Monday, March 6, 2023

Quote du jour - On re-reading

 I've searched around some, and it seems that both re-read and reread are acceptable now. I have been eliminating the hyphen just because it seems easier. But I find I don't like the look of reread, so I guess I'm going to go with the hyphen from now on.

However you spell it, I am having the best reading time reading books over again. I mostly don't remember the whole story, but I have flashes of recognition sometimes. I kind of got started on this scheme because I didn't want to keep spending money on Kindle books. I am happy to buy a book that I can see; a book I can put on a shelf and look through anytime I want. I just can't do that with a Kindle. I am in high praise of the device because it is how I get to sleep and go back to sleep at night. Years and years ago, I read by lamplight. Then I had audiobooks on tape. Then I tried one of those itty-bitty lights. They were all distracting in terms of sleep, except for the books on tape. I gave those up when they went to CDs or phone. That was too much work for me in my sleepy state. And then the Kindle came along. It was perfection. But I've decided to read what I haven't read yet or re-read the books I have. And what a delightful experience it is. Just now I'm zooming through the Mrs. Pollifax books by Dorothy Gilman.

I wondered if there were quotes about this subject, and I found some great ones. 

Robertson Davies: "A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight."

(To quote a word from one of my favorite books - The Diary of a Provincial Lady)
Query: Am I in maturity or old age?


Anne Fadiman: "The reader who plucks a book from her shelf only once is as deprived as the listener who, after attending a single performance of a Beethoven symphony never hears it again."


Italo Calvino: "A classic is a book which with each rereading offers as much of a sense of discovery as the first reading."


Garry Fitchett: "Rereading the works of a favorite author and, once again, learning something new shows me they are not done with me yet."


Lauren Groff: "The greatest texts, I think, first dazzle, then with careful rereading they instruct.  I have learned from Virginia Woolf more than I even know how to articulate."


Susan Sontag: "Most of my reading is rereading."


and last, but definitely not least - 

C.S. Lewis: "An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books only once ... We do not enjoy a story fully on the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust,  has been given its sop and laid asleep are we at leisure to savour the real beauties.  Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness."

22 comments:

  1. I love these quotations! I'm a re-reader of the first degree and savor each time in a slightly different way. Barbara Pym and Gail Tsukiyama books are at the top of the list. There is that element of comfort in it too.
    Mary

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    1. I want to read some new and old Barbara P. I've been away too long. I could swear I had read something by Gail Tsukiyama but nothing on my blog. It is time I do so, isn't it?!

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  2. As you know, I've re-read many books for years. I do entire series from time to time. How fun to re-read the Mrs. Pollifax books. I've done that more than once. Enjoy!

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    1. You are my model reader! You read so much! She is a dear, Mrs. P. My first time was listening to the wonderful, wonderful Barbara Rosenblat. I can still hear her voice as I read words on the page.

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  3. I haven't always been a re-reader, but lately I glance at my "keeper" shelves and see a book that I long to read again. I've read a few of Barbara Kingsolver's and Ann Patchett's books twice now, enjoying them as much, if not more than the first time around. I've also been disappointed with a couple of re-reads (Atonement is one that comes to mind). I have a goal to re-read something each month, but I'll settle for six a year since the new-to-me books continue to call to me from my TBR stacks. One that I think I'd enjoy again is Bachelor Brothers Bed & Breakfast. I'd also love to read Rick Bragg's All Over But the Shoutin' again. Such wonderful writing!

    Thanks for sharing the quotes, Nan. They're spot-on!

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    1. I find myself wanting to be among certain characters or locales. i think you introduced me to Rick Bragg. I love, love his books. And I do love BBB&B. Check this out: https://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/2007/12/book-reportbachelor-brothers-bed.html
      and your comment!

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    2. Thanks for the link to your BBB&B post. I am now encouraged to start reading it as soon as I finish my current library books!

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  4. I love this post, both your thoughts on rereading books and the quotes. I recently read a book where one of the characters made a point that all good books should be read at least twice.

    I do enjoy rereading books. I have read each book in the Rex Stout Nero Wolfe series at least four times. There are other authors whose books I can read twice. I think the Mrs. Pollifax books would be great for rereading.

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    1. Oh, be still my heart. Nero Wolfe! I love those books so much and have read some more than once. Except the last one. It sounded too sad, too upsetting, but maybe that isn't true?

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  5. I love these quotes so very much! I wonder when you re-read a favorite book if you have the same thought that I do: I have always had great taste! By the way, I am reading a book again that is one of my favorites, it is "The River of Doubt" by Candice Millard. It is about Teddy Roosevelt and his son, Kermit traveling down an uncharted tributary of the Amazon. It is FASCINATING. I hardly ever use all caps, so i mean it! For one thing, you will be filled with admiration for Randon (South American military man and explorer) and will fall in love with Kermit. Candice Millard writes in such a way that you feel as if you are on that rapid filled river with the threat of poison arrows flying past at any time. It is an amazing story with background stories to a great many things. I found myself looking up a lot about others she mentioned! Thanks again for your quotes about re-reading books. I do wonder how many books I have read in my life. We are book people not numbers people but I do wonder. xx

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    1. Tom read River of Doubt. I didn't think I could bear it. I am such a TR fan.

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  6. I enjoy rereading but also dislike supporting Amazon. However, I do download ebooks from the library which I am sure you can also do. I work at a local library once a month and people always come in with their Kindles or phones to ask how to do it so I am sure they can walk you through. The Libby and Hoopla apps are worth trying.

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    1. Me, too. But I do. I can't find so many things other places, or it is just easier for me than going shopping. I don't make myself feel happy or moral about it. And yes, I do get books via the state system! It is a great source.

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  7. 'Re-read" looks better to me, too. Without the hyphen, my brain sometimes wanders down the path of attempting to see the word as rere-ad. That's unproductive!

    I remember reading Mrs. Pollifax in my parents' Reader's Digest condensed books. I'll bet that I'd get a lot out of reading the unabridged versions.

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    1. Very funny!!
      I cannot believe that Mrs. P was in a Reader's Digest condensed book. Just shaking my head. Why did those things even exist. My mother had them, too.

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  8. Thanks so much for your comment on my blog! I am re-reading a lot lately! 🥰📚

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  9. Nan, I don't think I can really point to a new release novel in the last few years that I've enjoyed as much as the shelves full of books from my past that I re-read (!) through constantly. That doesn't include books I buy now that are vintage that I add to collections of favorite authors. I do buy and check out new books and enjoy them but they almost never make the cut to keep on what empty space I have left on my bookshelves. Instead they get donated or passed along to others.

    Right now I'm re-reading once more through the Rabbi books, Harry Kemelman's. I think you know them too.

    Love love love C.S. Lewis quotation! But then did the man ever open his mouth to say, or take up his pen to write, anything boring?

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  10. I particularly like the Gary Fitchett quote.

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  11. I reread books, my absolute favorites as it's like visiting a universe where I was happy. The Shell Seekers is one I have reread a few times.
    Thanks for your comment about the house updates - I'm afraid I answered you with way more inforation than you wanted!

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    1. I love that "universe where I was happy." And not at all about the info. It helped me to understand!

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