Re-reading favorites: still as good the 2nd time around?

pisces · #1 02-02-2002, 03:48 PM

Here's my "to re-read" list:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas)
2. Lone Eagle (Steel)

But, can you go home again? When you come back to a book that you always "thought" was your favorite, does it still remain your favorite even if you are looking at it, the second time, through new eyes? Wouldn't it be better to just let old favorites remain favorites than take the risk of lowering their status because you are not at the same place in your life that you were when you last read.

I've always said that Dumas's "Cristo" was my favorite novel. But, I was a teenager when I read it. The themes of being trapped, false imprisonment, escape, and revenge resonated with me THEN.

My fear is that, now that I'm older, my former favorite novel will have become irrelevant to my life now; that, though I still feel trapped, I no longer want to escape and am no longer vengeful!

I read Cristo a loooooong time ago. I was engrossed and I never wanted it to end. But that was then, and with my life now, I don't know if that book can ever make me feel like that again. And, I don't want to destroy the memory.

Doesn't the law of diminishing returns say the more you do something the less effective it is? Could that also be applied to re-reading old favorites?

You invest so much more when reading books than when, say, watching a 90 min movie over and over again.

Wouldn't the time (which I don't have to begin with) be better spent reading new material, than take the risk that favorite (already read) material will become tired and lose its favored status?

**soxfan**[$] · #2 02-02-2002, 04:17 PM

It really depends -- both on you and on the book. There will be some titles that don't hold up under a second reading, just as there are movies that are worth seeing once and only once. But there are others that do improve with age and re-reading.

Ailsa
who regularly returns to The Phantom Tollbooth

kurt_messick · #3 02-02-2002, 06:10 PM

I agree. There are some books I re-read once a decade or so. There are others when I've added them to the repeat list and started them again, they just didn't hold my attention.

**pageclot**[$] · #4 02-02-2002, 10:51 PM

I re-read lots of books. I just re-read John Irving's The World According to Garp, which was shocking for me. I read this book for the first time in University.

I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't read it or seen the movie yet, but there's a part (the chapter title talks about Marcus Aurelius) about 300 pages in that is quite sad. It was sad when I read it the first time, but when I read it a few days ago, it slayed me. I was weeping openly while reading it. It's probably being a dad that is responsible for the change in how I read that book.

I'm re-reading The Cider House Rules now, but I started again in the middle. I'll probably go back and start at the beginning.

My last several books have all been re-readers, making me think I'm stuck in the past:

The Choirboys - Joseph Wambaugh (still pretty good)
The Dogs of War - Frederick Forsyth (more boring than I remember, but it's a How-To for people wanting to overthrow small countries)
Mr. North - Thornton Wilder (I like it still. Quirky, small townish fun, with a satisfying ending)

In general, I won't even start re-reading a book unless I really liked it the first go-round.

P

Dani257 · #5 02-03-2002, 12:31 AM

Half my reading is re-reading. In fact, some books, I read striaght through, and then read again immediately. I read until I can quote huge passages. Sometimes I get so tired of a book, I can't read it for a year or so. Then, when it's faded from my memory, I start the cycle over again.

arianej · #6 02-03-2002, 12:45 AM

[quote]Originally posted by pisces
Wouldn't it be better to just let old favorites remain favorites than take the risk of lowering their status because you are not at the same place in your life that you were when you last read.

Nah. Well, at least, I couldn't live with the mystery of not knowing.

Occasionally, I find a book doesn't stand the test of time...I've changed too much to enjoy it in the same way. But just as often, I find that I still enjoy old favorites, or I realize there are more aspects to the story that I understand better now than I did than before. The the bonus of "rediscovering" an old favorite balances out any other disappointments.

Ariane

quasar · #7 02-03-2002, 11:35 AM

Not re-read books? Inconceivable! And that word does mean what I think it means.

I'd say more than 80% of my reading is re-reading, at times more. There are some books I try to re-read often - The Hobbit comes to mind - and others not so often. Sometimes it's like re-meeting old friends after a long time apart and sometimes it's like revisiting family you know well and sometimes it's just a vague sense of deja-vu. But even in those cases where I know the story well I still enjoy the prose, the language, the nuances of the characters that you never remember from reading to reading.

Janice

rich2003dm · #8 02-03-2002, 12:03 PM

I'm not a re-reader.

The only exception I ever made was Tolkien's Ring trilogy. Read that twice.

There are too many new books that I haven't read to go back and re-read old ones.

So many books; so little time.

Rich

satan · #9 02-03-2002, 02:01 PM

It depends on how much time i have available, but i do tend to reread favorites. Over the past few months i've sent some of my childhood favorites to friends' children, and reread them to get a better sense of matching title to child . . . loved 'em all, Alexander, Cooper, Juster, L'Engle, LeGuin, JRRT . . .

Right now i'm trying to go through Vonnegut's titles in chrono order, rereading some while encountering the ones i missed in the first go.

Perhaps i have come across titles that lacked the original wonder upon a rereading years later, but i must've blocked them out of my mind. i can recall being pleasantly surprised by some of the books that i hadn't liked much earlier that i found much better now. Was reading the Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide and actually liked bits and pieces of Mostly Harmless, which i recall detesting the first go. And in rereading the Dune saga, i discovered that now i place God Emperor of Dune, which i thought was okaaaay earlier at the foot of the pedestal reserved for Dune.

i've Asimov's Foundation trilogy scheduled for a reread . . . i wonder how that will go . . .

Grouch · #10 02-03-2002, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by quasar
Not re-read books? Inconceivable!

Yo, Janice! Conceive this!

I simply don't have enough time to re-read books. I'm too busy trying to keep up with today's "sizzling hot" literary output (of which, admittedly, about 20% is ho-hum dreck), that I don't have time to re-visit some of my old favorites. In fact, I can only remember re-reading once in my life, and that would be Lewis' Narnia Chronicles (and even that was a specifically magical instance where I read aloud the entire series to my children over the course of a summer).

But if I ever caught up on all the books on my "to-read" shelf
[insert loud laughter here, which goes on for far too long]
I would most likely pick up Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, and quite possibly a few treasured volumes of Dickens (Dombey and Son, chief among them)--this is, of course, after I finish the unread portions of his canon (chief among them Bleak House).

quasar · #11 02-04-2002, 10:52 AM

I meant inconceivable to me, of course. You are free to not enjoy this habit as you wish.

The main thing is, I don't go out of my way to find new books to read. If they hit me on the head and it looks like I'll like it, I'll read it. If someone I trust tells me I must read something I generally will (Kavalier and Clay happened that way, as did Harry Potter). I don't generally have a "to read list" or at least one any different from the set of books I currently have out of the library.

I tend to be a flow reader. I'll read something that reminds of something else and I'll immediately want to read that again. So even if I plan a little, it changes. I am very succeptible to outside stimulus in this area - a song lyric, conversation, movie, almost anything really can make me crave a particular book.

Part of it is that I read very fast. I used to read even faster when I could see better. It wasn't uncommon for me to read 10-12 books a day, and I probably read 3-4 books on a light day. I still read 15-20 book in the average week. I'm not saying I've run out of reading material, but I am saying that I have a wider scope of stuff to re-read.

Anyway, this is an interesting thread.

Janice

**lynnzop**[$] · #12 02-04-2002, 11:05 AM

I've worn out books from re-reading!

But, this brings to mind another thread that I was thinking of starting (had to do with reading "youth" books)...I remember being absolutely enchanted with a series of books when I was a child. It was about a magic coin that 3 (?) siblings found on a sidewalk that transported them to a magic world.

Kind of a Narnia-type thing. (I still can't remember the title or the author

)

I loved this series, and wanted to re-read it. I couldn't for the life of me remember the name or the author. I could see exactly where it was in our library back at my parent's house though!

I went to "my" library and walked aisle-to-aisle until I found the series. I was so excited! Got the first book and took it home to read.

Disappointment

It wasn't as well written as I remembered and was sorely juvenile in content. Lesson learned: some things are better left in childhood.

Lynn
currently re-reading Narnia to son and enjoying every second of it

quasar · #13 02-04-2002, 11:10 AM

There are a few children's books that don't hold up, but I haven't found that many. I have found some I don't enjoy quite as much as an adult, but even that isn't common. I've even found some I've liked better as an adult, but again not many. Most of the time the books I enjoyed then I enjoy now.

Janice

murasaki · #14 02-04-2002, 03:12 PM

I love to reread books, though time is a constraint for me.

I've reread The Narnia Chronicles countless times (at least 10).

I've reread L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series (all 8) at least three times, some books more (we didn't have a complete set when I was growing up) and her Emily series four times.

I've read Gone with the Wind three times.

Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale has made it through my hands three times and is coming up for four & five since I plan to use it for my thesis.

I love rereading books. Very rarely have I "lost the magic." Most of the time, I find something new I overlooked, or different experiences in my life have made me sensitive to different things in the books.

--naomi

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #15 02-04-2002, 03:25 PM

There are books I refuse to donate to the annual book drive because I know I'll read them again. Some books I actually schedule for re-reads, like Stranger in a Strange Land (re-read once every 18 months or so) and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (every 9-12 months). Each time I'm at a different place in life and so different things resonate with me.

The first time I read Monte Cristo I was totally hooked on the getting revenge part - but the millions (or so it seemed) of characters got me confused. My next reading I hope to 1) keep a quick reference list of the characters and 2) focus on how revenge is not a dish best served cold nor a dish which is constantly stewed over but never eaten but something that leads to no satisfaction and wastes time and energy.

mj
who hourly finds it very hard not to create new ways to get revenge on the awful landlords who moved in 1/18

satan · #16 02-04-2002, 08:41 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mjfrombuffalo
Each time I'm at a different place in life and so different things resonate with me.

Yea! As Naomi mentions above, circumstances changes and shift perspectives subtly, making each read essentially a new journey. Yea you've read it before and so you know the major elements of the tale, so you start paying attention to what you missed on your first go . . . well . . . even if you have a photographic memory, i guess . . .

Some books I actually schedule for re-reads, like Stranger in a Strange Land

Which one? i've only read the unabridged version so far . . . plan to have the original abridged version on hand for comparison when i reread that beast to try to grok it . . .

sylvanb · #17 02-06-2002, 11:36 AM

About the only books I re-re-read are Jane Austen's.

However, I'm now doing a second run through the Dick Francis books, trying to be roughly chronological. I'm sure I'll get tired of this a quarter of the way through -- reading them back to back makes it clear that they are much of a muchness. Still, awfully good escape, which is what I like best.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #18 02-06-2002, 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by satan

Some books I actually schedule for re-reads, like Stranger in a Strange Land

Which one? i've only read the unabridged version so far . . . plan to have the original abridged version on hand for comparison when i reread that beast to try to grok it . . .

I started with the version originally published and bought the "as the author wanted it published" version a couple years ago. I knew the book well enough to be able to identify the new, additional passages. To me it's a great read in either version - the added parts add a little, but not enough (IMHO) to make the shorter one take a tumble in my personal rating of the book. I just love the different takes on religion, art, philosophy, and the way human psychology is so affected by environment and circumstance. Cannibalism, anyone?

mj

Trebor1415 · #19 03-02-2002, 05:16 PM

I re read books all the time. I've even been known to finish a book, and then immediately start from the begining. Doens't happen often, but sometimes the writing or the language or the story just makes me want to go through the whole thing again right away to see what else I can pick up in a slower, more focused reading.

Rob