Rereading

A little while ago, somewhere out there on the Internet, I ran across a thing about the joy and value in rereading books. I’ve managed to lose track of the thing now, but thoughts about rereading has been rumbling around in my head. So I started writing this, got a little hung up on why and how I read, so ended up writing my post on reading as well. Like that post, I’m not sure anyone needs to read this, but I’m writing it.

Overall I haven’t reread books all that much, so when I read that now lost thing, I had a bit of a revelation. One of the hangups I have around books, especially non-fiction and academic writing, is that I’ve always felt like I have to transfer everything perfectly into my brain all at once and my realisation is that, I don’t have to do that, I can read it again.

There’s a lot of other reasons to reread, enjoying a book again, getting a different perspective or looking at a different bit of writing, but realising that I don’t have to have perfect didactic recall of everything I read is really freeing. ( I’m sure people know this, but some how I ended up with this in my head and I think it’s really hindered how I read).

So I’m starting to to change how I approach reading, with the plan and expectation that I’m going to read the book again . I think that will complement my choice I can go quickly over a book (especially for fiction) and hopefully will help me not get hung up.

I had already been thinking rereading, especially wanting to revisit some series, like the Mercy Thompson books and the Lord Peter Wimsey books, to enjoy them again, but also to see what makes them work so well for me and how I could incorporate those elements more into my own writing.

Thinking about rereading, and the knowledge I can come back later, has me also thinking about how I’ve played games. I haven’t yet finished “Tears of the Kingdom” because I spent a lot of time deep in the side quests. Now those side quests are really good and worth playing, but I think I’d have been much better off playing the game through, getting to the end and then playing a second or even a third time to go through the side quests and get deeper into the little details. When I stopped playing I’d really lost track of the main idea of the game and momentum in playing more.

I think Tears would have been richer if I hadn’t tried to play so many of the side quests and if I’d pushed forward on the main quest more. It’s not the first game I’ve felt that about either (including “Breath of the Wild”). And so I’m taking this opportunity to remind myself that I can come back and play again and probably be happier.

Again, I don’t know that you need to know that I’m going to reread books and replay games more, but I feel good with that seed in my mind. I hope that if you’re in a similar space you can also let go of expectations and enjoy the things you enjoy more as well.

Reading

I’m not sure that anyone, myself included, really needs this post. On the other hand, I read a thing about re-reading and I want to write about *that* but keep getting hung up on reading. So I wanted to write a little bit about how I think differently about reading than I used to.

This is a story about I went from feeling like I should read more to feeling happy with — and about — reading. I use the word should too much and I’m trying to “stop shoulding all over myself”, as a therapist once said. I spent a long time feeling like “I should read more” and now I read a lot and really enjoy it.

I’ve written about reading on the blog before. I had two different projects to read books, Project 3 to read 25 books in 52 weeks and Project 15 to read 12 books in 21 weeks. I’ve also posted quite a few different notes on the things I read or lists of the things I read and from 2017 to 2022 I posted one word reviews of books. Reading more or better has been a regular resolution in my year end posts.

Like I said, I’m not sure I needed to write this. I like reading, so I read a lot. This is probably all we need, but I will say that beyond liking to read I’ve also given myself permission to read what I like and to ignore what I don’t like. That lets me enjoy the bits of books that I think are really good and if a book has bits I don’t like, I kind of don’t care.

Sometimes that means I jump to the end of the chapter if a confrontation in a book bugs me, or I might hit the skip ahead  button. Sometimes that means speed reading, or setting the speed on an audiobook up to 2x (or 3x) if I decide I don’t want to spend that long with a book — or if the book is written by Asimov, but I guess I repeat myself.

I’ve also given myself permission to stop reading books. Some books aren’t the right book for you to read right now and in the past I tended to slog through, refusing to start the next book until I finished this thing I didn’t want to read. The result was I used to … not read as much. Accepting that I can read for the love of reading alone has been immensely freeing and now when I hit a book that’s not the right book for right now I can move on.

So now I find I can enjoy the parts of books that are good. I can enjoy the writing or the characterization or the setting, even if I don’t love the other parts. I often everything now-a-days, but I have permission to step out whenever I want.

So person on Mastodon who replied to my year end post on reading, “Wow, you read a lot of books.” You didn’t ask, but that’s how I read so much. I enjoy it, I skip the bad parts and I listen to Isaac Asimov at about 3x speed.

If you were to ask me — and I’m aware that you haven’t — I would say if you want to read more, do it because you think it’s fun. Read the books you want to read, don’t worry about what’s good, skip the parts you don’t like, you can always come back later. Put down books you don’t like or that you’re not interested in. Maybe find a couple friends who read a lot as well (thanks friends on Goodreads) and figure out which of the books they like that you’ll like.

Anyway, I think reading more, and more happily, has been a big step forward in my overall mental health and I’m glad to be doing it.

Books are good. (Wow I really could have written a shorter post.)