11 Comments

When breath becomes air is such a breathtaking book haha, totally resonate with ur description of it

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Reading slumps are real! I like the idea of rereading books with an eye towards inspiration. Maybe a bit odd to recommend a book on a post about not reading new books, but you might find some value in Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose.

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author

Appreciate the book rec! It'll have to sit on my Goodreads "want to read" shelf for a bit, but already looking forward to checking it out

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This was super interesting to read and there's lots to reflect on. I think even as children, when we read a lot of fiction, we tend to be hourglasses and sponges but many of those stories still stay with us as adults.

I think that we should not only re-read books (childhood favorites ofc, but especially nonfiction and narratives) but also things like quotes/articles we've saved with the discerning eye of the Golconda rather than allowing whatever the current hot new trend is to pull us along and have us consuming more.

The questions you're asking to achieve your goals with the reread are also excellent. It's like an English class analysis but you're choosing what to learn and what to ask (in this case, learning more about yourself and how you want to curate your tastes when storytelling). I'll definitely be looking forward to the summer reading update!

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author

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! That's such a beautiful observation, maybe what we want to do is tap back into the emotions we felt as we read those stories when we were children

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Jun 26Liked by raymond

For a while I didn’t reread books because I was afraid I wouldn’t like them as much as I had before but I reread a few over the last year and really loved them like they were nostalgic and found I could get new meaning out of them too.

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author

Interesting! I never thought of the possibility that I would like a book less when I re-read it… I guess that is a risk haha. What’s one you re-read and enjoyed?

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Jun 28Liked by raymond

In the last year I’ve reread Terms and Conditions by Robert Glancy and also Ready Player One. Absolutely loved those books growing up and was so fun to reread them too!

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Jun 26Liked by raymond

if you could read a book for the first time again, what would it be?

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author

I think it’d have to be one that caught me completely off guard and had lots of twists and turns. Maybe The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

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aye reading that one rn

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