I was thinking about a quote from Roberston Davies:
Now there are plenty of great books that deserve to be re-read (and plenty of book suggestion threads) but does anyone have personal examples of books that make this quote particularly ring true?
Heh, I guess this question is mainly for those who have reached “old age” (if it’s to be answered completely).
I’m not old enough to give a complete answer, but when I am its likely that I’ll be choosing from a pretty small list of books - I didn’t read too many masterpieces as a kid. Two candidates I can think of:
The Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin. Enchanted by it as a ten year old, still think its one of the best books ever written for young adults and don’t see myself changing my mind when I’m old and grey.
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe. Most of the fantasy books I read as a kid would have me laughing out loud if I picked them up now. This one would make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, just as it did the first time round.
i can think of more thanm a few books worth a second or even third read.
i first read to kill a mockingkird as a seventh grader. i thought it was a great book even then, but re-reading it as a high school student, then an adult allowed me to understand nuances i had missed when i was twelve.
re-reading it yet again after becoming a father gave me even more insight into the character of atticus finch. we bring our life’s experience to every book we read. reading great literature at different times of our lives allows us to more fully understand what an author was trying to say.
Ulysses, Finnegans Wake.
(Go figure, eh?)
longhair75, I came here to mention To Kill a Mockingbird as well. I had to read it in high school, and just* knew* I was going to hate it. But I ended up loving it instead. I still re-read it every couple of years. If I had to pick one favorite part, it would be after the trial concluded, and the black minister bent down to tell Scout “Miss Jean Louise, stand up, your father’s passing.”
I was a child when The Lord of the Rings was first published. I am in my late fifties now. I have found new meaning in The Lord of the Rings as I have passed from childhood to adolescence to maturity to whatever I am now (I can’t quite face up to “old age.”)
I first read Huckleberry Finn when it was assigned in 8th grade. It was assigned again in the 11th grade and in college. I’ve reread it more times as an adult.
It was a completely different book each time.
That is exactly how I feel about WoE. Thanks Myler.
I’ve read Gone With the Wind dozens of times, the first one nearly 30 years ago. As I’ve neared and passed their ages I’ve come to identify with different characters for different reasons. If one can stomach (or flip past) the racism, it’s an amazing epic.
Just you mentioning this bit almost made me cry.
It’s the best bit of the movie as well (possibly the best ever book to film adaption).
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, of course. It should be read for the first time around age 10, and repeated at least once every five years from that point onwards. I’m sure that many people never even notice the philosophy behind it the first time, or even the first few times they go through the series; I know for a fact that I didn’t.
Like me! I first read this at 10 and have read it at least 10 times in the 15 years since then. There’s so much I didn’t get at first that I get now.
I have many other books which I feel fit: 1984, Redwood, The Hobbit - but I don’t think I’m quite at the age the OP has in mind.
Revolt in the Desert by T. E. Lawrence
Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl
both being part of current reprintings by Common Reader Classic Bestsellers (CRCB) and available at Barnes & Noble for $(.98.
Mind the shift - that’s $9.98
I"m gonna take a different route and name a book written for kids.
It was called The Pushcart War. I read it as a kid (5th grade or so) and then reread it in college when we were doing a bit on children’s novels in a class I had.
On the surface, it’s about a battle between the trucks and pushcarts in NYC. But when I reread it, I realized what an excellent political satire it was.
The problem for me is that as a kid I loved reading fiction and read many great books - War of the Worlds, 1984, Animal Farm, Moby Dick, Frankenstien, etc. As I get older, though, the less I enjoy some one elses fictional world. It becomes impossible, then, to reread what I once enjoyed as a child. Books I have read since I was a kid, like HGTG, Catch 22, and Wuthering Heights, will likely undergo this same fate. My only real exception is Bridge to Teribetha, which I read as a kid and read a couple months ago. That was mainly because my friend and I had a bond similar to Jess and Aarons, and although that has recently changed (ok, we were not actually like them), I’ll probably read it as an adult.