Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "re-reading"
Stories You Wish Would Never End
Have you any stories you love so much you wish they would never end?
I remember when I first finished reading The Lord of the Rings being just stunned by the sheer scope of it and wanting to dive back into that world immediately.
On a very different front, the same applied to The Wind in the Willows!
Of course, it is good the stories end. A lot of the time it IS the ending that makes the book stand out. An incomplete story is NOT a story. A story has to have an ending.
So I guess it is the entertainment and enjoyment we have had from these favourite stories that we really wish would not end,
The good news is they don't have to - you simply pick up your favourite book and re-read it!
I remember when I first finished reading The Lord of the Rings being just stunned by the sheer scope of it and wanting to dive back into that world immediately.
On a very different front, the same applied to The Wind in the Willows!
Of course, it is good the stories end. A lot of the time it IS the ending that makes the book stand out. An incomplete story is NOT a story. A story has to have an ending.
So I guess it is the entertainment and enjoyment we have had from these favourite stories that we really wish would not end,
The good news is they don't have to - you simply pick up your favourite book and re-read it!
The Good Old Paperback
The good old paperback has long been my favourite book format. Easier to carry around than a hardback (and certainly less damaging if you drop it on your foot!).
That love was intensified when my own flash fiction collections came out in good old paperback! Okay, I’m biased but it is a good reason to be biased!
The first paperbacks I remember buying were the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton in the days when you could buy books from your local newsagent. Southern TV had been adapting the books and of course the publishers brought out the books in an edition to match the TV series.
I then bought my own paperback of Pride and Prejudice by the wonderful Jane Austen. Later I went on to the paperbacks of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett and the P.G. Wodehouse books (though I haven’t got all of those. Still it gives me something to aim for!).
All a joy to buy and to read and re-read (a sign of a good book is that is it one you can always re-read).
Which paperbacks are your favourites and why? Are there any you regret buying? (Sometimes you can find the answer to that one by looking at the books given to charity shops. Every so often a book is a big hit and then it just drops out of favour and ends up in said charity shops!).
That love was intensified when my own flash fiction collections came out in good old paperback! Okay, I’m biased but it is a good reason to be biased!
The first paperbacks I remember buying were the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton in the days when you could buy books from your local newsagent. Southern TV had been adapting the books and of course the publishers brought out the books in an edition to match the TV series.
I then bought my own paperback of Pride and Prejudice by the wonderful Jane Austen. Later I went on to the paperbacks of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett and the P.G. Wodehouse books (though I haven’t got all of those. Still it gives me something to aim for!).
All a joy to buy and to read and re-read (a sign of a good book is that is it one you can always re-read).
Which paperbacks are your favourites and why? Are there any you regret buying? (Sometimes you can find the answer to that one by looking at the books given to charity shops. Every so often a book is a big hit and then it just drops out of favour and ends up in said charity shops!).
Re-Reading
Do you make a habit of re-reading books or is it something you only do occasionally?
I can sympathise with the school of thought that says life is so short, read new books, then read more new books etc.
But I must admit I do re-read. There are certain books I simply have to re-read (or in some cases re-listen to) at different times of the year.
For example, I have to take in Hogfather by Terry Pratchett in the run up to Christmas. In that case I nearly always re-watch the excellent film adaptation.
The nice thing here is, as well as enjoying old favourites again, I nearly always pick up something new from the repeat reading - a bit of wonderful characterisation that I somehow hadn’t quite picked up on before.
A great book can always stand being re-read. You should be able to get more enjoyment from it each time.
Here it is not a case of familiarity breeding contempt, more like familiarity breeding anticipation of more things to enjoy from a well-loved story.
What is there not to like about that?!
I can sympathise with the school of thought that says life is so short, read new books, then read more new books etc.
But I must admit I do re-read. There are certain books I simply have to re-read (or in some cases re-listen to) at different times of the year.
For example, I have to take in Hogfather by Terry Pratchett in the run up to Christmas. In that case I nearly always re-watch the excellent film adaptation.
The nice thing here is, as well as enjoying old favourites again, I nearly always pick up something new from the repeat reading - a bit of wonderful characterisation that I somehow hadn’t quite picked up on before.
A great book can always stand being re-read. You should be able to get more enjoyment from it each time.
Here it is not a case of familiarity breeding contempt, more like familiarity breeding anticipation of more things to enjoy from a well-loved story.
What is there not to like about that?!
Stand Out Characters
I’ve always thought characters make or break a story. If a character grips me, whether it’s due to my being sympathetic to their cause or because I want to see them fail, then I will read on and find out what happens.
The challenge for me as a writer, of course, is to create stand out characters of my own but given I’ve always loved inventing fictional characters, this is a joy.
It doesn’t matter either what format the story is in. I’ve recently seen my local excellent amateur theatre company stage a thriller where, throughout, I was routing for one character to succeed but didn’t know until the last minute whether I was right to think that way or not.
Kept me glued to my seat and I wasn’t the only one. You couldn’t hear a pin drop in that hall. Now that is wonderful characterisation and acting for you.
But it’s true for books too. The classics are the classics because we remember their characters (and thus their stories).
I don’t need to add anything if I say Oliver, Jeeves, Frodo, Hamlet, the Bennets, Harry, Aslan, and so many more I couldn’t list them all here, do I?
You will recall their stories immediately and maybe think it’s time for a re-read!
The challenge for me as a writer, of course, is to create stand out characters of my own but given I’ve always loved inventing fictional characters, this is a joy.
It doesn’t matter either what format the story is in. I’ve recently seen my local excellent amateur theatre company stage a thriller where, throughout, I was routing for one character to succeed but didn’t know until the last minute whether I was right to think that way or not.
Kept me glued to my seat and I wasn’t the only one. You couldn’t hear a pin drop in that hall. Now that is wonderful characterisation and acting for you.
But it’s true for books too. The classics are the classics because we remember their characters (and thus their stories).
I don’t need to add anything if I say Oliver, Jeeves, Frodo, Hamlet, the Bennets, Harry, Aslan, and so many more I couldn’t list them all here, do I?
You will recall their stories immediately and maybe think it’s time for a re-read!
Favourite Kinds of Story
I love a whole range of stories and books so it is hard to pick just one overall favourite but we all have those we turn to time and again, especially if life is grim.
Right now I know I can’t bring myself to read dystopian fiction. If I want dystopian I’ll watch the news!
I’m a great believer in books being a wonderful source of entertainment. This doesn’t stop them from being thought provoking as well, far from it, but at the end of the day, I want a rattling good yarn I know I can enjoy again and again if I so wish.
So where do I turn to for these?
My picks are the classic fairytales, anything from Discworld by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett, anything by Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse. Always worth re-reading!
Then there are the classic works of Jane Austen, crime novels generally, historical fiction geenrally, and The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.
What I look for and find in all of these and many others are stories which take me away from my troubles for a while.
Books shouldn’t be underrated for their capacity for this. I do think right now they can be wonderful escape for so many of us.
Right now I know I can’t bring myself to read dystopian fiction. If I want dystopian I’ll watch the news!
I’m a great believer in books being a wonderful source of entertainment. This doesn’t stop them from being thought provoking as well, far from it, but at the end of the day, I want a rattling good yarn I know I can enjoy again and again if I so wish.
So where do I turn to for these?
My picks are the classic fairytales, anything from Discworld by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett, anything by Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse. Always worth re-reading!
Then there are the classic works of Jane Austen, crime novels generally, historical fiction geenrally, and The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.
What I look for and find in all of these and many others are stories which take me away from my troubles for a while.
Books shouldn’t be underrated for their capacity for this. I do think right now they can be wonderful escape for so many of us.
