Re-reading Multiple Re-reads

  

So after reflecting on the previous post over the weekend, I realized I left out a very major book, one that has played an important and essential role in my life.

 

I studied this book in high school for two years, though I never read it cover to cover. That had to wait until 1992.

 

Then, during the scary first weeks of the Wu Flu in 2020, I re-read it again in its entirety, though not in sequential order of its parts.

 

In between I read various sections of it literally dozens of times.

 

I’ve read books about this book.

 

I’ve listened to people lecture about this book.

 

I’ve bought at least six or seven different copies of this book.

 

Care to guess what this book is?

 

Yep. The Bible.

 

I received my first Bible, technically the New Testament, a pocket-version, when I received my first Holy Communion while still in the single digits. I still have that Bible, though its spine is cracked and the pages yellowed with age. I attended a top Catholic High School in the ’80s, and during freshman year we went through the Old Testament, reading selections, memorizing important verses, bullet points, biographies, lists, and chronologies, and did the same thing with the New Testament sophomore year.

 

Then, hedonism interrupted and dominated my life for seven years, and the only time I picked up a Bible was when me and a friend were doing something with my Tascam 4-track recorder and we wanted that verse about “legion”, probably to insert with distorted vocals backwards over some dopey riffs. When I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, I quit all my vices, read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and had a spiritual awakening.

 

That was with the simplistic TEV (Today’s English Version) Bible. I still have a soft spot for it, especially all those line drawings. But I moved on to different versions in my re-reads: the King James, the Douay-Rheims, a Protestant “Men’s Devotional”, an Anselm study Bible, and the Revised Catholic Edition. Theology aside, my favorite has to be the King James (and I know that that, too, is “protestant”). Simply and absolutely love the poetic majesty, the archaic grandeur, all those “ye”s, “thy”s, “thine”s and “thou”s.

 

Now aside from my two complete readings of the Bible in its entirety in 1992 and 2020 and a complete reading of the New Testament later, I’ve read many, many books of the Bible many, many times. Unfortunately, I haven’t really kept track until recently. But my best estimated guess is that the books of the Bible I’ve read and re-read the most are:

 

   Genesis – 7 times

   Exodus – 4 times

   Proverbs – 3 times

   Psalms – 3 times

   Revelation – 3 times

   The Gospels – at least 3 times each but probably not more than 7 times.

 

Why have I read Genesis the most? Simple. Every couple of years I get the itch to re-read the Bible in its entirety, and more often than not, I make it past this first book and not much further.

 

Now, a clarifying word. I write this not to brag or “humblebrag” (though probably there’s a bit of that here, to be honest). I’d like you to read the Bible, too. Many times. It’s never too early and it’s never too late. Read it, ruminate on it, think upon it, come to it with an open mind, a questioning-in-faith mind, a hopeful mind. It will speak to you. Somehow, in some way, often unexpected and often delayed, it does. I wholeheartedly encourage you to pick it up.

 

But here’s the tricky part. There are so many translations, you have to pick one that resonates with you. Not all of us like those thous and thines. I do. You may not. You may enjoy the TEV version (and my derogatory term “simplistic” should not deter anyone from it; the TEV was the version that led to my reversion). Test drive a couple of versions before you pick one to stick with. You could visit the local library to borrow different translations (I did), buy from inexpensive used book stores (I did), or go online to sample different translations (I did). Biblegateway.com is a great resource.

 

And start small. I would not advise a Genesis-to-Revelation approach unless – and it’s a big unless – unless you are into reading grand visions and scopes of epic proportion. It is a marathon and not a sprint. But I enjoy sweeping epics and being immersed in different literary cultures (hence my love of Tolkien and other fantasy and science fiction trilogies and such). I found that when starting with Genesis, the whole thing gradually and then quickly built up, like an avalanche, rolled forward with more power and might – to the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Christ. I felt that sense of purpose unfold in the chronologic words of the Bible.

 

But if you want to start small, to “test the waters,” start with the Gospels, then move on to the shorter Pauline letters. As for the order of Gospels, Mark is the shortest, Matthew and Luke and about the same length (but Matthew is aimed toward a Jewish audience whereas Luke is aimed towards the gentiles). John is shorter than both, but heavy with theology. Save Revelation for much later. Then hit the Old Testament. Genesis, Exodus up to the Ten Commandments. Then the Psalms. Then get a sense of history and read Joshua, the Samuels, Kings, and Chronicles. Isaiah should be in there once you get your footing. Let the Spirit lead you on from that.

Please heed my advice. And if you do – happy reading!!

Multiple Re-reads

 

Thinking about how I’m currently traversing my third go-round with Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, I began musing on how many other multiple re-reads I’d done.

 

First off, it’s good to re-read a good book; it’s an excellent idea to re-read an excellent book. The better the book, the more profitable a re-read should be. For the longest time, say, from about 2000 to 2020, I had little interest in re-reading books, save for childhood faves. Instead I cast as far and wide a net as possible, especially the years when I fancied myself an up-and-coming slash potential author. Occasionally I would do deep dives into certain authors’ bibliographies. But since the Wu Flu, I’ve kinda grown disgusted and dissatisfied with a lot of stuff out there. Most of the stuff out there. So much so that if it’s a nonfiction topic I’m exploring and it’s at all possible, I choose something before 1980. Something before 1965’s even better. Less chance the material is infected by certain mind viruses. This feeling applies equally to the fiction that I’ve tentatively considered of late.

 

That’s one reason why re-reads are a great idea. Another is the nostalgia factor – what were you doing, feeling, being when you first encountered the particular book. What was going on peripherally in your life. Yet another is the technical knowledge you’d reinforce if we’re talking nonfiction, and the degree you’d assimilate literary technique if it’s fiction in front of you. Yet another factor, similar, is that books meet you where you are. You change, and the book changes to meet you. Wonderful books I’ve read as a kid failed to leave an impression on me as an adult; some books that were meh to me as a young man floored me in my middle ago; and vice versa. Still another reason is that you always – always – see something new and exciting in later re-reads. Something fresh and different always jumps out at you. Like revisiting a classic film periodically throughout the years.

 

Why would you only see Paris, the Grand Canyon, or the Alaskan glaciers once and only once if you had the means and opportunity? Do we not speak to our friends on a regular basis? Even better for long-lost ones, to re-connect? If we enjoy skiing, biking, playing tennis, chess, you name it, we never just do it once and say, “Well, that was fun. Never again. I’ll just savor the memory.” Just so with re-reading.

 

All right, enough of that. That’s where my headspace is at the moment. I wholeheartedly encourage you to re-read the great books you have read earlier in your life. Trust me, it’s worth it.

 

What have I re-read multiple times?

 

I’m such a reading nerd that I have been tracking all the books I’ve read over the course of my life. Currently, give or take a dozen or so forgotten in the fog of age, I’ve read just shy of 1,300 books over just shy of 50 years.

 

92 of those books I’ve read more than once. That’s only 7 percent.

 

Of those re-reads, care to guess which one book I’ve read the most?

 

Easy. Lord of the Rings. I’ve read the trilogy five times (last time being 2021). But technically, the book I’ve read the most is The Fellowship of the Ring, at six times, since I revisited it in the summer of 1994 but did not proceed to the other books in The Lord of the Rings (band, college, and a girlfriend all conspired to make it difficult to continue).

 

Two books I’ve read four times each:

   The War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells (once as a kid in the 70s, then again in the 90s, in 2015 as an audiobook, and finally for Halloween 2023).

   The Life of Christ, by Bishop Fulton Sheen (once in the late 90s, and then three times [!] in 2015)

 

Nine books I’ve read three times each:

   The Hobbit, by Tolkien

   Moby Dick, by Herman Melville

   Watership Down, by Richard Adams

   and then five science fiction paperbacks –

      Red Planet, by Robert Heinlein

      To Die in Italbar, by Roger Zelazny

      The Grayspace Beast, by Gordon Eklund

      The Colors of Space, by Marion Zimmer Bradley

      The Spinner, by Doris Piserchia

      Red Tide, by D. D. Chapman and Deloris Lehman Tarzan

 

The remaining 80 or so read only twice are too numerous to list, but I will note the ones that I could see another future re-read, pushing them into the vaunted and respected “Threepeat” category:

 

   The Silmarillion, by J.R.R. Tolkien

   The Children of Hurin, by J.R.R. Tolkien

   The Inferno, by Dante

   Watch the Skies!, by Curtis Peebles

   A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Lindsay

   Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens

   Conquerors from the Darkness, by Robert Silverberg

   Foucault’s Pendulum, by Umberto Eco

   In Dubious Battle, by John Steinbeck

 

Not sure what my next re-read will be, but I have an omnibus edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams behind me as I write this; that seems to be probably the finest candidate at the moment (it would be a second re-read, my first encounter with them being the late 80s).

Vacation 2025

 

Spent last week visiting family and friends in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the first time I’ve been up there in exactly two years. We have the girls fly up once or twice annually to visit their grandparents, cousins, and old school friends, but I haven’t been to the great northeast wilderness (yes, there is plenty of wilderness up there) in a long time and I missed it.

 

It was whirlwind week. We hit an extreme amount of turbulence flying up into New Jersey / New York airspace (of the type when the 747 drops a stomach-churning fifty feet than banks sharply to one side, to be repeated at unexpected intervals) but landed safely in LaGuardia on Monday. We picked up our reserved rental car and made it up to my folks’ by eight that night.

 

Over the next four days we did a lot, thanks to mild weather. Tuesday saw us hitting the thrift shop with the girls (I picked up four golf shirts suitable for work plus a beautiful edition of Moby Dick – Moby Dick! – with a cover price of $21 – for 89 cents[!], the greatest bargain of my book-hunting career). Wednesday my brother and aunt and uncle drove up for a barbecue and we played pickleball all day. On Thursday we visited a college for Patch and then hit the local wing joint for dinner. Friday we drove into New Jersey and visited our old friends (my movie-going buddy from back in the day) while the girls socialized with one of theirs. Saturday we lounged in the morning and left at noon for the drive back to LaGuardia and the flight home. Sunday was a recovery day which included a lot of laundry being done.

 

The only downside was all that driving. 700 miles, I estimate, over the course of five days. Ugh. My buttocks are still petrified.

 

Needless to say, I was quite whelmed at work, having to do nine days of accounting in four days, including closing the month, and responding to 87 emails. Most nights I came home shell-shocked and spent the evenings with Ishmael on the Pequod. Today, Friday, I am quite caught up and working from home, hence this short update. Only one more big report to get done, then I’m off the clock.

 

Anyways, I think I’m going to start reading Augustine’s Confessions followed by his City of God this weekend. I’m about halfway through Moby Dick, my third visit with America’s greatest novel. Truly it encapsulates more than, in the words of Ron Swanson, the story of a man who hates a fish. There’s natural history, existentialism, a deep dive into human consciousness and motivation, intense drama and glorious, flowering mid-nineteenth-century prose, the chronological highwater mark of English literature that only few can delve nowadays. I’m enjoying it immensely, so much so that I might check out another 1850-ish novel by an American, The House of Seven Gables, once I’m finished. But Augustine is calling me now, so perhaps I’ll read that in the evenings and Melville at lunch.

 

Little One is in town today; she has two local summer job interviews this afternoon. My firstborn is growing so fast it’s almost frightening. The Mrs. will drive her back to school Saturday, grab her roommates, and they’ll all go “tulip picking,” or something of the sort. Patch is reffing Saturday morning (as long as the fields are dry; it rained all last night and this morning) and then later heading out to Six Flags with her friends. So I’ll be alone tomorrow afternoon. Probably get some wings or perhaps a Hawaiian pizza if I’m feeling wild and watch a classic flick.

 

Well, I got four emails while writing this, so back to work I go.

 

Happy reading!