From the Archive: On Re-reading Old Favorites

When I was a kid, I was a loyal re-reader. If I discovered a book I loved, I would read it over and over again. The Little House series, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Wuthering Heights, Harriet the Spy...I never tired of them. Now that I have kids of my own, I get the chance to read these old favorites again, this time to an audience that I hope loves these old favorites as much as I did.

Re-reading beloved books is more difficult as an adult. There is so much out there I'm dying to read for the first time that revisiting novels I've already enjoyed seems to make little sense. And there's always the chance that returning to something I once enjoyed could be a disappointment. Some books are meant to be read at a certain time in one's life--they serve a purpose--and are better off left where they were.

For me The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand is a good case in point. I adored the novel when I read it in high school, just loved it. A few years ago, after finding it in an old storage box, I thought I'd give it another go.... Ack! This time I found its tone incredibly smug and its characters insufferable, but, then again, that's Ayn Rand for you. These days, I can't stomach any fiction that smacks too much of its author's voice. In characters, I want voice, but I don't want to hear the writer chanting along in the background. I want authors of fiction to be as "silent" in their writing as a good actor is "invisible" in whatever role he or she is playing on camera.

But then, there are lovely surprises in re-reading. I despised The Scarlet Letter in high school (what are they thinking, putting this on adolescents' reading lists?), but thoroughly appreciated it as an adult. I happily re-read Life of Pi by Yann Martel for a book club and not only enjoyed it all over again, but gained even more from it (if that's possible) the second time around. I re-read The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver and There Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston many times with my former students, and never tired of those novels. Part of the appeal of those multiple readings was watching my students experiencing such wonderful writing for the first time.

If only I had the time, here are just a few of the novels I would happily re-read:

The Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf by Kathryn Davis

The God of Small Things by Arundahti Roy

Cion by Zakes Mda

Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie

Possession by A.S. Byatt

Song of Solomon and Sula by Toni Morrison