Monday, May 11, 2009

Musing Mondays

Musing Mondays (BIG)

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about boys and reading…

Have you ever finished a book, then turned around and immediately re-read it? Why? What book(s)? (question courtesy of MizB)

No, I don't think I've ever immediately re-read a book I just finished, but I've re-read books plenty of times. These days I'm just happy to finish something and move on to the next book! Sometimes I'll re-read the first few pages- I did that with Breakfast with Buddha, by Roland Merullo, and Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese. Both of these were first-person narratives and it was interesting to me to listen to how this person, who I'd gotten to know really well over the course of the book, started telling the story at the beginning- that is to say, once I knew the character and all he'd been through, I wanted to see how the narrative voice sounded to me at the start of the journey rather than at the end, and if my impressions of the character, or my understanding of his viewpoint, had changed.

Musing Mondays is hosted by Rebecca at Just One More Page.

9 comments:

pussreboots said...

Interesting question. I was going to say "no" and then I thought of all the books I read to my children. The most recent book I've re-read right after finishing it is The Three Little Fish and the Big Bad Shark.

bermudaonion said...

I've re-read plenty of books, but never immediately after completing it.

Literature Crazy said...

That's an interesting idea to just go back and re-read the beginning immediately after the ending. Would provide for good compare/contrast in regard to growth, etc., of the characters.

I'm more inclined to re-read certain passages or sections. For example, I just finished American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld and I think I can easily see myself re-reading the courtship section between the future President and First Lady. That was really good stuff.

Candy Schultz said...

Well if you do count children's books I reread some of them ad nauseum. But I've never gone immediately back and reread something. Some books I reread every year.

caite said...

once, when I was young and thought I had all the time in the world to read...and owned a lot fewer books, I re-read. no longer....too many books, too little time.

The Bookworm said...

I do re-read books also, but not right after finishing them.

http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

Bookhopping said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

I think I did this with the last few Harry Potters -- I'd read through so fast initially, getting caught up in finding out what came next, and then I would immediately "read" them again on audio so I could capture all the little details I'd skimmed past the first time.

Zibilee said...

I never re-read immediately either. There are just so many books out there that I want to read that I sometimes feel pressure to get them all read. That doesn't leave a lot of time for re-reading, but occasionally I will re-read.