What Book to you read again and again?

[dycer]

There is an ongoing Thread about "Which WW1 Book are you reading?"

But which Book do you never tire of reading?

Mine are the "History of the 8th Royal Scots in the European War",bought by my Father,in 1919,in remembrance of his Brothers but never given to me to read,whilst he was alive.

Also "Covenant with Death" by John Harris.A Book my Father purchased via the Readers Digest but is now lost.I "enjoyed" reading it at the time and kept rereading it but did not appreciate that my Mother would take my throwaway line to dispose of Books,in the House,so literally.

She did,however,save the fly-leaf from the Victorian Family Bible,which gives me basic information regarding the Names,Dates of Birth, Marriage and Death of my Fathers Forebears,whom I could research if I was so inclined and a Book her Mother "won" as a prize,for winning a Sunday School Competition.

My Father was born 1900 and my Mother 1916.

George

[nthornton1979]

Mine has to be 'Storm of Steel' by Ernst Junger... I've read it dozens of times over the past 10-12 years. There's just something about it !

Neil

[John_Hartley]

Over the last 18 months or so, the book I've read and reread is the "6th Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, in the Great War - Not a Rotter in the Lot".

A title almost as long as the book.

Linky link

[museumtom]

Deaths Men,by Henry Winter

[Moonraker]

I've just started re-reading yet again the Three Musketeers books, five in all, having discovered some Victorian or Edwardian editions of them in the family bookcase when I was about 11 years old. I'm surprised I persevered at that age, because the text is small and the English translation makes for quite heavy reading, with lots of allusions that might have meant something when Dumas wrote them, a number of figures of speech (presumably) left in French and some archaic usage of English words. I'm tempted to see what a modern translation reads like.

And there are quite a few plot holes, certainly in The Three Musketeersitself. At one point D'Artagnan's servant, Planchet, is recovering in London after an arduous journey with his master, D'Artagnan returns to France alone, and a few pages later Planchet is also back home, how we are not told.

But I enjoyed the re-read. I recall that the sequels are OK as well, though Louise de la Valiereis a bit stodgy in places.

Moonraker

[caylpso1]

Birdsong/Sebastian faulks ive read it twice i might pick it up again

Brian

[nthornton1979]

Birdsong/Sebastian faulks ive read it twice i might pick it up again

Brian

A quality book 1

I've read that a few times aswell.

Neil

[Nigel Marshall]

I read numerous copies of Martin Middlebrook's The First Day on the Somme until they fell to pieces.

I did the same with all Lyn MacDonald's books.

I'm now working on replacing the failing paperbacks with hard backs where I can find them.

Cheers,

Nigel

[dycer]

I caught some snippet,on the BBC,that "The Famous Five" written by Enid Blyton have been updated,into current English,but the original plots have not been lost so that the current generation can enjoy them.

I enjoy a modern read e.g. Cussler,Archer and Forsyth and their intuitive,forward looking suggestions,or historical reality but will they stand the test of time,as compared to a WW1 Battalion History,written,shortly after the First War ended?

George

[SiegeGunner]

The War the Infantry Knew, which never fails to deliver something new at every reading.

[SiegeGunner]

Over the last 18 months or so, the book I've read and reread is the "6th Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, in the Great War - Not a Rotter in the Lot".

A very wise choice, John, and no doubt doubly satisfying for having the rare privilege of being able to change anything you didn't like in it ...

[truthergw]

I'm not sure if this qualifies as re-read but I return again and again to the Official Histories of the years in which I have a particular interest.

[David B]

Don't think I have ever read a WW1 book more than once, but then use them for reference. I want to read them all but when you get on a bit you think there is not enough time left

Probably the only warrie that I have read more than once is one by G-Capt James Pelly-Fry DSO called "Heavenly Days' which is an account of his time in the RAF prior

to WW2 and many years after.

David

[auchonvillerssomme]

Not WW1 although I do re-read a few but my book of choice is Solzhenitsyn's 'One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' a book to remind us of why we should value our freedoms. Probably the first proper grown up book I read aged about 14. I usually read it in the summer while laying in the sun with a cold beer and it can still send shivers down the spine.

[Steven Broomfield]

I'm very fond of The Diary of a Nobody, with it's ineffable ability to puncture the pomposity of everyday life, yet with an inherent respect for the ultimate goodness of the central character. There's a bit of Mr Pooter in all of us, I think.

Three Men in a Boat, too, is one I often re-read, as is The Card (Arnold Bennett), which must be one of the funniest boks in the English language, and - with it's last paragraph - a summation of my view of life.

Wisden, too, gets a hammering.

[T8HANTS]

'Old Soldiers never Die' by Frank Richards. As a young teenager I bought a secondhand War Economy (WW2)production standard paperback copy, its very frail now, but it is my favourite by a country mile.

Gareth

[27thBN]

Lyn MacDonald's "They called it Passchendaele " get book about once a year i re read it

Cheers

[Len Trim]

Richard Holmes' Riding the Retreat' has had a few reads. I like the mixture of historical facts and figures and also the fact that they are so obviously having a good time, meals wine etc. while retracing the footsteps of the BEF.

Len

[nthornton1979]

Lyn MacDonald's "They called it Passchendaele " get book about once a year i re read it

Cheers

All Lyn MacDonald's books are great and definitel re-readable. I've read them many times.....

Neil

[Piorun]

The Light That Failed - Rudyard Kipling

[Pighills]

I don't read any book more than once (but do refer back to them at times).

I tried several times over the years to re-read books (and watch films again) but I just get restless with them and can't work up the enthusiasm for it. I guess it's because I already know the ending.

I do wish I could enjoy re-reading things, I know you can pick up on things you may have missed the first time, I just have to make sure what I do read, I read very carefully!

[Bernard_Lewis]

'The Washing of the Spears' by James R. Morris (Zulu war) is one that I've read several times. Superbly written and for many years the standard account.

Bernard

[Krithia]

Over the last 18 months or so, the book I've read and reread is the "6th Battalion, the Manchester Regiment, in the Great War - Not a Rotter in the Lot".

A title almost as long as the book.

Linky link

Hey John, when is the book out? Is there much on the Gallipoli part the 6th Manchesters played?

Rgs Krithia

[trenchtrotter]

Alistair Hornes...Price Of Glory, Verdun 1916. Fantastic and most memorable time I read it I was staying at a now defunct hotel at the foot of the Montfaucon Hill in the Argonne visiting Verdun.

TT

[Muerrisch]

'The Washing of the Spears' by James R. Morris (Zulu war) is one that I've read several times. Superbly written and for many years the standard account.

Bernard

A rattling good read, but subsequently trashed re. Isandhlwana and Rorke's Drift by proper historians FWD Jackson and Lt-Col M Snook.