Play It Again Sam

As a child and teenager, I used to constantly reread. That habit has fallen away for a few reasons, to the point where I feel almost stressed at the thought of it. In fact, I get a little twitchy if someone mentions they are re-reading something, especially if the person in question works in a bookshop or publishing house. One of the reasons I don’t do it anymore is that I feel overwhelmed at the thought of all those books out there that I would probably love but will never, ever get the chance to read, because there are just. so. many. 

Working in bookshops for a number of years has no doubt exacerbated this. It’s also meant that I usually can’t bear taking recommendations from others because my own personal list of Books To Read One Day is so long. I don’t have time to waste on something someone ELSE thinks has value! And the third habit that this work has instilled in me is that I won’t keep reading something that I don’t enjoy. Life is too short, and the book list too long, for indulging that behaviour.

So. Re-reading is not my thing. Despite this, I have been casting eyes at my copy of The Pedant in the Kitchen for about, oh 4 years now. I have been glancing at it as I slink past  the shelf and thinking to myself “hmmmm… I might like to pick that up and read it again…” A couple of days ago I caved, picked it up, and am absolutely relishing it.

The thing is, although I remembered how funny it was, I didn’t actually remember any of the content, except for having a vague grasp on the fact that Julian Barnes gets really annoyed with a Nigel Slater recipe because the ingredients do not fit in the pan. Which sounds pretty lame in my retelling of it, but I insist was actually hilarious in the original. Isn’t it funny how memory works? I remember how the book made me feel, but I don’t remember any of the detail. Studies have shown that emotion can play a huge part in our ability to recall events. I suppose this is why I felt so strongly about giving the book another go. And I am basically enjoying it like I am reading it for the first time, which is a lovely bonus.

This has lead me to think that not only can I re-read some books here and there, but that the publishing industry as a whole can get something out of my discovery. (You’re welcome, guys!). Because it is actually possible to have a completely new and fresh experience of a book, but if you read it the first time and loved it, then you have a sort of assurance that you will enjoy it again. I’m thinking especially of those big hitter kind of books, the ones that make an impact on people. The modern classics, the YA that people go crazy for when they’re teens. There’s a real opportunity to get them reissued and re-read.

Although the caveat here is that sometimes you hate the book upon rereading, or at least like it less. I used to bang on about Lolita being my favourite book after I read it for a set text at uni. I revisited it a few years ago and although I still enjoyed it, I had a far more measured response to it the second time around. Despite this, I am glad that I did re-read it, because it gave me the chance to think about putting some other books on my fave list, and to stop sounding like such a wanker.

Upon reflection, the pleasures of re-reading are something I guess I can cautiously endorse. Maybe. A bit. I am loving the Barnes so much that I am reading passages aloud to my husband each evening. Probably the same passages that I read out to him the first time around, but he doesn’t remember them either so it’s all good. Something else that I endorse is The Pedant in theKitchen itself, which I’m absolutely breezing through. I’m enjoying it so much that it’s inspired me to pick up and star treading more food writing; Is There a Nutmeg in The House by Elizabeth David has been languishing on my ONE DAY! pile for over half a decade with little result until now. I even took it into hospital to read after my baby had been born but all I did was stare at the spine for 2 days in a sleep deprived, endorphin-laced, painkiller-tinged daze. But I digress. The book is good: read it.

Further Reading

In working on this blog post, I went down a bit of a rabbit hole concerning emotion and memory, and discovered that we are actually terrible at accurately remembering highly emotional events. Speaking of which, the line "Play it again, Sam" was never uttered in the film Casablanca, but if you have a look at number 6 on this list of movie quotes we all get wrong, you'll see that the actual dialogue is a bit stodgy, so for the title of my blog post I went with what has become the classic...Fascinating!