A friend and I exchanged a few comments on the subject of re-reading. For some people, it is a nothing subject but for some others, it can be interesting. I like to include the re-watching of movies and tv shows. C.S. Lewis mentions a reader standing in a library pondering a book, trying to remember it is one he has read. Does he know the story? Will he approach the climax of the book and suddenly remember who done it? Lewis was a professor of literature and likes to take the position that high quality will entice a reader to re-read, even multiple times.
I haven't re-read very many books. Often, I have other unread ones that I want to get to. I have re-watched the movies "The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!" and "In the Spirit" many times. I think the structure of the story of Russians and the quality of expression in Spirit are wonderful.
C.S. Lewis wrote "An Experiment in Criticism", available free in PDF format and several other formats here:
https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20140725
Poetry does not seem to have the central place in today's lives it had in earlier times. Today, I remembered a poem by Edgar A. Guest called "I didn't think and I forgot", a poem my stepfather required that I memorize and recite whenever I used either phrase in explaining my behavior. If you mention the name of Edgar Guest to a younger teacher of English and poetry, that person may never have heard of the man. I admit that Ogden Nash is my sort of poet and one whose work tickles me. I have never read Ulysses and very little Shakespeare.
Lately, I have read the poem that begins the daily Writer's Almanac and been impressed by some.
One advantage of having seen many movies and tv shows and read many books is that I have forgotten them over the years. We watched the entire series of the tv show Foyle's War and then, a few years later, watched them all again. We found that we rarely remembered the episodes in detail and that re-watching was quite like never having seen them before.
Sometimes, re-reading and re-watching is re-experiencing anew. I have listened to the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony probably 20 times while driving and the effect and appreciation and enjoyment seems to increase. One of these days, I may try that with Thoreau's Walden or T.H.White's The Once and Future King.
