Litwit Lounge discussion

How do you feel about re-reading books?

You touch a chord to my heart. Although I place them in two distinct groups, I love rereading books. The first group are serious books which are always enjoyable simply because one always gets more out of them, at least when I am ready to read them and deepen my understanding.
The second group is that of light literature to which I treat myself when I am trying to be taken away. I have several favorite writers which I enjoy such as Tom Clancy.. These I pick up and read as the mood strikes me. I find these just as joyful and exciting as when I first read them. To me, these are much like watching a movie like A Christmas Carol: they provide sustenance for the soul, however flimsily,when you suspend belief.

I haven't reread very often but in light of your post (which I really enjoyed), I have gone back to various books skimming for those passages that were "sustenance for the soul" and other times searching for my favorite humorous parts. Hmm, that is probably for my soul, too. :)

I am rereading a book right now, Their Eyes Were Watching God so I could participate in a local book discussion. It has been 5 yrs since the first reading, and although I liked the book then I am getting more out of it now.

I have about 53 Norah Lofts books and I read them over and over. Every year I read once again at least ten Norah Lofts books because I enjoy them. Since I have an autoimmune disorder I forget most of the plot so its easy for me to do this. Last year I read about 70 books. This year I am hoping to read 80.

Hmm, Alice, you and Barbara are getting me intrigued about these Norah Lofts books. I think I am going to have to try one out. Any particular titles of hers you would recommend for a first venture?

Reggia wrote: "Hmm, Alice, you and Barbara are getting me intrigued about these Norah Lofts books. ?"
That is so good to hear and if you do get into her I will be so happy that I have helped introduce you to a real treat!
If you want to get into NL via the history angle, I would read The Concubine( Anne Boleyn) or , for some different history, The Lost Ones aka The Lost Queen, about Princess Caroline who married Christian of Denmark. If you love Eleanor of Aquitaine, ( my heroine!) then Queen in Waiting followed by The Lute Player.
If you like house sagas, then no one has ever written better than NL's trilogy, The Town House, The House at Old Vine,The House at Sunset . Otherwise, randomly, Jassy, Hester Roon, The Road To Revelation aka Winter Harvest....
I'd better stop, or I'll go through her whole oeuvre !
Oh and she writes good ghost stories too!

Thanks so much, Barbara! I'll be sure to visit the L section next time I'm in the library and peruse these titles.

Yes, I picked up 3 Saturday but have two to read before I can even look at them.
Its getting to be too much for me and so I am going to have to cut back somehow.

I have had one book out 3 months now!!!

sigh, Alice

It's true, I am not alone! and seems in pretty good company, too. LOL, I have had several books out these past few months. What can I say? they are big and I go back and forth between them. Thank goodness for online renewals! :D

Only one renewal? I am definitely spoiled, and I think I will drop off those finished books today as my appreciation, although they are not yet due.

No postcode? where is this Town of Lake Macquarie?

Australia! I hope you will overlook my geography ignorance. I had no idea, I did a little google search and found the Lake Macquarie area is a very beautiful place. Perhaps that makes it easier to overlook the library renewal policy. ;)

Thanks for sharing! It might be time for our group to do one of those get-to-know-you type threads. Stay tuned.

Hi Reggia, We are starting Norah Lofts book The Town House very soon so hoping you can join us if you find a copy of it.
I had asthma last night so sat up and read it for several hours. I am sure I had read it before but didn't remember a thing. It starts out in 1381 with a serf. I already posted about ten questions from it for the Neverending Quiz. Do you like to do the Quiz?

Alice wrote: "Hi Reggia, We are starting Norah Lofts book The Town House very soon ..."
Speaking for myself, I;m delighted to re-read The Town House for the umpteenth time. Alice, I almost envy you the memory failure in this respect!

LOL! My lupus support group used to have great jokes about this very subject! We can watch movies and read books over and over. Especially with NL having so many and I only read ten a year I soon forget some of the plots. But honestly so far this one is LIKE I NEVER READ IT AT ALL!! Its kinda spooky really.

I just guessed a very interesting poem on neverending quiz....oh, no longer in my computer thingie. I will try to send it to you as I was just adding it onto my siggie block at yahoo as it sounds like my mother and I wanted my sisters opinion on it.

I am back on my gingko but it doesn't seem to help much.

I have had good luck with gingko and concentration, perhaps another brand would work better. I assume you meant for memory though...do you take anything else?

Just remembered, I wanted to comment on one of your updates, Alice, on a nutrition book you read. It looked very interesting. If you would ever like to discuss anything on that topic, please feel free to start a thread -- I'll be sure to join in.

I have tried several different brands. I am also taking Bilberry for my vision. (borderline diabetic) Nutrition is one of my favorite topics especially as it relates to food allergy and also celiac disease but I am just not up to it right now. I have been on dozens of yahoo groups for environmental illness and on there we discuss at length which shampoo to use, which deodorant is safe if any, which vitamins to take, which brands, etc etc! These things are critically important as most of us have been poisoned mainly by pesticides. Maybe I will get a surge in a few weeks and be able to do it. Feb is my second worst month after August. I just took 2 Pure Guai (guaifenesins) which are on sale right now at ProHealth (www.immunesupport.com). They are dye free and preservative free.
I do read all kinds of medical type stuff quite often. Especially alternative medical stuff, I really love it!

Alice, I'm going to start a new thread on nutrition and alternative medicine. I hope you and anyone interested will join in and comment at any time.

I've been taking bilberry, too. Guaifenesin I've never tried, think I was scared away by the possibility of symptoms getting worse before improving.

Hope I can find the link as low grade fever tonight. (spring possibly in my case) I have nightmare horrid allergies.

re-reads... Hmmm, I love reading comfort reads and will do it over and over again. I do have trouble re-reading those fabulous books that just sit with you. No matter how much I want to re-read them... does that make sense?

I like to re-read books I really enjoyed the first time. Sometimes I'm a little afraid to do it, because I wonder if I won't like it as much the second time. I also feel a bit torn about rereading, because there are tons of other books to read for the first time. But sometimes rereading is kind of like drinking a big cup of hot chocolate on a snowy day. :)

Charly that is an intriguing idea, and I think I will try it out this month. There are a number of books that I did not appriciate when I was younger... ahem Margaret Atwood, which my grandmother seemed to religiously mail me for my birthday every year from the age of 15 to 23 when I begged her to PLEASE GOD STOP!

I am sure she is definantly an author I might see a lot differently now.

There are some books (especially classics and certain non-fiction books) which I think can be read more than once and you get more out of them each time. I also have a few books that I have favorite passages or they just really touched a chord in me that I may re-read when I come across them again or get in a certain mood and just want to connect again with those characters and the way the author made me feel when I read the book the first time. So I'm not against re-reading books at all. I have so many books on my wish list that I don't do it as often as I may intend.

Good point that a book might render a different experience at a different age.
I'm afraid of Margaret Atwood. ;p

Exactly! I haven't come near to adding all my books into Goodreads yet. I held off on reviewing and even rating many of those I have added because the last time I read them was over four or five years ago (and some of them did go back to high school) and I just felt that too much time had passed for me to give them an accurate rating of how I would feel about the book today.

Reading on a deadline or because you'll be tested on it can definitely warp the experience.

No kidding, my perception of Animal Farm was different when I read it after High School and again a few years ago...

Speaking of Christmas reads, I read The Best Christmas Pageant Ever every year and love it more and more each time!

I am a big fan of re-reading books. It's one of the reasons I prefer to buy books, rather than borrow them from the library - why have them in the house if I'm only going to read them once? :)

I have a number of books that I go back to and tend to read probably once a year. A lot of them are ones I enjoyed when I was younger and they've become old friends, and others I like revisiting at different stages of my life, because I find new things or relate to different characters.

You must read fast to have time to read new things and re-read others so often!

I think that would depend on how many books someone has on their re-read list. I do have quite a few on mine, but a few of my re-reads were re-read because the next book in the series is coming out and I have forgotten key information from the previous book. Then there are some I have re-read so many times that when I do re-read it, it is more like holding an old friend and reminising - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass is one of those books, I could probably recite most of the book and re-reading it is most-likely a mindless task meant to soothe..?

It's got to be a VERY good book for me to want to re-read it.

I reread my favourites, and for a number of years when my children were young, reread many books aloud to them. At the moment I'm indulging in some nostalgia by rereading books from my childhood. According to my Goodreads shelf, I have almost 400 books on my read more than once shelf. I guess I'm a sucker for revisiting old haunts.