This Friday, as we continue munching on our Valentine Day’s bonbons, caramels, jelly bellies, chocolate-covered cherries, and gingerbread cookies, Katie wants to know…“What novel do you reread the most? And how often do you reread it?“

Ana reveals that “A lot of my rereading is for emotional comfort and to feel that “all’s right with the world”.

“Midway through my teens I discovered and fell in love with Dorothy L. Sayers’ charming, clever, and intelligent characters: Lord Peter Wimsey, Harriet Vane, the Dowager Duchess, and all of the rest. I took these friends all up to college with me and reread them during tumultuous times. Since then, I dip into Sayers’s books every year or so, especially on my birthday, because it’s a real gift to spend an hour or so with a great, clever old friend.

“It might seem strange that a murder mystery brings me comfort, but I am comforted by characters who search for the truth, reestablish justice in their community, and make the world right again.”

C.V. says “My favorite books to re-read are both by Jane Austen. 

“I love Pride & Prejudice and Persuasion. I read them every couple of years or watch the mini series or movies in between.”

Kathryn shares “I rarely re-read something.

“Unless I’m reviewing something for a book club presentation or other speaking engagement I tend to be on to the next thing. The book I want to reread is MIDDLEMARCH.  I read it several times in my twenties and still count it as my all time favorite novel.  But again, so much to read, so little time.”

Linda lets us know that “My first love was fantasy.

“I’ve reread Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonrider series many times. My copies of the first three books smell like wonderful old books now. The entire notion of bonding mentally for life with a flying dragon captivated me. That relationship inspired my flying horse books. In those books, it’s flying horses instead of dragons, and no mental bond, but the relationship between a horse and its rider is still deep, exclusive, and lifelong.”

And finally, Katie declares that “I have two: one is AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman.

“I read it when it first came out. I’d stumbled upon Neil Gaiman through his early novel STARDUST, fell in love with NEVERWHERE, and pushed GOOD OMENS upon every unsuspecting human I met. Like Gaiman, I had a passionate love of mythology as a child (mine was Ancient Egyptian mythology, whereas his seems to be Norse), and found AMERICAN GODS to be exceptionally clever. Later, when my father passed on, I found the concept of death (much of the discussion of death takes place with at a funeral home in Cairo, which functions under the auspices of the Egyptian gods of the dead) presented in Gaiman’s work to be far more comforting than the Catholic version that my father believed in. This leads to a much longer post on literature and spirituality, the effect of art vs. religion, and how art shapes empathy and understanding of the world around us. But, *ahem* another time.

“The OTHER book I reread frequently is DRAGON PRINCE by Melanie Rawn. It’s the first in a long fantasy series, but the first book has a market scene that I love. It reminds me of Christmas shopping, even though it doesn’t have any association with a festival in the book. The characters drink spiced tea, and shop, and gossip, and plot. It’s the point in the book where all the components have been laid out on the table, and the reader is about to discover how they all fit together.”