New Read or Reread?

“Rereading, we find a new book.” – Mason Cooley

My wonderful sister, who knows how I panic over coming up with blog ideas, recently forwarded me a Dear Book Lover column by Cynthia Crossen in the Wall Street Journal. It featured a letter from a woman who liked to read the same novels over and over. The woman seemed a bit apologetic about it.

The article states: “And Nabokov wrote, "When we read a book for the first time the very process of laboriously moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, this complicated physical work upon the book, this stands between us and artistic appreciation."

I’m embarrassed to admit I can’t think of a book I’ve reread (with two exceptions). My own manuscripts are exceptions because the editing process makes rereading a gazillion times mandatory. The children’s books that I’ve read aloud, first to my daughter and then to my grandson, are another exception.

The article goes on to say: “In praise of rereading in the New York Review of Books, Larry McMurtry wrote, "Reversal of fortune can, I suspect, be a spur to rereading; where once one had read for adventure, now one rereads for the safety of the unvarying text."

Looking over the books on my shelves, I spot books that I thoroughly enjoyed and may even appreciate more the second or third time through. But these same shelves also contain many books I haven’t had the opportunity to read yet. Those books look more enticing to me because I don’t know how they end. Besides the books on my shelves, I have a long list of other books I want to buy to read, plus there are new releases daily. In other words, so many books and so little time.

I agree with Ms. Crossen when she says: “If rereading enriches, however, it also lacks the thrill of the chase, the feeling of being mugged by the writer and forcibly hauled into a previously unimaginable world.”

According to an article I found from the American Library Association, the most reread books were (Sorry, the most recent survey I found was from 2004, but my research was limited by some very important factors, such as the rapidly approaching happy hour.):

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Shakespeare's collected works
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter series
Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House on the Prairie series
A.A. Milne - Winnie the Pooh
Alice Walker - The Color Purple

What about you? Are you a one-time reader or a rereader? What books do you reread?

Thanks for stopping by,


Tags: Mason Cooley, Wall Street Journal, Nabokov, McMurtry, Tolkien, Rowling, Dickens,

The Beginning of Writing Careers

“It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.” - Lucille Ball

I was slow to throw myself into the writing arena. Though I recognized that writing made me happy from a very early age, I didn’t complete my first manuscript until I had finally run out of excuses and reasons not to sit down and write on a daily basis. I decided to satisfy my curiosity and find out when or how other authors embarked on their writing careers.

According to the web site of Nora Roberts, her career was born during a blizzard in 1979. “She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate. Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn't reading or making up stories. During the now famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born.”

In, On Writing, Stephen King tells of the time when he was six and copied a story from a comic book. He showed it to his mother who then encouraged him to write a story of his own. He did. In fact, he wrote four stories and his mother paid him a quarter each. Obviously, he was paid for his writing at a much earlier age than most of us.

According to Chevron Cars.com, as a young man, Theodor Seuss Geisel worked for an oil company writing ads that consisted of cartoon drawings of people. This began his love for writing and drawing. In 1937, while on a trip, he was inspired to write his first book, To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. He used the name Dr. Seuss, because he wanted to use his real name for more serious books. Seuss was his middle name, and he put Dr. in front of it because his father always wanted him to be a doctor.

From factmonster.com, J. K. Rowling wrote her first story, Rabbit, about a rabbit with measles, at age five or six. Later, she tried her hand at writing novels, for adults. But she never finished writing any novel before she wrote the Harry Potter books. The idea for Harry occurred to her while she was stuck on a delayed train between Manchester and London.

Roald Dahl, according roalddahlfans.com became popular among Washington's rich and famous for the wild yarns he would spin about his RAF adventures. He wrote a story called Gremlin Lore about the mythical creatures that supposedly sabotaged RAF planes. Since he was a serving officer, Dahl was required to submit everything he wrote for approval by British Information Services. The officer who read it, Sidney Bernstein, decided to pass it along to his good friend Walt Disney, who was looking for War–related features for his fledgling film company. Disney decided to turn Dahl's story into an animated feature called "The Gremlins."

Readers, do you know how your favorite author started out? Authors, when and why did you decide to pursue a writing career?

Thanks for stopping by.

Tags: Lucille Ball, Nora Roberts, Stephen King, Dr. Seuss, Rowling, Dahl,