{"id":209,"date":"2018-05-03T12:56:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T12:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/03\/the-joys-of-rereading\/"},"modified":"2020-10-26T23:15:33","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T23:15:33","slug":"the-joys-of-rereading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/03\/the-joys-of-rereading\/","title":{"rendered":"The Joys Of Rereading"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

I have spent much of the last week rereading Louisa May Alcott’s books. I worked my way through Little Women, Little Men, <\/i>and Jo’s Boys.<\/i>\u00a0I am probably going to read Eight Cousins<\/i>\u00a0next. I have read all of these books many, many times. Little Women <\/i>was read over and over and over when I was a child. I know the story by heart and have a deep and abiding love for it. Nothing will surprise me because I remember it all; Amy’s pickled limes, Jo’s temper, the plays and newspapers they create, Beth’s death, Jo’s refusal of Laurie (which is absolutely and completely the right decision) all of it is there unfolding in\u00a0my mind almost before I read it. So why do I read it again?<\/p>\n

Because it is familiar. Because it is comforting. Because it is well-written. Because it is a good story. Because reading a well-loved book over and over again is a joy and a pleasure. Because reading Little Women <\/i>again is like meeting up with old friends. I know what they are going to say and what interests them but I am still pleased to see them. Because love for a book isn’t a one-time-only thing. That love goes on with time and grows with greater knowledge. The first time we read for the story and every time after that we read with a greater appreciation for the creation of that story.<\/p>\n

Last week I also read Book by Book<\/i>\u00a0by Michael Dirda. He had this to say about the joys of rereading:<\/p>\n

This is why rereading is so important. Once we know the plot and its surprises, we can appreciate a book’s artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotions, content to follow the action with tenderness and interest, all passion spent. Rather than surrender to the story or the characters–as a good first reader ought–we can now look at how the book works, and instead of swooning over it like a besotted lover begin to appreciate its intricacy and craftmanship. Surprisingly, such dissection doesn’t murder the experience. Just the opposite: Only then does a work of art fully live. As Oscar Wilde once said, if a book isn’t worth reading over and over again, it isn’t worth reading at all. That’s a bit extreme–there’s a place for the never-to-be-repeated fling–but essentially he’s right. This is why Hamlet, Persuasion, <\/i>and\u00a0Abalom, Absalom!<\/i>\u00a0are endlessly rereadable, why teachers look forward to discussing them year after year. Major works of the imagination only gradually disclose the various facets of their artistry; only slowly do they reveal the subtleties of their construction. The great books are those we want to spend our lives with because they never cease to reward our devotion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, exactly. Whether the books we reread are Shakespeare or Alcott, Austen or Heyer, new or old, classic or simply beloved by us, the reason we reread them is the same. They speak to us in some way. We have come to care about the book beyond the plot because the characters have become people we know.\u00a0 They are old friends we are happy to meet again and the more often we meet them the more we appreciate their creation.<\/p>\n

Do you enjoy rereading?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have spent much of the last week rereading Louisa May Alcott’s books. I worked my way through Little Women, Little Men, and Jo’s Boys.\u00a0I am probably going to read Eight Cousins\u00a0next. I have read all of these books many, many times. Little Women was read over and over and over when I was a child. I know the story by heart and have a deep and abiding love for it. Nothing will surprise me because I remember it all; Amy’s pickled limes, Jo’s temper, the plays and newspapers they create, Beth’s death, Jo’s refusal of Laurie (which is absolutely and completely the right decision) all of it is there unfolding in\u00a0my mind almost before I read it. So why do I read it again? Because it is familiar. Because it is comforting. Because it is well-written. Because it is a good story. Because reading a well-loved book over and over again is a joy and a pleasure. Because reading Little Women again is like meeting up with old friends. I know what they are going to say and what interests them but I am still pleased to see them. Because love for a book isn’t a one-time-only thing. That love goes on with time and grows with greater knowledge. The first time we read for the story and every time after that we read with a greater appreciation for the creation of that story. Last week I also read Book by Book\u00a0by Michael Dirda. He had this to say about the joys of rereading: This is why rereading is so important. Once we know the plot and its surprises, we can appreciate a book’s artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotions, content to follow the action with tenderness and interest, all passion spent. Rather than surrender to the story or the characters–as a good first reader ought–we can now look at how the book works, and instead of swooning over it like a besotted lover begin to appreciate its intricacy and craftmanship. Surprisingly, such dissection doesn’t murder the experience. Just the opposite: Only then does a work of art fully live. As Oscar Wilde once said, if a book isn’t worth reading over and over again, it isn’t worth reading at all. That’s a bit extreme–there’s a place for the never-to-be-repeated fling–but essentially he’s right. This is why Hamlet, Persuasion, and\u00a0Abalom, Absalom!\u00a0are endlessly rereadable, why teachers look forward to discussing them year after year. Major works of the imagination only gradually disclose the various facets of their artistry; only slowly do they reveal the subtleties of their construction. The great books are those we want to spend our lives with because they never cease to reward our devotion. Well, exactly. Whether the books we reread are Shakespeare or Alcott, Austen or Heyer, new or old, classic or simply beloved by us, the reason we reread them is the same. They speak to us in some way. We have come to care about the book beyond the plot because the characters have become people we know.\u00a0 They are old friends we are happy to meet again and the more often we meet them the more we appreciate their creation. Do you enjoy rereading?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.holdsuponhappiness.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}