Two good articles appeared recently about re-reading. Roger Angell of The New Yorker and Verlyn Klinkenborg of The New York Times both talk about the joys of returning to favorite books.
Here’s Verlyn (we’re on a first-name basis, at least I am):
Part of the fun of re-reading is that you are no longer bothered by the business of finding out what happens.... I’m able to pay attention to what’s really happening in the language itself—a pleasure surely as great as discovering who marries whom, and who dies, and who does not. (The New York Times 5/29/09)
For Book Clubs
Use part of a meeting to talk about books any of you have re-read—and why (why re-read and why that book?). Was re-reading a different experience—more interesting, or less? Have you read any book more than twice, thrice...?