10 Best books to read more than once

There’s nothing more comforting than curling up with a good book and losing yourself in the words within the pages, temporarily shutting out the trials and worries of the outside world. This experience is only improved when the story is familiar. 

We all have books that we love, those that we gravitate back to for different reasons at different stages of life. Maybe it’s nostalgia or a need to remind ourselves of the morals woven into the tales, but something is calming about a tale we know almost as well as our own. 

Even the most familiar stories can surprise us, though. As we grow and experience more of life, the words within the books we love can take on new meaning, or things that escaped our notice before can suddenly be glaringly obvious with a new perspective. Books are friends, but they can also be teachers. 

Here are 10 books that I always gravitate towards if I need something familiar and comforting to read. I believe everyone should read them more than once and compare their changing opinions with each re-read.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (I’m British, so writing ‘Sorcerer’s Stone’ just feels wrong to me) was published in 1997. I was six, and I can clearly remember feeling incredibly proud of myself for being able to read it (with help; I wasn’t a child genius or anything). I was instantly sucked into the Wizarding World and read every further book in the series within days of it being published. 

I’ve grown up a lot since then and been through a lot. While the writing seems almost childish to me now, and I can recognize that Rowling's concepts are mostly borrowed from other, more adult titles, something always pulls me back to the world of Harry Potter. The magic within can carry you through hard times, and it’s easy to escape into the Wizarding World when the real one feels a little too much to handle.

In a world where social media has people oversharing their deepest inner thoughts and CCTV captures the average person around 100 times a day, it can feel like we’re constantly being watched and judged. I’m not suggesting we live in the Big Brother state of 1984, but the concepts are still relevant, and perhaps even more so today than they were when Orwell penned them in 1949. 

Although 1984 is dystopian by nature, some themes ring a little too true as you get older. Winston and his job of rewriting history, because it doesn’t fit with Big Brother’s current ambitions, can be compared to the way that different countries speak of their past actions, and being a “thought criminal,” especially in the days of ever-present social media, is something we can all relate to. 

While I first dipped my toe into the world of fantasy with Harry Potter, it was The Lord of the Rings that really forced me to admit that I adored the genre. I was slightly older when I first read The Fellowship of the Ring, and it was then that I had to accept Rowling’s ideas were not original, but that only makes The Lord of the Rings trilogy more important to me. 

There are many concepts in The Lord of the Rings that are familiar to readers, but perhaps the most overarching of all is the idea of being thrust into a role that you wouldn’t have chosen, overcoming hardship, and learning to rely on those around you to help you. Sure, it’s a fantasy through and through, but there are a lot of important life lessons involved that we all need reminding of every so often. 

I’ve re-read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas many times, and I never truly appreciated the true meaning behind the words until I went to Las Vegas myself and vowed never to return. And that was without the drug-induced hallucinations experienced by Raoul and Gonzo. 

Admittedly, there aren’t any important life lessons to pick up from Fear and Loathing, aside from the should-be-obvious “don’t do drugs, kids” theme that soaks every page of the book. However, it’s thoroughly enjoyable, and even though it’s hard to follow at times, it’s almost comforting to read it and remember that however hard your day may have been, it could definitely be made worse with mescaline. 

Listening to the story of The Little Prince as a child, it’s easy to get swept away by the story and fall asleep to dream of a nonsensical planetary adventure. However, going back and reading The Little Prince as an adult can bring a new sense of understanding, aided by the perspective of life in the real world. 

Being a grown-up does tend to force the childlike wonder out of a person. We sadly forget what it’s like to think fanciful thoughts and instead focus on the more “important” things like work, money, and survival. As the popular indirect Peter Pan states: “Don’t grow up, it’s a trap!” While it’s hard, it’s just as important to keep that childlike side of yourself alive, and reading The Little Prince is a good way to remind yourself of that. 

I know, I know, but hear me out. A Christmas Carol may be a pretty time-restrained re-read unless you enjoy reading about snow and Christmas dinner during the hot summer months, but I’m including it on this list because it’s one of the books I’ve re-read the most. Every year, in fact, ahead of my annual re-watch of the Muppet movie version of the tale. I realize that’s a fairly personal reason to include it, but here we are. 

Outside of that, there’s an important lesson about living for more than just making money that permeates the entire tale, and that’s something we all need to hear frequently, especially when simply surviving is such an expensive task these days. How much you earned during your life will be forgotten as soon as you’re gone, but the way you touch the lives of the people around you? That’s your legacy. 

Watership Down might seem like an odd choice to include here, but if you look deeper within the tale of these little bunnies, there is an epic story of blind faith, survival, and, ultimately, the making of a hero. It’s as uplifting as it is terrifying, with the rabbits facing a conflict between tyranny and freedom as they try to escape the destruction of their burrow and find a better, more free home. 

Along the way, Fiver, Hazel, and the rest of the rabbits face death and destruction multiple times, learning the true ways of the world. In a way, it feels a bit like growing up and realizing that being an adult feels like a never-ending string of decisions that need to be made. Watership Down is a good way to reorient yourself, and it is always worth re-reading.

If I were counting how many times I’ve re-read each story on this list, Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is the clear-cut winner. Admittedly, it's not hard to do so, considering its short length (and the fact that I have a four-year-old who also enjoys it), but there are multiple reasons that this Dr. Seuss classic will always pull me back in. 

Sometimes, we all just need a little bit of inspiration to make us take a step forward when it feels like an impossible task. We might not always have time to consume a thousand-page epic tale, but we still need something to push us forward. One line from this Dr. Seuss story will always push me forward: “On and on you will hike, and I know you'll hike far, and face up to your problems, whatever they are.”

Less about life lessons and more about Shelley’s ability to suck you into her gothic world of science and horror, Frankenstein is a wonderful tale to re-read in the fall. I find it a little too easy to relate to the creature in this tale as he learns to avoid human contact for fear of judgment and his insatiable desire to learn everything he can from the world around him. 

There’s something infinitely enjoyable about a crackling fire, a cup of hot chocolate, a thick blanket weighing down your lap, and a copy of Frankenstein cracked open as the sun sets early in the evening. The only thing that could improve that picture is a cat curled up on your lap, but that part’s entirely optional. 

Every day, the news is filled with bad news and scaremongering. War is ravaging multiple countries as you read this, and megalomaniacs are battling to the death for control over corners of the planet. Pale Blue Dot is a reminder that all of it is, ultimately, pointless. Humans come and go, war never gets us anywhere, and the Earth will remain long after we’re all gone. 

That sounds incredibly depressing, I’m willing to admit, but Pale Blue Dot is an excellent reminder that it’s better to do something good with your limited time on the planet than it is to spend it battling for some self-imposed sense of self-importance. Earth is not the center of the universe; it’s merely a coincidence that everything came together to allow us to thrive, and we’re not exactly making the most of it.

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