Books I've Read At Least Three Times

In no particular order, but with some comments. Share yours in the comments section!

Moby Dick—Herman Melville
Completely different novel every time I read it

Blood Meridian
& The Border Trilogy—Cormac McCarthy
Third time Blood Meridian en español, which felt fitting

On The Road
The Dharma Bums
Desolation Angels—Jack Kerouac
OTR third time was in Spanish—also fitting. D.A. is not his best, not for everyone, though moments of beauty. D. B. is my fave.

Lord of the Rings—JRR Tolkien
All three times before my 21st b-day I think—not sure I'll ever read it again

Thus Spoke Zarathustra—Friedrich Nietzsche
I count this as a book/novel—I may have read Beyond Good and Evil 3X too, not sure, and probably The Nietzsche Reader too

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—Robert Pirsig
Not counting the 2X I tried and gave up before I got through it and loved it—needed to be older to appreciate it I think.

The Sun Also Rises
A Farewell To Arms
For Whom The Bell Tolls
All the short stories—Ernest Hemingway
and most everything else twice

Catch-22—Joseph Heller
The 3rd time it didn't feel as profound— I wonder if you need to be younger? not sure—will probably read again sometime.

Tao Te ching
or Dao De Jing—Lao Tzu
not a novel, not really poetry—philosophy

The Sutra of Hui Neng
also called The Platform Sutra

The Lover—Marguerite Duras
Third or fourth time in french! one of my goals! Again, not as profound now—maybe need to read when younger. But! Prepares the way for The North China Lover, which I just re-read for the second time. It's a re-telling of The Lover, only better.

Catcher in the Rye—JD Salinger
Everyone says this novel needs to be read when young, but still stands up. I just reread it 2018. It's so good. I think the people who don't like it (anymore) have grown up to become phonies.

The Republic—Plato
also Phaedrus

Slaughterhouse Five—Vonnegut
last time in spanish—not quite as fitting—translator didn't 'get' "so it goes"

1984—George Orwell
The dystopian novel that started it all. Surprisingly holds up, even with all our new technology. Just re-read it in 2018.

The Great Gatsby—F. Scott Fitzgerald
Last time in spanish, which worked ok.

The Lorax—Dr. Seuss
Probably others of his too, though this one for sure.

Desert Solitaire—Edward Abbey
Plus various essays, like "Down The River with Henry David Thoreau."

Walden—HD Thoreau
Everyone (or those who claim to not like him) thinks this is about becoming a hermit, but it's about living simply, or living more simply. His humor is underrated too.

The Stranger—Albert Camus
Troisième fois en français!

The Watchmen—Alan Moore

The Dark Knight Returns—Frank Miller

Post Office
Women
Factotum—
And almost everything else by Charles Bukowski including all his books of poetry. His best novel is probably Women. More than anything, his books critique capitalism, and work, and how they affect our relationships, including with ourselves. With humor. Satire, mostly of himself.

Historias del Kronen—José Ángel Mañas
Kind of the Spanish Trainspotting. My latest third-timer.

Now what are yours third-timer books? Please share in the comments section!

What I'm Reading: Moby Dick

This is maybe the fourth or fifth time I've read Moby-Dick, and I loved it all over again. It becomes a different novel each time I read it, mainly, I think, because I skip whole chapters (which is legal—it's not necessarily a linear book). That fact that it was a flop when it came out breaks my heart....

Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast

I was enjoying my summer, blissfully not following current events and not feeling I was missing anything...and then I picked up Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse from the library, and feel into deep despair. What to know what really happened in Iraq? Want to know how Republicans stole the 2000 and 2004 elections. Try this. Warning: may cause you to feel all is hopeless.

Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels

This week I re-read Jack Kerouac's Desolation Angels, because it's, in part, about his time as a fire lookout (see also the great book The Dharma Bums) and now that I'm a fire lookout, I wanted to re-see his experience.

Desolation Angels is a beautiful mess. With a little editing, it might've been a great book, and the key to enjoying it is to skip whole chapters, though you have to have read it once to know which ones to skip. Hint: the one on his baseball card game, the two on the trip to the racetracks, and the one in Mexico where he has sex with a young prostitute.

That said, the first section is amazing, in his full Buddhist prime. The second section is ok, as a good contrast to being up on a mountain. The second half of the book then devolves, though there are moments of glory, and we see glimpses of his writing process, and his thoughts on writing and art.

Worth the read. Again. This is my third time.

Teachings of the Buddha

Shambhala publishers has a great series of (very) pocket size collections, anything from the Dao De Jin to Emily Dickenson. Great for travel and backpacking.

I've brought The Teachings of The Buddha, edited by Jack Kornfield, with me this summer, an anthology of Buddhist sutras and writings by famous buddhists, like Dogen. Great to just pick something randomly, or, like I'm now doing, going through methodically from the beginning.

The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry edited by Rita Dove

One of my summer reads. Although Rita Dove was prevented from including some big names in poetry, like Sylvia Plath and Allen Ginsberg, whose works are apparently being held hostage by their publishers, the anthology is a great feast on known and previously-unknown treats. Open up to any page and be wow-ed.

American Earth: Environmental Writing Since Thoreau

This summer I'm reading American Earth, edited by Bill McKibben. I bought it a few years ago, and just dipped in and out of various essays, but now I'm going through all of them, which has been rewarding. It's a thorough, and huge, collection. Mostly essays, either personal or more scientific and formal, but also with some fiction excerpts, and some poems and song lyrics. Plus two sections of photos.

Don Quixote

This Summer I'm re-reading Don Quixote, the Edith Grossman translation. As my Spanish friend Roberto said, "If you're not laughing, you're not getting it."

Every chapter has some scene or dialogue that makes me laugh out loud. What helps me is to envision Don Quixote talking like King Arthur from The Holy Grail (which, that character was a nod to Don Quixote originally anyways).

It's a book that influenced so much literature, and movies, today. It's the original buddy story.