💬 Friday Thread🧵: If You Could Experience Reading Any Book Again For the First Time, Which Book Would It Be & Why?
Plus, what is the last book you loved & what are you currently reading?
Hello! How has your week been going? Mine has been a combination eventful and low key. My dog Vinny got sick last weekend and it was a LONG couple nights of him needing to go outside often and immediately. If you know you know. I forgot how exhausting being up all night with a sick “kid” can be! Following a vet visit on Monday, getting meds, and many days of feeding him a bland diet, I’m happy to report he’s doing much better. In other weekly news, I watched the recent episodes of Love is Blind DC and they were fine. The couples are imploding and truth be told several of them need to. I’m invested in finding out what decision two of the couples will make- I think this “experiment” does in fact work for some people, and for others we can also see that they learn a lot about themselves along the journey.
Yesterday I posted a newsletter about the Stephen King books I’ve read and in it I talked about the experience of reading Pet Sematary when I was 16, as well as several of his books I’m contemplating rereading. That led to me thinking about the books I would love to experience reading again for the first time.
I know there are many books I’ve loved whose memories are intricately tied with the experience of reading them. Where I was when I read them, what was happening in my life at the time, what happened in the story that left me gobsmacked or awe stricken or fill in any other strong reactions:) There are reading experiences that become imprinted in our memories and those books often become treasures that live rent free in our minds. I’m wondering now if perhaps that is one of our eternal reading goals- to find books that provide us an experience verses other types of specific goals (ie reach a number goal)? What do you think?
Question Time…..The questions I ask in weekly threads are meant to be fun and help us connect, so please know you don’t have to answer each question, if you only have the time/desire to answer one, great! Please put book titles IN ALL CAPS for easy reading:)
If you could experience reading any book again for the first time, which book(s) would it be & why?
What is the last book you loved?
What are you currently reading? (feel free to add additional thoughts)
Have a great weekend📚
A book I would love to experience reading again for the first time is A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagihara because it utterly consumed me for 4 straight days and because it's not often I get to read a book that takes me to places I never ever expected while challenging me to not give up and not look away. And for better or worse I love to be moved to tears and I wish I could experience the feeling of being so devastated by fictional characters again. Also I read this during an incredibly stressful time in my life and the fact that I was able to have my mind taken off my own problems and to be immersed so completely in a fictional world was a gift this book gave to me. Almost 10 years later and this reading experience still feels so fresh.
Another book I'd love to experience reading again for the first time is THE BOOK THIEF by Marcus Zusak. I only read this because one of my sons was assigned it in 8th grade English and asked if I would read some of it to talk about it with him. I remember starting it in the fall on a cold, gray day and getting a hot tea and blanket and starting it thinking i would skim some to get a general idea of the story to talk about with my son. I spent the next couple days/nights obsessed with this story. I remember finishing it in the same way I started it but in tears with a box of tissues nearby. Edited- I totally forgot to mention the experience of also getting to talk with my son about this story- he was 13 at the time (now 24) and we spent several hours that week dissecting the themes and characters. such great memories
The last book I loved was HOW TO READ A BOOK by Monica Wood - I truly think any reader could love this story
I'm currently reading one secret surprise book for my end of the month audio episode, and I also started HOW READING CHANGED MY LIFE by Anna Quindlen. I love it so far. I typically enjoy Quindlen's nonfiction writing and there's something so satisfying about finding out how/why reading has changed other people lives
Such a good question! I've wished so many times that I could read JANE EYRE again for the first time. I would love so much to experience the big reveal without knowing it's coming. There are so many good turns of plot in that book, but the Big One is especially good, and knowing it's coming changes the way I feel reading the book now. I'm so envious of people who don't know anything about it before reading, although it does seem like the Secret Thing has creeped into the cultural consciousness.