Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Reread by accident, repeatedly... (and you?)

I have a question for you: What book (or books) have you rereadby accident? That is, what have you reread only because you did not remember reading it in the first place? On a related note, how many times have you done such a thing?

I do this a fair bit, as I read *very* quickly and will often am about half-way through before it dawns on me that I've read it before...by which point I figure I should just go ahead and finish it. My record is Robert Heinlein's, Friday. I have reread it 3 times by accident [and once on purpose].

I read it as a teenager when it was released in 1982. I was in a airport several years later and saw a copy as a massmarket paperback. I read the back, it sounded good (and range no bells), so I picked it up. Several hours into the trip, I realized I had read it but zipped through to the end. About a decade later, I saw a "new" trade paperback edition (again in an airport) of a book called "Friday". It range a vague bell, but when I read the description, it didn't resonate. Again, somewhere over the midwest, I realized I had read it...and realized I had done this before . 

Finally, I was picking up some trip reading (there is, undoubtedly, a theme here with my lowered focus at/around flying) at a used bookshop and saw a 20th anniv. edition (or some such thing) for a book called "Friday" that range a vague bell...but not enough that I did not stand there and think, "how could I have missed this, it is right up  my alley and I've read so much bloody Heinlein". Again, well into the flight before I realized that this was the same tale that had hooked me repeatedly. 

I reread it in the last year or so...this time on purpose. That one doesn't count. Can you beat that number? I've read Friday 5 times....only twice on purpose. Sad. Very sad.

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2 Comments:

At 2:56 PM , Anonymous rc6750 said...

I have sadly bought Spellfire four different times over the years. Each time I thought it was something I had not read before. This was one of the things that prompted me to catalog my library.

Heh.

I didn't actually go through with reading it each time though...I just own multiple copies.

http://www.librarything.com/work/181424/book/36791842

 
At 6:41 AM , Blogger Jacob Trechmann said...

I've done far worse: I've bought the exact same copy of a book before.

The local charity shop had a green Penguin (I think it was a Dorothy Sayers title), it was a good read but nothing memorable. Back it went to the charity shop. Two months later I saw new title in the detective fiction section. It wasn't until about p.100, when an old train ticket of mine fell out that anything clicked.

Needles to say back it went, and is probably still sitting there on the shelf waiting for some sap to buy it again...

...at least the money keeps going to a good cause.

 

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