Books Worth Re-Reading

My reading list acquires new titles at such a rapid rate that it is unusual for me to get around to re-reading books. Yet, there are books that are worth reading again. My list of books worth reading a second time takes into consideration several factors. A book worth re-reading should: 

1. Be well written. Prose should be succinct. The language should be clear. The author must capture the reader and not allow them to escape until the book is finished.

2. Make a unique contribution to its field. A history book worth returning to should present an event in a way or from an angle that is unparalleled in other works. A fiction book that is worthy of reading again should not follow the same pattern of ten other books on the shelf. 

3. Contain so much useful material that the reader cannot help but return to it again.

4. Be thoroughly enjoyable. If, while reading the book the first time, you wanted to tell everyone about what you were reading, that may mean that the book is worthy of a second go through.

5. Be particularly edifying. If I know the book is good for my soul, I’ll return to it.

I don’t think it’s necessary for a book to fall into all of these categories, but it should (for me) fall into at least one of these four. Readers may also give different weight to each of the categories. For instance, for a geek like myself, I prioritize the first three categories. For a person brimming with creativity like my wife, she’ll grab a cup of tea and return to a book that belongs to categories one and four.

Here is my initial list of books that I would like to re-read in the future (in no particular order):

Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen. Exactly ninety-years after its publication, Christianity and Liberalism speaks as clearly to the problems facing Christianity today as it did to the threat Machen was addressing in 1923.  

 

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I’ve read it twice. A Tale of Two Cities is a brilliant story of love, drama, sacrifice, and redemption. 

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. There is something compelling in this classic story of determined revenge.

Humility: True Greatness by C. J. Mahaney. This appears on the list because it falls under my fifth criterion. Pride is a nagging sin and so Humility is a book that I will return to. 

  

Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan. In J. I. Packer’s words, “I am still telling anyone who will listen that, whatever else they do, they should read both parts of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress once ever year.” A recommendation from J. I. Packer is a sixth category that I failed to include above. 

The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Tim Keller. Almost anything by Keller could stand on this list. 

  

True Sexual Morality: Recovering Biblical Standards for a Culture in Crisis by Daniel Hiembach. Hiembach’s book is loaded with vitally important, applicable content. I’ll return to this book more than once in order to begin mining its rich contribution to the field of sexual ethics.

Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin. Okay, so I’m not even done reading it through for the first time (I’m swimming in book two somewhere); regardless, the Institutes is one of the finest works of theology ever written.

 

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand. This was a thoroughly entertaining, hard-to-believe story of an American shot down over the Pacific Ocean during World War Two.

 

That’s the beginnings of my list. How about you? What makes a book re-readable for you? What books would you like to read again?