Any 'more each time' novels/stories?

Craig Gosse · Mar 16, 2008

Shweta said:
I do think high school is the exact wrong time to read... [The Hobbit]. When you're younger you can be charmed by the world and bumbling little Bilbo, and when you're older you can see the interesting things Tolkien is doing with the larger & implied structure. But high school is exactly when Bilbo will read as the narrator condescending to the reader, and the whole thing will read as a loosely-strung series of random adventures. Which it's not.

As I read this, I couldn't help but agree - I've re-read JRR's work at several different ages, and each time found something new and different to take away with me.

It could be something as simple as the advance of my own understanding of the world - but, I've found, it hardly applies to all books. So, I was just wondering if any of you have discovered a similar phenomenon with certain authors/books?

As another example, I'll give you Heinlein. I started reading RAH when I was about twelve or so, and at the time found his work to be good 'action/adventure' novels. To this day, however, I can pick up any of his works and find new depths to his writing; always there to be read, but unrevealed...

Ravenlocks · Mar 16, 2008

I read the five books in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series several times as a kid, but when I picked them up as an adult to see if the magic was still there I found them repetitive and couldn't make it through them all. I realize that's the opposite of your experience with Tolkien... I haven't reread Tolkien in years. Now I'm curious about how the books would strike me if I picked them up again now.

Shweta · Mar 17, 2008

I had the opposite experience with Cooper, actually. Every time I read her books I see more there. Loved 'em as a kid, love 'em as an adult

Different things we're looking for, I guess?

Sassee · Mar 17, 2008

I do this all the time with just about every book I read. It drives my husband nuts that I buy so many books, but I feel it's justified, because I pick them up every few years (if it's good, a couple of months) to read again. I always get something different out of what I read. Current mood plays a big part in this.

icerose · Mar 17, 2008

I have a hard time rereading books. I have the lousiest memory when it comes to names and remembering dates and such. But give me a book I've read before and I'll start quoting entire passages before I get to them. The exception for me would be scriptures. The more I read them, the more I learn and the new things I see depending on my mood, outlook, understanding and so forth. But that, I suppose, is a religious discussion.

I have had this happen with movies, where new things will click the tenth or so time I've watched them. Maybe I'm just oblivious lol.

Jeremy · Mar 17, 2008

When I first read Tolkien’s work I was in the 6th-7th grade. I re-read them when the movies came out. I appreciated his writing so much more the second go around. When I first read them I had the hardest time with the council of Elrond, yet the second go around I absolutely loved it. My reading comprehension grew so much between reading them it was like I was reading it for the first time.

That’s really the only books I have had that experience with, others I’ve just read once.

On the opposite side of the scale though, I used to read R.L. Stines Goosebumps books as a kid. They were one of the biggest things back then. If you didn’t read the latest one, you were a loser. I loved them, and couldn’t wait to read the latest one. Well, about 5 years ago I found some of them that I own and decided to read one. They weren’t nearly as good as I remembered… I’ll just leave it at that.

heatherleacubs · Mar 17, 2008

When I was a kid, I read Flowers In the Attic (and everything else VC Andrews wrote) and thought I was so mature.

I still have them, and whenever I flip through them I feel a little sick. Sometimes a lot sick.

Sarpedon · Mar 17, 2008

Well, for me the ultimate 'more each time' book is Ulysses, by James Joyce. I've read that more or less once a year for the past 10 years or so. Always something new.

Mythica · Mar 17, 2008

I completely agree. Some of the most satisfying times I've had have been rereading a book or watching a movie again. I absolutely love learning and I love applying what I've learned.

The best example of this is watching the older Disney movies again. They just get better and better every time.

otterman · Mar 17, 2008

It's not a novel but I get the same thing when I read Shakespeare's Hamlet. I've taught the play for years and inevitably I find something new, powerful, and thought provoking in it. I tend to think all works of great art are capable of delivering more each time you experience them.

Smiling Ted · Mar 17, 2008

At the risk of repeating myself, I'd say some of Zelazny's fantasies, Lord of Light in particular.

CS Lewis' Perelandra - even if I don't agree with his theology, I can't deny the power of what is essentially his description of the Garden of Eden.

Kipling, imperialist that he was - Kim, The Man Who Would Be King.

More as they occur to me....

Ravenlocks · Mar 17, 2008

Shweta said:
I had the opposite experience with Cooper, actually. Every time I read her books I see more there. Loved 'em as a kid, love 'em as an adult

Different things we're looking for, I guess?

Must be. I still really like the Arthurian angles and I loved Bran, but at this point they exist for me more as fond memories of childhood reading than anything else.

icerose said:
I have had this happen with movies, where new things will click the tenth or so time I've watched them. Maybe I'm just oblivious lol.

I had this experience with Disney's Beauty and the Beast, which I probably watched about a dozen times (in my defense, I had a little sister who loved it). Every time there was something new.

RJLeahy · Mar 17, 2008

Otterman, I'm glad I read your post first, because I was just about to say the same thing. I was forced to read Shakespeare as a lad, and it killed him for me for many years. Then, as I grew older I was drawn to his works again, but none so much as Hamlet. For some reason, I seem to reach for it when I'm feeling depressed. Maybe because by comparison, my woes seem trivial.

Shweta · Mar 17, 2008

I read Farenheit 451 as a kid and loved it; read it again as an adult and went

because there is so much in there that I know I missed as a kid.

Ditto with Iain M. Banks' The Player of Games. That is a far creepier book than I realized when I read it in high school.

Mostly, though, I reread books when I've forgotten enough of the story to get that joy of discovery again, so I am not sure how much more I see each time. I'm pretty sure that the more I write, the more I see about story structure etc. in general, but... dunno.

angeliz2k · Mar 17, 2008

1. I'm with icerose--I have a hard time rereading things because the thought "Been there done that" won't stop going through my head.

2. I can read Jane Eyre over and over (and have done so) and still love it. Each time I find really intersting tidbits.

2. I should reread The Dark is Rising series--I loved those as a kid!

3. I had to read Heart of Darkness twice for school (12th grade and freshman year of college) and, dense as the book is, I did not really mind re-reading it. Frankenstein on the other hand . . .

4. And, no one laugh, please, but I have reread most of the Animorphs series and was pleasantly surprised by how mature and enjoyable it was. My ten-year-old self apparently didn't mind some pretty creepy stuff and some pretty mature themes.

lute · Mar 17, 2008

There is this 'children's book' called Hope for the Flowers. It's a beautiful story that I loved as a little kid-read it nearly every day. It holds much charm and wonder within it that kids can enjoy and be happy while reading it or being read to.

I hadn't touched it for a while, but I stumbled upon it once I graduated high school and it brought on a completely new meaning. I hid in my closet and cried because the story seemed to reflect my life at the time perfectly. It gave me hope (hence the title) and reassurance that growing up wouldn't be so terrifying.

Everyone should read it.

Linda Adams · Mar 18, 2008

That's happened with me for a couple of different books.

One was All Quiet on the Western Front. When I read that in high school, some of what happens in the book had a big enough reaction with me that I still remember the reaction. When I read it, after serving in Desert Storm, my reaction to the book was "Eh."

I also picked up a couple Nancy Drew books after reading the book about them (think it was called Girl Sleuth). I'd read all of them as a teenager, but when I just tried to read one, I got only a page in. I was amazed at how awful they are!

aonarach · Mar 18, 2008

lute said:
There is this 'children's book' called Hope for the Flowers. It's a beautiful story that I loved as a little kid-read it nearly every day. It holds much charm and wonder within it that kids can enjoy and be happy while reading it or being read to.

i love this book! i stumbled across it when i was about 10 and as an adult had to add it to my collection.

also, the little prince. my mom used to read me this book when i was a kid, but it wasn't until i reread it on my own later that i understood what saint-exupery was saying.

sheadakota · Mar 18, 2008

I read Atlas Shrugged in High school on a friend's urging. I was heavily into Tolkien at the time, but forced my way through the book, hating every word, but I read it because I promised her I would.

When I re-read it years later, it was like reading a completely different book- I still like Tolkien better- but really- how can you compare the two?

I'm glad I took the time to read it again.

LilliCray · Mar 18, 2008

angeliz2k said:
4. And, no one laugh, please, but I have reread most of the Animorphs series and was pleasantly surprised by how mature and enjoyable it was. My ten-year-old self apparently didn't mind some pretty creepy stuff and some pretty mature themes.

There are mature themes in Animorphs? Really?

I never noticed... hm... reread time...

I never really notice themes or philosophies or anything "deep" in books. I've read Twilight four times, though, and each time I caught something new about the characters--does that count?

I was really psyched the one time I read one passage that mentioned "it looked like so-and-so wasn't breathing" or whatever and I realized that he probably wasn't. I felt pleased with myself.

big_black_bird · Mar 18, 2008

Animorphs is a great example of books that only get better as you acquire more life experience. (Although, I still have an unexplainable dislike of Book 2. Not really sure why.)

At ten, it's cool because there are these kids and they turn into animals, and what's cooler than that? Oh, wait. Aliens.

At twenty, it's impossibly sad to watch as a group of kids learn to cope with death, and war, and growing up to fast. And somehow, Marco is still funny.

lute · Mar 18, 2008

aonarach said:
i love this book! i stumbled across it when i was about 10 and as an adult had to add it to my collection.

also, the little prince. my mom used to read me this book when i was a kid, but it wasn't until i reread it on my own later that i understood what saint-exupery was saying.

I was going to include The Little Prince but forgot because I was busy rambling about Hope for the Flowers

That one too... we were required to read it my senior year of high school after we took the AP English test just to discuss and read something short and fun. Many of us were very emotional over it. So much more than a little children's book.

Craig Gosse · Mar 18, 2008

Dumas...

The Three Musketeers, (a novel about four guys with swords): Cracking good adventure story, rife with the politics of the day; yet the same each time I read it. Twenty Years After...? Something a little different each time.

This example represents not only how *I* have grown, as a reader, between exposures... but how Dumas had grown, as a writer... Makes for an interesting mix, I think.

Moon Wolf · Mar 18, 2008

big_black_bird said:
Animorphs is a great example of books that only get better as you acquire more life experience. (Although, I still have an unexplainable dislike of Book 2. Not really sure why.)

At ten, it's cool because there are these kids and they turn into animals, and what's cooler than that? Oh, wait. Aliens.

At twenty, it's impossibly sad to watch as a group of kids learn to cope with death, and war, and growing up to fast. And somehow, Marco is still funny.

When I was in 5th grade, I was reading one of the Animorph books (not sure which one) in class during a break in work, and I laughed. Out loud. When the room was dead quiet.

I think the teacher thought I was laughing at her, because she gave me a really angry look and said, "Is there anything funny the class should discuss?" And then I realized what happened and said, "Uh, no, sorry."

All I can remember was that it was something about Marco driving through trash cans and nearly killing everyone. There was something especially funny about him in my 10-year-old mind. I loved him. ^^

Aggy B. · Mar 18, 2008

I never seem to get tired of reading "The Trial Begins" by Abram Tertz/Andrei Sinyavsky. And it's really short. Barely novella length. But it is such an amazingly surreal story (about the last days of the Stalin era in the U.S.S.R. no less) that I enjoy it just as much each time I read it. It always seems there's something new there too.

A lot of Flannery O'Connor's work is that way for me too. Despite the shortness of her stories there's new depth each time I read.

And Shakespeare. Though I've never been a fan of Hamlet. MacBeth and Henry the V are favorites.

Any 'more each time' novels/stories?

Bored fanatic

How novel.

gone

Momma Wolf

Lost in School Work

Infinite in Mystery

Expert Gerbil Wrangler

Word Voyeur

Ah-HA!

How novel.

gone

never mind the shorty

lute

Soldier, Storyteller

Not all who wander are lost

part of the human equation

Plot? What plot?

lute

Bored fanatic

Moon Wolf

Not as sweet as you think