to get the full effect.  Sometimes I chuckle out loud at the sarcasm inflected in parentheses. I think I've read them about 20 times.

I also have several.

Including "Soul Music" by Terry Pratchett

Anything by Jostein Gaarder, but especially Sophie's World and A Solitaire Mystery

I must be the exception, but I can't stand to read a book twice. I already know how it turns out and get bored reading any book more than once, besides there are so many books out there I don't want to waste my time reading one over and over.

Wheel of Time series

Julie Garwood

Lisa Kleypas

Diana Gabaldon

To Kill a Mockingbird

and so many more that I read over and over.

The Handmaid's Tale

Middlesex

I need to reread the Dark Tower series ASAP.

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Power Broker by Robert Caro

The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

2009 Rand McNally Road Atlas (I'm always planning a road trip to somewhere)

HK - I just discovered Terry Pratchett, but my library doesn't have many of them, I have to request them from another branch.  Which ones do you recommend first?  I've read Thud, Moving Pictures and the pied piper one (can't remember the name).

emily - I'm re-reading the Dark Tower right now - that's what prompted this post!  I wasn't sure if I wanted too though, I'm still mad about the ending.

Original Post by r4eboxer:

I must be the exception, but I can't stand to read a book twice. I already know how it turns out and get bored reading any book more than once, besides there are so many books out there I don't want to waste my time reading one over and over.

 You know what I do? When I get to a boring part, I skim over it. Then the next time I read the book I find something new!

• Anything by : Terry Brooks
• Tom Clancy
• JRR Tolkin
• anything about us history
• Tony Hilerman
• Tracy Hickman/Margaret Wies

 "Through the Eyes of the Dragon" By Steven King. Read it when I was 7, and loved it. It really started the "fantasy" genere for me. Oh, and any book in the Shannara series

Original Post by thmheh:

emily - I'm re-reading the Dark Tower right now - that's what prompted this post!  I wasn't sure if I wanted too though, I'm still mad about the ending.

 There's so much controversy over the ending! In my mind, it really couldn't have ended any other way. Plus, SK always says that the series wrote itself and he just was the middleman in the process, so we can't be too mad at him for the ending.

Stephen King's The Stand (I've read it 14 times) or the Harry Potter series (all 7, in order).

Original Post by emilyd22222:

Original Post by thmheh:

emily - I'm re-reading the Dark Tower right now - that's what prompted this post!  I wasn't sure if I wanted too though, I'm still mad about the ending.

 There's so much controversy over the ending! In my mind, it really couldn't have ended any other way. Plus, SK always says that the series wrote itself and he just was the middleman in the process, so we can't be too mad at him for the ending.

 Just adding - I was mad at the ending, too, but what an awesome series!

Steppenwolf - Hermann Hesse

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Swan Song by Robert McCammon & The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

The Invisible Pyramid and The Immense Journey by Loren Eisley, both are about our relationship to the natural world and natural history.

The Outermost House by Henry Bester, about a man's experience living alone on a beach in the early 20th century. 

The Overloaded Ark, and My Family and Other Wild Animals I have Known, by Gerald Durrell.  Whenever I re-read these books I find some other tidbit that reaches me on a deep level, not to mention the humor he finds in life.

Original Post by yachtracer1977:

Stephen King's The Stand (I've read it 14 times) or the Harry Potter series (all 7, in order).

 I couldn't even count the # of times I've read the Stand  (and yes of course HP!)

No one else has read Clan of the Cave Bear and the rest???

Life After God by Douglas Coupland

the count of monte cristo and the entire harry potter book series... lame, i know  haha.