Friday Poll: Reread

[trinityvixen]

I keep leaving behind books that I'm really keen on. Weekend before last, I left my biography of The Beatles at a friend's place. This week, I've gone and left The Stand at another friend's apartment.

Pity, that, as The Stand is my inspiration for this first Friday Poll in forever! I got a copy from my brother for Christmas (so thanks arcfox7!), but I had been studiously avoiding it for any number of reasons. Chief among these reasons, however, is the fact that, once I picked it up, I would be hard-pressed to put it down. But then I left the book I was reading behind and there wasn't enough depth to the comics I had out from the library, nor video games enough to distract me. I picked it up and started to read and promptly lost as much sleep to it as I had to Mass Effect 2. (Okay, maybe not quite that much, but a lot.)

I have read The Stand three times before. I love it, unabashedly, to pieces. The mini-series made of it is one of my favorites of all time, and probably the best Stephen King-to-film transition ever. I love it. I haven't had my own copy in ages, so I haven't reread it as often as, say, Pride and Prejudice, but I would have had I had a copy.

I mentioned this to my former roommate (ironically, it was at her home that I forgot The Stand), and she seemed doubtful when I assured her that, yes, just about every year I reread Pride and Prejudice. Last year, I cheated, reading only Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I did watch the BBC miniseries (best novel-to-film transition, for any work, any author, any medium, EVER). I suppose that I am a terrible reader, and that you will judge me as such when I confess that I'd rather reread something I love than try something new.

I'm curious, though, if any of you have similar reading habits. Hence the poll.
[Poll #1524813]

Comments

[equustel.livejournal.com]

Oh Lord, I often berate myself for being so attracted to old favorites sitting on my shelf when I have a to-read list that's an eternity long.

Off the top of my head, books I read AT LEAST once a year are:

The Iron Ring by Lloyd Alexander (SO UNDERAPPRECIATED)
The Black Stallion by Walter Farley
Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce
Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle

...I have never read The Stand, but once I finish King's Dark Tower series I plan to do so. I've only ever heard awesome things about it.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I finished the first Dark Tower book last year. I couldn't get into it. Which is odd because I read a short story in one of his collections that was set in that world that I really liked. I'm going to try and give it another go, read at least one more book. I'm told it picks up after the first two, but I still think that that is an awfully long way to take a reader with little to no pay-off. Or, at least it's a long way for me.

I look forward to hearing what you think of The Stand. I think it was in On Writing that Stephen King talks about how people generally fall into two camps--the usual, love it/hate it division. It was one of the first truly door-stop length books he wrote, and it is one of his favorites, one he considers his master work. These things can create all sorts of blowback by fans, especially those who preferred other novels. I'm in the "Love it!" camp. Granted, it was the first post-apocalyptic novel I ever read, and it has the weight of favoritism for me, too, at this point. It'd be nice to hear from someone coming to it with fresh eyes.

[equustel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm still not in love with the Dark Tower series, TBH. On the third book right now and while it's involving and certainly impressive, I don't think I'm in a hurry to finish the rest - I plan to do a lot of other reading in-between volumes.

What's interesting about it, though, is how King's writing changes with each book - he wrote them over the space of 2+ decades, after all. You can really see how he develops as a writer, and how his interests change. Each book has been wildly different in style and content than the last.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I look forward to that, then. His writing has changed over time, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. What I'd really love is for him to go back to writing short stories. I think that's his best work, really, even though I like The Stand most.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The Iron Ring? Really? I was kind of meh about that one, and I'm a Lloyd Alexander fan. (I once wrote to him and he wrote me back, even.)

[equustel.livejournal.com]

Yes, really! It's my favorite of his books - very formative in my youth. My best friend and I were in love with it at age thirteen, so you can call some of it childhood attachment, I guess - but every time I've returned to it as an adult I haven't liked it any less.

Offhandedly, the paperback they have in print of it right now is rather fugly; it always makes me sad to see on the shelves at bookstores. I own the hardcover which is much lovelier - I wish they'd use this cover for all editions.