All About Books discussion

Just wondering if others have had changed their perspectives on books previously read. For instance, when I was a teen I read "Catcher In The Rye". I thought it was great! I was there with Caulfield. thought he had it figured out. Read the book as an adult in my 30's and found that I thought Caulfield was nothing but a whiner. Whole new perspective. I have recently thought the same thing about the movie Clockwork Orange. Great when I saw it originally in the theater, but when I recently tried to watch it again, I couldn't get much past the opening scenes. I could see how I was being manipulated through camera angles and lighting.

Trends are a disastrous thing. I have experienced the same thing with Clockwork Orange. As a teen, it was amazing, now as an adult it's crude and misleading.
I am sure this is something we all deal with. Taste changes, with book, clothes and everything. It's the way we are as humans.

Heh - I read The Catcher in the Rye for the first time last year, also in my 30s, and found it incredibly entertaining. I thought Caulfield was a pretty realistic spoilt, immature teen, and his inconsistencies made for fun irony! I think I'd have disliked it if I'd read it as a teen though - I think I'd have simply disliked him. I've heard a lot of people say they either liked the book as a teen and hated it as an adult, or hated it as a teen and liked it as an adult. It seems a book that people change their opinions on a lot.

I read To Kill a Mockingbird at school, and wasn't that bothered about it then, but re-read it just this year, 30 odd years later, and loved it.

My latest example is The Shining, when I first read it I didn't really care for it but when I read over the summer, I really enjoyed it.

I think changing perspectives can be really common, it has happened to me a few times. Mostly when I have had to stay certain books for school where I did not enjoy but I have read them years later and really took the time to read it properly.

I read Anna Karenina every 10 or so years. I went from 'poor Anna' to 'what a spoiled young woman'. Vronsky has always remained a bad-boy.

Particularly with poetry! Poems I once found completely incomprehensible now seem completely clear; I can't see how I couldn't have understood them. Others that seemed clear before now still strike me as good but not top tier because they now strike me as simplistic.

T.S. Eliot: The Wasteland seemed deliberately obscure and irritating in my teens, but in my thirties felt absolutely clear. Robert Browning used to give me loads of trouble too - I remember puzzling over some poems of his poems for hours.

But going in the other direction, I think if I've ever really loved a book, I always retain at least some fondness for it because I'm able to see it through the eyes of my former selves.

For example, it's something of a sacrilege to say: I loved The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I first read it, but now I see it as a bit too pat of an allegory, a bit too one-dimensional. I feel like I've read better fantasy books since then. Yet I still like it, and I can still simultaneously see it through my younger eyes; so I'm still fond of it.

In Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood compared looking at the past to looking through a stack of overlayed partly transparent sheets on an overhead projector (not that anyone uses those anymore). :) Going with her metaphor, I feel like I can still play with the sheets on the projector, temporarily removing or manipulating some to see how I used to see at different stages of my life through those shuffled filters. I can remember many sets of past perspectives with incredible vividness. And I don't really value either any of my past perspectives or my present one exclusively as the best. I don't think objective rightness is always most important, it's where the heart is centered that matters most. So although at the moment I believe I know what's objectively right (though not fully of course since it will undoubtedly change again somewhat), I still feel an incredible fondness for all my other past ways of seeing the things I once loved.

Probably sounds like crazy meandering, but there it is.

I find it quite fun to reread novels I read as a young child and see layers of humour and irony that I hadn't seen as a child. Depends on the novel of course - some don't have any irony. Enid Blyton is definitely disappointing as a reread, particularly with the undercurrents of snobbery and prejudice which I was oblivious to as a child. But E. Nesbit is great - well, there are a few bits of snobbery that annoy me, but there is a whole layer of irony and gently making fun of her characters that totally eluded me as a kid.

I often reread books. Generally I keep my original mind, but soetimes I see them through "aged eyes" and they turn out a bit duler than how I remembered them ...

I don't often reread books, but I find it amazing how I usually react similarly even if I read the book originally years and years ago.

I steer clear of reading books I cherished twenty years ago. I know my reading tastes and assessments have changed; I don't want to ruin the treasured memory of books I read when I was younger.

I'm pretty safe re-reading books that I read in the last ten years or so; I can still find the same magic, depth and interest. However, some books I wish I hadn't read so I might read them again; totally innocent of the plot,characters and writing style. I want that first time read feeling back again.

Chrissie wrote: "I don't often reread books, but I find it amazing how I usually react similarly even if I read the book originally years and years ago."

I find this with some books too - while some books are a very different experience to reread, others evoke all the same reactions, although I may have new insights into the book. It's why I always find it fascinating to reread - I never know if it's going to be the same as I remember or different!

I'm going to be rereading Wuthering Heights at some point - I really liked it as a teen, but I know a lot of people hate it, so I'm curious whether I'll like it as much as before or whether I'll dislike it now. And also I'm going to reread Jane Eyre - which I really disliked as a teen, but I know lots of people love it, so I'm curious to see if my perspective will be different now. Part of me suspects I'll still like Wuthering Heights and dislike Jane Eyre, but I want to test and see!

I remember when I was young I read Battlefield Earth and really enjoyed it but having read some of L. Ron Hubbard's other books where he clearly was slowly turning into a very disturbing and perverted man and knowing now about him and his cult, I cannot stand the thought of reading it again.

Gail, I think what keeps me from rereading many books is that I have so many unread books begging to be read. It is true what you say, some books get better and others worse; you never suite know what is going to happen. Invisible Man felt so dated on a second reread. To Kill a Mockingbird remained a steady favorite both 50 years ago and still now. Now that is a classic, writing that never diminishes. Along with Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. There are few that really hold the test of time. It is fun to think of what books today may turn into classics.....

Paulfozz, definitely if your knowledge of an author increases books you liked before can deteriorate in your mind's eye. After reading more about Hemingway, I have had a enough of his books for a good while. Some of Hemingways's books I love and some I have really hated. I can't deny liking a book even if the author himself can disgust me for some reason. It is a bit different with a contemporary writer. If their views upset me, of course I am going to avoid those.

Rick wrote: "Just wondering if others have had changed their perspectives on books previously read. "

I read the Peter Straub novel Shadowland either as a teen or in my early twenties and found it haunting, disturbing and creepy. I reread it a few years ago and found it boring and some parts a bit stupid.

The Stranger by Albert Camus. Read a second time, it was impressive.

I read Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility when I was 17 and didn't really rate it; read it last year (I'm now 32 btw) and gave it 4 stars - I've always liked classics but I think when I was younger I needed a bit more action in my stories ( a side-effect of being brought up on fantasy stories, for me anyway, is that literary fiction can seem really dull if you're not in the mood for it!) whereas now, while I still love an action-packed adventure, I'm also old enough to appreciate Austen's wit and her writing on their own merits even if I still think that not that much really happens plot wise ;)

Katie wrote: "I always remember John Steinbeck being a writer I was forced to read in school and I never liked his writing at all until a few years ago when I reread East Of Eden and thought actually this isn't ..."

Katie, I re-read it earlier this year (To Kill A Mockingbird) and I much preferred it as an adult. I don't think I fully appreciated it when I was at school. It is worth re-reading, I think.

I have experienced this a few times with books I've not been able to get into first time around. For example, Atonement. Tried it a few years ago and could not get into the story at all. Tried again a few years later and I gave 5 stars. Not sure what had changed in me in the time in between..

Art is always moving.

Greg wrote: "Art is always moving."

Hopefully so!

:-)
yes, perspectives sure can change. also shows, that we have "progressed", doesn't it?

I will soon be re-reading "The Secret History".
I have read the book 2 times so far, both times in German. Now will be my first time in English.
- let's see if my opinion on the book will change now ;-)

so - I AM now in the midst of my re-read of "The Secret History" and the perspective (initial opinion) is still: great book ..

but I am enjoying the read even more.
My first two times reading it were in German, translated - and now, I am finally.. reading it in Tartt's original language.

I feel as if the book is in a league of its own. just, love it.

I am in the middle of rereading The Quiet American. When I read this as a college student, I thought of it as a book about Vietnam and colonialism. This time what I am noticing most is the romantic relationship between Fowler, Pyle and Phuong.

Leslie :-) that is interesting.
With our own life having evolved in the meantime, all the new experiences we have made and perhaps, also .. the point where we stand now, these days - this all could reflect in what we see in a book as we re-read it.