do you read the same book more than once?

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i do.i am currently re-reading 'metamorphosis' by kafka, simply because i loved it the first time many years ago, and have found it in my library so i thought hey yeah ok great!
i have read many books again and again, just for the pleasure of re-experiencing the story, immersing myself in the writing.
lord of the rings i have read so many times, but once i saw the movie i kind of got over it.

― donna (donna), Friday, 1 November 2002 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

'ancient evenings' by mailer is another fave, and some from my childhood like the narnia series though they will only come out now when my son is older, they were good to re-read as a kid.
i think some books scream to be read many times over, just for the joy of reading.

― donna (donna), Friday, 1 November 2002 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)

no. but i'll prob read naked lunch by burroughs again.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 1 November 2002 20:13 (twenty-two years ago)

James Joyce takes several readings to even start to "get it"

― brg30 (brg30), Friday, 1 November 2002 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think that's true, unless maybe you mean finnegans wake. but it is true that there is plenty more to get with rereading.

I enjoy and benefit more from rereading now than I do reading, for most things I'm interested in reading - philosophy, literature.

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 1 November 2002 20:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I've read "Transformer: The Lou Reed Story" maybe four times. I don't know why. I've read Christgau's Guide to Rock Records of the 70's probably over a hundred times, but I've had it about 20 years, and I don't read it all the way through.

― Sean (Sean), Friday, 1 November 2002 21:32 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, especially when i'm upset, because i find books i love very comforting. like a few days ago i was feeling like i should feel guilty, even though i didn't, so i reread the screwtape letters. it didn't help make me feel less confused but it calmed me down, i guess.

― Maria (Maria), Friday, 1 November 2002 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I've read the book on creation records twice actually.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 1 November 2002 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

The first time I attempted 'Naked Lunch' I only made it half way. I've read it three times since then. Twice for 'Day of the Locust' and 'Under the volcano', which was hugely disappointing the second time. I've also read some Jim Thompson novels twice because I forget which ones I've read.

― Robert, Friday, 1 November 2002 23:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Fiction, not so much, not until a good deal of time has passed and my crappy bad memory has kicked in, anyway. Sometimes I get a feeling of almost physical revulsion from going back over the same thing, although I have this more in relation to films and tv than books, but still. I know this is a bit rubbish, layers and whatnot, but I just don't like it. I don't do a lot of re-reading of academic books either, which is probably why I'm not a philosopher (!?). If I don't get something that I can take into my imagination on the first go around, I'm unlikely to go back, and if I do, I'm unlikely to go back (except for instrumental writing reasons) later. And when I do, I've so reworked the stuff that the original is often mildly disappointing or at least not the same.

― Ellie (Ellie), Friday, 1 November 2002 23:51 (twenty-two years ago)

As a child, I used to read 'Children In Hiding' and 'The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler' over and over many times. I think I've read 'Lolita' almost once a year since reading it five years ago. Usually prefer to re-read books of poetry.

― Genevieve, Saturday, 2 November 2002 00:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Quite a few times, quite a few books. It makes new books that much more enjoyable, I think (which is why I'm loving Invisible Man so much), but a great book is always a joy to read again.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 2 November 2002 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Philip K Dick is great to reread, because the best part of his books are usually the background & subplots, which are easy to miss on the first reading. I tend to think that Kafka's short stories are all just a bad rip-off of Gogol. Gogol I can reread repeatedly. Lem I read over and over and over and over....

― Dave Fischer, Saturday, 2 November 2002 00:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Being a lit major, it was part and parcel with the routine, as I was bound to be in a class that I've read before. Oftentimes it produces good results, albeit not on an emotional/dramatic gutlevel, but the subtleties (emotional, dramatic, linguistic, whathaveyou) of a wellconceived book become more apparent to me with repeated exposures -- it really is like fine wine (a comment I make probably because I've become used to the idea of rereading (for pleasure or to close read) because of school, which also explains why I receive 'pleasure' from going, "Ahha! The angel imagery is a metaphor for the reader as opposed to characters who remain stuck within narrative!" and so forth (Gravity's Rainbow, btw)).

Of course, there's the changing tastes element, and I've (had to) reread books that I initially hated and it turns out that I now hold them very dear (Mrs. Dalloway). Or the other way around, such as, "I liked this dreck?" which is a pretty considerable letdown -- I don't want to name names here, though I will say that I'm sick of "Sirens" in Ulysses, having overkilled it for a paper.

― Leee (Leee), Saturday, 2 November 2002 02:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I also like to reread books after I find out they were influenced by another book I've read. In particular - "Being There" and "Candide", "Memoirs Found in a Bathtub" and "The Castle", "Brave New World" and "We", etc.

― Dave Fischer, Saturday, 2 November 2002 10:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I enjoy and benefit more from rereading now than I do reading, for most things I'm interested in reading - philosophy, literature.
Josh, why not read the second-half of the books you only half read. ;-)

I now picked up the habit of reading more than one book at once (not simultaneously naturally). Now I am reading a book by Woolf, Have Gun Will Travel, that damn Cassavetes book and ... a Simon Frith book.

― nathalie (nathalie), Saturday, 2 November 2002 13:27 (twenty-two years ago)

There are too many books that I want to read but haven't, so I always feel like I'm wasting time when I re-read.

― nickie (nickie), Saturday, 2 November 2002 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I OWN THIS THREAD.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Saturday, 2 November 2002 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I read De Berg van Licht prpbably five times already, it's a dutch novel from early 20th century about Roman emperor Heliogabalus, elobaratly written with big mass-scenes and hollywood glamour (cecil b demill-like), it's totally OTT and off course it shocked the dutch bourgousie of the day with it's gay orgies and stuff.

― dakatine, Saturday, 2 November 2002 15:42 (twenty-two years ago)

i read things to death. almost all of my books are beat to hell because i read them over and over. sometimes this makes me feel dumb- shouldnt i be exploring new worlds? but i am a creature of habit, and they are so comforting...

― amy (amy), Saturday, 2 November 2002 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Genevieve, have you seen "Slap Her, She's French!"?

― Graham (graham), Saturday, 2 November 2002 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I've read Dhalgren (Sam Delany) seven times now. Just reread Invisible Man, for reasons most will know. I've read a few things thrice, like Alice Hoffman's Seventh Heaven and a couple of old Dicks, and quite a few twice. I am generally much more keen on reading something new, though.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 3 November 2002 11:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I can't imagine that the Screwtape letters would calm anyone down. But it does always make me feel guilty, so I guess if that's what you wanted? Yes I do reread books.

― isadora (isadora), Sunday, 3 November 2002 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

― Mandee, Sunday, 3 November 2002 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, not trying to one-up Genevieve or Mandee, but I've reread Lolita at least 100 times, and actually took apart my first copy and reglued it back together so that the structure made more sense (I still have it in a box somewhere). I was also a lit major in college, which maybe explains some of this mentalistness. I actually get extremely impatient with linear narrative, so when I'm reading something for the first time I usually rush through it in order to be able to hold the whole thing in my head (and on, err, note cards) as a sort of spatial field in which I can then go back and line up and reflect on bits which aren't necessarily concurrent. But then again I'm a snob who doesn't read for plot. Christ, you can all hate me now.

― ch. (synkro), Monday, 4 November 2002 01:09 (twenty-two years ago)

ch. that is the coolest thing ever!

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 4 November 2002 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

don't usually read fiction things over, except for "the masque of the red death" by Poe. And "Bridge to Terabithia" I've read a few times and probably would again. and some (other) children's books... but it's been bugging me whether a book I really liked when I read it years ago, The Counterfeiters by Andre Gide was as great as I thought it was being a dumb(er)ass 21ishyearold at the time so maybe I'll take a look at that. I don't understand how someone can just "not read for plot", why ever read in order at all then? Do you ever read, say, a detective mystery?

― elizabeth ann marjorie, Monday, 4 November 2002 06:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I collect editions of Andy Warhol's "From A To B And Back Again". I read each edition at least once.

― Dickon Edwards, Monday, 4 November 2002 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

I couldn't make it through Andy Warhol's "a". Maybe I'll try again.

― Miss Laura, Monday, 4 November 2002 09:33 (twenty-two years ago)

The Counterfeiters is still an excellent book, Elizabeth.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 4 November 2002 12:59 (twenty-two years ago)

I OWN THIS THREAD.
Selfish bastard. ;-)

I can't see myself re-reading books because the list of unread books I want to read keeps on growing.

― nathalie (nathalie), Monday, 4 November 2002 13:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't understand how someone can just "not read for plot", why ever read in order at all then? Do you ever read, say, a detective mystery?

I often do read things out of order. The last two books I finished - LIGHTS OUT FOR THE TERRITORY by Iain Sinclair and THE MARRIAGE OF CADMUS AND HARMONY by Roberto Calasso - I read the chapters in a kind of knight's move pattern (two consecutive then one back, starting with chapter two). I used to read conventional fiction straight through, but if I find myself getting bored with a book after the first 30 pages or so I'll jump ahead and read backwards and see if that sparks any enthusiasm, though I've read very little regular fiction lately. I never read detective stories, I guess not out of total unrepetent snobbery, but more for the fact that the things I happen to like - digressions, puzzles, allusions, social commentary, description - tend to be found more often in High Ahht Litcherture. I guess it's just a matter of taste, but I'm not sure, I've never really thought about it before. Strictly non-fiction books I always read out of order, often using the index as a guide (I'll search it for topics that sound interesting, then go read the pages they refer to, and gradually everything will start to overlap).

I think a lot of this is simply due to my short attention span. I have trouble watching movies all the way through as well. Video games, or anything that allows you some interaction, are much better.

― ch. (synkro), Monday, 4 November 2002 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i am on to 'steppenwolf' for the second time now and am really enjoying it as i find bits i forgot about / never really 'took in' the first time around.
non-fiction books are great to re-read, i have a memory like a sieve, so always find stuff to interest me on 2nd or 3rd readings.

― donna (donna), Monday, 4 November 2002 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

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