This weekend’s New York Times Book Review has a great back-page essay, “Read It Again, Sam“, about the experience of re-reading favorite books and authors. The whole essay is well worth the read, but here’s a taste:
In her recently published “On Rereading,” the retired English professor Patricia Meyer Spacks cites a friend who “claimed that she hated to reread. When I pointed out that I have known her to reread Jane Austen, she looked surprised. ‘Everyone rereads Jane Austen.’ ” (Everyone who reads her in the first place, maybe: Stephen King said in his e-mail that “I have never read a single word of Jane Austen.”)
Many authors also return regularly to Virginia Woolf. The novelist and critic Dale Peck tries to read “The Waves” every year. “It affects me like spiritual instruction,” he said. “I always feel like a better person after I put it down.” The New Yorker critic James Wood rereads “To the Lighthouse” annually: “It’s a joy to return to, perpetually rich, perpetually moving.” And the novelist Sophie Gee revisits “Mrs. Dalloway” when she can: “The magnificence of the writing is so overwhelming. Clarissa Dalloway has a realness for me that no other heroine quite matches.”
Of course, re-reading isn’t a guarantee you’ll fall in love with a former favorite all over again:
Like any reader, writers may discover after rereading that a book has transformed from a sexy college date into a louse. “I remembered loving Henry James’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ when I studied it for my Ph.D. comps,” Bharati Mukherjee said. “This summer I tried to reread it. I soon abandoned the book, screaming, ‘Enough complex interiority, just give me a couple of big head-butting scenes!’ ”
I read Gone With the Wind many times as a tween and then re-read it as an adult. It’s still good entertainment…if you can ignore the reek of bigoted stereotypes, white privilege, and historical revisionism. But another tween favorite, DuMaurier’s Rebecca, was darker and more troubling when read through an adult feminist lens, but it’s also richer and more suggestive and had me completely rethinking the author’s intent.
My favorite recent re-read is Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead. I loved it the first time around, but it benefits from slow reading and then a second reading; it’s not an especially long book, but it’s packed with imagery and emotion. Ditto Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, which is long and also dense with imagery. On re-reading I didn’t get the pop of surprise when I encountered the more fantastical moments, but I got to unravel their meaning and connect them to one another in ways that I didn’t the first time around.
What’s your favorite re-read? Is there any book you wish you hadn’t re-read? Share in the comments…
I love to reread, almost anything, but I wish that I had never, ever reread Wuthering Heights. I loved it as a teen, but now…shudder.
Then, there are the books I wish I never read the first time — Uncle Tom’s Cabin is at the top of that list.
Great topic. It’s a big cliche, but yes, I have read 100 Years multiple times. To me it’s worth it.
But generally I don’t re-read because I like non-fiction more than fiction. Maybe my choices are too topical, and then don’t merit another go-around.
sophiefair what freaked you about Wuthering Heights, the abusive behavior, controlling etc?
Anna Karenina for me — I reread it a couple of years ago when the new translation came out, and as a middle-aged person I felt so much more sympathy for Karenin, Anna’s husband, than I had the first time. Really opened up a facet of that book I hadn’t seen the first time.
I’m also with the Woolf re-readers, although I came to her late — in my 30s. Mrs. Dalloway rebuffed me for years until finally, one day, the whole book opened up and suddenly I could see what all the accolades were about (I still remember, my grad-school bedroom, spring in SLC, rain and green leaves). My real Woolf addiction is to the diaries, although I’ve never finished Volume 5 because I just can’t bear it. If I don’t finish, she won’t die, right?
@sofiefair: Oh, yeah, there is so much wrongness in Wuthering Heights–as a teen I could kind of see it but by college I was like “holy fucking shit, this guy is EVIL!”
And Uncle Tom’s Cabin is such a bad book on so many levels. I realize it was an important consciousness-raising work when it was published but as a piece of literature it’s crap and even the obvious activist subtext has not survived the test of time at all.
I reread books nonstop. I mean I’m a student, so rereading it part of my job, basically, but I do it for most of the fiction that I read and enjoy. I tend to reread lots of YA fantasy around Christmas–it’s the best stress relief, both the post-finals exhaustion and the family-time anxiety.
I reread different books for different reasons. I’m teaching a Shakespeare class this semester, and have reread all the plays I’m teaching. It’s been pretty awesome–each time I read one, it’s an entirely different experience. I find that I like literature I didn’t care for at first, upon re-reading.
I just reread Robinson Crusoe for a class. I had read it when I was teaching high schoolers, and I HATED it. This time, I really liked it. It’s much more complex when it’s not getting reduced to 30-page bits and regurgitated by/for 16 year old privileged kids, and I’ve learned a lot about the 18th century, so I had a much better handle on what was going on.
Rereading Woolf is also such a wonderful experience. Mrs. Dalloway is one of my favorite books, and her prose is so elegant that rereading any of Woolf’s novels is like listening to a beautiful piece of music. Nobody says “Oh why would you listen to a symphony more than once? Once you’ve heard it why would you ever relisten?” Of course that’s a crazy thing to say! But plenty of people feel that rereading novels is pointless. For the best novels, it’s practically required if you want to understand what’s going on. I’m a fast reader, too, so I tend to reread several times quickly rather than once slowly (though, with Woolf I suppose it’s more like rereading several times slowly).
I’ve been listening to Kristin Cashore’s books repeatedly since I first read Graceling. I listened to both that and Fire while driving back and forth across several states, and found that they are ideal road-trip books. Interesting enough to keep me engaged (and awake, and not miserably bored), but not so complicated that they distract me from the driving. I like listening to YA novels for precisely this reason on road trips.
I reread Jane Eyre last Christmas. I was surprised at how much I liked parts of it–it seemed much more beautiful now than it did to me when I last read it in high school. I remembered only plot and character, because that’s what was important to me about it when I was 16. But this time I noticed things that I couldn’t have then, and that was great. Unfortunately, I also noticed the super-intense racism that’s all over the damn book, and that was really sad and depressing. Both because it tainted a book that I once loved (it was the first “grown-up book” I ever read) and also because it was pretty sad that I didn’t ever notice how racist it was when I was younger.
I re-read a lot of things. The most high-brow being Ulysses. Every time I find something new, some new humor, something that I understand better as I have aged. I also re-read Austen quite frequently, it is just so comfortable. Lastly, I love reading certain Terry Pratchett books over and over, especially the witch ones, and Going Postal.
Very timely, Becky-I just last night finished rereading “Pride and Prejudice.” (The Kiera Knightley version was on tv, and once I watch a movie of a book I like, I have to reread the book. She was a great Elizabeth but I have to say I wasn’t bowled over by the Darcy.) This time I noticed that both Elizabeth and Darcy have deal with vulgar relatives, and the different attitude Austen seemed have towards women marrying for money and men doing the same thing.
I reread Austen, of course. I have read the Sherlock Holmes canon multiple times, and Harry Potter too. Dickens holds up well to multiple readings. The Brontes are always worth rereading-I recently did “Jane Eyre” again (yeah,saw the movie. Fassbender isn’t physically right but who the hell cares? That man is smokin’.)and was powerfully struck by how feminist a book it is. I don’t think Rochester was evil-Rivers is creepier to me with all that stuff about having to marry Jane because it was required of him.
I think my favorite reread is “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The writing is extraordinarily tender and evocative. It moves me every time I read it.
I have to admit that I’ve never been able to get into Woolf. Maybe it’s time to try again.
If anyone is up for a chat about P&P or JE, let me know!
I reread a lot of books, mostly sci-fi. I like to reread Sherri Tepper when I’m pissed at society. I reread YA when I need stress relief (usually dystopian stuff), and when I need something to sink my teeth into I go to something dense. I am going to reread the Revelation Space series in the next 6 mo, because I certainly didn’t catch everything the first time, and though I’m working through the Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars trilogy, I feel like I will immediately need to start over to get everything out of it. The science is dense in that one.
I read Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” as a kid when it first appeared in 1962. I re-read it almost every October until well into my forties. It’s overdue for a re-read, but I’ll have to wait until next Fall, because it must be October. “It was a dark and stormy night…”
I love re-reading and don’t get to do it often enough.
I read The Great Gatsby when I was 13 and found it dreadfully boring. Then I read it again aged 17 on the recommendation of a trusted teacher, and was amazed at how good it was. That was a lesson for me in the importance of reading things at appropriate ages. Just because a kid is able to read a book in terms of the language it uses does not mean they are ready for the ideas it has.
Or, to phrase my last line better: Just because a kid is able to read a book in terms of language doesn’t mean they are psychologically ready for it.
@Endora: Agreed. I read Beloved in high school, but didn’t really appreciate it or fully “get” everything that was going on until I re-read it years later.
Like Ms. M, my re-reading is most often a self-soothing behavior. I’ll re-read the “and they all lived happily ever after” moments of any of my favorite books … a lot of YA and genre fiction, some adult and classic literature, fan fiction favorites. When it’s self-soothing I re-read so often, looking for what’s familiar, that I don’t usually have the distance to re-evaluate the text.
The two instances where I’ve had more “wow, that was a different take” experience are a) when I read a book for a lit class (versus just for pleasure) … for example Jane Eyre or To the Lighthouse. And the other instance is when I listen to a book on tape (or, these days, mp3). Audiobooks force me to slow down and actually HEAR the text again, even if it’s utterly familiar. And often I experience new insights that way.
I’ve reread most of the books in my library, some many many times, which is why they’re falling apart. But one book I won’t read again is “On the Road.” In college, I found it romantic and free and fascinating, but when I read it again last year, the characters all seemed incredibly inconsiderate, selfish and a bit sociopathic.
Anna,
I have found the same thing with audiobooks. I read very fast, and audiobooks force me to slow down and really *listen* to the words. Plus, I am a very visual person, and so having the book read forces me to process it differently.
I read Harry Potter several times, but listening to the whole series on audiobook with my kids was a completely different experience.
@ Ms M ~ If you like Sherri Tepper (me too!) may I suggest “Califia’s Daughters” by Laurie R King writing as Leigh Richards. It’s a brilliant sci-fi feminist story. Also if you like YA, “The Host” by Stephanie Meyer is a great YA sci-fi book and nothing at all like the Twilight series.
Re-reading can be a lot of fun, soothing, and an eye opening experience. I’ve recently been re-reading most of Tony Hillerman’s booklist, which I first read 15-20 years ago. I’ve forgotten whodunnit for most of them so it’s like catching up with an old friend I haven’t seen in a while. My recently discovered guilty pleasure is fan fiction ~ mostly ok, some cringe worthy, and a rare bit is absolutely brilliant and hard to believe it’s done by amateurs.
My son is an English major, and I’m trying to keep up with stuff he’s reading, and I’ve now tried to read the Sound and Fury by Faulkner. It took 3 times to even understand what was going on. Then I tried Turn of the Screw, and that took a couple as well. So, rereading for some like me is necessary just to get the story.
As a youngster I would reread the 3 Musketeers at least once every 2 months – I really like the way that initially the 3 of them would hang out and support each other, and that there was enough friendship to support the inclusion of D’Artagnan in the group.
I didn’t really like the depiction of the female characters when I reread it when I got older, and wished that there was like a 3 Musketeers but with the core 3 being women.. (women and swords, riding horseback, having adventures, wearing funny hats – I want to go to there!)
Other books I go back to and read a couple of times a year is the 18th brumaire of louis bonaparte (yes written by Karl Marx).
I never understood either of the Sound and the Fury or Turn of the Screw.
Becky and everyone this has been such a great thread.
I tried to read Northanger Abbey a few times as a teenager, and never liked it. Read it again after college, and adored it. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that many books read best during a specific time in your life. I loved the Nancy Drew series as a kid, until I read one that made me angry (how could Nancy Drew become an expert ballet dancer in just a few weeks and star in the show, when I’d been studying it for years and & hadn’t been able to do that??). So that ruined it for me and I never read another one. I have been thinking lately, though, that it might be fun to return to some of the original 10 books in the series.
I re-read all the books I own. If I’m not going to re-read it, I don’t keep it. I suppose I miss out on good books that, if read at a different point in my life would really touch me, but I can’t bring myself to pick up a book a second time if I hated it the first. Lord of the Flies, I’m looking at you.
I love rereading Tamora Pierce and the Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. They never get old….
On the not-getting-at-a-certain-age-but-rereading-when-older note, for me it was Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. I hated it when I read it for AP English in high school; re-read it three years later just for funsies and was blown away. Totally was not understanding critical race dialogue at the time, so makes sense the genius flew right over my head.
I also reread everything – if I read something once and know I’m not going to read it again, it goes off to the charity shop. (Or the recycling bag, in the case of Twilight, which I read the first half of before all the kerfuffle about it and was inspired by such violent rage that I wasn’t going to charity shop it because I refused to be responsible for anyone else reading it!)
I read Catch-22 probably four times a year, Fire and Hemlock (Diana Wynne Jones) is my favourite book ever and I could read it once a week.
The exception to the rereading rule is Slaughterhouse 5, which I found too harrowing to read again. That’s an incredible, horrible book. I have everything Vonnegut wrote and everything else is very well thumbed. The Once and Future King is similar – I can only reread it when I have gotten over the trauma of the last time! I am currently nearly at the end of the unabridged audiobook and it has had me having to turn it off in the car because it was making me cry.
I also turn to YA fantasy for comfort reading – as well as Victorian ghost stories and Agatha Christie.
I’m late to this thread because I’m in the throes of re-reading! I have my minor field exam on Monday and I’m re-reading the books on my list that I’d read before the semester started. I have 8 left. My head hurts.
But as far as the intent of this thread goes, I’m with Es – I re-read everything. Literally. If I’m not going to re-read it, it goes to a book swap, the library, or a used book shop.
My favorites to re-read are Mercedes Lackey and other fantasy/sci-fi. I think I’ve said it before, but I can no longer read Anne McCaffery anymore. I am finding I really appreciate silly fantasy/sci-fi. I spend so much time reading about rape, war, labor strife, the suffrage movement, more war and rape, that I just can’t deal with it in my fiction anymore. I think there’s going to be a culling of my personal library very soon. Which my local public library will profoundly appreciate.
It’s funny that Stephen King wouldn’t read Jane Austen, because two books that I repeatedly reread (and I don’t reread much anymore, because time is limited and I’ve decided I’d mostly rather read new things) are “Pride and Prejudice” (Austen) and “The Stand” (King). Two others I reread are “These Happy Golden Years” (Wilder) and “Little Women” (Alcott).
One book I would unfortunately not suggest rereading is “Life of Pi” (Martel). It loses all its magic and mystery the second time around. Love it the first time, remember it forever, pass it along to someone else, but don’t reread it. That’s my advice.