There are a few books I have gone back and read simply for enjoyment, for example Hitch Hiker's Guide to the galaxy was a pleasure to read. Some more dense materials that I know I will gain a lot from, I find it difficult to muster the motivation to re-read.
Completely agree, but I also think there's value in re-watching within a short period of time. I find you retain enough memory from the previous viewing to be able to see subtle details and connect things that you maybe wouldn't have been able to in a first viewing.
And also, you can just drop the analytic brain and immediately rewatch something because you find it to be a beautiful film moment-to-moment.
Maybe it is ADHD speaking, but I find it very boring if it is too predictable. If I'm bored, very little goes in anyway.
> And also, you can just drop the analytic brain and immediately rewatch something because you find it to be a beautiful film moment-to-moment.
There are some things I rewatched shortly after because it was beautiful. I like to also re-read George Orwell's 1984 annually so that I can figure out what my UK government plan for me next.
I'm curious what books others go back to over time.
I feel my mental model actively changing. I read something last night (a great book on genetic programming) that I could feel actively unwinding an undeserved bias of a previous self and opening a new path for creativity.
Sadly, I suspect many actually do not make any real progress in developing their mental models. Some, after many years, I have the same conversations with about fundamentally the same subjects.
> I'm curious what books others go back to over time.
For me, George Orwell's 1984 & Animal Farm, various short classic stories, etc. If our learning processes are somewhat a support vector machine, I try to reinforce the ideas that originally drastically changed my internal model.
It's not always books and media either. I listened to Mao's Great Famine [1] over several days - and it's harrowing. I like to revisit foods that remind me of childhood (flashes of memory from being younger than 2), like orange & mango juice, and strawberry & banana smoothie.
"All that can be done is for each of us to invent our own ideal library of our classics; and I would say that one half of it would consist of books we have read and that have meant something for us and the other half of books which we intend to read and which we suppose might mean something to us. We should also leave a section of empty spaces for surprises and chance discoveries."
- Italo CalvinoI think this is an act of a generosity. It shows that an artist is not only competent enough to execute something that complex, but also thinking deeply of their audience's time and money. It's hospitable: One of more virtuous virtues, IMO.
The best art should reveal itself to you over years, as you change as a human, and your sense of yourself - and the world you live in - changes. I think that should always be the aim of the artist.
You can't swim the same river twice; the same river can't be swum twice by the same person. Some rivers are much better for swimming :-)
Or: a single book that you enjoy different parts of it depending on your life situation is not better at all than if it were several different books instead, one for each life situation. A book for all ages is no better than a kid + an adult book. Maybe in a practical standpoint.
But I think I might disagree - my sister recently had a daughter, and there is so much beauty in the books I (am rarely able to) read to her. My appreciate for Mog's (to pick one example) artistic achievement has only grown by looking at it from a different time in my life.
It's not effective in the same way as it was - I don't find the narrative quite as suspenseful as I remember, for example - but this is sort of exactly what I'm talking about, condensed into a very basic analogy.
If anything, I'm enjoying reading Mog far more! And certainly more than I would enjoy a spin-off 'X-Rated Mog for Adults' series.
I'm being a little facetious, obviously. But I'm going to stick on this one.
If the artist is thinking deeply of her audience's time then she should not make the book (or art) worth rereading. Putting things at the beginning that only make sense at the second reading is rude and inconsiderate to the audience.
Well, this is my view of the books or shows that have rewatchability anyway. Fuck them, I won't. Also screw the artist for messing with my time.
I wasn't saying a piece shouldn't stand on its own on first viewing - that is not hospitable, IMO. I think you misinterpreted what I was trying to say: That I like art that has prismatic qualities, ie, revealing different things when looked at from a different time and place.
This isn't mutually exclusive with the first angle you come at it from being beautiful. It's just additive.
The video game community is often pretty explicit about this. They want their favorite games to be longer, not shorter, because they want to spend more time enjoying it. I don’t think it’s so strange that people may apply the same mentality, to books, movies, etc as well.
Of course there’s still the challenge of identifying which books are classics. And of course there’s value in reading non-classics——whether you’re reading for entertainment or for wisdom. Still, we’ve got limited time and I’ll more often gamble my reading hour on a classic than something new.
I think it really is mostly that I’ve changed. It’s been a slow change that has been hard to notice from the inside, but one that becomes quite stark when re-experiencing a fixed point such as a book.
ive also found that ill sometimes sorta really neglect reading the final portions of a book or stop close to the end of a TV series, not because of disinterest, but because i do not want it to actually end.
im pretty much just wondering if these feelings don't hit you quite as strong and you are more excited by new stories, than you are sad about ending the current story.
of course this is more aimed at fiction or just stories in general rather than something like a self help book or whatever, for those those same types of feelings don't apply at all.
I also noticed that, after listening to an audiobook, I pick up certain expressions that I then, without thinking about it, use in conversation, something that I did not notice doing when reading the book.
There is something that Ugo Pirro, the famous Italian screenwriter, wrote in his book "How to write a movie", about the re-, which can also apply to re-reading books:
"The memories of each of us, after all, are transformed, fade and shatter, are redrawn and combined when they collide with the immediate experience according to the philosophies that are embraced, the experiences and emotions that have carved their own interpretative model of existence. So what strikes us today, tomorrow may hide, perhaps overwhelmed by other data recorded by the imagination, and then reappear unexpectedly in a day, a month, a year. The time of imagination, in short, is always another, it eludes chronologies, it relies on disorder"
Don’t think i’ll stop anytime soon. :)
>Rereading a book can give you an insight into how you’ve changed since you last read it.
Said in a different way, I noticed I understand from a different perspective some of the books I re-read.
As others have said, some of the best works will provide new insights as you age and gain perspective. Some will reveal remarkable foreshadowing and narrative lines that run quietly through the background of the work.
And, of course, repetition reinforces and consolidates your memory and understanding. A lot of books are not retained well by me the first time. The revisit consolidates the work in my mind, and eventually I can recall it from memory. Perhaps not verbatim, but beat by beat and detail by detail.
A revisit always allows me to savor and appreciate the finer points of the artist's craft. The small choices that are attuned to the larger purpose in the book. The inflections that support the themes and reinforce the sensations that are being evoked.
The best work can be turned over again and again with little loss in pleasure. More often than not satisfaction and admiration appreciate with each visit.
Right now, I'm getting to the end of Glen Cook's The Black Company series (11 books). I've read it many times, but I keep on enjoying it, each time, as if it's the first time.
I do not get the same from movies or shows. I have a few favorites that I watch over, but not usually more than once.
It's just not the same.
Who doesn't love re-reading Snow Crash
Will you ever forget the way you felt the first time you read this?
"As part of Mr. Lee's good neighbor policy, all Rat Things are programmed never to break the sound barrier in a populated area. But Fido's in too much of a hurry to worry about the good neighbor policy.
Jack the sound barrier.
Bring the noise."
I just started re-reading LOTR for maybe the 4th time in 30 years and probably first time in 10 years. Probably more for the 2nd two reasons in this authors list.
Part of my motivation was I was looking at books in the same genre I had not read and have become mostly tired of it and just kind of thought that I know LOTR is still better than 99% of them, might as well read it again. I am pleasantly surprised by how many small things I had forgotten. It also helps to wash the movies out of my brain and restore the memory of the real story.
Someone mentioned Hitch Hiker's guide to the Galaxy. I just bought a copy of that for my son, it has probably been close to 30 years since I read that, I will be tempted to re-read it again when he is finished.
I'm rereading it for the fourth time, in less than 2 years. There's a variety of themes:
- political intrigue; - religion; - moral, ethics; - companionship; - brotherhood;
etc. Xenophon is eloquent and straight to the point, I really like his approach in this narration.
Now, on the topic of "rereading", I've often thought that maybe I should (have) read other books; that perhaps I was "spending too much time" in one book, but I just don't care enough to ruminate on this thought, and besides, there's always something new to learn from it.
Concurrently I'm reading "Crime & Punishment", which I also recommend.
Wolfe wrote in a letter, "My definition of a great story has nothing to do with 'a varied and interesting background.' It is: One that can be read with pleasure by a cultivated reader and reread with increasing pleasure."
> A good book gets better at the second reading. A great book at the third. Any book not worth rereading isn't worth reading
I think they can both be correct, and at the end of the day we shouldn't worry too much about being optimal. Leave some books quickly, keep others that feel deep enough to return to. Read for both learning and for pure entertainment. Read books that you already know you'll like, but leave room for some that could surprise you.