I've always been a re-reader - compulsively so as a child, with Laura Ingalls Wilder and Nancy Drew. I think a lot of kids are, they like the familiarity of stories heard again and again. (I remember one Christmas when I must have read a particular Berenstain Bears book to my niece at least twenty times.) One of the criteria I use in deciding whether to keep a book is if I think I'll re-read it. There are books I've kept, only to realize that years have passed and I've never looked at them again. Then there are the books that I re-read every year (if not more frequently).
The other day I was in Murder by the Book, looking for a particular author. They didn't have what I wanted, but wandering around the store I saw Mary Russell's War and Other Stories of Suspense, by Laurie R. King. The biggest section of the book is from the title, a journal that Mary Russell began keeping in August 1914. It covers not just the outbreak of the Great War but her last months with her family in San Francisco, before their deaths in a car crash and her voyage to England - where she met Sherlock Holmes, as she describes in The Beekeeper's Apprentice. I remember when the journal was appearing on Laurie King's website, but I didn't follow it at the time. Seeing this book reminded me of how long it's been since I've read any of the Russell and Holmes stories.
I enjoyed Russell's diary, learning more about her family and her background. Reading it made me think of Locked Rooms, one of my favorites in the Russell-Holmes series. In that book Russell returns ten years later to San Francisco, with Holmes, to finally face the loss of her family. Reading it again also reminded me of Laurie King's series set in San Francisco, police procedurals centered on Inspector Kate Martinelli. The last book in that series, The Art of Detection, has a link to Locked Rooms, and I wanted to read it again. But I couldn't just jump into the last of a five-book series, so I've been re-reading my way through that series as well. It's been about 10 years since I last read these books, and I only remembered some major plot points.
I also went back to Murder by the Book for the latest in the Russell-Holmes series, The Murder of Mary Russell, which I haven't yet read.
This meandering through Laurie King's books has gotten me thinking about why I re-read. With the Martinelli series, it's for the characters. Laurie King once said at a book signing that she thought Kate was a bit boring. That surprised me, because I like Kate a lot. I enjoy reading about her, her work, her life partner Lee and her work partner Al. I enjoy the cases she and Al solve, but for me they're secondary to the people. It's the same with Amelia and Emerson in Elizabeth Peters' long-running series. I enjoy the mysteries and the Egyptology, but I'm there for the Emersons and their extended clan (including the cats). It's also true of Deborah Crombie's police series with Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid. I mean no disrespect to the stories themselves, but they're not the main reason I read and re-read them. I would also put Dorothy L. Sayers' Peter Wimsey, Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman, Margaret Maron's Deborah Knott, and Patricia Briggs's wolf-packs on that list.
There are many factors that make a book worth re-reading, to my mind. Dorothy Dunnett's are so rich and complex (and occasionally confounding) that even after multiple re-readings I feel like I still see things I missed before. With Anthony Trollope, there is that wonderful authorial voice weaving his intricate stories together. With some authors, it's the story itself - Agatha Christie, and I think J.K. Rowling.
I know there are many people who don't re-read books. I remember my mom telling me me once that she didn't understand how I could read the same story more than once. With limited time and other resources, some people prefer new books, new stories, new people. Reading as I do largely by whim, I read both old and new. Sometimes though, like now, I am drawn back to old literary friends. And I'm thinking I might re-read Folly next - I think it's Laurie King's best book.
I have King's Kate Martinelli books 'ripening', Lisa, and hope to get to them someday. I agree about her 'Folly', and really liked her 'A Darker Place' too.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to rereads, even if it's been a while since I've reread a book sometimes it's enough just to think about it and the characters. Pratchett and Gaiman's 'Good Omens' is always good for a smile as is Bujold's 'Captain Vorpatril's Alliance'- that economy-sized box of groats and how it gets used. :-)
Karen P.
I love the idea of books ripening, until we're ready for them or they're ready for us :)
DeleteSometimes I'll take a book off the shelf just for a quick visit with favorite characters. Maybe I'll just read a chapter or even a scent or two.
And I love Captain Vorpatril's Alliance - I think it's my favorite of the later books.
I hadn’t thought about it before, Lisa, but now you say it I realise that I re-read for the characters as well. I want to spend more time with people who have become ‘friends’. And I also love Kate and Lee, and latterly Nora. I could have done with a lot more of that series.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's like Elizabeth Peters, who wanted to write other series but whose publishers wanted Amelia and Emerson books. Laurie King has been writing other things, like this newest book, which I read somewhere has a voice Cameo by Kate.
DeleteEvery year I resolve to do more rereading, but it still doesn't happen often enough. Sometimes I worry the books won't be as wonderful as I remember... will I still love The Thorn Birds as much as I did decades ago? Will Pat Conroy's Beach Music or Uris' Exodus stand the test of time? It's a dilemma for me, but I'm already planning to reread the Barsetshire Chronicles one day. I know I can depend on Trollope!
ReplyDeleteI resolve to do less rereading sometimes, so I can focus on the TBR shelves. But then I get drawn back to old favorites, to those old friends. And series are so addictive, I can never read just one book in a series, I always find myself picking up the next one.
DeleteI'm not a big mystery reader in general but the ones I like are all ones that can be reread with pleasure - no surprise, they are the ones with fantastic characters (you mention pretty much all of my favourite series).
ReplyDeleteRegardless of genre, I generally find that the books I return to most often are the ones with characters that I love so much I need to revisit them. It would be like abandoning a friend if I didn't!
I realize that the modern fiction I read is almost all mysteries and science fiction. But I'm very particular about my mysteries, probably because I'm always comparing them to old favorites.
DeleteIt's so lovely to find other people who think of characters as friends, to be visited again.
It's certain characters that I love t re-visit too, but also the locations are places I want to be in and it's easier and cheaper just to read than travel there.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if it's settings as much for me as characters. I have a hard time visualizing settings, unless I go and look up pictures. Those some places like Debra Knott's Colleton County do seem almost like characters.
DeleteI love re-reading, mainly for the characters but also to pick up on things I missed the first time. I don't do enough of it these days, though, because I keep getting tempted by all the new books I've discovered through blogging.
ReplyDeleteI've still only read the first two Russell and Holmes books - I must continue with that series soon!
Yes, I sometimes read much too fast the first time and miss all kinds of things. And then I also forget, so re-reading can be a rediscovery.
DeleteI keep meaning to reread the original Holmes stories, but I get distracted.
I'm a re-reader of favorite books! (That's why I own so many.) And, truth be told, I still compulsively reread the Laura Ingalls Wilder books every year or so, even though I'm all grown up. :)
ReplyDeleteI probably read Little House in the Big Woods, The Long Winter, and Little Town on the Prairie every year. They're my favorites and also major comfort reads.
DeleteI'm a big rereader, but perhaps less so of late, now that I'm closer to the end of my reading life than the beginning. Perhaps that's a good criterion for books though: not are they worth reading, but will they be worth rereading? Detective fiction is a dependable genre for me, but mostly series, where you can rejoin the same protagonist on a new adventure. Also I love to pick up an author who already has a long backlist; I have high hopes for Laurie King now.
ReplyDeleteI think someone had a blog based on the idea of the number of books that he could read in his remaining years - based on actuarial tables or something like that.
DeleteI have always loved series, following people through different books.
I hope you enjoy Laurie King's books as much as I do :)
I love to reread books and have a hard time understanding people who don't--it's like food, if you find something you love, why have it only once? Anyway, different strokes, but I'm with you on the rereading wagon.
ReplyDeleteI just started the Russell/Holmes books and love the first one I read--eager for more.
I due for some Peter Wimsey myself--was just thinking about him the other day.
I have the same hard time. For me the stories are never exactly the same, anyway, because I've changed - so I see the stories a little (or a lot) differently each time.
DeleteI think there were only four books in the Russell/Holmes series, when I started. You have quite a few to look forward to!
Like Jane, I'm due for some Peter Wimsey. I've read Gaudy Night in the past couple of years, but it's been ages since I've read any others. Murder Must Advertise is calling to me. Probably my oldest true love.
ReplyDeletePeter Wimsey was my first real literary love, and I know he's one reason I fell so heavily for Lymond. I re-read The Nine Tailors earlier this year. That's the one I come back to most often.
DeleteFolly is astonishing, isn't it? -- so traumatic, so beautiful: I'm with you, a definite re-read.
ReplyDeleteIt's also the setting for me. Growing up in Washington state, we considered a trip to the San Juan Islands the best treat, and the highlight of any summer. And then Rae's stories, past & present, are just so compelling.
DeleteI love rereading! It's one of my favorite things, and I keep books for that exact same reason -- it's always books I think I'll reread or consult again. And, okay, sometimes I admit I keep books because I think they are slightly impressive to have. I AM WEAK.
ReplyDeleteI have a plan to do a bunch of rereading next year! I'm excited for it -- I want to pick maybe ten books that I haven't reread in a while and read them again and see how they hold up.
I have weeded out a few that I realized I was keeping only for display, or just to have them, but that I wasn't ever going to re-read. Off to the library sales!
DeleteRe-reading for me is definitely by whim. I'll just start thinking about a particular story, or characters, and I'll end up pulling that book off the shelf. I've had Amelia and Emerson in mind for a while. I re-read Crocodile on the Sandbank for the millionth time, but I want more.