Rereading
I have started to listen to an interesting podcast from the Center for Lit. It seems to be produced by a family who are really into homeschooling but they are very literature and their discussions of reading material are good for walking my dog or driving the car.
They were discussing books to reread.
I recently reread Crime and Punishment and plan to reared The Brothers Karamazov soon. I've reread Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Pride and Prejudice, among a few others.
They beg to be reread, but there is a bigger reason. I am not the same reader now I was in my early 20s, or 20 years later. Many books must be reread because we are not the same people. In fact, I am not sure how much we really get out of these "classics" when we are 18-24, typical college age. Now I read them because I want to engage with them. Back then it was either curiosity, or because I had to, or I had some frightful, misplaced sense they were "good for me."
(I was not raised in an educated family or family of readers. I aspired to be such, so I punished myself by trying to get caught up. Hence, I didn't read To Kill a Mockingbird until I was 23. I read it again many years later. The first time I understood it and why it was so good and hailed. Later I really engaged with it.)
They were discussing books to reread.
I recently reread Crime and Punishment and plan to reared The Brothers Karamazov soon. I've reread Anna Karenina, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Pride and Prejudice, among a few others.
They beg to be reread, but there is a bigger reason. I am not the same reader now I was in my early 20s, or 20 years later. Many books must be reread because we are not the same people. In fact, I am not sure how much we really get out of these "classics" when we are 18-24, typical college age. Now I read them because I want to engage with them. Back then it was either curiosity, or because I had to, or I had some frightful, misplaced sense they were "good for me."
(I was not raised in an educated family or family of readers. I aspired to be such, so I punished myself by trying to get caught up. Hence, I didn't read To Kill a Mockingbird until I was 23. I read it again many years later. The first time I understood it and why it was so good and hailed. Later I really engaged with it.)
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