What Makes Me Reread Books?


It's not a bad thing, maybe even a good thing to reread a good book. At my most Type A I could convince myself that I'm denying myself the ability to read a NEW book, which plays right into my strange compulsion to prove wrong the theory that even a well read person reads only a few hundred books in their lifetime.

On the other hand, rereading Very Much a Lady by Shana Alexander has become a habit for me. The story is too interesting and Alexander's skill at telling it too good to resist revisiting it every so often. I've read it at least 5 times since it came out. Then add in the allure of seeing whether the book and Alexander's take on Jean Harris still hold up. Do they ever. This is the book Shana Alexander was born to write, no doubt about that.

And no doubt that one of the pleasures of Kindle is being able to own books that have been out of print, or were hard to justify the space they take up on my ever crowded bookshelves. Thanks to Kindle I'm rereading True Story by Michael Finkel - it holds up nicely too.

It is highly unlikely, however, that I will ever be drawn to reread The Great Upheaval by Jay Winik. I'm going to finish this dreary book, even if it inspires a near upheaval in me when Winik overloads every noun with an overwrought adjective. I'm feeling every one of the 692 pages on this one.

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