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On books
I've been thinking about the conversation I had with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
woman_of_ on Sunday about books that had an impact on me when I was a teenager. Do you ever go back and read books that you loved or that influenced you only to find that as you've got older they don't fit into your life the way they once did? I don't often read a book more than once because there's so much new stuff out there for me to enjoy, but I've been thinking of going back to some of the books we discussed and now I'm worried I'm somehow going to ruin my teenage memories. What if these books aren't what I remember?
Am I being silly? Should I read the books again or leave them in the past?
*sighs*
Clearly I am watching too much Frasier and it's making me over-analyse everything. LOL. Quick, someone find somethig shallow and meaningless for me to think about ;)
woman_of_ on Sunday about books that had an impact on me when I was a teenager. Do you ever go back and read books that you loved or that influenced you only to find that as you've got older they don't fit into your life the way they once did? I don't often read a book more than once because there's so much new stuff out there for me to enjoy, but I've been thinking of going back to some of the books we discussed and now I'm worried I'm somehow going to ruin my teenage memories. What if these books aren't what I remember?Am I being silly? Should I read the books again or leave them in the past?
*sighs*
Clearly I am watching too much Frasier and it's making me over-analyse everything. LOL. Quick, someone find somethig shallow and meaningless for me to think about ;)
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Most of the books I've loved, I still love, but you do get the occasional horrific disillusionment (Asimov was one for me).
On the other hand, sometimes books that I loathed 25 years ago really enchant me now.
Meh. Age. What are you gonna do?
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I think I should probably go for it, right? Better to know than live in ignorance ;)
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Oh, you've just reminded me I need to do one more post before bed. I hope people aren't getting bored of all my book talk
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I regularly read the Incarnation of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, again I started reading this round about when I was 13. Tarot, by Piers Anthony I came to late, however I can see myself reading that several times.
Quite a few of Asimov's short stories I'll read over and over again, my favourite is the Positronic Man for instance. Pretty much anything with Elijah Bailey, or Dr Susan Calvin.
When I was a teenager I read a lot of the Dragonlance books, and re-read most of those, and a lot of ones I hadn't read last year. Not fantastically written fiction, but very much fun and easy to read. They're the kind of books you can clear in a good day's reading. It helped give me that 200+ reading list for 2007.
The hardest ones for me to re-read are crime and murder mystery books. I love Ruth Rendell, and Agatha Christie. Unfortunately there are few and far between of their books I've not read over the years. There are a few I can get into anytime, it's a cliché but Murder on the Orient Express is one for example, Doon to Death another. Read most of Morse too, however I don't like Morse as a character, so never wanted to re-read them.
I'm hard pressed to find books I've re-read I didn't enjoy a second time round.
A side affect of reading books from when I was younger, I tend to listen to the music I listened to as I read them. Though not always the music I originally listened to - such is the case with Chronicles of the Lance series which very much belong to Foo Fighters One By One. Where as One By One very much suits the moods and feelings of the books, the music I listen to, to Dune very much doesn't - back in the days I first started reading it, I listened to a lot of my dad's music, mostly the book to me is associated with T-Rex, Moody Blues, The Animals, and The American Breed, with a bit of Meatloaf mixed in for some good affect.
Back to point - there are some stories I can't read from when I was younger, and each and every one of them, were written by me. There are too many mistakes, stories don't flow - and years later the original thoughts, feelings, and imaginations have sadly gone and don't make up for the shortcomings in the stories. I can glaze over terrible writing, if it's all in my head, because all the words do is prompt my imagination to recreate the story, but only if it's fairly recent, otherwise a thousand other thoughts since will degenerate the vividness of my originally imagined stories. That's why I'm taking my current story so seriously - I'd like to read it again in ten years, and think it's a great story still.
This excerpt of "A Boy Gone Wrong: The Autobiograpy of JL Lawrence", was brought to you by Radio Sage. The book is available in no good book shops, and Tesco, for £1.99
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The time it takes me to get to work and back is also a valuable asset. Out of a one hour journey, I find myself with thirty to forty minutes good reading time - though if a books too good, I've been known to miss stops, or worse still not realise, or not bother that my bus is coming towards me and just carry on reading.
Most books I read in a year I would put at round about the 350 mark, however I worked in Bradford, and commuted from Leeds. Strangely I rarely minded the strikes, or the bad weather as I'd be too engrossed in a book to notice. Oh and not smoking back then helped, that frees up time at lunch and such.
At the moment, for read/writing I get maybe four good hours in a day. Though I am fail, tonight on the writing account. I can't settle down with pen or key to get some words down for my story. Wrote loads on the bus earlier :-s
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Actually I tend to chat online anyway, or watch a film/listen to music when reading at home. Nothing intense, but something easy going. Don't ask how I don't end up behind one, or both, or completely muddled up, for some reason it all just fits together :). My only issue is I can only write, and listen to music - I can't watch any form of TV, nor can I be online.
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It's annoying that I can't read on buses or in cars though. It makes me sick :(
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I used to read so much, now I barely know what a book is. I miss that.
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I've actually found that I can still read translated books - for years I avoided them since I felt they didn't do the originals justice, and sometimes were downright bad, but last week I read one (Phantom of the Opera epilogue) that was fabulous...and so I've decided to give reading in Swedish another chance. :-)
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There are only a few keeper books -- many that I really enjoyed when I was a teenager I found I haven't enjoyed that much when I re-read them. Most of the long-term keepers are children's books.
Btw, great moments in theatre -- seeing Patrick Stewart do his one-man show Uneasy Lies the Head and watch him do a selection from King John followed by A.A. Milne's poem about King John and the red India rubber ball.
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Were you disappointed when the books you read as a teenager weren't as good as you remembered?
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I think part of it is that when we're in our teens, we're bubbling cauldrons of emotions and hormones and we feel everything as if it's the end of the world. Most of the time it isn't, of course, but we're convinced no one has ever felt this way before or ever will again. A lot of books that are aimed at teens play on that dynamic, and I found myself saying "Oh, this is so profound. This Speaks Truth." Then I re-read it ten years later and realized that the characters were a bit overly emo and angsty and you can't live your life at that pitch all the time.
I've often wanted to smack the characters I enjoyed when I was a teenager because I wanted them to wake up and look at the rest of the world. Of course, I wasn't any different than those characters at that time. Maybe that's why the children's books still appeal to me -- they aren't about OMG-life-changing-experiences-that-no-one-but-me-understands-and-why-is-the-world-so-cruel, but about wonder and exploring and learning new things, stuff that it's good to remind ourselves of no matter our age.
I think I need a Pooh icon. :)
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Hmmm.
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