I’m trying to put in a big day of writing here before we depart for Vancouver, and so I’m taking a break (?) from writing articles to write this right now. Weird, right? But I do start to fatigue with the focus of journalistic Web writing after a little while, and I feel like I need a break in between each article as I churn them out, hopefully a few more today before my brain begins the inevitable meltdown toward wordlessness and I cease to be coherent enough any longer.

So, I’ve been thinking about books lately, which isn’t unusual, because I’m a lifelong bookworm, and I read every night and almost every morning, plus sometimes other times of the day as well. Other people get hooked on video games (I could never play another one and not care) and movies or television shows (I do enjoy these but if I had to choose between them and books, well, they’d go too). I am hooked on books, and I always will be, even though I don’t often read books these days that really blow me away, probably because I’ve read so many books in my life at this point.

But that’s not what I want to talk about…I wanted to talk a little about the truly special books in my life—the ones that I’ve actually read more than once, and am likely to read more than once again in my life. There actually aren’t that many of them, when I try to think of them. Here’s my list I’ve come up with so far:

1. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy. Three readings so far, and it’s not in an effort to be impressive or worldly. This really is an amazing and captivating masterpiece of fiction, not boring in the least, except for the final 80 pages. The good news is that once you’ve read it once, you never need to feel obligated to read that boring diatribe at the end again.
2. Dune, by Frank Herbert. Countless readings already. By far the best science-fiction book I’ve ever read, Herbert created an incredible alternate reality that’s completely absorbing and believable. I have to go back and live there ever so often, just to remember how amazing it is.
3. Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. I haven’t read this in a long time, but it has to be on the list because I probably read it at least 100 times as kid/young person. If I get a copy again, I’ll read it again. It’s a story of a boy and his dogs, and it’s probably the best one you’ll ever read.
4. The Girl with the Silver Eyes, by Willo Davis Roberts. Like Where the Red Fern Grows, I read this book countless times as a kid. I found it a few years back and read it again. It’s a kids’ book, but still a great book. Children with special powers like telekinesis who see how silly and inane the adult world is—doesn’t get much better than that.
5. Illusions: The Adventures of  Reluctant Messiah, by Richard Bach. I just found a copy of this while digging through my closet downstairs for something else. I remember picking this book up at my best friend’s house when I was 15 years old for my first encounter with it, and being blown away. I find it every bit as relevant now, 20 years later. Yes, it’s simple and straightforward, but it’s one of those books so full of quotable lines that I find myself just wanting to quote the whole book, or even better, to truly LIVE the quotes fully all of the time the way I’d like to. Example: “You are never given a wish without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.”

For now, that’s it—my short list of the books I’ve read time and again, probably the most times in my life. I can think of about five more that I could add, but I’ll leave it there for now. Most books I read once and never want to read again, even if they’re wonderful. It’s only the ones that for some reason resonate deeply within, in their recognition or grasp perhaps of something critical and universal about living this human experience and being such a creature, that I come back to time and again. It’s like visiting an old friend—there’s comfort and recognition, and you think you know exactly what to expect, but this time around, you might catch on to some subtle nuance or worthy perspective that you simply couldn’t grasp before because you just weren’t ready for it.