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Why we re-read books

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I thought this article was interesting.

The Body Odd - Why books and movies are better the second time

Why books and movies are better the second time

By Natalie Wolchover
Life's Little Mysteries

New research reveals why people like to reread books, re-watch movies and generally repeat the same experiences over and over again. It’s not addictive or ritualistic behavior, but rather a conscious effort to probe deeper layers of significance in the revisited material, while also reflecting on one's own growth through the lens of the familiar book, movie or place.

Cristel Russell, a consumer behavior researcher at American University, and her colleagues interviewed 23 people to identify the underlying reasons for what they call "re-consumption." As detailed in a forthcoming paper in the Journal of Consumer Research, the researchers found that re-consumption is not merely a nostalgic attempt to retrieve the past, but rather an active search for new meaning, and one that has great emotional value.

"Because re-experiencing offers a way to look at oneself through the same lens but with different eyes, it offers many therapeutic benefits," Russell wrote in an email. "So long as one is actively conscious of the re-experience (and it's not a passive, uncontrollable addiction), it can offer many self-reflexive opportunities."

For example, one study participant was a church minister who regularly rereads the Bible. He said he sometimes interprets familiar passages differently and therefore has to amend the views he might have expressed publicly. "He saw this as a sign of growth," Russell told Life’s Little Mysteries.

The authors said their finding confirmed an assertion of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who in 1953 argued that repetition enables one to achieve an understanding of one’s personal past. More importantly, re-consuming causes the contrasts between our past and present selves to become manifest. We recall how we interpreted words or footage in the past, and reflect on the differences with our current interpretation. [6 Fun Ways to Sharpen Your Memory]

Re-consumption also can be deeply therapeutic. "Psychotherapists view the repetition of an experience as useful to purge that experience of its emotional excesses, a psychoanalytical concept called abreaction," the study authors explain. "The re-experience allows one to become conscious of repressed or suppressed traumatic events. It has led the way to abreaction therapy, where patients are helped to re-enact the experience in a controlled environment – for instance, to resolve post–traumatic stress disorder, characterized by the persistent re-experience of a traumatic event."

For example, a study participant named Lynette read a book, "The Bridges of Madison County," for abreaction. She explained that there are "just times when I’m feeling a bit low for some reason; I need to read that book, have a real good cry, and get it all out of my system – and, I don’t know, it just does it for me."

In short, the researchers explained, the book allows her to purge an excess of sadness.

Russell said the new findings have profound implications for marketing. "Marketers are always trying to keep experiences fresh and new. We show that even old experiences can be perceived as offering new perspectives," she wrote. "Also, many industries are in the business of re-launching, or creating new versions of this or that (movies made from stories in a book, re-releases of old classics, etc.), so we show them the ways in which consumers may respond to these re-experiences."

The study has psychological implications, too, she said. Instead of feeling awkward or unusual about rereading the same books, re-watching films or revisiting the same places, the study shows that in fact re-consuming is therapeutic and should be encouraged. "In the age of progress and always pushing newness and differences, it seems that we forget that it's okay to redo."
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That makes sense. For a few favorite movies and books, each revisit shows me something new.
 
New research? Sounds suspiciously like common sense to me.

Anyone that has reread books over the course of their lives will see a change in perception and perspective mirroring their own life experiences.
 
I think the book that best deserves re-reading, at maybe 10-year intervals, is Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye."
 
I have often wondered if i'm strange because I do a lot of rereading. For me it is a way to revisit a certain point in my life as much as it is about re-experiencing something enjoyable. I reread books that I read on enjoyable vacations, childhood, and happy times in my life. It helps me freshen and in some ways relive those memories.
 
753C said:
I have often wondered if i'm strange because I do a lot of rereading. For me it is a way to revisit a certain point in my life as much as it is about re-experiencing something enjoyable. I reread books that I read on enjoyable vacations, childhood, and happy times in my life. It helps me freshen and in some ways relive those memories.
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Definitely guilty of this one from time to time.
 
I always find something new everything time I re read a book or re watch a movie. I find myself thinking...hmmmm....was that there before! LOL
 
I rarely, very very rarely, re-read a book. The Myst Trilogy, Harry Potter, and Twilight (yes I'm admitting to this), HHGTTG are the only few I have successfully re-read. Anything else, I get a few pages in and put it back down cause the entire story comes rushing back at me.

I suppose this makes sense. I like to re-watch movies from when I was a kid. Like Wayne's World or something along those lines and suddenly realize that I get the reference or some joke that was made. Makes me feel like I've grown.
 
I also re-read books to think back of a certain point in live that I was in when reading it first. Sometimes it makes me aware of how I've grown since that point, sometimes it makes me aware of how i'm still stuck in the same patterns :)
 
atwood said:
I also re-read books to think back of a certain point in live that I was in when reading it first. Sometimes it makes me aware of how I've grown since that point, sometimes it makes me aware of how i'm still stuck in the same patterns :)
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True. And sometimes, if enough time has lapsed, I will have forgotten most details of a book I remember enjoying, so a re-read is almost as good as a first read. Mr Abc claims that's one of the perks of getting older; I'm not so sure I'd go so far as to call it a perk, but that's reality at my house.
 
There are very few books that I choose to re-read, only books that have a personally connection of some sort. For those books that don't, I find reading them once is enough, as they are so many potential books that can become a possible favourite.
 
I have never NOT re-read books -- going back to when I was 10 and read most of the Dr. Doolittle books three or four times. If you enjoy it once, why not more? My friends were watching the same Three Stooges shorts on TV over and over again. There are books that I really like -- both literature and pleasure reading -- that I return to over and over. Far better than wasting part of your life watching a mediocre or bad TV show or movie. (And yes, I discard or leave partially unread bad books.) Probably read A Tale of Two Cities eight times over the years, ditto for Zen and the Art of MM; came to All the King's Men late (over 40) and have read it four times in 20 years. A better gauge of what I think about a book is whether I DON'T re-read it.

Some I read again because I really like. Others because I didn't get them the first time, yet people I respect have good opinions of them, so I give them another try. I dutifuly reread Joyce's Portrait of the Artist . . . every ten years or so, but still don't get it. This says more about me than it, but I've never gotten more than 15 pages into The Sound and the Fury. :)

I can't imagine not re-reading.
 
Aww, The Sound and the Fury and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are two of my favourite books. What makes you give up on them?
 
Some sort of mental block, I guess (I'm the same way with Bruckner symphonies). I just don't find the Joyce to be interesting; and Faulkner's stream-of-consciousness technique just doesn't put me inside the character's head in any way I want to be. :) I keep going back to try to understand why they don't speak to me, but they just don't for some reason.
 
Addendum: Actually the type of book that intriques me from just an intellectual standpoint, are those that I really like the first time 'round, but that DON'T re-read well. One that quickly comes to mind is One Hundred Years of Solitude. It's a fantastic book and every bit deserving of the accolades it received -- but every time I've tried to re-read it, I've lost interest fairly quickly. Autumn of the Patriarch on the other hand, re-reads just fine. Who's to know?
 
I only listen to the audio books of novels that I have already read. I have a habit of "zoning out" during audio books, and suddenly realising that I haven't actually been listening for a few minutes; this doesn't really matter too much if I already know generally where the story is headed. It means that I can re-visit my favourites while walking/driving, and not feel guilty about using my actual reading time to read something that I have already done so in the past.
 
I re-read alot of books. But I only keep my favourite books to re-read

On my keep part of my bookcase from the last 6 months of reading are

The help - Katheryn Stockett
The wasp factory - Iain Banks
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Steig Larsson
A thousand splendid suns - Khaled Hosseini
 
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