I think one of the Booking Through Thursday topics in the past has been about re-reading books, but my current re-read of the Mapp and Lucia books by EF Benson has made me think about it again... I always thought I wasn't much of a re-reader. So many books, so little time was my mantra - but... it appears to have all changed this year. Since January began, I've re-read the following:
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson
Year In, Year Out - A.A. Milne
Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Speaking of Love - Angela Young
The Love Child - Edith Oliver
The L-Shaped Room - Lynne Reid Banks
The Twins at St. Clare's - Enid Blyton
The O'Sullivan Twins - Enid Blyton
Summer Term at St. Clare's - Enid Blyton
Second Form at St. Clare's - Enid Blyton
The Provincial Lady Goes Further - E.M. Delafield
Queen Lucia - E.F. Benson
Miss Mapp - E.F. Benson
Lucia in London - E.F. Benson
Gosh. Last year, as I found out whilst doing this meme, I only re-read six books; this year I'm on sixteen already. I wonder why...
Partly it's because I don't have books to read for university (or haven't, until this point), but on the other hand I have lots of books to review for Stuck-in-a-Book which are neglected whilst I re-read. Perhaps I've come to the point in my reading life, which only really started properly in 2000, where I want to dip back into the past. Maybe I just want a guaranteed good read - but partly it's because I've realised just how subjective an experience with a book can be, and how short. I read a book in, say, four days. It might - like quite a few on the list above - be one of my favourite books. How odd that it should be on a favourites list for years, and have only occupied that amount of time in my life... so a re-read is to test the waters and see if they still make for pleasant paddling.
So much has been said about re-reading; I must get around to reading Anne Fadiman's book on the topic. I don't really know where to throw in my tuppence worthy, other than to say that re-reading this year has brought me more pleasure than almost anything else I've read - but I can't *quite* shake the idea that I should be reading something new. What do you think?
I rarely reread. There are too many books out there that I haven't read yet.
ReplyDeleteI don't seem to read much these days, let alone re-read. What I really popped in to your comments for was to ask how your foot is as these things can be more painful a day or 2 later.
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Thanks for asking, Ruth! Stil uncomfortable, but not really more than uncomfortable. Did some driving yesterday, and found it hurt less than walking... so shall just hobble around for a few days!
ReplyDeleteI too rarely re-read, although I have just re-read Cold Comfort Farm like yourself. I do think that one should read for pleasure and that selects the modality, but I also fell that it is important to read books that are new, and (I'm sure we have discussed this somewhere before) outside one's "comfort zone".
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I love to re-read books - just wish I had more time to do so as, along with your other posters - I do think it's important to read new stuff. But one gets such a richness out of rereading - especially when a significant time has passed - you view the book (and yourself) completely differently. Some authors - like Virginia Woolf, for example - demand constant re-reading if only to appreciate the technique behind her writing. Or to wallow in the language. Poetry requires re-reading. So does Shakespeare. And I love the jolting experience of discovering a book read 20 years ago is not at all the same as the one you remembered.
ReplyDeleteA lovely book along with Fadiman's is Alberto Manguel's A Reading Diary - he re-reads 12 books, one a month, for a year and writes about the experience.
"How odd that it should be on a favourites list for years, and have only occupied that amount of time in my life" - very interesting, and it really makes me think. You are so right - if I really love a book, as I think I do, shouldn't I spend more than a short bit of time with it? My re-reads are often audiobooks. It is a good way for me because I can be reading one print book, and re-reading a book via listening. I ought to go through and see how many I've read for a second (or more) time this year. Really a fascinating concept. And frankly, I'm all about 'comfort zone.' Honestly, reading is one of the only choices we ever have in this life, and I'll be damned (oops, can I say that?) if I'm going to waste a minute of that time reading about slashers or vampires or starving children. The news offers enough, thank you very much.
ReplyDeleteI love to re-read old favourites and books that I want to give a second chance.
ReplyDeleteRe-readings edited by Anne Fadiman was an enjoyable read and made me feel less guilty about indulging in re-reading!
Simon - you have made me think about this and I am going to follow your lead and post about re-reading when I have a mo to sit and think (currently reading lots of new stuff so perhaps that is why I want to return to re-reads). Thanks for pointing me in this direction, off now to put kettle on and ponder
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