It became apparent during the Ray Bradbury obituary post that a lot of people here are re-readers. Are you one?
We almost invariably start out as re-readers. Little kids will ask for the same bedtime story over and over, long past the point at which the adult is sick and tired of it. But to turn that on its head, I once had some small friends I read bedtime stories to regularly, and I loved reading them ‘Winnie the Witch’ for the umpteenth time.
I’m a serious re-reader. I read Colette’s ‘Le Fanal Bleu’ over again once every five years or so, except I can’t find my copy and am starting to hyperventilate.
Series detectives are one of the loves of my life, and I re-read them all the time. Arkady Renko (Martin Cruz Smith); Falco (Lindsey Davis); Stephanie Plum (Janet Evanovich); John Rebus (Ian Rankin). I love these characters, and find it soothing to spend more time with them.
When I was a kid I had all Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels, and read them ragged. Buy me a couple of drinks and I can probably recite long scenes for you. P.G. Wodehouse, same thing.
‘Catcher in the Rye’ wasn’t taught in my school, so I had the good fortune to read it on my own, as an adult. It took about three re-readings before I got what was going on.
Georgette Heyer, her historical romances! Funny and charming. In shreds, all of them.
I really wish I were one of those disciplined people who kept a log of what they’d read. Look at all the re-reading you could do!
Do you re-read? Why? What authors?
Photo: Colette, in 1932. Wikimedia.
