7 November 2007
On Re-Reading
Posted by Sara under: Book Challenges; Check out this other blog... .
I adore this idea of rereading. I can probably remember almost every book that I’ve read more than once, partially because the list is quite small, and partially because rereading a novel gives it a special aura in my mental library. There are some books that I didn’t reread by choice– like Absalom, Absalom. The first time I read it the style of writing gave me vertigo and I can’t say I really managed to grasp what was going on. I was too busy holding on tightly to the sides of the book, trying to keep it from slipping out from under me. Now having read it two, maybe three times, I not only know what it’s about, of course, but it’s become a part of my vocabulary. Aspects of the novel, either the style, elements of the plot, or even the biography of Faulkner, become common metaphors in my thoughts. (I’ve especially been thinking of Faulkner lately, being fired from the post office for sitting around and writing all day, defiantly not “working.”) This applies to other works that I’ve reread as well. I categorize men as Darcys or Bingleys; I think of El-ahrairah rather than Brair Rabbit.
There are some works that I finish and then instantly think, “I want to reread this novel!” with an urgency. Usually I desire this in order to catch all of the foreshadowing I miss, to see if I should have figured it out. It’s the writer in me wanting to catch this other author in action, spy on them and discover their tricks. I usually don’t follow through with this desire; I am choosy about which novels eventually do enter the hallowed halls of the reread.
I know that I have found a great work when, upon finishing it, I smile to myself and know that in five or ten years time, I will probably read it again. And that from then on it will become a part of me. I have the grace to let it go, to fade briefly from memory, so that when I return to it I can enjoy it all the more for its simultaneous distance and familiarity. Reading is a hobby; rereading is reverence.