I don’t usually read a book more than once, knowing that there are so many wonderful books waiting to be opened and enjoyed for the first time. I did, however, re-read Annie Proulx’s The Shipping News a second time because I loved the way she drew the characters and their lives in Newfoundland.
Some Thoughts on the Pleasures of Being a Re-Reader by Verlyn Klinkenborg in the May 29th issue of The New York Times is convincing. Maybe I’ll go back to the Thomas Wolfe novels that I loved many years ago. What books would you choose?
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Jane Austen and Somerset Maugham come to mind immediately. Then I think of John Steinbeck. But then there's a bunch of Russian authors. I guess I'm saying there are a lot of books and authors that I would deliberately reread. However, I have a real problem when I pick up a book, thinking it's for the first time, and then after reading however many pages, realize I've already read it.
ReplyDeleteI've read a number of books twice but I'm embarassed to admit none of them are classics (I'm pretty light on that area considering I was an English major!). Cold Mountain and Beloved are a few I chose to reread; Plainsong by Kent Haruf has given me a lot of pleasure on a number of occassions. And just this past year I decided to reread To Kill a Mockingbird and was absolutely enthralled by it. I know I couldn't have enjoyed it that much when I first read it during my adolescence. I guess life lessons can increase our enjoyement of literature.
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