Play Book Tag discussion

I've only re-read two books in my life and this is one of them. It was one of the first non-school books I read that made me the reader I am today. The summer before my Senior year of high school (1989), we had a reading list that was just a bunch of authors (no specific books). I went to a Jesuit high school in CT. The list of authors included the likes of Clancy, Ludlum, Clavell, Cussler, Follet, etc. They were all pretty much books that you'd never read in class but that you may read for fun. The point was not to get you to read something, it was to get you to read ANYTHING. Anyway, my dad helped me pick out Ludlum and I got The Bourne Identity. Re-reading it now was a little different in that my tastes have evolved and matured. I still liked it but am guessing I didn't devour it or love it with the same gusto as before (which is why now I only give it 4 stars). Ludlum's long-time editor passed away in the early days of Covid. I wrote his widow a note of condolence and in it told her the story above and let her know her husband (and Ludlum) were responsible for my love of reading which has shaped me as a person. She wrote me back a thank you note. Funny, because of my dad's job we moved/lived in 3 states (TX, VA, CT) when I was in high school and the one in CT was my last one (I moved there the summer before my Senior year). Strange, Ludlum and his editor both lived in the town next to where I lived in CT. Had I not moved schools, I'm not certain I would have been the same reader/person I am today.

Charlie, I've never read anything by Ludlum and can't comment on the book itself. Like you, on the rare occasion that I re-read a favorite book, I find that I don't respond to it in the same way.

How neat it is that you wrote a note to the editor's widow and that she responded to you. And I like how you write that living in CT may have led you to becoming a reader. Serendipity is still alive and well.

Holly R W wrote: "Charlie, I've never read anything by Ludlum and can't comment on the book itself. Like you, on the rare occasion that I re-read a favorite book, I find that I don't respond to it in the same way...."

:-) Ludlum (and all the other authors that were on my high school reading list) is pretty much a 'guy's author'. I personally think his best book was The Matarese Circle but they are all very similar, with lots of intrigue, assassins, shadowy gov't agencies, leading men and a woman trying to them. As a 17-year-old I loved to read them, as a 50-year-old I enjoy them every once in a while. Yes, I know my parents felt bad about my 3 different states/high schools in 4 year's but I told them the same about 10 years ago (my love of reading having come to fruition during that summer and following year) and it made them smile.

I read quite a bit of Ludlum (at least 10 books), once I discovered him. I also read Tom Clancy and DeMille and others like them. I also read medieval romance and mysteries by Connelly and others.

My reading has shifted over the years and I don't know how I would feel about the Bourne Identity. I wouldn't want to read it with a critical eye.

I loved this book when I read it and devoured it, but that was before I saw too many graphic things on film, etc, and I wasn't picturing the violent stuff well. I wouldn't be able to read those parts the same way. My dad used to read his books and when I asked him about them he said this was one of his better books.

But like BnB I think I would be more critical of a reader now than i was then, plus my tastes have changed.