Challenge

On 25 October 2013 in the blog entry "(Re)Reading," I discussed my impressions upon re-reading books I had read in my younger years.  At the end, I issued a challenge to my readers to re-read.  I want to re-issue this challenge and encourage you to share your experiences in comments to this blog posting whenever in the future you find time to re-read.

I will start off with a "re-reading" of sorts.  I listen to a lot of books on CD, a habit I developed when I was commuting to Duanesburg.  On long trips, I listen to audio books.  Primarily, I pick books that I would like to read but will probably not read in print format, so I listen to them.  A few years ago, I listened to John Steinbeck's East of Eden and enjoyed the listening.  However, an issue with listening, especially while driving, is it is difficult to pay close attention sometimes.

Recently, a few different people commented that East of Eden was a very good book to read physically, that the act of physically reading was pleasurable, so I read the book on my Nook.  As I read, I knew much of what was coming and found this foreknowledge, for once, to be emotionally difficult.  In enjoyed the act of physically reading the book, but it is not a book I will read again. Steinbeck's prose, indeed, is artful, but it was too painful to reach certain points knowing the dire outcome.  Usually, I am a BIG advocate of re-reading, so I find it ironic to find a book that I enjoyed but would not re-read.  The level of emotions that Steinbeck captures indicates the prowess of his prose.