I have reached a point where I read nearly everything I like twice. Three times, even. Talking about books here. I would rather go back and reexamine something I consumed a year ago, or decades ago, than take a chance on something new.

(Unless it comes with overwhelmingly enthusiastic recommendations from people I trust.)

I have decided this is not perverse.

Some authors are just so good they need a second reading to pick up everything that went on. To appreciate it.  Among TV shows, 30 Rock was like that. The League. So much dialogue jammed into 22 minutes; it was always better to watch 30 Rock on tape; to back it up to hear what, exactly, was said.

Authors I put in that category now the two best “spy” novelists of the past half-century. That would be John le Carre and Alan Furst.

I have read all but one of the Le Carre canon (he’s gotten boringly anti-American, in his old age), and the Karla Trilogy … I’ve read all of them at least three times.

I am in my third pass through Furst’s “Dark Star”, which I consider his best book and one of the best I have ever picked up. I have done the whole of his “Night Soldiers” books, all 12 of them, at least twice, with maybe one exception, which I likely will soon correct.

I have done all 20 of the Aubrey-Matarin series by Patrick O’Brian, and am on my second pass through, up to No. 9. The first few? Already three or four readings.

The Jack Reacher series: All of them at least once, most of them twice. And a new one just came out. (The best is when you don’t remember how it goes, at least for half the book; love that.)

Isaac Asimov’s (original) Foundation trilogy? Done that at least four times. Maybe six.

The all-timer remains The Lord of the Rings, which I have read from front to back (including the appendices) at least six times. Starting from when I was 12 year sold. I’ve read The Two Towers a dozen times.

And so on.

How does this happen?

A factor is living overseas, such as in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where you do not build a library in the traditional sense. You are just not going to ship hundreds of pounds of books out of where you live, when you are working an expat. So you tend not to buy.

Another factor: Kindle. As easy as it is to buy a book (now often overpriced) on Kindle, it is easier still to go to the table of contents and page through it … and click on a book you know you like and read it again.

Mostly, though, it is good authors with good characters. Some have genuine insights (Furst, Le Carre), some reveal another world (cops, say, with Michael Connelly) or Age of Sail navies (O’Brian) … or invented worlds, entirely. (J.R.R. Tolkien).

You know them, and you trust them, and in many cases they have intricacies in the plotting you simply do not notice on the first pass. On the second pass, you pick things up. You will get a few more on the third.

I would rather parse anew someone/something I like than get 50 pages into something I loath and, subsequently, abandon. Hate when that happens. Inspector Rebus? No thanks, laddie.

It’s like visiting Paris. You’ve been there before? More than once? And still you go? Because you know Paris is great. You’re not so sure about Lisbon or Oslo. And how many vacations can you take on spec … finding out in the process you like it or, worse, don’t like it?

Life is too short for bad food, is the sort of thing foodies say. Life also is too short to bother with books you don’t like. Better to revisit those you do.