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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.
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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.
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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.
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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!)
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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.
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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?
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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 =)
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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.
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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".)
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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.
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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)
May I respectfully call the the attention of the Board that nobody has cited a single instance of the above quotation having any merit whatsoever. It is a piece of burbling balderdash.
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May I respectfully call the the attention of the Board that nobody has cited a single instance of the above quotation having any merit whatsoever. It is a piece of burbling balderdash.your claim may well have some merit, bill.  but I will cite one instance in opposition, which may be a special case. I have had occasion to recommend a volume of some weight to friends only to be met with weighty questions I had not considered upon their completion of said volume. in such circumstances, when rereading the volume in question, one surely will learn things about his original reading, and perhaps himself.
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May I respectfully call the the attention of the Board that nobody has cited a single instance of the above quotation having any merit whatsoever. It is a piece of burbling balderdash.Well, what can you expect, after all? Look at the occupations of the author!  (No offense, wow--I know you're the exception to the rule.) There is certainly merit in what you say, wwh. Many times I have read a book for the second or even third time, and found something I hadn't noticed before. EDIT: Dag nabbit, tsuwm! You snuck yours in two seconds ahead of mine, and now everybody will think I copied off you! [mock frown emoticon]
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bridget96
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.
I am glad for the list Bridget. I will add them to my collection for my future grandchildren.
Just recently I learned of the existence of a child's book, playful and childlike in its subject, but when I read it, I cried. The book is the Runaway Bunny and it was the book read to a dying Emma Thompson by her mentor in the great movie adaptation of the play "WIT".
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Bobyoungbalt
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.
You must be a most scintillating person at a party. I sure would love to have you at my table for an evening of dazzling conversation. (A caveat: is it possible that of your 500 and my 500, no two books are alike?)
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Well, the divine Jane, of course. When I was living in Banjarmasin (Kalimantan Selatan), there was no source of English language reading material near to hand so re-reading the books I had brought with me was all there was. Of course there's AWAD these days, so who has time to read books for the first time  Bingley
Bingley
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Until very recently we had about 2000 books. We're now down to maybe 1000 for THE BIG SHIFT. Looking around the two bookcases I have in THIS room, I've read all of the novels at least twice with only a couple of exceptions. The technical books - well, some of them I only ever look at one chapter, the one I bought the book for in the first place.
I find that I pick up more the second time through the book because I'm not so focussed on "what happens next". I tend to agree with Bill that the statement in the first post is at the least a gross overstatement. Some books make you look inwards, but I prefer books which take me out of myself! If a book doesn't do this I tend to give it the heave fairly quickly.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Jackie
Well, what can you expect, after all? Look at the occupations of the author! (No offense, wow--I know you're the exception to the rule.)......
Jackie, my friend, the curious part of my brain is intrigued by this statement. I have no clue. Please share.
It is not easy to reread something. There are obstacles on so many fronts. Time, mood, time, distractions, and the list goes on and on. Becasue of this it is so interests me to know what other people are rereading nowadays, because they must be very special books.
I consider it my greatest literary feat last year to have finished reading the first of the series of Proust's Remembrance...I have been carrying the book all around the globe for the last 15 years, hoping to get past the first chapter at least. Finally last year because of a medical incident which allowed me the luxury of being waited hand and foot, I was able to do it. While I was reading it , I kept thinking I will reread this book, definitely.
So far the only books I have read twice are Pride and Prejudice, The Sportswriter by Richard Ford, Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
I am 20 years behind in my reading, compared to all the other people on this forum, so I shouldn't even be thinking of rereading!
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I reread for various reasons. One is to sort revisit an old friend. Just as I enjoy watching reruns of M*A*S*H or whatever, I can enjoy a story all over again, but a great book is particularly enjoyable to reread. Also, when I reread a book I know that it's going to be a good book! It is also nice to be in the company of the many characters found in great books, such as Atticus Finch, or Huckleberry Finn, or Yossarian from "Catch 22".
Some of the books I have reread are "Pride and Prejudice," which I think I have read about 4 times (I lost count); "The Moviegoer" by Walker Percy (which I actually liked less the 3rd time around); "Day of the Jackal" by Frederick Forsyth; "The Giver" by Lois Lowry; "Moby Dick" (a really great book--I don't know why it has this awful reputation, except that we are forced to read it in 10th grade when we'd all rather be doing something else); "The Name of the Rose," (what a wonderful book--talk about always finding more to dig out!); and "To Kill a Mockingbird."
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Yes, I think I am somewhere along the same paths you guys take. Like you, CK, there are few books on my groaning shelves (in every single room of the house bar none!) that I have not read at least twice, unless they are the squirrel store I lay up for future choice.
And like you, Alex, I re-read for quite a variety of reasons - one of which is very definitely along the lines of the quote. If a book's reading does not entail some change in state of the reader, why bother?
But sometimes I will go back out of curiosity or other reasons. For example, when ill I took the time in bed to slice through all the Hornblower novels which I last read when I was ten-twelve. It was largely triggered by several mentions in this forum.
I re-read collections and anthologies of poetry on a fairly regular basis, re-read bridge books in a hopeless attempt to land that 7NT on a combined Vienna Coup and revolving squeeze, re-read some light fiction just for fun, and some classics to sharpen my mind's teeth.
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Bingley>>>>
there was no source of English language reading material near to hand so re-reading the books I had brought with me was all there was.
You actually lived (or close to it)that oft-heard game "if you know you are going to be cast away to an island, with no hope of being rescued, which 12 books will you take with you?" or some such scenario. WoW!
Of course there's AWAD these days, so who has time to read books for the first time
Alas, and indeed what's a book to do.
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Well it was more like 120, but I suppose it was a bit like that, yes.
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Books I have read more than once :
It will be a Classic for future generations : Louis de Bernieres -"Captain Corelli's Mandolin" in my UK edition, called simply "Corelli's Mandolin" in US. (Soon to be a major motion picture coming to a theater near you, or so I hear.)
Jack Finney - "Time and Again."
Arthur Meeker Jr. - "The Ivory Mischief" the prefatory note reads : "None of the characters in this novel is imaginary." Copyright 1941 The Riverside Press Cambridge Mass. It is an historical novel and was my intro to the genre.
When I was young I read "Jane Eyre" several times. Later I came to appreciate "Wuthering Heights" (and better understand all that naughty stuff between Cathy and Heathcliff)
I have three shelves of Hawaiiana which I go to when the Islands call to me : "Ruling Chiefs of Hawaii" is a good one to dip into at random --Von Tempski's "Born in Paradise" is the true story of a young woman growing up in the 1930s -- and for history, dates etc - "The Queen's Story" and "The Betrayal of Liliuokalani" -- and a book of Hawaiian sayings.
Now as to "if you know you are going to be cast away to an island, with no hope of being rescued, which 12 books will you take with you?"
Top of the list would be "A Guide to Practical Shipbuilding."
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wow
For somebody who looks up to her elders (age here is reckoned by the number of books read, and reread) for guidance, I sure have many to look up to. I am impressed by your list. Except for the Brontes, all are new to me.
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wordcrazy :
OH! I could write a three page post about those books. What a treat you have ahead! You may have to search for a used copy of "Ivory Mischief" ...and as for "Time and Again" !!!
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Do you know that Keats actually wrote a sonnet on this matter of rereading a classic? I just saw it today and I am thrilled. (Sorry, this is not the thread for "sublime rime" but the subject belongs to this thread, forgive me)
On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again
O golden-tongued Romance with serene lute!
Fair plumed Siren! Queen of far away!
Leave melodizing on this wintry day,
Shut up thine olden pages, and be mute;
Adieu! for once again the fierce dispute
Betwixt damnation and impassioned clay
Must I burn through; once more humbly assay
The bitter-sweet of this Shakespearean fruit.
Chief Poet! and ye clouds of Albion,
Begetters of our deep eternal theme,
When through the old oak forest I am gone,
Let me not wander in a barren dream,
But when I am consumed in the fire,
Give me new Phoenix wings to fly at my desire.
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