Book Buying Addicts Anonymous discussion

I was just thinking about books that I disliked at first and then later discovered that I really liked. The Great Gatsby is one of these; I had to read it, not once, but three times for different courses in high school and college. I didn't begin to like the book until the third go-round. Anyone else have this experience? Either you didn't like a book at first, but it grew on you as you read, or you read a book all the way through and didn't discover that you liked it until you re-read it sometime later. Or even the reverse; did you ever really love a book when you were younger, only to discover that it is utter trash when you picked it up again?

When you see young people reviewing books, they often give praise to stuff that's actually not very well-written, but you don't discover that, until you've read a lot more and have something to compare with.
A lot of the books I liked as a teen have been hugely disappointing to reread, and generally I avoid it, but some like The Dark Is Rising Sequence and many Diana Wynne Jones books, are still cool.

Books like Gatsby or Faust (one of my favourites) are not all that accessible to a modern reader, but if you learn a little about the hows and whys of their time/author, there's so much more in these books, than what meets the eye.

I don't think I ever do that. Usually if I don't like a book the first time, I don't give it another chance because I never re-read it. There are few books that I've ever re-read anyway. Every time I try to re-read a book I'm constantly thinking I could be reading something new and differet!

Oh I know the feeling Patricia...

I try not no re-read too much, but I have a really terrible memory, so some books I feel just have to be revisited from time to time, or a book needs to be given another chance because my reading preferences have changed considerably over the years. My problem right now is that several volumes have been released in a long-running series, and I haven't read the earlier volumes for so long, that if I want to read the new ones I'm going to have to re-read the entire series again just to know what's going on (it doesn't help that the timelines are all excessively complicated, thanks to constant reincarnations of characters).

I reread some books until I literally have to buy a new one; they're not necessarily great, in fact most are not. Most do go back to my childhood or adolescence & obviously have a big emotional hold on me.
These are some of the books I keep rereading (in no particular order):
Karen by Marie Killilea; A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle; RebeccaDaphne du Maurier and also her books The Parasites & My Cousin Rachel. Also lots by Agatha Christie: Peril at End House; Sparkling Cyanide; Death on the Nile; Cat Among the Pigeons; Evil Under the Sun; A Pocket Full of Rye; & Five little pigs; are some of my most favorites. Also The Complete Sherlock Holmes: All 4 Novels & 56 Short Stories.

I don't count the Bible because... well, I don't. It's in some different category.

I don't think you could read the Bible through once and imagine that you got everything out of it in one go, or even several. I'm not religious, but the Bible is a magnificent piece of literature, and a highly influential one just in terms of other writers throughout the ages, so it should be at least consulted once and a while by anyone interested in the great writers and works of the Western literary tradition and where they come from.

When I was in 8th grade, we had to read The Giver for gifted classes. There were 5 of us and we all hated it. Years later, I read it again during my first year TEACHING a gifted class and I absolutely loved it. I still don't know what it was that made me hate it so much back then.

When it comes to books read in school, I think it's just the fact that you didn't choose to read it, but had to. I know my enjoyment of a book often relies on being "in the mood" for that particular book at that time, so having one foisted on you when you don't want it definitely affects your experience.

Amber wrote: "When it comes to books read in school, I think it's just the fact that you didn't choose to read it, but had to. I know my enjoyment of a book often relies on being "in the mood" for that particula..."

I was thinking the exact same thing. A lot of books I had to read for high school seemed like a chore during the reading, but I truly loved the story. I think the way that they make you read books in school contributes a lot to that, because, chapter by chapter like it is, it's hard to really get into a book that you wouldn't choose to read.