A few weeks ago, I wrote about the pleasures of re-reading, and my mention of Mara, Daughter of the Nile unearthed some die-hard fans of the book. Kathy Borgen wrote, "I too, loved that book, read it at a young age, and kept it for many years while the pages slowly turned yellow. I re-read it not too long ago, and could still enjoy it even now that I am 70. My most re-read book? Pride and Prejudice." Ariel Richardson from Chronicle Books said, "It has long been one of my favorite books, and a favorite re-read. In fact, I have two copies: one that is water worn and well-loved, and another that is slightly less banged-up. I'm also not generally a big re-reader, but Mara is a notable exception... other than my mother, I've never found anyone else who has read Mara!"
Pride and Prejudice tops the list for sheer enthusiasm. Margaret Devere read it at least every other week when she was a girl--"it was one of the accessible books in my parents' library. I've read it at least 100 times." She has found time, too, to re-read Lois McMaster Bujold, especially Barrayar and Memory. Linda Miller said P&P is the only book she's ever re-read. "And let's not even count the number of times I've watched Colin Firth plunge into the Pemberly pond. As good as Downton Abbey was on PBS this winter, I still find the A&E adaptation in the mid-'90s a hard act to follow." And Kathy M. Johnson never gets tired of any Jane Austen novel or Portrait of a Lady.
Wendy Krauss wrote that the only book she's re-read recently was Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud by Jonathan Safran Foer: "I had read it when it was released, but then my book club was reading it much later and I had forgotten the details. On second read, I loved it even more." When she was younger she frequently re-read Catcher in the Rye. Another modern classic was mentioned by Paulette Schwarting: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, a book that often turns up as people's "most memorable book" answer. Eileen Cavanagh re-reads Henri Nouwen's Genesee Diary, saying it's like a mini-retreat.
One of my favorites (and a popular book World Book Night giveaway) is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Beth Asigri said, "This book is, I think a teen book BUT... I never had so much fun and feeling; the truth of living expressed in this book is tremendous!" Beth also listed seven more books including two by Thomas King--Truth and Bright Water and Green Grass, Running Water--and Rabih Alameddine's The Hakawati. But the Alexie is "the dearest to my heart!!" As it is to many.
Mike Sylvester pulled out an oldie with Richard Bach's Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah--"a great reread. Also a great book to use as a foundation of one's philosophy." And John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces "takes me back to my times at Tulane, and education in New Orleans." Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow was a favorite of both Stephanie Varga's and her mother's: "I have since turned my daughter on to it. We would compare people we encountered to characters in the book, like other people would compare them to their favorite TV characters. Since my mom passed on I re-read it every few years to revisit my old friends, and my conversations about them, with my mother. I'm always a sucker for pioneer stories, and the female characters are incredibly independent and uncompromising. All that, and early Los Angeles history too."
Jill Stephenson is a fan of Elizabeth Peters, Laurie King and Diana Gabaldon. She has just started re-reading Peters's Vicky Bliss books saying, "Better than comfort food. Or at least as good." Annie Carl loves to re-read. "It's sort of like sitting down with an old friend and talking about the regular things, only you're a year older, a year wiser. I get something new out of each re-read, something I missed before in my wild sprint to get to the end. And it always seems a wild sprint to suck up every detail because I get to the end much too soon! Besides the obvious Harry Potter and Hunger Games books, I also enjoy re-reading the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix, Rain Village by Carolyn Turgeon, Women of the Silk by Gail Tsukiyama, The Neverending Story by Michael Ende, The Scorpio Races by Maggie Steifvater, and many others. I couldn't possibly name them all. Every good book I read, I want to read again and again!"
When I read the e-mail from Janet Snyder, I literally smacked my forehead. How could I have forgotten to mention the books that I have almost memorized? The Laura Ingalls Wilder books! Snyder said, "In 2003 I was living all alone in a house on 35 acres at 8,500 feet in the foothills just West of Denver, Colo., when we had a massive March blizzard. I got out the group of books set in De Smet, South Dakota, especially The Long Winter, and enjoyed the shared feelings of being isolated because of feet of blowing snow." She also likes the Betsy-Tacy books. "As an adult I searched for and purchased a complete set of the Betsy-Tacy books. They were such a part of the summer joys in my grade school and beyond years. Even now it is joyful to journey back in time. I'm not sure that real life in those times was really as joyful and 'simple' as the books make it appear but still they reflect a time in American History that should not be forgotten." Her other compete book sets are by Laurell Hamilton and Jean Auel, and her newest favorite author is the fabulous David James Duncan. "The Brothers K is especially meaningful this spring because my Colorado Rockies Baseball team just made Jamie Moyer, at age 49, a starting pitcher. Jamie, like 'Papa' Chance, has an unusual pitching style. And Duncan's 'garden angels' in The River Why really made a profound impact on me."
Why do we re-read? It brings us comfort and joy, yes, but so often the message of the book changes as our lives change. Reading Jane Austen at 15 is not the same as reading her at 35, or 55. Many books won't hold up as we get older, but for the ones that do, we are so very thankful. --Marilyn Dahl, book review editor, Shelf Awareness