Rereading Books

[j d worthington]

Actually, there are a number of threads here which are either strictly on the subject, or which address it, including a fair portion of those on particular writers, or classic versus modern sff, etc. You may want to take a look at some of these:

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/48860-re-reading-books.html

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/534145-re-read-reflections.html

http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk/forum/534114-your-nursing-home-200-books.html

For myself, it varies. I do try to read a lot of material which I've not read before, but I also do a considerable amount of rereading, and of a wide variety, and for different reasons. One thing I do know: I have yet to come across anyone who gets everything worth getting out of any good book on a single reading. It just isn't humanly possible. And the better the book (that is, the better written, the more thoughtful, the more finished artistically, etc.), the more readings it takes to even begin to garner the riches held there. On the other hand, no one, no matter how speedy a reader (even without diminishing their comprehension as a factor) can even scratch the surface when it comes to reading all the worthwhile books out there in a single lifetime... or even several, for the matter of that. So for me, a balancing of these tendencies works best, as it both provides me with writers and experiences I've not had before, but also with reacquainting myself with old friends, finding a completely different experience in something I have read before (very often good books grow and change as you grow and change), or simply enjoy the beauties of a favorite writer or work, the same as I would with a piece of music, or a painting, or film, etc.

 

[kromanjon]

Seems like I missed some older threads on the subject. Luckily alot of you don't seem to mind retreading the same subject again, sort of like rereading old books.

Randy M. suggested that a really good book might reveal new insight when you reread it making it important to return and I find myself agreeing with this. It's like watching Fight Club for the fourth time still noticing new details. Also my language skills have improved alot over the years and I have to admit to not really understanding Neuromancer the first time I read it. Second time I got the surface plot and the last time I found myself noticing depth to it I hadn't noticed beofre.

Still, I always find myself drawn to new books and authors, hoping against hope that I might be the first among my friends to "find" this great new thing.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

Even with Mist Over Pendle which I must have read about around a 100 times (I bought it about 25 years ago) has different depths upon each reading. It was rereleased a year or two ago and I excitedly bought a copy to replace my sorry looking article only to discover it had been "edited" removing things some of the adverbs and it is rubbish in comparison -- totally lost its charm, warmth and humour which as the book has (as much as I love them) rather flat characters means it doesn't work.

Another I am rereading right now is Enid Blyton who I inhaled as a child along with Agatha Christie and it is very interesting to see how much both ladies have impacted on my writing now. Enid Blyton's dialogue sometimes reads how I would have written it in if I had been born before 1950. I didn't realise the Murder at the Vicarage had been written in first person and it again has a lot of similarities to my first book in style. (Honestly until I started writing I never did really notice the narrative style I had to go back and check all my favourites).

As a writer I like to write what I like to read (makes editing and rewrites so much easier) and rereading means I know how to achieve something I love.

 

[felicibusbrevis]

Yes, Gene Wolfe books. Always find so much more the second/third time, especially back to back. I just finally figured out Fifth Head of Cerberus after all these years - eye infections!!!! It's a maggot past the larval stage pretending to be a man who was replaced by a half tree aboriginal, writing to defend himself in jail!!!! Never would have got that with just two reads.

Otherwise, some Zelazny, Lafferty, Nabokov, and Dostoevsky, but no one rewards re-reading like Gene Wolfe. Greatest author ever.

 

[ratsy]

I have not reread many books. Like many others have stated; there are just too many new ones to devour. I have reread some Feist books, I did a reread of the first 5 Wheel of Time books before continuing on with the series. I have reread some Eddings and I am currently rereading (as my second book) Lord Fouls Bane , I read them as a teenager and 16 years later I am sure my experience will be a lot different.

I already have it in my head to reread some books...the top of my list is the Farseer and Tawny Man series by Robin Hobb and Mistborn by Sanderson eventually.

I hope I live to be 100 and keep reading at a good pace so I can eventually stop feeling "thirsty" for a book.

 

[felicibusbrevis]

I reread Kafka and Camus often, but they're sort of like the bible for me, so I'm not sure they should count. Dune, every once in awhile. Soldier of Sidon (not sure why I go back to this one). Nightwings for sentimental reasons.

The Soldier series in general is sublime. Well worth re-reading, though I have not actually read Sidon as often as the earlier books in the series. The manumission ceremony left out of Soldier of Arete that leads Latro to a depression is handled so very well. I so wish Wolfe would have finished the series or written a fourth right after Sidon, but I am thankful for what I have.

 

[nightdreamer]

I have a long backlog of both SFF and literary classics that I want to read before I die. Still, there are certain ones that I keep coming back to: LOTR, of course, Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster Trilogy, Terry Brooks' Sword of Shannara and Scions of Shannara books, and "Doc" Smith's Lensman series. There are others that I've read more than once, but I don't know if I'll keep going back to them.

 

[Ogma]

My regular rereads have been pretty much restricted to Lord of the Rings and Brave New World. There are a lot of books that I would dearly love to reread e.g. PKD books, Roadside Picnic etc. but the siren call of my TBR pile is too enticing for me to ignore.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I am an inveterate re-reader. They are like old friends. I do read new stuff too, though, and if I love it will read again.

That pretty much describes my reading habits. If I like a book I will reread it at least once. If I love it ... well, I've yet to find the limit on how many times I will read a favorite book.

I usually read dozens of new books in a year, but when I am tired or out of sorts -- which pretty much describes the last several months of my life -- I turn to those old favorites.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

There's nothing nicer than just dipping in and knowing you can skip the odd scene and read your favourites. It's like reading poetry in a way, you can choose the bit that matters at that moment. Things like Captain Corelli's, I pick up, sometimes in the middle, and find a comfort scene and curl up for half an hour. Or maybe I'll see a picture and it'll make me think of something, and I'll go and find that little scene. And sometimes it's just the pleasure of starting it again, all the way through, and finding the bits you'd forgotten, or the bits you still love. I probably have about five "comfort books": Corelli's, Time Traveller's Wife, Maps in a Mirror (short stories, but I think they count), Ray Bradbury's shorts, which I'm reading a little at a time, and rereading the ones that hit me poignantly, and anything by Isabel Allende. Not sure what that little eclectic selection says about me...

 

[Heather Myst]

I did a second reading of Jennifer Fallon's Second Sons trilogy and Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series because I loved those books.

The one series that I keep reading over and over are George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books. My first reread was just to pickup what I had missed in my first reading. The world is so huge and there are so many characters I really did miss several key things in my first reading. The second read was fun because I understood so much more because I knew the characters better. Whenever a new book comes out I reread the entire series and I must say that this is my favorite series of all time. I am also a huge fan of the HBO series about the books titled Game of Thrones.

 

[Jade44]

I rarely reread a book. There are so many authors out there that I have barely dented the surface. However, recently I did begin to reread David Weber's Honor Harrington series and its satellite novels in chronological order. I've gotten about halfway through and even though I know how the books will end I still find them satisfying.

 

[Lilmizflashythang]

This is the tenth reading of LOTR for my household, in the past year.

 

[Extollager]

Bravo on that 10th reading of LOTR!

I began to read books written primarily for adults, such as LOTR, when I was around 11. Science fiction and fantasy stories were my gateway books into adult fiction.

This thread got me thinking, and I have begun to wonder how many books, in the sense of titles, I have read in over 40 years of reading adult fiction. By "titles," I mean that The Fellowship of the Ring counts as one book, not as 13, although that is how many times I have read it.

Because I reread so much, I wonder if, in over 40 years of steady reading of adult books, I have yet to read a thousand books -- fiction and nonfiction -- in their entirety. Am I even close to a thousand?

I don't feel bad at all about the idea that, though I have been a lifelong reader and although I am an English teacher, I may not have read all that many books. I would estimate that the overall quality of what I have read is pretty high. I have, for example, in the genre of mystery/crime/detective fiction, read and reread Raymond Chandler and Arthur Conan Doyle, and have often dropped mysteries that, for whatever reasons, were failing to hold my interest. I take Chandler and Doyle to be of high quality in the genre in which they worked.

Rereading seems to me like revisiting a place one finds somehow appealing. No one reproaches someone who loves an art gallery or a park for going there repeatedly.

As regards people who read a lot but rarely reread, I wonder if they don't "consume" books. I'm reminded of something George Orwell wrote (it might have been in the essay "Bookshop Memories"), about customers who would pay small fees to borrow mystery (?) novels. He mentions someone who would pick a book off the shelf, start reading -- then say, Oh, I've had this one already -- and return it to the shelf. I suppose this reader reads to pass the time by trying to solve a puzzle, and would feel bad if memory of the solution returned after the reader had invested time in the book. Conversely, I have read The Hound of the Baskervilles multiple times and have little doubt I will read it again. I will do so knowing that the hound is a large dog painted with some glowing substance, that a villain will try to escape and apparently lose his life in the Grimpen Mire, etc. The novel has a lot to offer, such as atmosphere, beyond plot.

Still .... I wonder how many books (titles) I've read!

 

[DarkFiBiro]

I think there are only two books that I have ever read more than once. The Diceman by Luke Rhinehart and Dennis Wheatly's Strange Conflict.

Like others have said though, I enjoy reading new things and books in which I have no idea of the ending. This has accelerated even more since I got a Kindle last year.

 

[polacks_on_the_moon]

I must admit I hardly ever reread books. Hate me if you want, but I just feel that there are so many stories still waiting for me and I only live once (omg this reminded me of those weird teeenagers doing weird things on the internet ) that it would be a waste of time. I do come back to some excerpts I particulary like, but I can hardly remember any book I would read twice from the begining to the very end.
Oh! I know! Harry Potter and Moomin books by Tove Jansson. But these are my favourite childhood stories and I kind of wanted to make a nostalgic journey back in time rereading them

 

[jastius]

I hope I live to be 100 and keep reading at a good pace so I can eventually stop feeling "thirsty" for a book.

is that what it is? book thirst? all I know is that I could probably recite the first chapter of the pawn of prophecy by heart... going back is like sleeping in your comfiest jammies and curling up. pure comfort food. and how exquisitely eloquent is your description, ratsy, a "thirst" indeed.

 

[Extollager]

I must admit I hardly ever reread books. Hate me if you want, but I just feel that there are so many stories still waiting for me and I only live once ....

I've seen animosity break out between sf fans on other matters, but I don't remember ever seeing the discussion break down into vituperation when it comes to heavy-on-rereading "versus" "rarely-or-never-reread."

I wonder if the difference in preference tends to coincide with reading one author in depth vs. reading widely. I've said above that I reread a lot. I also have tended to go into some depth with an author whom I really liked. So, for example, I've read favorite authors such as Tolkien, Lewis, Lovecraft, Machen, etc. in depth, while wholly skipping, so far, writers such as Donaldson, Crowley, Pratchett, Martin, etc.

 

[Bick]

I'm mostly like the OP, in that I have a compulsion to discover new reading experiences and a dread that I'll peg out before I've read all the good authors I might want to, so I tend to re-read new books much more frequently. That said, I do like to re-read after about a decade or so for some authors. I've re-read some Graham Greene, Thomas Hardy, Laurie Lee, Orwell. I can also re-read Wodehouse, as that's always a joy. But for SF/F, there are several I have re-read, including (it seems to be ubiquitous) LotR, as well as (when I was much younger) Eddings' Belgariad. When I was very sick a couple years ago, I read heaps of Asimov again. I must have re-read 10-12 novels and 50+ short stories. It was all I read for months. I could easily do that again too. Akin to the desert island thread, if I could take just one author it would be Asimov and I could happily re-read them all forever.

 

[Nesacat]

I re-read Lord of the Rings every year. An annual pilgrimage to Middle Earth. Also re-read Lovecraft's stories regularly along with Bradbury's Homecoming and Halloween Tree. And the Mahabharata in one edition or another.

Other books gets re-read on a need-to basis. When I 'need' a book I walk along my shelves running my fingers along the spines and the book I need will be the one I pick up. It always works.