Rereading is fundamental. (Or, why this blog post would never have happened if Star Trek II were on)
Monday, December 8, 2008 
The typical dorm room is roughly the size of a jail cell. Coincidence?In college, my roommate and I were the envy of everyone on Xavier Hall’s fourth floor. Not because we threw bacchanalian parties (we didn’t) or had the best view (nope--we overlooked an Ethiopian restaurant). We were the pride of the dorm because we had a 32” TV and a top-loading VCR, roughly the size of an overstuffed suitcase.
Bear in mind that this was back in the mid 80s, a prehistoric time when any technology not used in the creative consumption of beer was typically beyond the reach of most starving college students.
Our video collection generally consisted of Schwarzenegger, Eddie Murphy’s SNL, Kubrick, and Monty Python, plus an eclectic mix of Beatles’ movies that my roommate added to bolster his rep as a cinematic bon vivant.
Yes, when it came to entertainment, we were Homo habilis compared to the other australopithecines padding around the dorm. Geeky hominids, with toys.
And in the absence of cable or satellite TV, or in the presence of friends and nubile co-eds drawn to the numbing application of the boob tube, we watched those movies over and over and over again. And loved them.
And even now, after watching Blade Runner or Wrath of Khan so many times I can quote them chapter and verse, I can be flipping channels and hear a tech noir score and be sucked in, again.
But, for the longest time, this was strictly a visual/aural habit. I could watch my favorite movie over and over, but my favorite book? Never. I’d love a book—love it so much that I’d immediately give it to someone, friends, relatives, total strangers in elevators, urging them to read it––but I’d never touch the pages again.
I think a part of this is because of the sheer number of books “out there.” Rereading seemed like a precious waste of my reading time. If you read 20-30 books a year, you can do the math. (Multiply A, the average number of books read in a year, by B, your life expectancy--and whammo, you get a number that looks pretty miniscule compare to the sheer volume of books in the world). When I thought of all the other books I wanted to read, rereading The Great Gatsby just wasn’t very high on my priority list.
Now, oddly enough, I’m drawn back to those books. Some I loved, but just as often I’m drawn back to the books I didn’t care for. As a writer, I now allow myself to buy a book I’d given away, just to analyze the narrative structure—or so I tell myself. “I’m just picking it up to see how the author handled a certain wandering POV, or how an unlikable protagonist was rendered in a way that made me care.” And then off I go, sucked in, rereading, and finding that the baggage I bring to the story as an older (certainly) and wiser reader (hopefully) lets me appreciate the story in a new way. Sometimes I’ll even find that I hate a book I once loved. But that’s probably an age thing. Like with breakfast cereals, tastes change—at some point you just outgrow Fruity Pebbles and suddenly Grape Nuts aren’t so bad.
Anyway, my curious question is this––what books do you reread, and why? And does that love diminish?
As for me, I’m rereading Harlan Ellison’s Edgeworks Vol. 3.
And, it gets better every time.
Reader Comments (17)
The Lord of the Rings
CJ Cherryh's Alliance-Union books
Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars books
KSR's Climate in the Capitol books
They get better every time. It takes a large chunk of my reading time to get through them all, but it's worth it for me; these books are like comfort food.
Or maybe the urge is more like Marilyn Quayle's famous statement about her husband's supposed intellect: "Dan tries to read Plato's 'Republic' every year."
I love that guy.
I read a lot of books. One every couple of weeks. But the only one that I enjoy rereading is Lord of The Rings. I love visiting middle earth. I've tried to re-read others but they don't draw me in like LOTR.
Hey Christmas break is coming up, that gives me an idea......
Hope you and your family have a great holiday,
Paul :-)
Also, dig the new site design. I know some code too...but mostly I'm a codee, not a coder.
But boy do I love that it's alphabetical. :D
Dune series (Frank Herbert, NOT the Brian H/KJA ones)
Ender series (the first four not the shadow)
To Kill a Mockingbird (for me, THE american novel. Gatsby sucks)
The Count of Monte Cristo (my oldest son's middle name is Alexandre after Dumas)
Lord of the rings (I came to the middle earth party late, but once at the party have re-read these several times).
I guess the books I re-read the most though, are all the Sandra Boynton ones.
Adam--thanks...I think I fixed all the busted links. Man, what a mess...
LOTR and Patrick O'Brian, of course. Gatsby, yes, though I have the urge to edit Fitzgerald's dialogue tags. Sun Also Rises.
Lawrence Block (The Scudder series, the Keller series.)
Gene Wolfe (The Torturer Quartet.)
Vladimir Nabokov (Lolita and the short stories.)
Jane Austen (P&P and Emma.)
Roger Zelazny (several.)
Jack Vance (several.)
Philip Caputo (Horn of Africa, DelCorso's Gallery.)
John Fowles (The Magus, French Lieutenant's Woman.)
John Gardner (Grendel and Mickelson's Ghosts.)
Ann Patchett (Bel Canto.)
Evelyn Waugh (The Loved One, and A Handful of Dust.)
Raymond Carver (especially Cathedral.)
Recently I've been revisiting things that I read when I was too damn young to appreciate them. Crime and Punishment, Madame Bovary, Le Clezio's Fever, etc.
Lack of time isn't an excuse for not rereading, it's just a good case for extension of the human lifespan.
And Blade Runner stands up to repeated watching. But...The Wrath of Khan?
The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart
Amanda/Miranda Richard Peck
Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris
Kafka's short stories
And for some reason, I've been sucked into A Game of Thrones by GRR Martin
The Grapes of Wrath, just because it's so goddamned good.
The Lives of John Lennon, because I love the Beatles, and this bio is so gloriously trashy, like a car wreck you can't NOT look at.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, because it's so much fun, and shows a complete love of language.
Plus, does Watchmen or Sandman count?
That's all I've got to say about Vee Et Nam.
In retrospect, I do reread my comics and graphic novels. Currently rereading Kazuo Koike's Lone Wolf & Cub.
I know the question was what books one might have re-read...
But I had to laugh about your video library. I roomed with a friend in a house owned by his older sister. She had one of those laser disc players. I don't know if they ever made more than a dozen titles that were compatible with the format.
Anyway, we had "Caddyshack" on disc. And we watched it over, and over, and over. I think you overlooked the main difference between re-reading, and re-watching however. Watching a movie over again is typically a SOCIAL event. The IN party gets to laugh at the classic lines, while the NAIVE party is initiated by the movie alumni. I'm sure everyone who has seen Life of Brian more than once has said to the uninitiated, "Wait, wait, this is the part where the Knight says 'Tis only a flesh wound!"
As for books, I'm with David I. I will typically re-read a book immediately in order to see how the plot elements were constructed, or to pay closer attention to the minor characters whose development I skimmed through (I read too fast).
Having said that, I am trying to re-read some of the 'required' classics from my college Lit classes; with appreciation this time through. I have both 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and 'Ulysses' on my bed stand at present.
Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you too!