On Re-reading
This past week I have had delicious amounts of time on my hands. I have been spending my time reading, and reading about reading. This has led me to add 11 'must-read' books to my never-ending 'must read' list. The problem is that I have piles and piles of seductive books around here that I haven't quite gotten to yet. Books have somewhat taken over our humble abode - books are now furniture, books are decor, books are everywhere. Conveniently, not one of the books on my new 'must read' list, is in one of those piles. :-(
As well, adding to my connundrum, I have been inspired by Doppelganger to re-read some old favorites. I used to be a huge re-reader as a kid. I think it was university and it's reading demands that killed that. As well, there are just so many books that I'm dying to read, that I never felt like going back to something I had already read. There are many books that while I'm reading them I am positively positive that I must reread them, but do I? Never. But rereading a book is such a luxurious thought - it seems so decadent and ... literary. :-) I think once I am finished East of Eden I will reread one of my all-time favorites, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Wolf, and see if it still holds the same mystery, lyricism, and dream-like quality that I found the first time I read it in college. I hope I'm not disappointed... Some others that I remember thinking I must re-read while I was reading them are The Meaning of Wife and Oryx and Crake and The Education of a WASP.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I was doing my undergrad in English, I took a lot of contemporary fiction, international fiction, political fiction, (and the requisite Shakespeare, literary analysis etc), but always put off older fiction - I never did get around to taking those 18th and 19th century fiction classes, as I switched my degree to Poli Sci before I had to take them (secretly inspired in part, I think, by the unappealing thought of having to take those sleeper classes...). Now in my undirected reading life, I read mostly contemporary fiction and non-fiction. I have never read a whole book by Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, never read The Great Gatsby, haven't finished an entire Jane Austin, never read Dickens *gasp*... I will stop before you drop of a coronary... I'm thinking this year I need to take in a few of those.
*sigh* The list grows ever longer...
As well, adding to my connundrum, I have been inspired by Doppelganger to re-read some old favorites. I used to be a huge re-reader as a kid. I think it was university and it's reading demands that killed that. As well, there are just so many books that I'm dying to read, that I never felt like going back to something I had already read. There are many books that while I'm reading them I am positively positive that I must reread them, but do I? Never. But rereading a book is such a luxurious thought - it seems so decadent and ... literary. :-) I think once I am finished East of Eden I will reread one of my all-time favorites, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Wolf, and see if it still holds the same mystery, lyricism, and dream-like quality that I found the first time I read it in college. I hope I'm not disappointed... Some others that I remember thinking I must re-read while I was reading them are The Meaning of Wife and Oryx and Crake and The Education of a WASP.
Another thing I have noticed is that when I was doing my undergrad in English, I took a lot of contemporary fiction, international fiction, political fiction, (and the requisite Shakespeare, literary analysis etc), but always put off older fiction - I never did get around to taking those 18th and 19th century fiction classes, as I switched my degree to Poli Sci before I had to take them (secretly inspired in part, I think, by the unappealing thought of having to take those sleeper classes...). Now in my undirected reading life, I read mostly contemporary fiction and non-fiction. I have never read a whole book by Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, never read The Great Gatsby, haven't finished an entire Jane Austin, never read Dickens *gasp*... I will stop before you drop of a coronary... I'm thinking this year I need to take in a few of those.
*sigh* The list grows ever longer...
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