|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275
enthusiast
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 275 |
Today's AWAD bonus quote:
When you re-read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in yourself than there was before. -Clifton Fadiman, editor and critic (1904-1999)
Who among you lucky ones was able to snatch from your precious discretionary time, time enough to re-read a book? It must be a special book in your life since nowadays we cannot seem to keep up with what the word factories are churning out for us.
In sharing with us what this precious book, please also tell us the circumstances that made you re-read, and why that particular book. Also, what is the "you see more in yourself than there was before" there for you.
chronist
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 107
member
|
|
member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 107 |
I have read Jane Eyre three times just because I love the story. I have read the Earth Children series (total of 4 books) 4 times or more. I love to hear about living off the land. Living off the land and fighting the elements, eating things that grow naturally, becoming self sufficient without the aid of cash. Sometime I would love to do it myself. I don't think its possible anymore.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
When I turned thirty I reread Pebble in the Sky and realised I was about twenty when I had last read it and close enough to ten the first time not to matter. I have since reread it close to every decade. It has given me some insights on what was in my mind the last time I read it, and times before.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 428 |
I love rereading books. You can get something new out of an old favorite every time. Speaking of our recently departed Galactic Hitchhiker, I have reread all of his books several times. I have read Catcher in the Rye more than twice, and I have a different reaction to it every time. Also the Lord of the Rings series - I was really too young to appreciate it the first time I tried it. I think it is almost necessary to read Umberto Eco several times before you really comprehend his depth (and that's only in translation!)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
I look forward to learning about Earth Children and Pebble in the Sky. I don't know either of them.
The last book I re-read was Goodnight, Moon.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I found pleasure in reading classics to my children. Many times I was suprised how much I had missed the first time I read them.
Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursel’s as others see us!
I cannot think of any book that did this for me.
I used to admire Clifton Fadiman. However I find it hard to accept this quotation. Very few of us have any talent for introspection. That's why there are psychoanalysts. Newton's Principia Mathematica is a classic, but even if I were able to read it with comprehension, what would I see in myself that I did not see before?
|
|
|
|
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
|
Anonymous
Unregistered
|
Every single night i include in the selection of bedtime stories one or more of the same books: Where the Wild Things Are (any parent can tell you how immensely cute it is to listen to a 2-year old recite the 'rolled there terrible eyes, showed their terrible claws, etc. passage), Goodnight Moon (kids particularly like the Little Old Lady Whispering Hush part, and also delight in the Goodnight Nobody paradox) and -- my personal favorite -- Max Lucado's "Just In Case You Ever Wonder", which has to be one of the sweetest books ever written.
as for 'grownup' books, i keep meaning to reread Watership Down. when i was a small child i read Jonathon Livingston Seagull countless times, but i'm not sure i would enjoy it as much now. perhaps you can learn something about yourself even in *not* rereading a book, if you have become too jaded to believe in what it used to mean to you =)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
I offer a direct copy from my 2nd. fiddle WAD:
"When you read a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did
before; you see more in yourself than there was before. -Cliff Fadiman"
Wordcrazy, you obviously got the sense of the quote. What I am wondering is whether I got a mailing from the parallel universe or something.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
It's also true for great theater (and I good movies, too) I have seen 3 productions of "the Glass Menagerie" and each time it is a different play-- First time round-- i thought "Tom" a rotten, no good heel-- last time, as in creditably courageous. I never saw Julia Harris as "Laura"-- but last time I saw her playing the mother-- Laura was played by Calista Lockheart.
All the production where "very good"-- and each time I saw the different things in the play-- I can't say i have notice as much of a change when i re-read a book-- but I don't often re-read fiction-- i often re read non fiction-- and find passage i didn't understand the first time round have grown clearer.. somehow just sitting on my book shelf for a few years improved the writing-- funny how that happens!
and the first time i saw the Ozzie film "Walkabout"-- (circa 1972) -- i was stunned– for many years it was one of my favorite movies.. I re- watched it-- and while it is still stunning-- It wasn't as good as i remembered it. Maybe because the Australian landscape-- which was so visually startling-- has become something recognizable.. and isn't as alien as it was the first time round..(in ‘72 I had very few "mental" images of Ozzie land– I hadn't read "the Thorn birds" or seen "a Town Like Alice" , "Ned Kelly" , "Picnic at Hanging Rock" or even "Crocodile Dundee"– Australia was "terra incognita".)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
|
|
veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
I have, conservative estimate, 500 books at home and of the total, I have re-read at least 400 of them at least once, some favorites maybe 10 times over the last 50+ years since I have been able to read (which was before I went to school -- I don't remember a time when I couldn't read and don't really know how I learned). Part of this is that I am such a voracious reader I'm always running out of books to read and can't afford to buy as many as I would like, so it's read the old ones.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,372
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
889
guests, and
1
robot. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
