Who Says You Can’t Go Back? Returning to the Books We’ve Loved Before

Here at January Magazine, with the best of all that is new constantly near at hand, it’s tough enough to choose between the hot new offerings without going back and revisiting trails that have already been walked. But what about old favorites? And what about the parts of us that change over the years and pull new insights from well-loved texts?

Booktopia Book Guru John Purcell today asks himself the same question. As he says, “with so little time to read in life, it makes sense to keep trying new things.” Still, Purcell points out, there is a case to be made for looking back:

But every so often, while looking for something new, I stumble across something old, something I read long ago. Holding it my hands, I realise it is at best, half remembered. Flicking it open, I discover parts of myself pressed and dried between its pages. Fragile emotions unused to light and air which disintegrate before my eyes. I acknowledge that the person I was when I read the book is lost to me forever, but the book itself is not. But do I dare read it again?

All of us who love books have special favorites whose resonances seem to alter -- and richen and deepen -- as we mature. There are a handful of books I try to revisit every few years. Tolstoy’s War and Peace is one of my lifetime favorites, though these days I tend only to attempt another run when a new translation appears. I’ve enjoyed several long visits with Taylor Caldwell’s Captains and the Kings since my first read of the book when I was an adolescent. The things I take away from Calder now are much (much!) different than they were on my earliest passes, but I love the book no less now. And it still breaks my heart. A more recent favorite has been Jonathan Lethem’s wonderful 1994 novel, Gun, with Occasional Music. This skillful blend of science fiction with hardboiled detective always wows me with its language and its light. And I always (always) love Lethem’s voice.

Though every year I’m delighted to discover ore books that I love, there are very few that seem to demand another read at a future point. How about you? Which books call you back?