What Are the Most Re-Read Sci-Fi Books?

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“To me, re-reading my favorite books is like spending time with my best friends. I’d never be satisfied to limit myself to just one experience each with my favorite people.”—C.S. Lewis

Though there are hundreds, probably thousands of worthy books we will never have the time to read, at least not in this lifetime, many of us love to revisit old favorites. When asked why, readers often respond with something akin to what Lewis said. How many times have you heard a fellow reader say "it's like visiting an old friend?" How many times have you yourself uttered those words?

Last month, a Discover Sci-Fi reader in our Facebook group created a post asking, "what are your most reread science fiction books?" The post generated a lot of great conversation and the thread contained a list of many re-readable titles, and with a lot of those titles repeated, it got us wondering not only what our most reread books are individually, but what are they collectively? What are THE most reread sci-fi books? We figured a poll was a great way to find out!

We've kick-started this week's poll with some of the books we here at Discover Sci-Fi have read and reread (...and reread!) but if you don't see the ones you personally revisit over and over, please add them to the list. You can do that either here or in our Facebook group. Nominate and vote for as many as you'd like this round; we'll pin you down to one selection next week.

 


What Are the Most Re-Read Sci-Fi Books?
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34 replies
  1. John King
    John King says:

    Having just reread a lot of sci fi from my teenage years can I add:
    The Day of the Triffids – John Wyndham
    The Death of Grass – John Christopher
    The Furies – Keith Roberts
    The Island of Dr Moreau – H G Wells (still gives me sleepless nights!)

    Reply
  3. Darryl Manning
    Darryl Manning says:

    I first read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams in 1984 and have read the entire series so many times that I lost track. No other series entertained me as much as that one.

    Reply
  4. Gilles Deschamps
    Gilles Deschamps says:

    I would recommend Ender’s game by Scott Orson Card or Voyagers by Ben Bova. I’ve reread both several times. Ben Bova recently passed after a fantastic career

    Reply
  5. Donna Bayar Repsher
    Donna Bayar Repsher says:

    Would like to add a couple of other titles:

    The Robot Novels by Isaac Asimov
    What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
    I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
    Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson
    Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
    Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
    A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren
    The Wayward Pines Trilogy by Blake Crouch

    Reply
  6. Franklin Whitfield
    Franklin Whitfield says:

    One of my favourite authors, Carl Sagan [Cosmos, Part 11: The Persistence of Memory (1980)]” )wrote:

    “What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

    We are blessed by magic!

    Reply
  7. mark bussell
    mark bussell says:

    I’m surprised not to see two of my choices.
    Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series.
    Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule and the 2nd following, Stone of Tears.
    Goodkind fell off the rails in later stories with his rape fantasies, but it happens to the best including Jordan, who while not into horrific details, maintained a far better flow with his stories.

    Reply
  8. mark bussell
    mark bussell says:

    I’m embarrassed to admit I forgot major favorites I’ve read enough to re-post once more.
    The Magic of Recluce and it’s follow-up saga is Fantasy more than Sci-Fi but has a blending of the two, so reading the list shows more than the one Genre.
    And of course, In Fury Born by David Weber.
    He missed out on a great character for follow-up I would enjoy seeing.

    Reply
  10. Russ Ebenal
    Russ Ebenal says:

    By the wording of the question, the answer requires a statistical analysis of actual titles read around the world, in their entirety, not a simple listing or vote on individual, personal choices. Although these selections may be helpful in determining book popularity, they will not help determine an actual winner unless everyone in the world votes and does so totally accurately, and not based upon personal preferences or misconceptions, or cloudy memory.

    Reply
  11. Linda Carrigan-Deerfield
    Linda Carrigan-Deerfield says:

    A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle was the first scifi book I ever read and has been a favorite to reread over the last 4 decades! Next favorite would be the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey!

    Reply
    • Matthew Crockett
      Matthew Crockett says:

      I selected to add Pern to the list. I actually met and talked to Todd McCaffrey. I also loved the Ship Who Sang series she did.

      Reply
  12. Bonnie J Reeves
    Bonnie J Reeves says:

    Anything by Le Guin.
    Anything by McCaffrey (not just Pern butCrystal Singer trilogy, Ship who Sang, Tower and Hive series, Nimisha’s Ship).
    Remnant Population by Elizabeth Moon
    Nor Crystal Tears and For Love of Mother-Not – really all the Pip and Flinx from Alan Dean Foster.

    Reply
  14. Rick B.
    Rick B. says:

    Any Heinlein book. I have reread Starship Trooper and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress so many times the books are falling apart.

    Reply
  15. John M
    John M says:

    Dune by Frank Herbert, Old Mans War series by John Scalzi and The Expanse series by James S A Corey. Sci-Fi doesn’t get any better… does it?

    Reply
  20. Jeanne F. Hannum
    Jeanne F. Hannum says:

    I love the books about Miles Vorkosigan and the Penric books by Lois McMaster Bujold, and the
    Legend of Beka Cooper and her other books set in Tortall by Tamora Pierce. I also try to reread Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant at least once a year.

    Reply
  21. Joe
    Joe says:

    Any Robert A. Heinlein, Harry Harrison, Frederik Pohl. Kurt Vonnegut, or L. Sprague de Camp, and and I will be lost to the outside world I read over over and enjoy as much as I did the first time.

    Reply
  22. Herb Haley
    Herb Haley says:

    I looked over the list and concluded that people think that watching the movie more than once counts as a book being reread.

    Reply
  24. Jack Tingle
    Jack Tingle says:

    You have Nathan Lowell’s Solar Clipper stories listed twice with two slightly different names. “Trader’s Tales” & “Golden Age” are roughly the same books. Trader’s Tales is a major subset of Golden Age.

    Reply
  25. Adam
    Adam says:

    Looked through the list and voted. Was surprised that 1984 wasn’t on it, so added it. Also surprised Atlas Shrugged also wasn’t on the list. Those two novels I know tend to get reread over and over. Other nominees surprised me; they may be personal favorites but don’t seem to be something reread other than by an particular individual even though they are good novels (Mote in God’s Eye for example).

    Reply
  26. Larry Banes
    Larry Banes says:

    Reread DUNE this winter and was surprised at how well it stood the test of time. The wealth of ideas here is enough to contemplate with several readings.
    Others worthy of rereading imho.
    Known Space series by David Niven
    Most any Heinlein (except the sequels to Stranger)
    Childe Cycle (Dorsai) by Gordon R. Dickson
    Cities in Flight series by James Blish
    Anything by Philip Jose Farmer (Riverworld)
    Most anything by Fritz Leiber (although he wrote some very enjoyable fantasy (Fafhrd and Grey Mouser)

    Reply

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