Shadow and I have a fundamental difference of opinion about revisiting favorite books: If I like a book, I’ll re-read it periodically until the pages fall out. Shadow sucks a book dry on his first reading and is always on the hunt for new prey.
A recent SF Signal Mind Meld asked several authors to suggest books that were worth a second look. Their choices and rationales are interesting. (Also nobody said, “I never re-read books,” so nyeah to Shadow.)
Which books do you think are worth revisiting?
4 responses to “Science Fiction Worth Rereading”
Anthologies. I have thousands of them and they never make me resent revisiting (or storing) them.
Recently I have been re-reading all of the Discworld novels, and enjoying them immensely again.
I recently answered a similar question about movies worth watching over and over and over. My answer is basically the same for books. I’m not much of a re-watcher or re-reader. If it’s a really good book or movie and it’s been years and I’ve forgotten it enough so that coming back to it will be a somewhat fresh experience, then maybe. But life is short and there are an almost infinite number of other books waiting to be read. I can’t see putting much time into retreading old ground. There are probably only about a half dozen books I’ve ever read more than once.
The first two comments fairly accurately express the normal range of argument related to the question. I’ll expand a little on Bill’s comment by saying that, if it’s been years since I read a book and “I’ve forgotten it enough so that coming back to it will be a somewhat fresh experience”, then it obviously didn’t impress me nearly enough at first read for me to waste my time revisiting it.
I don’t know that the answer to this question is as much a gauge of literary bias as much as it’s a personality indicator. There are people who love surprises, even if the majority of them end up being innocuous or unpleasant (me), and those who hate surprises, and know their comfort zones and how to remain therein. Chip, who regularly rereads books, almost always orders the same dish when we visit Chinese restaurants, and frequently reads the end of a new book first, to determine whether the exposition falls within her comfort zone. Just an observation, not a judgment.
I can see how it might work like that for some people. But it’s not only a function of how impressive the book was. It’s also a function of memory. Mine isn’t as good as I’d like it to be, and after only a few years, the details of books begin to get fuzzy and my memory of them becomes more generalized. So I may remember that I really liked a certain book I read 10 years ago, but I may have forgotten enough of it to make a re-read worthwhile. It sounds like you have a better memory, and I envy you! ;)