Return & re-adventure
by Sam Peczek • 09.14.2009I have a friend who thinks it odd to read a book you’ve read before, but has no problem re-watching film fare. I have no such qualms. I’m greedy, and if something was thrilling the first time around, I’ll be back to get a second fix after a suitable amount of time has passed, like a criminal returning to a particularly tasty crime scene. Or like someone who read a good book a few years ago and fancied dipping in again.
At the moment, I’m re-reading a book I’d bought whilst travelling, and it’s perhaps not strange that the book has absorbed some precious moments from it’s first outing. I turn to the first page and instantly am drawn back to a park bench in Olsztyn, where I opened that same page almost a year ago. I guess it’s the same thing as imprinting some good times onto (or perhaps into) a song, but I like to think of anything book based as a more meandersome breed of nostalgia. Not only does the experience last longer, but you also get to revisit a host of those long lost places you’d once seen and wandered.
Not that it’s purely about the places. On my last trip I took the ‘Rejoice’ issue of McSweeney’s, and treated myself to one story for each café I sampled. The shameful thing is that, secretly (though not any more) I think I gleaned more pleasure from those stories than my touristy stuff – although, when it comes down to it, walking around pretty streets and looking at pretty buildings can wear thin after a while. (Especially in Vienna: oh, look, another piece of exquisite architecture, and another…) Indeed, one of my fondest Vienna memories was reading in a station café, waiting for my night train to carry me to a dirtier city.
I don’t think this makes me a bad tourist (even if I am) – instead, I like to think that book and location serve only to enhance the other. Is ‘Rejoice’ the best issue ever, or was it just the best set of experiences I’ve gathering whilst clutching a copy in my humble hands? I suppose this is gonna make reading a tad more pricey if I’m going to jet off to a sexy city every time, but I shall not grumble.
Yes! Reading is absolutely tied to our experiences. Often, when I open up a book I’ve read before, I can recall what was going on in my life when I read it the first time–did I read it on the bus to my internship, or between phone calls at my terrible first job at a call center? Literature: almost as strong a memory inducer as your sense of smell. (Also, I might steal your one story per cafe idea the next time I’m traveling!)
The only book worth re-reading is Trackers. For every great book you read there are another ten somewhere out there … we only have so much reading time in our lives . Just think what you can be missing if you read 20 books twice???