Longing for Books

Lately, I’ve been nostalgic for the books I read last year.  As soon as I finish the many I’m reading now, I’d like to reread some, which makes me wonder how much the average American today rereads anything.

Rereading really began for me in college.  I was so thrilled to take creative writing workshops that I read the assigned (and unassigned) stories multiple times.  When classmates handed in stories, we were supposed to read them at least twice.  This was my initiation into the wonderful world of rereading.  There were times when I could not stand a story, but on rereading, I found redeeming qualities.  Soon I was reading their stories up to four or five times.

Since then, my rereading has subsided.  With what seems like so little time and so many books, I race on to the next.  Last year I did reread a handful of books, but I wish I had the patience to read each one twice before opening another.

There is the question about whether a writer should write a book that the reader only understands in the second or third reading.  Some applaud this, others call it a failure (today’s readers will never do that, and therefore, never understand the book).  Should we cater to the lazy reader or challenge him?

Summer stretches on for at least another month, so if you’d like a great book to read, here are some recommendations from my 2007 reading:

Fiction

1.  The Corrections – Jonathan Franzen (if you’re can stand [or skip over] some four-letter words and a few distasteful scenes, if you don’t get annoyed at a writer peeking through at times saying “look at me”)

2. The History of Love – Nicole Krauss

3.  Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer

4.  Anything by Chaim Potok.  If you have any inclination toward art (or are interested in Judaism), read My Name is Asher Lev and The Gift of Asher Lev.

5.  Like I wrote in a previous entry, read Jeffrey Eugenides.

6.  Zadie Smith offers some interesting stories about people of differing races in England.

7.  Virginia Woolf is worth the work.  “Time Passes” in To the Lighthouse is lovely and brilliant.

8.  Read The Hours after you read Mrs. Dalloway.  If you’re prone toward depressive moods, maybe read these books during summer days.

Nonfiction

1.  Daniels’ Running Formula – Jack Daniels, Ph.D

2.  Anything by Mary Karr.  Start with her first memoir, The Liar’s Club.

3.  Anything by Lauren Winner.  She writes about her conversation from Orthodox Judaism to Christianity.  She’s smart and interesting.  I can’t say enough good things about her.

4.  The fabulous Flannery O’Connor.  Read her fiction, as well.  In Mystery and Manners you can read about her thoughts and experiences being a Catholic in the Protestant South.  This is also one of the best books I’ve read that deals with what it means to write as a person of faith.

5.  Kathleen Norris