What book do you wish you could read for the first time again?

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I seem to remember (or is it an projection of a memory?) that reading Gravity's Rainbow was like wandering the streets of an immense metropolis where the buildings towered into the sky, so large that I that a single stone used in one was, compared to the structure so large was the building, no more than a mote of dust, and I felt, in this city, the same because of how lost in the unfamiliarity of what it contained.

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Thursday, 24 June 2004 05:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Gone With the Wind. God, but that was an amazing book.

― Rowie (Rowie), Thursday, 24 June 2004 07:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Was it really, Rowie? I've been wondering a lot about it - the novel I mean, I always suspected it'd be much better than the movie. Would you reccomend it?

As for me, David Copperfield is probably my choice...i had never read anything by Dickens, and also had this vague idea that it would be a childish read, whereas I got more and more surprised with the humanity in it and the laughter and the tears...

― misshajim (strand), Thursday, 24 June 2004 07:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I see what you mean about GR, Leefuse, but having just read it for the second time I can promise you that it's even better next time around - whole new layers unravel that you just don't have the time to take in first time.

By the way if you are after a similarly overwhelming sense of (happy) disorientation, try Ben Marcus' The Age Of Wire And String; as one reader put it, "I couldn't even find my way to the bathroom after reading it".

Oh and if I could read a book again for the first time I would say Philip K Dick's The Man In The High Castle for the sheer stomach-flipping oh-my-god-ness of it...

― Mog, Thursday, 24 June 2004 08:06 (twenty-one years ago)

the heart is a lonely hunter.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 24 June 2004 11:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I love that book.

ulysses?

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 24 June 2004 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I wish I could read it for the first time, again.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 24 June 2004 12:23 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Monster at the End of This Book" - it had my favorite Sesame Street character, Grover, in it.

― yesabibliophile (yesabibliophile), Thursday, 24 June 2004 12:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The Club Dumas

― Jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 24 June 2004 12:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Mists of Avalon, To Kill A Mockingbird and Little Women

― Denise Plauché (silverdee), Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Little, Big - John Crowley

― Rob in the rain in Juarez, Thursday, 24 June 2004 14:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian. Wow. It started a whole new obsession for me.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 24 June 2004 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I should read 'the heart is a lonely hunter' again. it's often I forget it's my favourite my book though perhaps it's often it isn't my favourite book and then, almost magically, - . I don't think I even own it at the moment.

― cozen (Cozen), Thursday, 24 June 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

i loaned it to someone and never got it back, boo hoo.

― lauren (laurenp), Thursday, 24 June 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, Watership Down, although to fully appreciate it I would have to be nine again, and I'm not sure I want to do that.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Peter Beagle's "The Last Unicorn," which I wanted to re-read as soon as I finished the last page. And the first Harry Potter--how could so many publishers have turned it down??

― Carol Robinson (carrobin), Thursday, 24 June 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I guess the only books I would wish to read for the first time again will be mysteries. Doyle and Christie.

― Fred (Fred), Friday, 25 June 2004 09:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm trying my damnedest to get as far away from my first time w/ Ulysses as I possibly can.

(Nb. I love Ulysses)

I see what you mean about GR, Leefuse, but having just read it for the second time I can promise you that it's even better next time around

Yes it's quite good, I "got" more of it the second time and purely enjoyed it a tonne, but I got a (masochistic?) thrill out of feeling so tiny against something as monolithic as GR.

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Friday, 25 June 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

The Velveteen Rabbit

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Saturday, 26 June 2004 05:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series.

― SJ Lefty, Saturday, 26 June 2004 21:35 (twenty-one years ago)

Ulysses, in a way. But then, that would be to cast away much learning. Let the past live, back in its own time?

I read Gravity's Rainbow for the first time, mostly last summer. Leefuse describes it intriguingly, but I cannot share the enthusiasm if that's what it is. I found it befuddling, but not rewarding.

― the bellefox, Monday, 28 June 2004 12:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i've never been able to get much beyond the bananas bit.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 28 June 2004 15:04 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it does not improve, beyond that bit.

― the bellefox, Monday, 28 June 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

_A Very Long Engagement_, by Japrisot. Sigh.

― Mrs. Brian Johnson, Monday, 28 June 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Youth In Revolt

― DPJ, Monday, 28 June 2004 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm nearing the end of Tristan et Iseult and already wishing I could have my memory of every heartrending twist erased and start over again... right now I could swear this is still the best story ever told.

― Ann Sterzinger (Ann Sterzinger), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 00:11 (twenty-one years ago)

misshajim: very few movies compare to the book. Especially this one. the scarlett o'hara i your mind will be better than vivian leigh, the rhett butler in your mind will kick thingo's ass (ok, ok, i only ever saw the start of the movie). read the book, it is amazing!

If anyone disagrees, well, i'm sure you'll survive :>

― Rowie (Rowie), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 07:39 (twenty-one years ago)

This is me, and Gravity's Rainbow:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/jupiter-flyby/images/iss_010123c.jpg

― Leeefuse 73 (Leee), Tuesday, 29 June 2004 20:57 (twenty-one years ago)

The Old Curiosity Shop. I had a 36 hour ferry trip and this book for company. I thought it would be grim, but it was hilarious. I lay on top of a bunch of grain sacks and read it in one sitting. A totally entwined experience of book and place.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 10:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Anything by Raymond Chandler - not for the plots (my memory's too bad to make that a problem) but for the breathtaking language.

― Matthew S, Wednesday, 30 June 2004 11:56 (twenty-one years ago)

three weeks pass...

silk by alessandro barrico would be my choice,that was amazing

― armen, Sunday, 25 July 2004 05:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I must agree with Rowie... "Gone with the Wind" is absolutely great!

― Alina (Alinette), Sunday, 25 July 2004 21:04 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

[spam]

― google pr main, Friday, 7 April 2006 00:19 (nineteen years ago)

I re-read Watership Down in a sitting the other night, and was amazed to realise how much of it had sunk into me, age nine. I thought it was amazing then, and was still charmed, the other night.

― stet (stet), Friday, 7 April 2006 02:18 (nineteen years ago)

Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey is another one.

But I still stick by my two original choices from this thread. To read either of them now, for the first time...

Although, given that Master and Commander kicked off a whole obsession with books-with-pictures-of-ships-on-the-cover, I wonder would I have to unread all of those as well, in order to get the thrill back? Or would my grounding in clewing and luffing and so on stand me in even better stead with Mr. O'Brian?

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Friday, 7 April 2006 07:45 (nineteen years ago)

The Player of Games

― Navek Rednam (Navek Rednam), Friday, 7 April 2006 08:39 (nineteen years ago)

none of them.

that mikey g has very romantic reading habits, apparently. or possibly adventure story reading habits. i'm not sure what to call them.

― tom west (thomp), Friday, 7 April 2006 09:35 (nineteen years ago)

I would love to read In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin with a fresh mind. It sounded like the best place on earth and truly was.

Tom West, stop coming on to me, you frisky flirt.

― Mikey G (Mikey G), Friday, 7 April 2006 10:23 (nineteen years ago)

[spam]

― google pain spam, Tuesday, 11 April 2006 14:54 (nineteen years ago)

[spam]

― google spammama, Wednesday, 12 April 2006 18:39 (nineteen years ago)

Registered only to ward off spam. Sorry.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Wednesday, 12 April 2006 23:26 (nineteen years ago)

So no more threads like this?

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 13 April 2006 00:34 (nineteen years ago)

And only threads like this?

― In The Court Of The Redd King Harvest (Ken L), Thursday, 13 April 2006 00:35 (nineteen years ago)

No I mean this thread is now registered-only.

Although, wow, making the whole board registered only is halfway tempting, although what would we talk about?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Thursday, 13 April 2006 01:05 (nineteen years ago)

Without Seeing the Dawn by Steven Javelina, of course.

― Aimless (Aimless), Thursday, 13 April 2006 12:52 (nineteen years ago)

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