Monday, August 18, 2014

Books: Why Do We Reread Books

My grandchildren just amaze me. I learn something from them every time we talk. For example, I learned just a couple of weeks ago why children will reread a book that they love over and over. After all there are so many wonderful things to read it seems a waste to reread anything doen't it?Maddie explained it to me first.

"When the book is done I miss the characters." she said. "I don't want the book to be over." 

Is it as though they have become friends and are a part of her life. Of course she misses them. Why didn't I know that? I have done that over and over. There is a book called The Last Convertible I have reread several times. The character, era and setting appeal to my idea of what a romantic life would be like. Even though the book made me sad, I still keep going back.

Maddie expressed the same feeling. She told about a book she was reading but had stopped. "It makes me sad," she said. "The little girl just woke up one morning and her mom and dad were gone. Can you imagine?" 

Well, yes I can. I listened as her mother talked her through it and I suspect that the book will be finished. I hope so. There are important lessons in life, courage and moving on in books like that and Maddie is just beginning the journey.

My teen granddaughter and I talked about the subject last week. Elena is 17 and she does the same thing as Maddie. She found a book called The Fault in Our Stars and loved it so much she just keeps rereading it. Why? She told me that she just wanted to crawl into the pages she loved the book so much. She did take Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children) home
so hopeful she will move on to something else.
I have thought that I would like to reread Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West. Not because it is educational or I need to remember the facts. I just want that journey and those people to become real to me again. I would add The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand to a list if I would making one. And this is just a few of my favorite books.

So the question is...What books would you reread if you could?

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13 comments:

  1. i get that way about Jane Austen. I can't get enough of the Bennetts, so I read and reread P&P and the others too.

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    1. Oh my gosh...I love rereading a period book better than anything. I am transported out of my world to a different place and time.

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  2. I constantly do reread books from my shelves but the old books of Nelia Gardner White draw me back, as do those of Gladys Taber, the journals of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, old D.E. Stevenson books, and many others.

    I plowed through The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged many years ago but don't know if I'd tackle them again!

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    Replies
    1. What was that about those books...it is a bit of plowing but I see her prophetic vision in my life today.

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  3. Leon Uris, I have reread them over and iber

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    1. I forgotten those...I think they shaped my vision of the middle east for good or for bad. I love the way he wrote.

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  4. I second Austin!
    Just finished two of Sue Monk Kidd books. I can see rereading those several times.
    Since there is so little actual reading in school these days we are reading (rereading) our favorites with our adult children. 1984 is on the docket next.
    I'll have to check out The Fault in our Stars and the Last Convertible.The second because I cannot imagine my life without my convertible. :)

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    1. I have never read a Sue Monk Kidd book...but I will be soon. I remember that 1984 was required reading in a sociology class in college. When I think about my thought back then and the way things turned out, I realize the our culture moves very slowly in a lot of ways.

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    2. I take that back...I have read "The secret Life of Bees". I had forgotten that wonderful read.

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  5. I have reread the James Herriott books many times.

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    1. That man just made me laugh. I loved his books for that reason. I suppose that is why I read Anne Tyler...life is hard but when we have a sense of humor, we can see how ridiculous the twists and turns are.

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  6. Uh oh, you're making me feel like a dunce. The only books I've reread lately are a few mysteries. And that was by mistake. I'd forgotten I'd read them in the first place.

    I was surprised to hear that my daughter was rereading a book. She read Jurassic Park, literally, six or seven times when she was a teenager. I saw her last week. She's now 31. Guess what book she's reading!?!

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    1. Isn't that interesting...it probably is a familiar thing for her and don't we all like familiar places. It is comforting somehow. Jurassic Park must be a very interesting read.

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