{"id":1743,"date":"2004-11-29T22:35:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-29T22:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=1743"},"modified":"2018-07-30T15:19:38","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T20:19:38","slug":"1743","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2004\/11\/29\/1743\/","title":{"rendered":"Twice Read"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hugh Hewitt <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hughhewitt.com\/#postid1142\" target=\"_new\">started it<\/a> when he said:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A modern novel worth reading twice is very hard to come by, at least for a reader like me, pressed for time and inclined to history and current events. I have been through Joseph Epstein&#8217;s two volumes of short stories twice &#8211;Golden Boys and Fabulous Small Jews&#8211; but that&#8217;s the limit on my short story rereading as well. (All of the collections of Epstein&#8217;s familiar essays are read and reread and reread by me and thousands of others.)<\/p>\n<p><center>. . .<\/center><\/p>\n<p>James Webb&#8217;s new book, Born Fighting, Elizabeth Kauffman Bush&#8217;s The First Frogman and The Lileks&#8217; Interior Desecrations are my trio of recommendations from among the &#8220;just published,&#8221; but I hope to get some guidance from the blogosphere on modern novels worth reading twice that I haven&#8217;t yet even read once.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Well, I can enumerate several novels I&#8217;ve read more than once, but I&#8217;m not sure how modern or applicable they are to what Hugh had in mind.  Here are some:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0451191153\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0451191153&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=11eeeeecf838d89e0d4a36d1120ba1a0\" target=\"_new\">The Fountainhead<\/i><\/a> by Ayn Rand.  Three times?  Four times?  I forget.  It&#8217;s back on my to-read shelf, though, since it&#8217;s been five years.\n<li><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0451191145\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0451191145&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=d035e163dee1a5a180d8fdfd02ab71ed\" target=\"_new\">Atlas Shrugged<\/a><\/i> by Ayn Rand.  Once or twice fewer than <i>The Fountainhead<\/i>, but still two or three times.\n<li><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1512092460\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=1512092460&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=555293032aceaa4275323fe43e798743\" target=\"_new\">Anthem<\/a><\/i> by Ayn Rand.  Twice, which is odd since it&#8217;s the shortest.\n<li>The Spenser novels, including <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0440129613\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0440129613&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=d5620db65fbda3eae38f5b372dad833b\" target=\"_new\">The Godwulf Manuscript<\/a><\/i>, by Robert B. Parker.  Many times each (except for the latest, of course).\n<li>The Philip Marlowe novels, including <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0394758285\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0394758285&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=4d4a7a22712326bece181ed8a0800ce5\" target=\"_new\">The Big Sleep<\/a><\/i>, by Raymond Chandler.  At least twice, once in high school and once when I got the complete collection in 1997.\n<li>The Travis McGee novels, including <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0812984080\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0812984080&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=f24d69d8982c962e0b1f801164038446\" target=\"_new\">The Empty Copper Sea<\/a><\/i>, by John D. MacDonald.  Most, if not all, at least twice: once in high school, and once when I acquired them.\n<li><i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/081298529X\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=081298529X&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=fdbc528128957249ac6bed1a62f8f6cf\" target=\"_new\">The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything<\/a><\/i> by John D. MacDonald.  A cool fantasy that I own and read in paperback and that I own and read as part of a collection.  Remember that this became a <a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0080792\/\" target=\"_new\">TV movie with Robert Hays<\/a>?  I remember it running several times in the 1980s, but I never saw it; just the promos for it.\n<li>The Lew Archer novels, including <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0375701451\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=0375701451&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=d7dc0c83df5a72f65678fa213838b101\" target=\"_new\">The Zebra-Striped Hearse<\/a><\/i>, by Ross MacDonald.  Same as John D. MacDonald, I read these in high school and reread them as I acquired them.\n<li>The 87th Precinct novels, including <i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B00558UVMO\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=9325&#038;creativeASIN=B00558UVMO&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=stlbrianj-20&#038;linkId=cd0397f728d7da1b4a87018502a284de\" target=\"_new\">Kiss<\/a><\/i>, by Ed McBain.  I&#8217;ve read a number of these books twice and will continue to do so as I acquire them.\n<\/ul>\n<p>Wow, I guess that says a lot about what I like.  Modern?  Hmm, probably not, and certainly not high literary in the most self-important sense of the word.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what <a href=\"http:\/\/powerlineblog.com\/archives\/008754.php\" target=\"_new\">Powerline&#8217;s Deacon<\/a> has read twice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hugh Hewitt started it when he said: A modern novel worth reading twice is very hard to come by, at least for a reader like me, pressed for time and inclined to history and current events. I have been through Joseph Epstein&#8217;s two volumes of short stories twice &#8211;Golden Boys and Fabulous Small Jews&#8211; but [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1743"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20821,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1743\/revisions\/20821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}