Aging and re-reading

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Neil W

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May 27, 2008
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Isle of Wight UK
In the early days, I avidly re-read SK's books - I have The Stand, The Shining, Firestarter, Cujo, The Dead Zone etc. all under my belt multiple times.

I am now in my 60s. There are a lot more SK books on my shelves. I want to re-read them all, but I also want to read loads of other stuff too - I have a 1,000-page biography which I am halfway through, one of Joe Hill's books, His Dark Materials, a load of Robert Ludlums, and a mountain of other stuff. Prioritising my reading becomes more important, and re-reading has to take second place to reading new stuff (so hooray for Joyland and Dr Sleep, and roll on Mr Mercedes which will jump the queue).

So just a word to younger members - you are lucky to have such a large body of work before you as you start on making your way through SK's back catalogue - savour your reading and re-reading!
 

carrie's younger brother

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Mar 8, 2012
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I have found that as I get older (I will be 53 next month) that I just cannot reread a lot of books, no matter who wrote them. It literally took me 6 months to reread The Stand (it was my third time reading it) 2 years ago. I must admit, I was never real lover of The Stand; not when it first came out and not now. (I know, this is blasphemy.) I reread The Shining in preparation for reading Doctor Sleep when it came out, and I found rereading The Shining to be a chore as well (though I like it a lot more than The Stand). I will say that I am rereading Wicked (by Gregory Maguire) right now and tearing through it. I read it back in 1995 when it was first published, but had forgotten so much about it that it is like reading a brand new book to me. Maybe part of the reason I do not like rereading SK books so much is because I know many of them inside and out. Maybe I should go back and reread something I don't remember a lot about (like Duma Key or Rose Madder) and see what happens.
 

mustangclaire

There's petrol runnin' through my veins.
Jun 15, 2010
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I am an avid re-reader. Mainly because I read stupid fast with a new book. I agree with you carrier's younger brother. I struggled with The Stand first time round, it was last year before I ever picked it up again, must have been at least 20 years later (this is where someone pops up and tells me it isn't 20 years old :wink2:) and I was surprised to find how much I liked it this time. I didn't bother re-reading The Shining before Doctor Sleep, but it has pushed me on to wanting to re-read it again as again, I struggled with it years and years ago. I find it hard to comprehend when friends tell me they NEVER re-read.
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
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USA
Yep, gets harder to re-read with each passing year. I am glad I've done so on some books, though: I truly disliked THE DEAD ZONE when it first came out, but I came to realize when I re-read it years later that I was just too young to 'get it' the first time around. Now it's one of my favorites, and one that I find myself thinking about whenever a pol rises too far, too fast.
 

The Nameless

M-O-O-N - That spells Nameless
Jul 10, 2011
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I am an avid re-reader. Mainly because I read stupid fast with a new book. I agree with you carrier's younger brother. I struggled with The Stand first time round, it was last year before I ever picked it up again, must have been at least 20 years later (this is where someone pops up and tells me it isn't 20 years old :wink2:) and I was surprised to find how much I liked it this time. I didn't bother re-reading The Shining before Doctor Sleep, but it has pushed me on to wanting to re-read it again as again, I struggled with it years and years ago. I find it hard to comprehend when friends tell me they NEVER re-read.
I never thought I would re-read a book when I first started reading novels a few years ago, but I have read IT and 11/22/63 twice, I know for sure that I will re-read Joyland further down the line, and maybe even the stand one day.

Dr sleep gave me an urge to revisit the shining, even though I didn't really rate it the way most others did 1st time around - I just about thought it was "ok".

Oh and The Stand is 24 and 36 years old. :)
 

Lisey Landon

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May 20, 2009
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When I was younger, I never re-read. Too many books, too little time. So I gave away a lot of my books. My brother used to share my love for Clive Barker, so he now has a lot of my Barker books, which I truly regret giving away. Because now I love to re-read my favorites. At the same time, I want to read new books. It's difficult choices. But, since I listen to audio books to fall asleep, I have found a compromise that works for me. I try to find new books to read, then I do the re-reading with audio books. Still, I am not reading nearly as much as I would want to, I still have a hard time reading for long periods of time. I miss it.
 

Neil W

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May 27, 2008
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Isle of Wight UK
I know a lot of people like this - I found it HORRIFYINGLY bad. No time today, will explain when I can.
I bought this having seen the musical, which I loved. I couldn't believe how awful the book was, which is why they more or less ignored it (apart from the basic idea) when they wrote the stage show.

For me, the things which made it a bad book all derive from what seemed to me to be Maguire's supreme self-satisfaction at how clever he is. This resulted in things like never using a simple word when a complicated one will do, never using one word when you have five at your disposal, never focusing on the story you are teeling but, instead taking endless sidetracks for your own satisfaction. Plus I'm not sure sex and bad language ought to have a place in Oz.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
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Yes, he does sometimes, the stand, the gunslinger, the mist - but I wonder if Stephen King re-reads any books.
....not to sound like a curmudgeon, but King never re-wrote The Stand...he simply cleaned up and re-inserted material he'd already written and was edited out of the original edition, nor did HE do the change of the ending in The Mist-he just approved of it...
 

notebookgirl

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Oct 8, 2013
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Somewhere over the Rainbow
I think it's OK to re-read some books that maybe your read in your teens and decided to re-read as an adult. Or i have heard people re-reading their favorite once a year since they enjoy the book so much. People are reading so what's the harm! For me, I need to finish reading everything by King. That's one thing I am struggling with. There are books I haven't read yet and so many I want to get to that I missed. He wrote The Dark Tower decades ago, and to me, it all fresh and new. Of course, I know I have it easy because I didn't stand in line or bite my nails waiting for the next book to come on the shelves. The waiting for a book to come out is part of the fun and agony of being a reader.
 

The Nameless

M-O-O-N - That spells Nameless
Jul 10, 2011
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....not to sound like a curmudgeon, but King never re-wrote The Stand...he simply cleaned up and re-inserted material he'd already written and was edited out of the original edition, nor did HE do the change of the ending in The Mist-he just approved of it...
Ok, so I don't know about the mist, but he also changed the setting of the stand from 1980 to 1990, and with that came pop culture reference changes, so sure, it was only small but those parts were re-written, and he changed Lloyd
from not having eaten part of the leg of his cell neighbour, to more than a strong probability that he did
. Again, minor, but rewritten.