Ed Zubrow ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Complimenting two young list members for their interest and perceptions
>on classical music, Mike makes an interesting analogy. He is explaining
>the reasons he needs to listen to a piece several times before he feels
>he "appreciates" it. My question is whether the same principles apply
>to reading. I agree with what he is saying, but does this mean one needs
>to read something several times to get it?

Probably, although in the act of reading it's far easier to repeat a
short passage or sentence whereas a piece of music simply flies by (unless
you have a remote and the ability to pause and repeat)

it's also easy, in my experience, to start reading in a more superficial
manner because one wants to find out "what happens", so rereading is
more than worth the effort.

This particularly afflicted my reading of Jane Austen when in my teens.

There are some authors I repeatedly reread, largely for their use of
language.  I would rate P.G. Wodehouse as probably the 20th century's
finest writer of the English language and am currently rereading yet
again the however-many-it-is of his books I have.

Deryk Barker
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