Posts on rereading

Thanks again to everyone who suggested "adult" books for me read! I've now got way more suggestions than I'll be able to read in November alone, but one of the best things about books? No expiration dates. Here's what I'm planning for starters.

Rereads:
- The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath
- My Name Is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok
- The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan

New reads:
- Little, Big, by John Crowley
- Lisey's Story, by Stephen King
- So Long, See You Tomorrow, by William Maxwell
- I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
- something by Rex Stout
- Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh

Oh boy. I have bitten off more than I can chew, haven't I? I can't wait!

October's been a crazy-busy month for me, and it's not even close to over! Will November be different? I'm not sure. I'll be working the usual weekend days at the library. I'll be taking a trip to Michigan for my dad's retirement and my oldest friend's wedding reception. And there's that whole Thanksgiving thing.

And even though after doing National Novel Writing Month in 2006 I resolved never, ever to do it again because of how exhausting and stressful it was, in the past week I've begun to reconsider. "Wouldn't it be a marvelous way," I'm asking myself, "to jump-start this new idea I've got?" The jury is still out, but if I succumb, I'm going to reel the blogging back.

I've also been thinking for a while that I'd like to take a break from reading children's and YA lit in my free time. I'm thinking November would be a good month for that, too. A couple of months ago I bought two of my favorite "adult" books, My Name Is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok, and The Hundred Secret Senses, by Amy Tan, with the intention of rereading them. And half a million people have recommended I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith. And at some point I wrote down Little, Big, by John Crowley, because I heard about it somewhere. Any other grown-up books I should add to that list?

And getting waaaay ahead of myself, I've started thinking ahead to maybe road tripping through the North Central U.S. next spring. Before we got sidetracked by our trip to England (which was lovely and novel, and I absolutely don't regret it), I had my heart set on driving across North Dakota and visiting Teddy Roosevelt National Park, dipping into eastern Montana and Wyoming, and circling back through South Dakota. Or the other way around, I'm not picky. The Crazy Horse Volksmarch coincides with my birthday, which seems just too perfect to pass up. Hmmm...

Last week, I observed that most of the new books I'm buying are fantasy. Of course, now I'm wondering why.

It isn't that I read more fantasy than anything else. Contemporary fiction in my reading log trumps every other genre in sheer numbers.

And it isn't that my favorite books are all fantasy. When I was growing up, I had a special bookcase, at the head of my bed, reserved for my favorite books. A great many were fantasy (the Prydain Chronicles, the Chronicles of Narnia, Madeleine L'Engle, Robin McKinley, and Susan Cooper took up a lot of shelf space), but then I also had my Virginia Hamilton, Mildred D. Taylor, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Wilson Rawls.

Okay, maybe fantasy did win in sheer numbers. But back then, I read a lot more fantasy, proportionately, than I do now.

Maybe it's the timeless quality of most fantasy that increases its rereading appeal to me as an adult. Because fantasy takes place outside of our own world, with that other world's own slang, technology, and social customs, fantasies aren't dated as quickly as most contemporary fiction. Not only can I see myself rereading certain fantasies ten, twenty, thirty years down the line, I can see myself sharing them with my kids, should I ever have any.

The first book of my rereading journey is Dreamhunter, by Elizabeth Knox. I loved it the first time around, but I read it and its companion, the Printz Honor-winning Dreamquake, several months apart. It's a complex story set in a complex world, so rereading it I'm able to notice details that didn't sink in the first time around and see the duet as a unified piece.

And continuing my book-buying kick, I've ordered a used first edition of The House of Thirty Cats, by Mary Calhoun. I reread this book so many times as a kid, I'm not sure why I ever gave it up. Now I'll have a decent hardcover copy to replace my old, battered, long-gone paperback copy.

A month ago, I was wishing I had more time to reread books. Since then, I've been gradually paring down my reading list of new books.

I'm pretty much at rock bottom now: I have only two books checked out from the library and three on hold.

Considering I've usually got twenty checked out and thirty on hold, this means I've reduced my library record by an order of magnitude!

Next step: figuring out what to reread!

(By the way, I have purchased several hardcover books in the past month and have a few more on my to-buy list. Most of them are fantasies. I'll have to ruminate on why later...)

While inexplicably lying awake in the middle of the night, I decided I need to buy more new books. I should do it to support a business I love and want a piece of. I should do it for the good karma. I should do it because there are actually a lot of books I'd like to have on hand to lend to friends and family when they ask for suggestions.

Historically, the main reasons I haven't bought many new books were:

a) The price. But now that I'm a grown-up with a "real job", I can pay off a new hardcover book with an hour or so of work. Awesome!

b) The space. We already have dozens upon dozens of books boxed up in closets because we don't have the shelf space, and I've been telling myself, "No new books until we move to a real house." But who knows how long that will be? Screw it. I'll banish more books to the closet if that's what it takes.

c) My own peculiar desire to buy only books that I have already read and want to reread. I've been this way since I was a kid. I didn't feel like I properly owned a book unless I'd already read it at the library and then decided it was worth spending my birthday money on. But I can currently name a dozen books that qualify, so what what am I waiting for?

A related issue I've been mulling over lately is my lack of time, in my current reading routine, to reread books. When I was a kid, the shelves built into my bed's headboard were reserved for my all-time favorite books: the Prydain Chronicles, the Chronicles of Narnia, The Dark Is Rising series, Robin McKinley's books, Mildred D. Taylor's books, Madeleine L'Engle's books, Where the Red Fern Grows, The Giver... These were all books I read three, and probably six or more, times over.

Since coming to work in a library, I've had such easy access to thousands of books I've never read before, and I've been trying to stay abreast of new books. I haven't taken the time out to reread old favorites. I'm thinking of reserving a few weeks this summer to take a break from new (or new-to-me) books and revisit the old.

Of course, knowing my habit of putting at least one book on my library reserve list every time I go through my blogroll, I doubt that will last more than a couple days. But maybe having some shiny new/old favorites on my shelves will help.