Do books affect you differently if you read them at different points in your life?

[Kerra]

Hello everyone! I was just wondering if you have ever noticed that sometimes a book will affect you differently if you read it at a certain point in your life.

I would love to hear some response on this and some of your opinions.

Question: Do books affect you differently if you read them at different points in your life?

Any response would be great! :)

[Jill]

I have a perfect example...... Ulysses by James Joyce. I started reading it for a class in undergraduate school and had a terrible time getting through it. I picked it up again a couple of years ago and actually enjoyed it. I don't know if life experiences, maturity, or because I didn't have to read it but chose to read it made a difference but whatever the reason, it made me look at it in a different light.

[Cassie]

That is a great question! I definitely think so..depending on what the book is about and if you can relate to it :) You may be going through something in your life and you read a book and feel a closer connection to it at that time. Also I think if you look back at a book you previously read in the past you can get reminded of where your life was at the point when you were reading :)

[Lizz (Beer, Books and Boos)]

I was going through a hard time and I read Dreamland by Sarah Dessen. I could relate to the girl in the book. I read it again not to long ago and it made me thank. I got out and most people don't. I still cryed reading it again.

[Patricia]

I definitely think so. A lot of times we've suffered some trauma or misfortune in our personal lives and that makes us totally relate differently to things in books.

[Anita]

Absolutely. I recently experienced this re-reading some Castenada stuff (Journey to Ixtlan, etc) I'd read umpteen years ago. I still enjoy it, but I see it in a totally different light and I've wondered a lot about why... in part I think the first time around I tended to romanticize the idea of a Don Juan. This latest time around I see it more from an almost anthropological perspective - I feel more objective about it, somehow.

There are other books I've picked up that I remember loving at the time but now it's as though I'm a different person - maybe I am - but I also think there's an element of the external culture that has shifted for me as well. I do this from time to time - it can be a worthwhile experiment - one of the few ~gifts~ of getting older, I imagine.

I also agree with what Cassie is saying in that it does serve to remind one where one's life was at - who you were at the time. In other cases, I think being older (wiser?) has enabled me to appreciate some things more - much like Jill's experience with Ulysses. It's a fascinating personal exercise all around if you're inspired that way. I'd certainly recommend it.

[Barb]

Absolutely! A perfect example is "Atlas Shrugged" - read in the early 80's & I loved it. Had my head down on a road trip to Maine and missed all the sites! Reread it a couple years ago and wasn't that impressed - I've learned that life is shades of gray - not black & white. Now have a list of books I want to reread!

[Joseph]

Childrens' classics such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass and The Jungle Book I enjoyed greatly as a kid just for the stories they told, but when I read them older I did get much more meaning out of works like them.

[Kerra]

Cassie wrote: "That is a great question! I definitely think so..depending on what the book is about and if you can relate to it :) You may be going through something in your life and you read a book and feel a cl..."

I have that feeling all the time when I re-read a book! :) I always remember where I was and what I was going through in that point in time when I re-read it. Thanks for pointing that out there!

[Kerra]

Thank you so much all of you for answering this question. I recently discovered this feeling when I read the book by Steve Lindahl. I am not a religious person, but lately I have been questioning how I feel about things and what I really believe in. I think that that is why this book in particular has touched me so deeply. However, even if you are not questioning things like that it is a great book, but I still think that is the main reason why I felt more connected to this book than I would have if I would have read it 2 years ago or 2 years into the future.

[Kerra]

Another question! :) Do you think that you understand books differently when you re-read it again in different points in your life? I noticed that sometimes when I watched a movie when I was younger and re-watch it when I am older I realized that I really didn't understand what it was about lol.

[Chantal]

Yes this has happened with me with Jane EyreJane Eyre. I first read it when I was 9 and the parts about her child hood really got to me, I could absolutely imagine her fears and nightmares, but didn't understand much her adult life. Mostly I found the book depressing and never wanted to read it again. But I decided it was time to give it another go recently and this time I really understood the characters motivations, and actually have an opinion about their motivations. Still think that most of the characters are generally not very not very nice, Charlotte Bronte is amazing howeverat developing these characters both good and bad sides. I also think if I'd read it 6 years ago I wouldn't have understood it the same way either.

[David]

I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments above.

I know there is one school of thought that many readers adhere to that says you should never re-read a book. The reason given is that there are so many books out there waiting to be read that why would you waste time reading something more than once.

My answer would be that just as one can never walk through the same river twice, one can also never read the same book twice because we are always growing and changing. I am a big underliner, and it's instructive to reread something and notice what I underlined in past readings. Sometimes I don't even know why I underlined something years before, and more often I find myself underlining something that didn't catch my attention before. A well-underlined book can provide a record of my growth over the years.

And occasionally, as happened recently, I will reread a book that I remember thoroughly enjoying in the past only to ask myself "Now, why did I like this so much back then?"

Re-readers, unite!

[Joseph]

David wrote: "I wholeheartedly agree with all the comments above.

Re-readers, unite! ..."

And I agree with you wholeheartedly. I am a chronic rereader. I love to reread since I can go in two directions when I do. One, if I pay close attention as I read I might get something new I missed the times I've read before and two, I don't necesarily have to pay as close attention since I have read it before, I can relax more rereading than I can reading a book for the first time.

[Ellen]

I also agree. And rereading not only gives me different perspectives of a book, it gives me different perspectives on myself: memories of who I was the last time I read the book, what I was going through, how I looked at and thought about things-even what things I chose to underline, all open a window on my past (and into my present) self.

And from a technical point of view, many complex books need to be read more than once to grasp the structure which is only revealed once the book is completed so that only in a second reading can the reader pay attention to more than the present moment of the story to aspects such as motifs, themes, nuances of characters and their relationships, so much stuff. And the bigger and/or denser the novel, the more it demands rereadings.

IMHO, anyway. :)

[Denise]

@ David and Ellie. you both hit the nail on the head. Where you were as an individual with the first reading is very different from the second reading. My son and I share many serious readings ( he's 19). At some points he says that what I have to offer is very different from his interpretation. My argument states, "I'm 50+ and you are 19" My perspective at 19 was very different from my perspective now. So re-read and share perspectives. We can all learn!

[Ellen]

I love it Denise! You and your son are lucky to have each other!

[Kristin]

I can't imagine not rereading books!

[sonya]

i'd like to reread "Catcher in the Rye". I read it when I was 19. the main character was naughty.

[Jill]

I am a charter member of the re-readers club!!!!! And also agree with all the above comments regarding the different perspective one has when re-reading a book after several years. But also be prepared to be disappointed every once in a while......that happened to me with "Madame Bovary"....I didn't like it very well the second time around. Conversely, there were books that I loved even more upon re-reading.. But there is one big problem......why am I re-reading books when my TBR list is never-ending?????? :o)

[Commit Purple Prose]

I re-read when a new book in a series comes out to refresh my memory of the storyline, to catch details that I missed the first time, or to re-visit old friends. Since I'm no longer heavily reading fiction for classes, I'm diving back into pleasure reading--picking up old friends and looking for new ones. That's one of the reasons I'm shifting from genre to genre quickly.

[David]

Jill pointed out the potential DOWN side of re-reading - my TBR list is slowly growing to an unmanageable size because I alternate new books with past favorites. No easy answers! But what a wealth of choices!

[Jill]

Right, David..........I don't feel I am wasting my time re-reading an old favorite but it certainly keeps that TBR list growing and growing. Addictions are like that!!!

[Louise]

I often notice that young teens are VERY generous with their 4 and 5 star reviews, where I migth see the same book as clichéd and an uninspired "one in a million".
Because I've read so many many other YA books. So in that aspect, re-reading teen favourites can be really disappointing, and change your rosy view on a certain books.

For me the huge difference in how I perceive books is probably motherhood. I'm so glad that I read "The Lovely Bones" before I had kids of my own, and generally it's harder for me to read emotionally heavy stuff now.

Ellie I completely agree that some more complicated books need several readings, I recently finished one (Danish so I won't bother with the title) so heavy with plot, symbolism and surprise, that I started over immediately to look for clues and explanations :-)

I very rarely re-read, I always feel the pressure of books I've promised to review, bookclub tbr, library books and my huge huge tbr pile, but I will occasionally re-read favourites like Austen's books or Susan Cooper's His Dark Materials.

I actually recently bought a copy of The Borrible Trilogy which I LOVED LOVED LOVED when I was 11. I'm pondering whether to re-read it and see what I think now, or just treasure the memory as it is.

[Ellen]

Louise, I know how scary it is to read a book you once loved. I have no words of wisdom.

Except (I always have words!): nothing can bring me closer to the child I was than reading a book I loved back then. And that experience has never failed me.

[Louise]

I'll keep that in mind :-)

[Jana]

I went through this when I reread Wuthering Heights. I had absolutely loved it and fell slightly in love with Heathcliff when I first read the novel. On the 2nd read I couldn't get past how nasty everyone was in the novel lol. I was early 20's when I first read it and ten years passed before reading it again.

I've had this happen with some other books in the past but not too many, thankfully.