I've accidentally picked up a book that I had read years before and as the plot begins to feel familiar I realize that I've read it already and put it down.

I enjoy the excitement of a fresh story with twists and turns unknown to me. Rereading, for me personally, feels very stale.

As the saying goes : There's only one first time !

I suspect that there are many ways that a book lover enjoys books and certainly rereading a favorite is one .

Vee...Thank you for jogging my memory. Yes! I, too, remember those tales. Such fond memories! IMO...we, as a people, lost something very precious with growth and advancement. If I remember correctly, there were about 15-20 of us little folks in that one room and we were a rapt audience. I learned some very valuable life lessons in that little school room. Not just by assimilation but by respect and awe for the teacher who, obviously, not only enjoyed teaching. She enjoyed children. We weren't numbers. We were individuals with individual personalities and we were encouraged to grow and participate...always with respect for our fellow students. Patience and kindness were ingrained. There was a gentleness about that "age" that...I'm sad to say...has long since become a history of its own.

msgt:

I think it's wonderful that you enjoyed your first book so much that you wanted to read it again and again. I don't know what my first book was, but as a child I already had the habit of rereading every book I liked. I suspect that I picked up that habit from my mother or from my brother (seven years my elder) who took it upon himself to educate his siblings, especially me! My mother and brother were both great readers and born teachers. I was a very lucky recipient of their gifts.

Winter, I've been considering what you said about 'patience' in relation to a busy teacher with a wide age-range of children. In our 'little school' a younger woman taught the 'kindergarten' classes (in the UK we start school at 4 years) By the time we were about 7 years old we went into the other class and were taught by the Headmistress, strict but fair. I think she had been Montessori trained so we did lots of model making and what today would be called 'projects'. I managed to deal with Arithmetic but was a very slow reader; probably why I enjoyed being read to!

At age 10 I transferred to a bigger school with the contrast of 20 plus, all girls, in a class and a teacher who didn't know much and has an unpredictable temper. I was never scared of her sudden outburst of rage . . . just fascinated by the sudden purple fury. A wasted year of my education.

Frieda, my youngest brother is nearly seven years younger than me and he still talks about me trying to teach him to read. Neither of my parents were interested in 'book leaning' (strange as my Mother was very well-read and bright) so probably why I played the part of bossy big sister. I remember the Thomas the Tank Engine books especially Edward the Blue Engine . . .brother is called Ed . . . he could read it so well that even if two pages were turned over at once he still read the 'correct' page!

Vee...I, too, started school at four but it wasn't an educational requirement. It was at mother's direction and not done with a consideration of my learning as much as her desire to be rid of me during part of her day. I had the unfortunate luck being the oldest in a very dysfunctional family.

Just as there are some people who should never be parents...there are some that should never be teachers. I was very fortunate to have wonderful, awe inspiring, dedicated and caring teachers all through my school years. I don't know what I would have done had I experienced a teacher with "an unpredictable temper". I was a rather introverted child/student but I had a bottomless thirst for knowledge. They all fed me as much and as often as I wanted with little regard for educational defined guidelines. I think I am who I am today because of them. Certainly not any outstanding or generous parental guidance. I owe those teachers a debt I shall never be able to repay in my lifetime. I've tried to pass on their attitudes of care in my own relationships throughout my lifetime as a quiet way to say "thank you". I hope I've succeeded...even just a little. They saved my life.

I think probably the first book I read on my own was one of the "Little Golden" series -- perhaps one of the fairy tales, such as Cinderella.

Books that were assigned to me that I read in school: Giants in the Earth, Gone With the Wind (Yes, this was in Atlanta!), Silas Marner, A Tale of Two Cities, My Antonia, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Jane Eyre, the poems of T.S. Eliot.

Frieda, yes, I have read and have a copy of most all of Frances Parkinson Keyes' fiction books and toured her house in New Orleans. At the end of her life, she lived in the carriage house, which is much as she left it. The living room is my dream of cozy and comfortable with a pretty teacup and saucer on a table along with an open book left upside down to be picked up at the right spot. I enjoyed some of her New England and Washington D.C. settings as well, although some of the later books I didn't care too much for. I especially liked the ones set in New Orleans as well as Came a Cavalier set in France before and during WWII.

Winter, my mother was a teacher and began her career in one-room schools where grades 1 through 4 were taught every year with grades 5 and 7 and 6 and 8 taught in alternate years. If you began school at six, you hit it right to go straight through. My schooling began at age 4 because I didn't like to stay with the sitter and so went to school with her where everyone else had a book and I wanted one, too. She gave me a pre-primer, and I've been reading ever since. I thought it was a big deal to go up to her desk and read to her like the other little ones. My mother ended up teaching first grade the last 20+ years of her career.

I am convinced, Carolyn, that first grade teachers set the pattern of a child's entire life even though most people don't realize or recognize it as being so. I know my love of books was nurtured at the knee of my first grade teacher. I shall always remember her with kindness and love for she was one of the most unselfish people I've ever known and I was blessed to have been her student.

Woodnymph, your mention of the Little Golden books reminded me that my mother has told me Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton, illustrated by Tibor Gergely, was most likely the first book I read completely on my own. I still love it! I read it to my sons when they were little, and I think it was the first book I read to my granddaughter. I gave each of them a copy of Scuffy in a larger format than the original Little Golden one I had. It tickles me when I see Scuffy on my kids' bookshelves.

I had several dozen Little Golden books, including a Cinderella that was probably like the one you had.

I've forgotten whether you liked Tess of the d'Urbervilles. I notice it's not on your above list of books you've reread most. I have probably told everybody that it was one of my school favorites. I always laugh when I think of Astrokath's reaction to it being assigned in her school: an explosive "Tess of the bloody d'Urbervilles!" It is a pretty dismal story to have to read, I'll have to admit. I probably liked it because I didn't have to read it. I chose it myself for extra credit.

Anyone thinking Tess of the d'Urbervilles is a dismal read should try Hardy's Jude the Obscure first having removed all sharp objects, strong medications and lengths of rope to a safe distance. . .

Frieda (and anyone) I often read the expression 'extra credits' when discussing the US school system. Can you explain this please.

And while you are at it 'reading assignments'. Are you told to read such-and-such a book for homework and write/talk about the content later? Does an Eng Lit class have a 'set text' to read each term/semester which is followed up by writing wordy, dull essays on the character of Elizabeth Bennett or the Socialist leanings of George Orwell (illustrated with quotations to prove your point) ?

Were you made to learn large chunks of Shakespeare? Over here we always studied a play each year in 'Senior' school (ie from age 11) usually starting with something easy such as A Midsummer's Night Dream, until 6-7 years later, being plunged into King Lear with long essays to write.

Ha! So true, Vee, about Jude the Obscure.

With a character named Little Father Time (a child at that), it's a good indication Jude is not a happy read.

What was it with teachers assigning morose books to teenagers?

Vee, extra credit (in Iowa when I was in school there) was any work that a student took upon herself/himself to earn better marks (grades) than what might have been given just by doing what everyone in the class was expected to complete. For instance, if I was told that my grade was going to be 95 (an A) for the basic (assigned) work and I wanted an A-plus, I could accumulate extra points by doing added work to gain 100 points (or over) and would be given an A+.

Yes, we had set-texts in English literature classes, one or two a semester/term. We had to write those tedious essays you describe, and we were given written tests for knowledge of content and things we had heard in lectures and discussions.

And, yes, to learning blobs of Shakespeare each year. I recall we did Romeo & Juliet (R&J was nearly always the introduction to Shakespeare in the eighth grade, age about 13), Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and for the more advanced college prep classes: Richard III, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear and maybe others that I tend to conflate with my university classes.

I hope that helps to explain what I mean when I drop on you the phrases 'extra credit' and 'assigned reading'. Students in other states probably had somewhat different experiences.

Vee, I agree with Frieda's American definition of "extra credit." It even began in elementary school for me: during the summer, we were given extra credit if we kept a list of all the books we had read during vacation That was how I managed to read all of the Carolyn Keene Nancy Drew mysteries!

I forgot to mention: we were made to read Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare before tackling Julius Caesar. We even had to memorize part of the "Et tu, Brute" speech! Had we been made to read Romeo & Juliet, I might have liked Shakespeare better. I recognize his genius but just not my cup of tea.

Carolyn, my mother, also, was a school teacher before she got married, all through her twenties. This was in rural North Carolina, so I dare say the school was probably a one room school with various ages of students.

When I was in my teens and early twenties I re-read every Elizabeth Ogilvie book there was each summer. She's the author who was recommended to me by our Head Librarian when I got my first adult library card. She's the author who changed me from "indifferent reader" to "lifetime passionate reader". I still read EO frequently and own them all. Thanks Pat!

Something that strikes me is how infrequently nonfiction books are listed as favorite books to reread -- at least among RPers. I have some ideas as to why: one is nonfiction probably isn't as comforting as fiction or poetry . . . generally, that is. What do you all think of nonfiction?

Frieda and Mary many thanks for your extra credits info. I don't think we have a similar scheme here. As pupils/students get older everything becomes based on exams and good results (so individual schools are seem 'high achieving') I feel it 'narrows' the meaning of a well-rounded education.

Frieda, from the books read/discussed here I feel that very few people read nonfiction. I' sure I'm in the minority as I generally prefer it to fiction. I'm probably very 'old fashioned' or just down-right odd, usually reading to help me 'learn' something/anything!

Of course I do read fiction but much 'modern' stuff is so low-quality/unmemorable/not worth the paper it is written on/over-hyped . . . I could go on.

And I do make myself read the occasional 'classic' even if it is only one or two a year.

Mary I don't think there is much enjoyment to be had from just 'reading' Shakespeare. His words need to be heard, although it does help before watching a production to have some idea about the play/context/difficult language etc.

I do read some non-fiction. However, I think often I become attached to various fictionalized characters, perhaps because I feel I can learn from them or possibly that I identify with them.

Have we discussed reading biographies yet? Several of my favorites were of poet Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Isak Dinesen, and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Mary, some fictional characters are so vivid to me that I have to stop and pinch myself to remember that they are not and never were real.

One of my all-time favorite characters is Honor Harris, the narrator, in The King's General by Daphne du Maurier. I knew Sir Richard Grenvile (grandson of the earlier Sir Richard G, the famous 16th century adventurer/explorer) was real as was his sister Gartred who married the eldest son of the Harris family of Cornwall. Mary Harris married John Rashleigh who owned Menabilly Barton, the house that featured prominently in The King's General and probably was DduM's inspiration for Manderley in Rebecca. DduM leased Menabilly from Rashleigh descendants, restored it, and lived in it for several decades until the Rashleighs wanted to reclaim Menabilly.

This fascinated me (still fascinates me), so when the Internet provided easy access to their history and genealogies, I looked up the Harrises of Lanrest (their home) in Cornwall, the Rashleighs, and of course the Grenviles. They were all there, intertwined in their relationships. But there was no mention of Honor! How could that be? I have a hard time accepting that she was not an actual person. :-)

Vee, if you are very 'old fashioned' or just down-right odd, then I can sit right beside you!

I have loved nonfiction since my earliest reading experiences when I couldn't get enough of history, biographies, travelogues, letters and diaries, science, anthropology and archaeology, journalism (as it once was), atlases and maps, and linguistics, even dictionaries . . . on and on and on.

Woodnymph, is the bio you favor of Isak Dinesen the one by Judith Thurman?

I really have no reading preferences. I read anything and everything that gets in my way. Fiction and non fiction. If it piques my curiosity or its subject is something I've longed to know more about...onto the pile it goes. The only selectivity involved is that I may elect to read something that appeals to a particular mood I'm in or a life happening that's having a tremendous effect on me at the time. A subject matter that I'm not overly enthusiastic about is some strangers romance stretched over 300 or more pages. But, if there's an absorbing background story involved in it, it, too, gets added to the pile. I have no explanation or excuse for this. It just is...for some unrecognized reason.

Carolyn - I love it that you cried about Baby Bear's soup!

Carolyn, in the UK version of Goldilocks it is Baby Bear's porridge that is 'just right' and gets eaten 'all up'.

Vee, "the porridge version" is the one I've always heard, I think. No matter, porridge or soup, Carolyn's reaction is delightful to me. She also validates my impression that fiction is more pleasurable than nonfiction for a lot of readers.

Kathy, I recall that you were disappointed when you reread Jane Eyre and you don't want to read Wuthering Heights again because that might be a disappointment, too. Have you reread other books with good results?

I have had some repeat reads that didn't work out very well. They have usually been books that I only read once or twice a very long time ago which I remembered as better than they actually were -- either that or my tastes changed drastically in the intervals. Books that I have consistently reread over many years (probably every couple of years) have held up much better for me.

I'm not sure where "soup" came from. Obviously, at my advanced age, it was porridge when I first heard the story, too. Maybe it was from being told orally to modern children who wouldn't know porridge if given a spoonful.

Frieda - When I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights as a teenager, I had no personal experience with love and romance, so I found both books fascinating and oh-so-romantic. My disappointment in rereading of Jane Eyre was all about age, experience, and a jaded attitude on my part. The book didn't stand a chance of charming me like it once did. I'm pretty certain those same factors would come into play if I were to reread Wuthering Heights.

I don't have any books that I reread regularly. But my most successful rereads have been when there was a pretty short time span between readings - like a year or two. A couple of recent examples were The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin and We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride

Kathy, I can understand your avoidance of WH in that light. Two that I read when I was a teenager that knocked me over then: Forever Amber and Peyton Place. Some people call Forever . . . the original bodice ripper, but I remembered it as so much better than any hormone raiser that later writers churned out, most of which I wound up throwing on the floor and kicking. PP was an eye-opener. Did people really act like that in small New England towns? I didn't know but it sure was interesting in my dawning of awareness. I tried to reread both about ten to fifteen years ago. I was sorry to discover they were just ho-hum.

I am trying to think of more recent novels that made me want to reread them. I know there have been some, but as Vee said above, modern fiction is unfortunately not memorable. That's true for me, too, and I don't relate well to most of it.

Btw, I bought We Are Called to Rise due to your previous postings about it. I haven't read it yet, but the urge may hit me soon.

I have a brand new "First in line." library copy of "The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency" paperback "The Colours of all the Cattle." and it smells of nothing, which is my favourite library book scent!

Also a book from the rack by the door (which is for people in a hurry) "An Unsuitable Match" by Joanna Trollope, which has a stamped library accession date of March 2019 for some reason! Someone hadn't had their morning coffee, I would guess. It smells faintly of an expensive perfume.

Some library books need to be aired before I can read them. A recent one reeked of flyspray. At least they don't smell of tobacco now like they used to. I bought a bag of cat litter and dropped them in for a day or so. I wasn't supposed to have a cat in my rented home and needed to explain the bag to a suspicious house agent.

Frieda - I'll be interested to hear what you think about We Are Called to Rise, because I think you and I have rather different reading preferences. But I think somewhere, our tastes must overlap, and it could be here. ;^)

Annpan - Very funny story about needing to explain about the cat litter!

Frieda, yes, the biography I liked of Isak Dinesen was by Judith Thurman. Another biography I liked was of Edna St. Vincent Millay. I went through a period when all I wanted to read were biographies --- even one about Rasputin!

I always heard "porridge" as well, and considered it something well beyond "soup"-- more elegant, perhaps?

Woodnymph, I associate porridge mostly with breakfast oatmeal that has been boiled in milk (or water, I suppose), seasoned (usually with salt, especially in Scotland or the north of England), or sweetened with sugar or honey and fruit in North America and many other places. However, there are other porridges made of rice (such as congee in Asia), wheat (cream of wheat), cornmeal, or any other grain meal -- sweetened or unsweetened. A very thin liquid-y version is gruel. I think it's mostly peasant food, but might be made into something elegant by an innovative cook.

Oh, Kathy, I don't know: our tastes might overlap more than is readily apparent.

Haven't you said that you liked Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove? I like it, too, although my favorite McMurtry is The Last Picture Show. (An RPer once told me she detested Picture Show, but I don't think that was you.)

And you posted of your reading Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann about the Oklahoma Osage murders in the 1920s. That's a book I find hard to say I enjoyed -- the circumstances are too horrible -- but I thought it was well written in a journalistic style I like.

Then there's the book (I can't think of the title, presently) about the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft that you and I both read.

If we explored further, I bet we could find more books in common. :-)

Frieda. my VA Grandfather always added butter to his porridge which was considered quite exotic by his English family.

These days porridge has become the 'healthy option' for UK breakfasts as it is meant to give us long slow energy release. For me it has always had the opposite effect and leaves me hungry after about an hour . . . perhaps I should eat a bigger bowl full.

We always add a pinch of salt to the pan while cooking but usually eat it with fruit rather than sugar.

I'm afraid almost nothing I cook would be called elegant.

Frieda - I think you are right. And no, I was not the person who hated The Last Picture Show. Actually, I never read it; only saw the movie. And I agree about Killers of the Flower Moon - a terrible story, but one that needed to be told.

I love cream and brown sugar on my breakfast porridge although I haven't eaten it for years. I totally missed the soup reference as I was back to a memory of my father telling me the Goldilocks story as I started to read the post!

He had done some acting and told me the story as a bedtime ritual, with gusto!

Frieda, it always surprises me when someone remembers something I said, but you are correct. My English teacher for my two final years of high school loved Thomas Hardy - me not so much. He's been 'Thomas Bloody Hardy' to me since 1974 :)

The books I have reread the most would be those from my childhood - Black Beauty, Little Women and one no one has ever heard of but me, called The Three Elizabeths, about 3 cousins all called Elizabeth who have to leave their well to do house and school and go to live in a working-class area.

With adult books, I've reread many Agatha Christie books over the years, as well as the first three of the Outlander books (I've read all of them at least twice except the last). A great many I would have read twice, but not more - Dick Francis comes to mind, as well as Leon Uris. The one that stands out is Gone With the Wind, which I must have read at least five times since 1973.

Since 2004 when I started working in a bookshop I've reread fewer books as there are always new ones that I can read without having to buy them.

Ann, my dad wasn't an actor, but he could have been. Any story he told was with gusto.

Astrokath, somehow your post slipped in stealthily between Annpan's and Carolyn's about their dads' gusto storytelling. It wasn't visible to me before today. It's a good thing that I like to reread threads or I would have missed your response entirely.

2004! Wow, it's been fourteen years since you began working at the bookshop. I remember when you first told us that you were considering taking the job, and all of us RPers told you to go for it. We thought it sounded great for you. We must have been right! :-)

Kath, I like to associate books with particular people. I'm not sure why I recalled your Tess remark so vividly except it was amusing, although it was about a book I liked and you didn't. Of course I also link you with the Outlander books, the Morland Dynasty series (btw, I've read through the twentieth one; I think it's called The Winter Journey), and The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists. The last one I frequently dip in and dip out. I remember now that you liked Leon Uris a lot.

I often make note in my book logs who mentioned such-and-such books and authors. I also note who liked what or sometimes who didn't like something. I probably would see your name many times in my records.

I missed Kath's post too until I checked back when I saw something between the Gusto posts as I scrolled down the thread to find the latest ones.

It would horrify the RPers who don't reread to know that I actually buy books to reread! If I see a book I enjoyed in a charity shop or need one to complete a loved series, I get it. Do non-rereaders only have new-to-them books in their homes? No bookcases crowded with old friends?

I've only just seen Kath's post and no indication that it had 'arrived' which I usually receive from Houzz as an email . . . although they can be many hours, even days late.

Annpan I imagine non-readers have only neat rows of books with matching covers/coloured-coded and regularly dusted but never opened.

It must be that I'm ahead of you all here in Australia (even Annpan who lives in WA LOL).

Frieda, thanks for reminding me of The Assassin's Cloak - I might get it out next year and have a 12 month reread of that.

I find it hard to believe I have been working there for nearly 15 years too - I must thank my RP friends for encouraging me, as it is a wonderful job. I have recently turned 60, but promised my boss I would work until 2021, so I have a couple more years yet.

Astrokath - It surprises me too that you've worked at that bookshop for nearly 15 years, as I also remember when you first accepted the job. I was pretty young back then! (Though not as young as you.) Congratulations for finding a job that has brought you such enjoyment.

This thread has been a fascinating read! Annpan, I have an entire bookcase of beloved books that I do occasionally re-read. To be honest it's more a case of I can't part with them vs. I'll get back to them, I'll admit. (Repeat after me: it's not hoarding if it's books!)

As a tween I re-read Jane Eyre, Little Women, Little Men, and Jo's Boys multiple times. I also read and re-read the series books I had: Nancy Drew, The Dana Girls, Trixie Belden, and The Three Investigators. In my teens it was Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit (at least 9 times through LoTR, twice for the Hobbit). A favorite re-read from school-assigned reading was The Sun Also Rises, which was the only Hemingway book I liked. As for "Thomas Bloody Hardy" -- I've agreed with Kath on that one since 1978 Brit Lit!

Most recently I've re-read Deborah Harkness's All Souls Trilogy and expect to go back to that again in the future. I will also regularly re-read Barbara Pym, with Some Tame Gazelle my go-to book for pulling me out of any and all reading slumps.

Kath, I would have stayed in a job I loved until I dropped! I was amazed to find that the age pension in Australia for women is well over 60, depending on date of birth. My D has to wait until she is 67!

One would have to keep working even in an unlikable job. Fortunately I was in the UK, unemployed and eligible at 60. I raced to the Post Office on my birthday to claim my transport pass as well, thus becoming a "twirly".

This was the humorous name for pensioners who saw a bus arriving just before the allowed free start time of 9am and would ask the conductor if they were 'too early'!

I don't know if that name is still used.

Annpan, I'm not sure if OAP's are still called 'twirly's' and in this rural area 'though we can still apply for a 'bus pass' but there are virtually no longer any buses to catch! 'Pension age' has gone up over here as well. . . . and bus conductors are now museum pieces.

Kath, I remember when you took that job, too. You've only been there a mere 15 years? I've been retired, at age 65, for 17 years now and have no idea where the time has gone. I've certainly read a lot of books in that time, though.