I know I've addressed rereading before.
But I was musing, the other day [in January--this post has been in my drafts for a while], thinking about that day's Catechism In A Year Podcast, which I'd sort of half-listened to as I was working on homework. I realized that I had pulled a point from it, which was a good point, but probably if I listened to it again, I'd find something different. And if I waited and did the whole year cycle over again, I'd learn something else new. The same thing with the Bible In A Year, maybe even more, because God's Word is even deeper than the Catechism--I listened to the whole thing, and if I listened again, it would be like coming back to it fresh.
But something inside me revolted, just a little bit. "Again? I wouldn't want to do it again!" Even now, writing this, I don't know if I'm going to go through the Bible In A Year again. (If I do, it's not going to be this year, that's for sure!)
That made me think. What is it that has changed so much from when I was little that the little girl who read her new favorite book six times in a weekend now doesn't want to listen to the Bible again over the course of a year?
I don't know exactly what's changed--whether it's the go-go-go of culture, my ever-lengthening TBR, the digital age, or what. Something in me just wants something new a lot of the time. Most of the time.
But there's something so beautiful about sitting with a book (or a podcast, or a movie) so many times, over the course of time, that it becomes almost bone-deep. That you internalize things and come back to them over and over, even if they're small.
I still remember the time I was rereading The Ruins of Gorlan from the Ranger's Apprentice series (my most reread series as a child, by a long shot) for the umpteenth time, and I got to the boar hunt, and the part where Halt throws himself off his horse as fast as possible to give Will a hug and make sure he's okay, and it suddenly dawned on me "oh. That's love. That's parental love--he loves him." It wasn't something I'd realized on any other of my rereads (I was young) and it added a whole different dimension to the story than it had before.
And I thought about that moment again when I was thinking about relistening to a podcast. It comes back.
So why don't I do this more often? Find a story that I love, and read it over and over? Is it because my TBR is so full, and I keep telling myself when I get to the end, then I can reread? Is it because I have a higher bar for books now? Is it because I read slower and remember better? Is it because I'm in college and I don't have time?
I don't know.
But I think it might be something worth reviving. Maybe I need to add rereads to my TBR more often. Maybe I need to highlight specific books that, when I read them, seem to call for a reread. Because there are still books that I think would be fun to reread, but I lose sight of them really quickly.
I don't know what I'm going to do about it.
But it makes me kind of sad that rereads have taken so much of a back burner spot in my reading life, and I want to bring them back. Because there are books (and podcasts, and movies) that are worth revisiting over and over and over again, until they bleed into your bones, and become part of your prayer, and you've internalized them so much that you maybe don't even need to reread them again.
And I want to give those books what they deserve.
So. We'll see.
(Also, I'm trying a new post type, where I just ramble about something for a couple hundred words. Please tell me what you think! XD)
Do you have a way of keeping rereads important in your reading life? Do you feel the loss of rereading, too?
Love this, Sam! I’m on the opposite end of the spectrum where I tend to reread to the point where I don’t read enough new books, so I definitely agree there’s a lot to be said for rereading.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I also think there’s a lot to be said for waiting between rereads. I remember Hamlette saying she has a required wait time before she rereads a book so that it’ll stay new for her (at least, I think it was Hamlette); and at the time I was like, “that’s great if it works for her, but it would never work for me. I need to read Gatsby at least three times a year” (kidding. kind of). But then I actually let Gatsby alone for over a year (by accident, I assure you); and when I finally came back to it I was glad I had waited, because it really DID make the story fresh.
And while sometimes “fresh” just means your memory has faded so the words feel new again, sometimes there’s a lot more going on than just the feeling of falling back in love with an almost-forgotten friend. Sometimes, since you’ve grown and hopefully matured and simply BEEN THROUGH things since last time you read the book, the book means a lot more to you than it did the first time you read it. You’ve grown into parts of it you didn’t know you needed to grow into. A gap between rereads was what allowed me to go from being mildly “meh” about The Chosen to thinking it was Great Art (and I think it’ll be a similar case with Asher Lev). The longer you’ve been away from Narnia the more shockingly relevant it is to the latest chapter of your life. Etc.
So…yeah. I guess what I’m trying to say is, reread, but also know it’s fine to take a break from a book. God sends us the reading we need at the time that we need it, too, so if there’s something you need to revisit, I’m sure he’ll give you a nudge in that direction.
(Another something I’m learning is to pay more attention to my reading /moods/ than my TBR. Not only do I enjoy what I read more, I actually get more read.)
And I like the new style of post. I think you should keep it in your repertoire. :)
Thank you, Megan!
DeleteOkay, that is a really good point. When I was a kid, I would often just reread books over and over back to back (I think I read the first Ranger's Apprentice book six times in one week, once, and there was a vacation we took where I only brought the first Mysterious Benedict Society book, and I think I must have read that one at least three times, if not more...), but I think my need for waiting in between books has grown as I've gotten older. Maybe that's why I feel like I don't want to reread right now? Because I've already reread my old favorites so many times, and it hasn't been long enough since I discovered my new favorites for me to want to reread them? That would make sense, I think.
And yes, sometimes the wait not only dulls one's memory of a book, but also gives one the experience(s) one needs to understand it more deeply. I wouldn't have finally *gotten* Asher Lev unless I'd taken a break from it and read a TON of Flannery O'Connor in between. (Which, I meant to write a post about all of that when it was all fresh in my brain, and then I didn't, but I still want to, so we'll see what happens.) I hadn't even thought about rereading Narnia--but I'm *really* curious what I'd get out of it if I reread it again. (Although I did read and listen to it enough as a child that a lot of it is deeply embedded in my brain.)
Thank you, Megan! You've made me feel a lot better about this whole thing. :) And you're right--if I need to reread something, God will send it my way!
(That's something I'm starting to learn, as well! If I want to read something, I'm letting myself just read it, without grouching about how long my TBR is. But at the same time, sometimes if I make myself read something I've been procrastinating reading, I actually really enjoy it, so it's a double-edged sword...)
Thank you! I will keep that in mind. :)
I LOVE rereading. It's such a vibe, but you're totally right that I do it far less now. But there are certain books that I reread over and over and over and it means something fresh every time. I can't reread all the time, but my lineup mostly consists of Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, and a handful of classics like Wuthering Heights or Tale of Two Cities that just get richer with more reads. Thank you for this very thought-provoking post!!
ReplyDeleteSomehow, it just seems like rereading gets less and less time as we get older! Till We Have Faces is one of my favorites by C. S. Lewis...speaking of rereading, I definitely need to reread that one! I haven't read Strange the Dreamer, but maybe I need to. And classics are so great to reread, although they kind of intimidate me, because I lot of them are so long. XD You're welcome! Thank you for commenting! :)
DeleteSpinning Silver, The Wednesday Wars, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, LOTR, P&P, many Georgettes, Liad, Vorkosigan, Narnia, The Night Circus, Little House... Those are some of my favorite to re read, and re read...
ReplyDeleteThose are all really good ones! I'm super enjoying my first forays into Liad and Vorkosigan--looking forward to the rereads those will get. :) And I should really reread The Night Circus one o these days.
DeleteI really enjoyed this post (content and style), so I am a fan of the new style!
ReplyDeleteAlso, yeah, I wish I reread more. But...I went through a phase at one point where I only reread (I didn't know anything new I wanted to read), to the point I got sick of reading and stopped altogether. And for a while after I got back into reading I had no desire to reread, just to read new books and enjoy the freshness of reading again. But now I seem to hardly ever reread! And if I do, it's short ones, because that's all I "have time" for. And I don't plan to change that, really, until I finish reading all the books I own and haven't read. Hopefully I'll do that this year, and then I have several rereads I'm really looking forward to.
I guess, I think I tend to err more on the side of rereading too much (not at this very specific point in my life, but overall, temperamentally). But erring on either side is sad. And yeah, I miss the way I used to reread as a kid! The way new revelations would pop out at you! The way, reading something you hadn't read in years, suddenly something hit you incredibly hard, because although you liked it as a kid, now you've lived and you understand it (the way The Eagle of the Ninth went from a really good book that I liked a lot as a kid to one of my favorite books of all time as an adult). Just what C. S. Lewis says about the peculiar pleasure of a reread, distinct from that of a first read (I think in "On Stories"?).
So. I hope you're able to make more time for rereads. I hope I am too, eventually. Books are made to be reread, after all, that is my firm conviction. :P
Thank you! After saying that it's a new style, I'm not sure if I have any other posts in this same style yet, so we'll see if it gets used again any time soon...
DeleteOh, I can definitely understand how rereading too much would make one sick of both reading and rereading! I also went through a phase where I didn't know anything new I wanted to read, but instead of doing a bunch of rereads, I had an Amish romance novel phase. XD But it's interesting that you feel like you only 'have time for' short rereads. I've been thinking actually quite a bit lately about the ways in which we make rules for ourselves about reading that aren't actually there, and then aren't always the happiest operating within those rules. (I don't know if that's entirely the case for you, but it sort of sounds like it might be?)
But YES! The joy of rereading is real! I wonder if kids reread more often (at least, reading-obsessed kids like we were) because they find it harder to catch the nuances? Like, I wouldn't say I'm good at catching nuance even now, because I am naturally a pretty oblivious person, but I was even worse at it as a kid, and I think rereading so much helped me to get to more of an actual experience of the story, if that makes sense? But also, the joy of rereading something as an adult that you read as a kid before you had lived it...that is really beautiful. C. S. Lewis knew what he was talking about.
This is true! I hope that we're both able to get there! (And I've already been doing a better job at rereading, this past month or so, so there's hope!)
Okay first off, I echo the others in that I really loved the way you wrote this post as well as the content of the post. Excited for more content like this.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I really enjoyed all these thoughts. I have trouble even imagining the perspective of somebody who doesn't reread obsessively, so this was interesting for me. My obsessive habits of rereading spawned from having small access to any books but the same 20+ on my shelf for most of middle school, and zero access to anything else for all of highschool. You better believe I can quote passages of In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. You better believe The Golden Goblet is burned into my brain. Yet, interestingly, while I had access to a good few nonfictions I'd not read, those same 20 fiction books were what I kept returning to, insofar as I kept the habit of reading. (Which in some ways, between no new book flow and picking up the habit of writing, I didn't.) Most of them upper middle-grade hisfic. I still have all of them on my shelf and they still give me a feeling of comfort to flip through. I read some of those for the first time when I was only 5 or 6 years old, and kept rereading all the way through highschool. So I really did grow up with them.
So yes, while I am in general not as much in the habit of reading any more, and while what I do read is mostly new these days, there is something very beautiful in growing up with books, in learning new things from them at every repetition, and seeing new beauties I hadn't seen before. It's kind of something I envy about people who *rewrite*, or have a writing project really grow with them. I'm a quantity over quality kinda gal when it comes to writing. I attack the project hard and finish it in reasonably short amounts of time. Then I really don't look at it much again. I've produced a lot of varying content, it's true, but sometimes, I wish I had had a project grow up with me like Nutmeg and her CSO. Sure, CSO has been through many different iterations, with plots and themes that have radically changed over the years, but it's really got Nutmeg's heart in it, in a peculiar way, because she had so much time to put her heart in it, and to take out what was no longer relevant to her convictions, as her convictions changed and grew. I sort of wish I had that with some of my projects.
So them's my rambling thoughts on rereading and rewriting. :D Thanks for the lovely post Sam dear!
(also neglected to mention that this was Grim. *rolls eyes* God bless you friend!)
DeleteThank you! Although, as I told Sarah, I don't know if I have any other posts in this style lined up, so we'll see what happens. XD
DeleteWow, that does seem like a situation that would spawn an obsessive rereader! I was an obsessive rereader in my childhood, but I seem to have lost it since, which I'm not sure if I should be sad about or not. (I think I have less need to reread now than I did as a kid. But I still have need to reread, even if it's not quite as much.) But even though having only the same 20ish books for all of middle school and high school is definitely not ideal, the joy of growing up with a book is real! Especially since, as a kid, one is growing so quickly that one often does see something new almost every time one rereads, even if the rereads are pretty close together.
That's a really interesting point about rewriting, too! I am also really not a rewriter, but I can imagine how lovely it must be for The Nutmeg to have that book that has grown with her over time, and to be able to look back at past drafts, and look at the present draft, and know all of the growth and blood and sweat and tears that have gone into it.
Thank you for the lovely comment, Grim, dear! God bless you, too!
(And I think I would have been able to tell it was you, even if you hadn't told me. :))
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