[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee]
There are books I’ve re-read at different points in my life and taken away from them different things each time. Different people experience the same text differently, and most of us do not stay the same person throughout our entire lives. So while there is definitely a comfort factor, I do think there’s more to be gained from re-reads than simply the pleasure of familiarity.
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Oh, I don’t doubt it and my experience with the little re-reading I’ve done definitely confirms this. It’s that just given a choice of reading a new book and rereading, I’m going to choose reading a new book 99% of the time.
[QUOTE=HazelNutCoffee]
There are books I’ve re-read at different points in my life and taken away from them different things each time. Different people experience the same text differently, and most of us do not stay the same person throughout our entire lives. So while there is definitely a comfort factor, I do think there’s more to be gained from re-reads than simply the pleasure of familiarity.
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Well said.
I do some of my re-reading in the form of audiobooks. That leaves my regular reading time for new stuff. Also, I get a whole different experience when I listen. I recently heard something in an audiobook that I could swear wasn’t there when I read it. I had to go look it up. Although of course the source was identical, it was interesting how the words which bounced off the page to my eyes weren’t the same words which especially drew my attention when I heard it read aloud.
[QUOTE=Smokinjbc]
I have always been more likely to re-read than to read a new book, so I recently joined a paperback service similar to Netflix to make it easier to branch out. For me, it’s about spending time with characters I love or who are thought provoking and trying to catch things I missed the first time around. Also, I have books forever,I can’t get rid of them (another reason I joined Paperspine, so I HAVE to give them back LOL), so I can pick up a book I haven’t read in 10 years or so and see it from a different, more mature perspective. Recently, I re-read Gone with The Wind and it was an entirely different experience for me and I enjoyed it more this time than any other, especially the last few chapters.
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How are you liking Paperspine? I’ve been using Booksfree for the past several months and really liked it a lot. I was sort of skeptical about the whole Netflix-for-books deal, but it’s working out a lot better than I would have thought.
To answer the OP, I’ve re-read more books than I’ve read only once. I have favorites that I come back to over and over (there are books I’ve read dozens of times for one reason or another - they’re old friends). Robin McKinley’s books are like this for me, for example.
Partially because I read so quickly (generally well over 100 pages an hour) and have at least two guaranteed hours of reading every weekday (I take public transit to work with an hour commute), but partially because I find new things even in books I’ve read dozens of times. Sometimes things resonate differently with me after time has passed. I’m not the same person I was when I was 13, or 15, or 25, or 30 - I’m bringing different things to the same story.
Not to mention that if I thought the book was entertaining once, it’s value as entertainment hasn’t magically disappeared because I’ve read it once before. I can enjoy a movie more than once, and books are much the same for me.
[QUOTE=PaperBlob]
Hey Ranchoth, glad to see I’m not the only one who’s read the Mad Scientists Club books. I really loved those!
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Did you hear about the two additional novels that were published a couple of years ago, after being out of print (or never finding a publisher) since the early 70s?
[QUOTE=Aangelica]
How are you liking Paperspine? I’ve been using Booksfree for the past several months and really liked it a lot. I was sort of skeptical about the whole Netflix-for-books deal, but it’s working out a lot better than I would have thought.
.
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I liked it alot at first, even upgraded so I could have 3 books out at a time, but at this moment I’m a bit p.o’d since they supposedly shipped my next book 10 days ago and I haven’t received it and have nothing to read for my $20 a month. It’s the first time in two months since I started that the book wasn’t here within 5 days so maybe it was a post office mistake. The selection is pretty good, though a few of the books on the top of my queue still haven’t come available but for the most part I’m happy with it.
If anyone wants to help me get free months- I can send a referral code
[QUOTE=pulykamell]
It’s not necessarily a different reading experience, it’s a personality thing–at least for me. It’s the decision between making the time to experience something new and different which you don’t know you’ll like vs. the comfort of re-reading something you already know pleases you. There’s so many books I eventually want to get to reading that I feel my reading time is better spent experiencing new books rather than re-reading old ones. That’s why I don’t re-read books, generally, and why I don’t re-watch movies generally. I kinda prefer unknown quantities to known ones, especially when there’s limited time I could devote to them. Now, for shorter works, like poems, short stories, episodes of the Simpons, those I can more easily experience multiple times.
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Some people read for the thrill of a new experience or different information; for others, the experience of reading is itself an immersive one - it is like re-visiting a country you have been to before, you may not have exactly the same experience you had the last time – because the experience is created by the book (which doesn’t change) and your mindset (which does). However, not everyone seems to experience it that way.
The only book I’ve re-read is “The Eyes of the Dragon” by Stephen King. It is the first book I remember reading for fun as a kid. I’ve re-read it at least 10 times since. Every time I read it, it takes me back to memories of summer vacations, friends long gone…
Additionally, I fully intend to re-read “The Dragonlance Chronicles”. I was sad when I finished the triology. It seemed like I lost some good friends when I was done.
[QUOTE=Ranchoth]
Did you hear about the two additional novels that were published a couple of years ago, after being out of print (or never finding a publisher) since the early 70s?
Made my frigggin day, I’ll tell you now.
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Thanks - you just made my day too! My birthday is coming up and this year I know what I’ll be asking for.
All the books in my bookshelves - otherwise they don’t get to be there.
But one that stands out is “The Longships” by Frans G Bengtsson (though I read that one in Swedish as Röde Orm)
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Are you my husband, and did you change your user name without telling me? He, too, re-reads everything, and one of his all-time favorites is The Long Ships (though he has it in Swedish as well, he first read it in Danish).
[QUOTE=Left Hand of Dorkness]
I very rarely reread a book. For me, a tremendous part of the pleasure from reading is the move from ignorance to knowledge: watching the story unfold is just wonderful (for that reason, it fills me with irrational irritation to see someone flip to the end of a book, and I usually won’t read blurbs). On a reread, this pleasure is gone. I’ve tried many times to reread a favorite book, and I generally fail.
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This, on the other hand, is totally me. My husband can not only re-read any book he’s ever read, but he often just opens them randomly to any old page and re-reads certain “scenes” because they were really good. I could no more do that than I could read in Russian. And yet, in a way it makes perfect sense, since I can do that with movies I’ve enjoyed, picking them up in the middle whenever I happen to catch them on television. But re-read a book? Can’t do it.
I barely even have the time to rewatch a movie that I’ve seen. Let alone commit to re-reading a book. I’m not even sure I’ve re-read a book since my childhood.
No matter how great a book, I cannot really justify to myself re-reading it. I’d rather try to suck one more ounce out of the offerings of life before my turn on this rock is over. (I love to read, but my writing is, quite apparently, shit.)
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of books I’d like to read. When I get time, I’d rather read those.
[QUOTE=Smokinjbc]
The Godfather- not a great book, but strangely addicting.
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Wow, you and I disagree on that one.
The Godfather, to me, is the best book ever. I’ve read it dozens of times. Probably at least once or twice a year for the last 20+ years.
2nd most re-read book: The Princess Bride (Red letter Edititon)
Those are my two biggies. I recently re-read the Bourne books. Boy, those didn’t hold up well over time. I found them VERY boring.
[QUOTE=Enright3]
Wow, you and I disagree on that one.
The Godfather, to me, is the best book ever. I’ve read it dozens of times. Probably at least once or twice a year for the last 20+ years.
2nd most re-read book: The Princess Bride (Red letter Edititon)
Those are my two biggies. I recently re-read the Bourne books. Boy, those didn’t hold up well over time. I found them VERY boring.
uh… and Dr. Suess.
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I guess I should say that it IS a great book, to me, I just always get :rolleyes: from other people like it’s utter trash. But it’s great trash- in all the best kinds of ways. I even like the Dr./Lucy/weird vagina subplot LOL.
Also.. just an update on my Paperspine issue, they tracked my missing books, it was a post office delay, but they are crediting my account for half of this month’s fee, even though I didn’t ask or expect it. So would reccommend them so far!
“Please Kill Me: The Oral History of Punk” (don’t know if that’s the exact title.)
“Fatal Flowers: On Sin, Sex and Suicide in the Deep South” by Rosemary Daniell.
I was thinking about books I might reread. Someone mentioned The Count of Monte Cristo, and while I think it’s damn near the perfect adventure story (and I mean that without an ounce of hyperbole: I’d seriously defend it as the novel equivalent of Hamlet, if that makes sense), the idea of rereading it makes me tired.
The second-best adventure story ever, though, has got to be Treasure Island. And the idea of rereading that makes me smile in anticipation.
Is anyone else more interested in rereading children’s books than rereading adult books? Or is it just me?
Books I’ve re-read so much I’ve worn them to tatters and in some cases had to buy new copies:
The Anne of Green Gables series (except Rainbow Valley)
The Harry Potter series
Gone With the Wind
The Stand
It
Different Seasons
Bridget Jones’ Diary
To Kill a Mockingbird
Like someone said upthread–for me, it’s about spending time with the characters, who are like old friends. It’s comfort food without the calories.
And with the epic-style novels like GWTW, It, and The Stand, I find something new every time I read. (Harry Potter’s good for that, too.)
Can’t believe I forgot to include Austen! Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility are both on my “re-read about once a year” list. And I’ve read all her others at least twice. Again, it’s the characters that keep bringing me back.
I’d second both Jane Austen’s and Terry Pratchett’s books, and add Steven Brust’s. I’m in the middle of my third reading of The Phoenix Guards. I’ve read several of Charles de Lint’s more than once also.
He, too, re-reads everything, and one of his all-time favorites is The Long Ships (though he has it in Swedish as well, he first read it in Danish).