A Word In Edgewise: Rereading for Enrichment

Emily Dickinson had it pegged when she wrote: “There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away” etc. For those not physically travelling this summer, there are such frigates bound anywhere you desire, and more; to mix metaphors, you can fill old vessels with new wine.

Favorite volumes can reveal hidden treasures upon a second reading, and, while not all of my choices here are directly related to Pride, or are even volumes in the LGBT canon, looking back from a more advanced age, those that have made the biggest impact on me dealt with the very subjects of “otherness,” personal pain, and persistence despite barriers, issues whose successful confrontation we celebrate at this time.   

We all have those Need-to-Read stacks, old classics by Dickens, Trollope, George Sand, Henry James, Edith Wharton that we’ve always meant to read later, having avoided them through high school and college. But I’ve finally accepted that Ulysses is a non-starter–though I did read Moby Dick on my honeymoon. (Foreshadowing the demise of that union.)

I’m not suggesting anyone drudge through untried tomes in summer’s heat, but to revisit some books you’ve already enjoyed to find a second reading as a different stage of life opens new vistas.

One of mine is Laura Hillenbrand’s 1999 Seabiscuit (she also penned Unbroken). I recently gave Seabiscuit–the horse–a second run, amazed at how much I’d overlooked. Like Unbroken, it’s a meticulously researched non-fiction saga replete with heroism, long odds and a final triumph, both human and equine; a fast track right out of the gate.

Hillenbrand was in college in 1987 when she was stricken with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) which rendered her nearly immobile for years. Wil S. Hylton, in a 2014 New York Times piece, noted, “One peculiarity of [CFS] is the degree to which it can remain invisible,” and Hillenbrand herself reports anger at the lack of respect and the disbelief both the public and many in the medical profession have towards CFS, now also termed “myalgic encephalomyelitis,” or M.E.. She faced those demons of “otherness,” personal pain with persistence despite barriers. And she won. 

Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles expands with a reread. Published in 1950, long before any space vehicles had been launched, and well before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Bradbury dealt with “other” segments of the human community and humanity’s resistance to fairness and inclusion.

E.B. White’s Stuart Little is more than a children’s book and (though I dislike breaking butterflies on the wheel) is a poignant look into the Little family’s predicament when their eagerly awaited infant son arrives as a mouse. Otherness, independence, love…themes we experience differently at the various stations of our lives.

Bill Watterson’s cartoon, Calvin and Hobbes. We sold the first book of collected strips at The Million Year Picnic comic store in April, 1987, and I’ve been collecting and reading them ever since. Hilarious, but where would Calvin fit beyond his eternal six years? Fortunately, I don’t need to know, but the pair has suggested several personal options as they remain the same and I grow older. And older.

What have books have you loved? Which have given you pause? Try rereading–and marvel at what further treasures you’ll unearth.