Up until earlier this year, I'd pretty much stopped
rereading books. There were plenty of reasons for this, but the main was simply
a lack of time, and an overabundance of books. (People who say that you can
never have too many books, I kind of agree with you, but if you take a look in
my flat you may come to a different conclusion.)
Then I went through a real reading slump, and couldn't find
anything I liked that would bring me out of it. In desperation, I turned to
Have A Little Faith by Candy Harper, and Undeniable by Liz Bankes, and found
that reading these for the second time actually managed to kickstart my reading
again.
So what is it about rereading that had that effect on me? I
think it's a combination of things - firstly, those two books in particular are
such warm and funny reads that I'd completely fallen in love with them the
first time around, and reading them again brought back memories of this,
reminding me that there'd been a time not that long ago (in the case of
Undeniable, I think it was only a month or
two prior to this that I'd first read it) that I had absolutely adored
reading. This happens perhaps even more when rereading books I'd loved as a
child, particularly things like the Jennings series, which hold huge
sentimental value to me as my dad used to read them to both me and my sister,
and he's still a massive fan of them.
Secondly, I don't feel I have to read them the same way.
When I'm reading a book that I might review - which probably describes the vast
majority of my 'new reads', as I'll generally have the intention of writing
about something if I love it, even if I don't end up getting around to it - I
feel compelled to concentrate really closely on it, to try and make sure I'm
thinking about strengths and weaknesses as I go along. When rereading,
especially a book I've already reviewed, I'm far happier to flick through, skim
read parts I don't enjoy as much (not that there ARE any parts in those two I
don't love, to be fair), and generally not feel the need to concentrate as closely.
Thirdly, I think rereading when you know what's happening
gives you a completely different perspective on a book. This is particularly
true of Undeniable, where there's a relatively big revelation fairly late on.
In the context of this reveal, some things from earlier in the book read very
differently, and it's intriguing to see! Similarly, Daniel Abraham wrote a year
or two back that he didn't think spoilers could destroy a story. I'm currently
rereading his epic fantasy sequence The Dagger and The Coin in preparation for
book four's upcoming release, and while it's too amazingly strong a series for
anything to destroy it, I think you definitely get a massively changed
experience reading it knowing what's coming. It's fascinating to see how well he
sows the seeds for the character development of Geder and Cithrin, in
particular, in the early books, knowing what happens to them. Despite this, I'm
still very glad I had the thrill of being taken by surprise on my initial
reading!
I've started rereading far more since this happened, and I'm
really enjoying it. Apart from the books mentioned above, most of the ones I've
taken to going back to are childhood favourites, but there's a few more recent
ones I'm eager to reread as well. See below for a couple of lists.
How about you? Do you reread much, or do you concentrate on
new books? What are your favourites to reread, or books that you really want to
read again?
My favourite books to reread:
1. Have A Little Faith by Candy Harper - I've now read this
four times in under a year, the third in preparation for the sequel, and the
fourth because I was stuck on a train with nothing else to do, a bunch of books
I'd already read, and no battery to read e-books (the joys of unexpected six
hour journeys!) It is STILL marvellous fourth time around!
2. The Burglar series by Lawrence Block - I think comic
books often work better when rereading than serious ones do, so this gets the
nod over Block's equally superb Matt Scudder series. Bernie, a bookseller/burglar
who ends up solving crimes with the help of his friend Caroline and detective
Ray, the best cop money can buy, is a wonderful narrator. It helps that my
memory is so terrible I quite often can't remember whodunnit even if it's the
third time I'm reading it!
3. Three Men In A Boat by Jerome K Jerome - Jerome's
meandering story of three men, and a dog, on a trip along the Thames is utterly outstanding, however many times you read it.
4. The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald - I may have
mentioned I rarely like dark books, but despite that, this is one of my very
favourites ever. Showing the dark side of the American dream, it's a gorgeous
novel which simply sings in its lyrical prose.
5. Jennings series by Anthony Buckeridge - Fossilised fishhooks, I could never leave
a series like this out! As I said, this has sentimental value, but it's also a
stunningly funny, consistently excellent series.
6. Drina series by Jean Estoril - I read the entire series
in a few months last year, finishing the final book in Red Lion Square where
the Dominick School is located for most of the books. Still probably my single
favourite reading experience since moving to London!
7. Jeeves and Wooster series by PG Wodehouse - The
repetitiveness of the plots doesn't bother me, because really, who reads, or
rereads, these for the plots? Instead, every time I pick one up, I'm pulled
into Wodehouse's unparalleled prose, which never fails to raise a smile.
8. Undeniable by Liz Bankes - As mentioned above, this is a
stunning read which you look at from a different perspective after the first
time. Gaby is one of my favourite narrators for ages.
9. Anything by Agatha
Christie - As with Block, my hopeless memory is a big plus when reading
Christie, especially since a lot of her books are ones I first read as a teen
back in the Nineties!
10. Trebizon series by Anne Digby - I think that considering
I was never that big a fan of the Trebizon books compared to other series I
grew up reading like the Chalet School and Abbey Girls, Digby's books have
perhaps aged rather better than many of the rest. It helps that they're
incredibly short (I reread First Term earlier in this train journey and it only
took about half an hour) but they're also warm stories about friendship with
strong characters.)
Series I most want to reread
1. Harry Potter by JK Rowling
2. GONE by Michael Grant
3. Flappers by Jillian Larkin
4. Wereworld by Curtis Jobling
5. Gallagher Girls by Ally Carter
Retreading is a thing I do for comfort. I can't read anything new at bed time because I'd never get to sleep. An old favourite soothes me. I've reread Harry Potter many times, since you mention it. Currently rereading The Mysterious Affair At Styles. I do remember whodunnit, but don't care. Sometimes you pick up something you ddn't notice first time " - clues the author put in, in crime fiction, so you can see the buildup. Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher novels I've read over and over, along with her Corinna Chapman mysteries. They're such good fun, again, I don't care that I know whodunnit.
ReplyDeleteI definitely need to find more time for re-reading. I used to always reread when I didn't buy or receive any new books. Now I'm getting lots of new books, I often don't find time to reread and that makes me sad! Great post.
ReplyDeleteI often hear bloggers talking about how they haven't re-read a single book since starting their blogs and I used to be one of these people. However, over the past few months I've been trying to re-read at least one book per month and I'm really enjoying it. So far I've read Adorkable which I loved even more the second time round, and The Other Countess by Eve Edwards which I must have read around ten times now - it will never get old!
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Jim!
Great post - I tend to re-read when no other book is quite doing anything for me, lately I've been re-reading Roald Dahl as they never let me down :)
ReplyDelete