Rereading Books

There are a few books I have gone back and read simply for enjoyment, for example Hitch Hiker's Guide to the galaxy was a pleasure to read. Some more dense materials that I know I will gain a lot from, I find it difficult to muster the motivation to re-read.

>Rereading a book can give you an insight into how you’ve changed since you last read it.

Said in a different way, I noticed I understand from a different perspective some of the books I re-read.

I think they can both be correct, and at the end of the day we shouldn't worry too much about being optimal. Leave some books quickly, keep others that feel deep enough to return to. Read for both learning and for pure entertainment. Read books that you already know you'll like, but leave room for some that could surprise you.

I think this is an act of a generosity. It shows that an artist is not only competent enough to execute something that complex, but also thinking deeply of their audience's time and money. It's hospitable: One of more virtuous virtues, IMO.

The best art should reveal itself to you over years, as you change as a human, and your sense of yourself - and the world you live in - changes. I think that should always be the aim of the artist.

You can't swim the same river twice; the same river can't be swum twice by the same person. Some rivers are much better for swimming :-)

I just started re-reading LOTR for maybe the 4th time in 30 years and probably first time in 10 years. Probably more for the 2nd two reasons in this authors list.

Part of my motivation was I was looking at books in the same genre I had not read and have become mostly tired of it and just kind of thought that I know LOTR is still better than 99% of them, might as well read it again. I am pleasantly surprised by how many small things I had forgotten. It also helps to wash the movies out of my brain and restore the memory of the real story.

Someone mentioned Hitch Hiker's guide to the Galaxy. I just bought a copy of that for my son, it has probably been close to 30 years since I read that, I will be tempted to re-read it again when he is finished.

Of course there’s still the challenge of identifying which books are classics. And of course there’s value in reading non-classics——whether you’re reading for entertainment or for wisdom. Still, we’ve got limited time and I’ll more often gamble my reading hour on a classic than something new.

Who doesn't love re-reading Snow Crash

Will you ever forget the way you felt the first time you read this?

"As part of Mr. Lee's good neighbor policy, all Rat Things are programmed never to break the sound barrier in a populated area. But Fido's in too much of a hurry to worry about the good neighbor policy.

Jack the sound barrier.

Bring the noise."

Right now, I'm getting to the end of Glen Cook's The Black Company series (11 books). I've read it many times, but I keep on enjoying it, each time, as if it's the first time.

I do not get the same from movies or shows. I have a few favorites that I watch over, but not usually more than once.

It's just not the same.

  "All that can be done is for each of us to invent our own ideal library of our classics; and I would say that one half of it would consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us. We should also leave a section of empty spaces for surprises and chance discoveries."

  - Italo Calvino

I'm rereading it for the fourth time, in less than 2 years. There's a variety of themes:

- political intrigue; - religion; - moral, ethics; - companionship; - brotherhood;

etc. Xenophon is eloquent and straight to the point, I really like his approach in this narration.

Now, on the topic of "rereading", I've often thought that maybe I should (have) read other books; that perhaps I was "spending too much time" in one book, but I just don't care enough to ruminate on this thought, and besides, there's always something new to learn from it.

Concurrently I'm reading "Crime & Punishment", which I also recommend.

As others have said, some of the best works will provide new insights as you age and gain perspective. Some will reveal remarkable foreshadowing and narrative lines that run quietly through the background of the work.

And, of course, repetition reinforces and consolidates your memory and understanding. A lot of books are not retained well by me the first time. The revisit consolidates the work in my mind, and eventually I can recall it from memory. Perhaps not verbatim, but beat by beat and detail by detail.

A revisit always allows me to savor and appreciate the finer points of the artist's craft. The small choices that are attuned to the larger purpose in the book. The inflections that support the themes and reinforce the sensations that are being evoked.

The best work can be turned over again and again with little loss in pleasure. More often than not satisfaction and admiration appreciate with each visit.

I also noticed that, after listening to an audiobook, I pick up certain expressions that I then, without thinking about it, use in conversation, something that I did not notice doing when reading the book.

There is something that Ugo Pirro, the famous Italian screenwriter, wrote in his book "How to write a movie", about the re-, which can also apply to re-reading books:

"The memories of each of us, after all, are transformed, fade and shatter, are redrawn and combined when they collide with the immediate experience according to the philosophies that are embraced, the experiences and emotions that have carved their own interpretative model of existence. So what strikes us today, tomorrow may hide, perhaps overwhelmed by other data recorded by the imagination, and then reappear unexpectedly in a day, a month, a year. The time of imagination, in short, is always another, it eludes chronologies, it relies on disorder"

Don’t think i’ll stop anytime soon. :)

> A good book gets better at the second reading. A great book at the third. Any book not worth rereading isn't worth reading