Nearly 80 percent of Britons will re-read a book for pleasure because they are fascinated by the story, or because they empathise with a character or it cheers them up, a survey has found.
The Harry Potter series is the most popular, but the classics feature strongly with Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and Charlotte Bronte’s “Jane Eyre” among the top 10.
Others include JRR Tolkien’s epic adventure books, George Orwell’s “1984″ and Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”.
Other reasons given for re-reading a book are that each read throws up something new, it is comforting and they haven’t found anything as good since their old favourite.
Some readers, 17 percent, have read the same book more than five times.
The survey by Costa, to mark their book awards, also showed nearly half, 43 percent, of those questioned in the survey said they will have decided whether to give up on a new book after the first chapter.
What books have you read more than once? And what made you return to it?
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8 comments so far
1) Lord of the Rings Trilofy - JRR Tolkein
- Posted by Diane2) Harry Potter series- JK Rowling
I read the Quran completely two to three times a year and have been doing this for the last 15 years.
- Posted by Astakhar MiahI have read the BIBLE about eight to nine times of the last 15 years along with a book titled “A Harmony fo the Four Goespels” a few times.
I
- Posted by David Phillips[...] Reuters also covers the survey. Thanks to Alert Janeites Nadine and Lisa for the links! [...]
- Posted by AustenBlog . . . she’s everywhere » Reading and re-reading JaneTHE JOY OF PI. PICKED IT UP IN A CHARITY SHOP AND COULDNT PUT IT DOWN. MIXED UP IN IT IS A VISION OF CREATION BUT IN HOW MANY DIMENSIONS AM TOTALLY LOST FOR FURTHER INSPIRATION. THERE WILL BE AS MANY DIGITS AS THERE ARE ATOMS IN THE UNIVERSE TO COMPLETE THIS RATIO OF CIRCUMFERENCE TO DIAMETER.
- Posted by GEORGE O'BRIENSteinbeck: A Life in Letters, twice for the luxury of his mind. Copies his wife and colleague gathered after his death.
Wordstruck, Robert MacNeil, for his elegance and talent in enabling visualization.
- Posted by Soozun[...] Reuters also covers the survey, but it got me thinking: which books are revisited the most by folk in business and why? [...]
- Posted by Web Design for ROI Blog » Blog Archive » Web Design for ROI: Most Read Book?I don’t live in London and the survey does not even apply as far as I’m concerned but I love books and have re-read quite a few:
- Posted by Diana NgilaThe Zanzibar Chest by Aidan Hartely,
The Man Who Ruled The World an autobiography on the late photojournalist Mohamed Amin,
The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseni,
The Zahir by Paulo Celo