Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site utah-gr.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!harpo!decvax!tektronix!hplabs!utah-cs!utah-gr!donn From: donn@utah-gr.UUCP (Donn Seeley) Newsgroups: net.books,net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: Rereading Message-ID: <1502@utah-gr.UUCP> Date: Sun, 7-Jul-85 21:05:18 EDT Article-I.D.: utah-gr.1502 Posted: Sun Jul 7 21:05:18 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 13-Jul-85 15:32:25 EDT References: <120@aplvax.UUCP> Organization: University of Utah CS Dept Lines: 39 Xref: watmath net.books:2028 net.sf-lovers:8631 From: mae@aplvax.UUCP (Mary Anne Espenshade) ... I have one question for all of you on this - HOW DO YOU HAVE TIME FOR THIS????? I don't. But I do it anyway... It's just one of those things. I start thinking about a scene or a character from a book I really liked so I take it down from the shelf and before I realize it I'm halfway through. I've learned to stop worrying when this happens; I no longer put myself on a schedule that forces me through a pile of books at a rate I don't like. In fact I never read anything any more unless I'm in the mood for it -- there's no sense in making a duty out of something you enjoy. There are added benefits to rereading, less important than having fun, but still worth considering. I often notice different things on a multiple reading -- for example, I might be confused or puzzled about some point in the plot of a book, and upon rereading it will suddenly become clear. Or there might be a clever touch or two that didn't register on a first pass. Some books seem to have the sort of architecture that won't permit you to read them in a single linear pass, whose events can't be analyzed unless you can see them in a different order. (Gene Wolfe's PEACE comes to mind...) Sometimes the structure of a book, hidden before, is beautifully and unexpectedly unveiled by a later rereading. One day you'll happen to pull a book off the shelf and scan through it for something and maybe you won't really be paying attention and the pages are just flipping past but a word or a sentence will flash in your eye and you'll stop and stare and exclaim, 'What!? I don't remember anything like that!' And then you'll be hooked on rereading... I don't have time to read netnews either, Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn