Changed opinion after re-reading books

[Nara]

So when I first read the Inheritance Cycle I was absolutely obsessed with it. However reading it back a few years later I noticed several things that I didn't like or annoyed the life out of me. Conversely, when I read LOTR when I was younger a lot of things simply went over my head, while I was able to appreaciate them when re-reading later on.

So my question is, what were books and opinions that changed for you when you re-read a series or a book?

 

[BAYLOR]

Lord Fouls Bane by Stephen Donaldson I got about halfway thought the first book and gave up on it . Then years laster one day I gave it another chance and found it to be and I the Ill Earth War to be even better and the Power that Preserves. He's very much an underrated writer

Welcome to Chrons Nara . You found best book website on the whole planet.

 

[KGeo777]

Before I re-read Frankenstein for its 200th anniversary, I had the view that Shelley was showing amateurish writing by her frequent digressions about the various soap opera biographical details of minor characters. But then as I was reading it again, I realized all these anecdotes about orphans and poverty and adoption were intended to emphasize the major theme in the work--the importance of compassionate relationships.

 

[Bick]

Good question, and welcome to the 'boards' Nara. I don't re-read a whole heap, myself. However, I would say I was more impressed with The Silmarillion upon re-reading it than I think I was when I first read it 30 years previously. And I think when I first read Dune, I loved it, but I recall I also found it rather dense, and was overly affected by the David Lynch film, which came out the year I read it. When I re-read it a couple of years ago, I enjoyed and appreciated it more - it's a great book.

 

[Nara]

Lord Fouls Bane by Stephen Donaldson I got about halfway thought the first book and gave up on it . Then years laster one day I gave it another chance and found it to be and I the Ill Earth War to be even better and the Power that Preserves. He's very much an underrated writer

Welcome to Chrons Nara . You found best book website on the whole planet.

Thank you! This is actually my first time on a forum like this, seems pretty cool so far!

 

[CupofJoe]

While I still love them on the grounds of nostalgia, the Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon series.
As a teen I and my girlfriend devoured them as fast as we could get them.
Now I see them as more juvenile and less inclusive than I had at the time. I still enjoy the story. But the characters with a few exceptions feels more like a 70s or 80s TV show with all their faults.

 

[tobl]

the thing is, we are suppose to change with time also. i do know that there are a few books or at least genres i was greatly fun off, not long ago and know i just... don't care lol. i had a few thriller books, cops , murtders, even psycopaths (think silence of the lambs) and from some time ago i just can't seem to care about those books. there are however other books i still love and new genres like litrpg i find enjoyable.

 

[Randy M.]

The first time I read Moby Dick I was an undergraduate in college. I didn't hate it, but it was a chore. The second time, maybe 5-7 years later, as a grad, I found it one the greatest novels I'd ever read, right up there with Absalom, Absalom.

I think, though, I'm more likely to take a run at a book, set it aside and then restart it. That's what I did with The Confessions of Felix Krull and several years later with Downbelow Station. In both cases I had trouble getting a toehold on the book, the style a bit dense. On restarting I found I merged into the prose rhythms more smoothly and they became relatively easy reads.

 

[tinkerdan]

It would be really hard to say, in the way presented.
I definitely read differently now than I did so long ago and things I re-read often seem to be new because I pick up a bit more from a story than I did in the past read. However there are still some books I never made it through that I continue to have problems with eg; Don Quixote. There are books I have trouble picking up again, mostly because they were mandatory reads in school. Oddly I don't have that problem with the same type of book from college.

I do remember a book titled Echo X byBen Barzman that I recalled having some trouble getting into. It had two previous different titles "Out of This World" (U.K., 1960) and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" I recently reread it and for the life of me can't remember why I had so much trouble getting into it the first time I read it. This has made me think that I could probably pick up those old mandatory books and they might surprise me.

 

[The Scribbling Man]

I thought I Am legend was pretty bad when I first read it, but I think the real issue was that my perception of the creatures was heavily tainted by the Will Smith movie, meaning the direction it took in the last act felt utterly ridiculous to me. Rereading with a different perspective some years later, I thought it was much better than I gave it credit.

Time and Again by Clifford Simak I loved all the way until the end, which I hated. 2nd read I was less impressed with most of it, but really liked the end. Not sure I can explain that one.

 

[Luiglin]

Much as I love the Lord of the Rings, the older I get, the more annoyed I get at how Tolkien writes dialogue. I find the archaic style suits The Silmarillion and the more younger style suits the Hobbit but I do wince at how his characters talk to each other in Lord of the Rings.

Other than that, most of my other re-reads are like putting on an old dressing gown and slippers, pure comfort.

 

[Parson]

Welcome aboard @Nara!

I can't recall anything I've re-read (and generally re-read very seldom) that I didn't get the same feeling from the second time as the first time. As far as I can recall any book that I stopped reading the first time through never was read through latter although a few times I tried because "I was supposed to like this." The books that I've re-read because I liked them, the Honor Harrington series chief among them, didn't get better, but I did pick up more nuance and in that sense they became better. But what I've never experienced is having the light go on and all of a sudden what was bad becomes excellent.