Inability to re-read Good Books or What is wrong with Me?

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thekidd12

Baseball is a good thing.Always was,always will be
Apr 8, 2016
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OK after looking around on board for a while and even making a few posts, I noticed quite a few people talking about re-reading many of Mr King's books. I have been reading his books since age 16 beginning with a paperback Salem's Lot. He is still the only non-fiction writer I read.

Many times I have tried to re-read one of these without much success. Once I get back into the pages the stories come back too easily without the original suspense or anticipation created the first time I opened it. And this is not a small sample size. Since around 1985 my wife has bought every King book that has come out for me for Christmas or birthday depending on release date.

I don't get it. I can watch an Andy Griffith rerun that I have seen hundreds of times (for those that know the show, only black and white episodes and for those that are too young, Google both Andy Griffith and black and white televisions) and still get the same enjoyment out of it.

Have been married to or courting same woman for 37 years now but if she looked at me with a crooked smile (good luck seeing that) would still have same effect. Even though I know THAT story by heart.

Is it me?
 

carrie's younger brother

Well-Known Member
Mar 8, 2012
5,428
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NJ
Welcome! :watermelon:

I have been mentioning this inability to reread books on this site for a while now. I used to be able to, but as I have gotten older I just can't/don't want to. I too watch old TV shows (Andy among them!) over and over again without getting bored of them. Part of it is the nostalgia that brings me back to my youth; the comfort I feel from them. I just don't get that with a book (other than a few I read in grammar school).
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
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....Steve is a "Non-fiction writer"?.....

195uiqj2h2s5pjpg.jpg
 

Sundrop

Sunny the Great & Wonderful
Jun 12, 2008
28,520
156,619
I don't generally re-read books, but there are sometimes exceptions......I reread 'Salem's Lot every couple of years because it's my favorite.....and with series books like The Dark Tower, I like to go back for a re-read to catch things I might have missed.
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
46,336
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Just north of Duma Key
A book that was read at publication date, and re read at a later period in my life, will bring about different emotions. I like to find the little things I missed on a first read. The recall factor has never been such that I remember each detail. Many times the ending is there, but the journey is not. It is all about the journey, so a re read is fun.
 

thekidd12

Baseball is a good thing.Always was,always will be
Apr 8, 2016
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A book that was read at publication date, and re read at a later period in my life, will bring about different emotions. I like to find the little things I missed on a first read. The recall factor has never been such that I remember each detail. Many times the ending is there, but the journey is not. It is all about the journey, so a re read is fun.
I agree with most of that but when reading one of Mr King's books the best journeys are the ones where I am steamrolling through pages, where it seems like he was doing that while writing them.

Sometimes, in some of the books, the back story seems to get muddled or bogged down, like it was not fun to write. But the reason I keep coming back to go on these trips is that roller coaster feel when the author's words appear to come effortlessly. And whenever I try to catch that magic again it seems like I am plodding along.

Maybe I just like shiny new car smell?
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
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Spokane, WA
I read King's latest novels when they are published and then will go back at a later point (usually a couple to few years later) for a re-read. I usually discover something that I'd missed the first time around. I've taken the journey to the Dark Tower 5 times now and always find something new.
 

thekidd12

Baseball is a good thing.Always was,always will be
Apr 8, 2016
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...just pickin' at ya dude.....no harm, no foul.....
Picking at me?

That's an awful "southern" way of saying that. Most of you above Mason Dixon types(Ohio above it right?) say picking on you instead of at.

And a foul is a foul if it caused harm or not. Unless it's in the NBA and then sometimes it is and sometimes it ain't.

Think I have deflected enough to get away from that non fiction thing? ;-D
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
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Cambridge, Ohio
Picking at me?

That's an awful "southern" way of saying that. Most of you above Mason Dixon types(Ohio above it right?) say picking on you instead of at.

And a foul is a foul if it caused harm or not. Unless it's in the NBA and then sometimes it is and sometimes it ain't.

Think I have deflected enough to get away from that non fiction thing? ;-D
....pshaw!....rednecks are rednecks no matter what holler we comes from...
 

skimom2

Just moseyin' through...
Oct 9, 2013
15,683
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USA
I reread not because I enjoy the new things I notice. Even with book like The Stand (which I have read so many times that I have seriously lost count), I notice new things each time. I also enjoy Mr. King's writing 'voice'. There are very few authors who catch natural speech and normal mannerisms as well as he.
 

thekidd12

Baseball is a good thing.Always was,always will be
Apr 8, 2016
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Try audiobooks, it's a great way to rediscover the story without repeating reading the same pages!
I think that is what lures me to the movie adaptations or even "Under the Dome" tv show. The different way of delivering the written word. I have found I can watch those more than once. Personal favorite is the original "IT" miniseries.

Just something about reading a book again that doesn't work for me. It's not because I am of the digital generation. Heck I still have a flip phone.

I think it is more that tactile feeling you get from a brand spanking new book (new car smell, see above). I get it. Read it,usually in a couple of days, and put in the bookcase. Then wait for next one.

Not a problem I guess was just wondering how many others were like that.

Oh and GNTLGNT holler is a very versatile word, low place in woods (they are woods not forests), a way to respond (in either a crowded area or across social media), or even a way to describe the emptiness of a log in said woods.

Like I have always said people down south aren't stupid we just like economical language.

Thanks ya'll. (And that is always used as plural, tell all your friends)
 

thekidd12

Baseball is a good thing.Always was,always will be
Apr 8, 2016
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...yessir, I talk "hick"....
As I have often said sir...

"Hick" is not a dialect...it is a way of life.

And we can even adapt to other, more socially acceptable, ways of conversing if forced into such.

As a lifelong resident of hickdom I am pleased to meet another person fluent in the ways of this realm.

See...on a message board, actually using hickdom as a word, instead of trying to re-read a book.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
As I have often said sir...

"Hick" is not a dialect...it is a way of life.

And we can even adapt to other, more socially acceptable, ways of conversing if forced into such.

As a lifelong resident of hickdom I am pleased to meet another person fluent in the ways of this realm.

See...on a message board, actually using hickdom as a word, instead of trying to re-read a book.
....yea, verily.......