Some books are better the second time around. Plot details or character behaviors or Deep Thoughts that didn’t register the first time can sparkle during a second or third or fourth visit.
- Watership Down, by Richard Adams
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell
- Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (it wasn’t till the second reading that I noticed the zombies)
- Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë
- The Perry Bible Fellowship Almanack, by Nicholas Gurewitch
- The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling (both the individual books and the entire series improve upon re-reading)
- To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis
- The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
- The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
- The Witching Hour, by Anne Rice
Other favorites? Add them in the comments below!
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My second reading of Atonement by Ian McEwan was infinitely better than the first. Once you get through the story, the nuances of character and reality vs. fiction really become apparent.