A Good Book is Hard to Find

How often do you read the same books?  I almost never go back and re-read books.  I'm not exactly sure why that is.  I watch the same t.v. shows over and over again and I find comfort in the familiarity.  But, with books not so much.  I can list on one hand the books I've read more than once: The Lord of the Rings, Jude the Obscure, and the "Green Town" works of Ray Bradbury.  That's it.  And I consider those books my favorites with Jude being my favorite of all. 

And yet, I am constantly on the look out for new things to read and constantly recommending books that I read only once and ages ago as some of the greatest works of fiction ever written.  But, are they?  Are they as good as I remember?

As a young college student I read a book that made a major impact on my life.  So, naturally I was constantly referring to it and paraphrasing passages I'd read.  A friend, fed up with forever hearing about this book, decided to read it and was mortified by the heavy handed political agenda and thoroughly outdated climate science claims.   Eeesh, a lot of that book did not age well and I felt a little foolish for continuing to recommend it.

But, as I began to re-read it (wondering, how dumb was I in college?!), I did find a few nuggets of wisdom buried in there and those had evidently been the things I had held onto even if the rest was pretty bad.  This little incident along with a recent conversation with a good friend who re-reads many favorites over and over, encouraged me to go back to those books I always recommend and read them again.  

I can stop the search for something new to read which lives up to my high standards and see if those standards are deserved.  If these old books are in fact the brilliant masterpieces I remember so much the better.  If not, I'll finally be able to shut my big yap about them.  Just a few names from the list: Anne of Green Gables (I might make it all the way through this time), The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, and Flannery O'Connor's collection of short Stories aptly titled A Good Man is Hard to Find.  I'll keep you posted...if it turns out that I'm right and they're good.  If not, I'll probably never speak of this again.

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