rereading

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i don't reread books very often, but i think perhaps i should; for example i'm dman sure i'm going to read gravity's rainbow a couple more times. i also rarely watch films more than once. should i? do you?

― toby, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Fairly often re: books and movies. Getting the pleasure out of it again, finding something there that wasn't noticed before, there are lots of reasons for me.

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Rereading gravity's rainbow = KEY.

― Alan T, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i have a ferocious memory, which means that after about a year i've entirely forgotten the plot/characters of books/films. This means that in literary pub debates I can generally pipe up enough to say 'I've read that!' without the ability to back it up with any kind of opinion besides a vague description of the book jacket.

This means that I must re-read, but it seems a shame to be ploughing old ground when there are so many new books that I'd like to read. maybe i just want to be gareth lee.

― nickie, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i reread probably more than i read

― mark s, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Rereading. Nevah. Too many other books that I want to read. Re-watching movies? Hell yeah.

― helenfordsdale, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love rereading. Partly to pick up things i've never noticed, but mainly if I know the mood a book evokes matches how I'm feeling. I also location read, so Manchester gets Jeff Noon, going to a remote part of Wales made me rumage through childhood books for The Owl Service.

― Anna, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This means that I must re-read, but it seems a shame to be ploughing old ground when there are so many new books that I'd like to read. maybe i just want to be gareth lee.

hee hee! yes, i know, i do seem to be ploughing through books at the moment. BUT! i reread Donald Antrims The Verificationist last month, and enjoyed it even more than the first time around. Gravitys Rainbow definitely needs a reread, probably hundreds of rereads, before i can even begin to get inside it. i'd like to reread a lot of my books, but as nickie says, there seem to be new ones flying onto my shelves all the time (perils of too many nice 2nd hand books shops near by - not like those overpriced greenwich ones - ha!)

― gareth, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Due to having a crap memory, re-reading is most exciting - I can never remember what's going to happen at the end. Same with re- watching movies.

I can usually remember book covers so I'll see a cover and think: Ooh, that was a good book - but have no idea what it was about. At least I know I am going to enjoy it if I read it again though!

― toraneko, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

It's a hackneyed expression but, like Cyril Connolly sez: literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice.

This book is urgent and key.

― Edna Welthorpe, Mrs, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

My memory, like toraneko's, gets a bit fuzzy after awhile so I always enjoy re-reading things.

Unfortunately I've been so busy I haven't had much time to actually read anything in the first place, let alone re-read...

― Nicole, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

mark s = wise. i do keep thinking that rereading is a v good idea, but then go and buy another 10 second hand books the next day. and i've just discovered that imperial has a decentish fiction library, so now my desk at work has vineland, mason + dixon, and the verificationist lying on it tempting me away from work. damn.

where are these reasonably priced 2nd hand bookshops of which you speak, gareth? i don't think there's any chance of me buying less books, but it'd be good to get them at cheaper prices (yes i know that's not how it will actually work, but humour me).

― toby, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

church st books, stoke newington, n16. this is probably the best one

then there is also notting hill book exchange, skoob at russell square, and judd between russell square and euston (these last 2 are overpriced in my view and not as good as i expected, but you may want to go anyway)

there is ek on gillespie road, highbury, can be overpriced and has the same old same old (harvill prints of murakami and bulgakov etc), there is a much tattier and cheaper one just round the corner on blackstock road though (£1 a book, but you have to root around)

ocean books on church st, is ok, but is like a slightly pricier version of church st books.

― gareth, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

A LOT pricier in my experience. Go the Church St books way.

― N., Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've been rereading constantly to avoid buying new books. HAsn't worked on the Doctor Who front (shocker!), but all my other SF/fantasy books have helped pick up the slack.

― Dan Perry, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

When I'm low on cash or can't be bothered going to the bookstore I like to re-read certain books. On occasion I get something new out of the book. I wouldn't do it for all books, though.

I would watch and re-watch my favourite films til I go blue in the face. As my friends would attest with me and Withnail & I

― electric sound of jim, Thursday, 28 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I watched Ghostworld twice on the same day cos my sister came over and hadn't seen it. Watching the same film in succession like this is useful. Even when I rewind a video and rewatch a segment, I notice the acting as acting, much more so than I normally do.

I watched Un Chien Andalou twice in four days. I had seen it once years ago in French class. The first rewatch was fantastic, the second less so. I think if the progress of a film is nonlinear, or if it depends upon mood more than narrative, i.e., if the relation between scenes is established by some inherent logic in the film itself, then it's better not to watch it multiple times in succession because the predictability of the scenes obscures this.

― youn, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

GR is the only book I ever devoted myself to rereading often -- that & books for papers I would read a few times. Also political, philosophic works, &c. but mainly coz I refer to them and then get caught up in them all over again. I already own unread:read books in a 15:1 ratio or so. Which is like many hundereds.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 1 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

I'm looking forward to old age and/or sufficiently irretractable tenure so that I can stop reading so many books I've never read before and just reread the ones I really like.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 16 June 2003 06:48 (twenty-two years ago)

and the idea here is that even though all of these threads will draw a handful of posts and then die again, maybe one will get going.

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 16 June 2003 06:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I watch films again far more often than I reread books. In the last couple of weeks ITV showed The Searchers and Rio Bravo at convenient times, and I watched them again. These are two among scores of films that i've watched three or more times, whereas there are only a handful of books that I've read that often. Dhalgren (seven times, I think) may be the only one I've read more than three times. I've read some comics more times than that. I guess it's the time and commitment - rereading GR, which seems an excellent example of something that would repay a reread, is a much bigger deal than rereading any comic book or switching the channel for another viewing of even a long film (I guess I've seen Seven Samurai four times now).

Yes, I need a lengthy retirement with sufficient intact faculties to reread these thousands of books I have kept.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 16 June 2003 11:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I re-read very rarely as I'd just like to move on to the next book. I do, however, re-watch films all of the time. Even films where I can recite the whole script. I always end up laughing before the funny incident has occured, much to the disgust of my b/f!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Monday, 16 June 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, I hardly ever reread. The only books I can think of off the top of my head that I've read more than once are A Confederacy of Dunces, White Noise, and Lolita.

― NA. (Nick A.), Monday, 16 June 2003 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I love rereading. I used to do it all the time. Of course, now, I'm lucky if I even read...

― Chris P (Chris P), Monday, 16 June 2003 23:34 (twenty-two years ago)

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