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With so many books and so little time, re-reading seems an indulgence. So why is it so popular? Hephzibah Anderson reveals why we do it – and why it’s such a joy.
As parents learn with frustration, as small children we love immersing ourselves in the same story over and over. But in adulthood that joy tends to become a forgotten pleasure. We have so little time to read and there are so many great books that we’ve yet to get around to (War and Peace looms large on my literary guilt list? never mind the ceaseless tide of new releases). You could read a book a day for the rest of your life and still not make it through even a quarter of the titles published in 2013 in the UK alone. With the shelves thus groaning, pulling down a well-thumbed favourite feels an unconscionable indulgence. Yet if my admittedly unscientific research on Facebook is anything to go by, furtive re-readers are everywhere in our midst. For certain fans, re-reading The Lord of the Rings is an annual ritual. Devotees of The Great Gatsby, Pride and Prejudice and Tess of the D’Urbervilles also return regularly to the book they prize above all others. One friend told me that Jane Austen’s Emma can still surprise him, despite his having reading it over 50 times. Now, two new bibliomemoirs have arrived to showcase the insights – both literary and personal – that are to be gained from that ultimate guilty pleasure: re-reading. Journalist Rebecca Mead, a long-time Englishwoman in New York, first encountered George Eliot’s Middlemarch at 17. Since then, she has read it again every five years. With each re-reading, it has opened up further; in each chapter of her life – as she itched to leave home, as she moved to America, had love affairs and become a mother – it has resonated differently. Reaching her 40s, Mead decided on a fresh approach: she would apply the tools of her day job to this private passion. Her aim was to discover what writing the novel meant to Eliot, and how reading it has shaped her own life. She chronicles her relationship in The Road to Middlemarch (published in the US as My Life in Middlemarch), a delightful book filled with sharp observations and told in a voice poised between chatty confidant and brilliant teacher. Playwright Samantha Ellis has clocked up even more time with Wuthering Heights. She was 12 when she first read Emily Bront?’s gothic romance, and without fail, she’s returned to it annually in the run-up to her birthday. This year when she will turn 39 might just be the first time that she skips it, but only because all those re-readings have now inspired a book, How to Be a Heroine. It begins with a heated conversation Ellis had with her best friend while on a pilgrimage to Yorkshire in the north of England, where the novel is set. Which heroine was best, Jane Eyre or Cathy Earnshaw? As they quarrelled, Ellis realised she’d spent her life trying to be Cathy when Jane was a far savvier role model. This sets her off on another journey, back to the books that shaped her ideas about how to move through the world as a woman. It’s a risky enterprise because, just as Mead knows, though the words on the page stay the same, our readings of them change. Both Mead and Ellis testify to the myriad ways in which really good books not only stand the test of repeat reads, but also bestow fresh gifts each time we crack their spines. These kinds of books grow with us. The writers also explore the motivations behind re-reading. For children, it’s a comfort. As we become accustomed to a world in which change is the only real constant, the familiarity of the book at bedtime is something to cling to. Adults aren’t immune to those feelings, either. To quote the septuagenarian writer Larry McMurtry: “If I once read for adventure, I now read for security. How nice to be able to return to what won’t change.” Except that often, that’s not quite the case. We notice fresh details. Our interpretations change as we evolve – cheerleading for the strivers, for instance, gives way to admiration for characters who are slow and steady. Vladimir Nabokov had a theory about this. He believed that the process of moving our eyes from left to right, line after line, page after page, stood between us and artistic interpretation the first time round. By the fourth reading, the experience has apparently assumed more of the directness of looking at a painting. “One cannot read a book: one can only re-read it,” he said. Scientists have weighed in, too, citing the mental health benefits of re-reading. Research conducted with readers in the US and New Zealand found that on our first reading, we are preoccupied by the ‘what?’ and the ‘why?’. Second time round, we’re able to better savour the emotions that the plot continues to ignite. As researcher Cristel Russell of the American University explained of re-readers in an article published in the Journal of Consumer Research, returning to a book “brings new or renewed appreciation of both the object of consumption and their self”. Heart of the matter It’s true that we often find former selves on the pages of old books (literally, if we’re fond of scribbling in the margins). But even without the aid of marginalia, these texts can carry us back to a time and place, and remind us of the kind of person that we were then. We’re changed not only by lived experience but also by read experience – by the books that we’ve discovered since last reading the one in our hand. More so than the movie director or the musician, the writer calls upon our imaginations, using words to bid us picture this declaration of love or that betrayal. It’s not surprising that in my social media poll, of the many and varied titles that people returned to, only one was non-fiction (Enemies of Promise, Cyril Connolly’s hybrid of literary criticism and memoir). A book is a joint project between writer and reader, and for its alchemy to work, we must pour so much of ourselves into reading that our own life story can become braided with the story that’s bound between the book’s covers. Perhaps what’s really strange is that we don’t re-read more often. After all, we watch our favourite films again and we wouldn’t think of listening to an album only once. We treasure tatty old paperbacks as objects, yet of all art forms, literature alone is a largely one-time delight. A book, of course, takes up more time, but as Mead and Ellis confirm, the rewards make it amply worthwhile. They needn’t be anointed classics, either. Sabbath’s Theatre by Philip Roth, EL Doctorow’s Ragtime and Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch are all on my re-reading list – just as soon as I’ve finished War and Peace, that is. |
在這個快節奏的時代，大量圖書被印刷出來，我們忙得沒時間去看新書，而重讀舊書似乎更是在浪費時間。但是為什么有越來越多的人翻開了舊書？英國廣播公司（BBC）網站的海瑟堡·安德森向我們揭示了原因，并深入探討了重讀舊書的樂趣。 你一定有最喜歡的書吧，你一共讀過幾遍？ 好比父母重復犯錯后會吸取教訓，小孩子則會沉浸在同一個故事的情節里。但成年后，我們逐漸忘卻了讀舊書的樂趣。我們忙得沒時間去看書，但仍有許多經典書籍我們尚未翻閱（我為未讀的文學作品專門列了一張清單，其中包括《戰爭與和平》這樣的經典，其他那些不斷出版的新書就更別提了。）。英國2013年一年就出版了許多新書，假設你每天看一本書，直到去世，你可能都看不完其中四分之一。如今書店里到處都是新書，你若選擇翻閱舊書那幾乎可以說是在浪費時間。
兩位藏書愛好者發表了他們的看法，即花時間重看舊書也許是種奢侈，但卻能收獲文學和精神上的感悟，新聞記者麗貝卡·米德出生于英國卻在美國呆了很久，她在十七歲時第一次接觸到了喬治·艾略特（Middlemarch）的小說《米德鎮的春天》（Middlemarch）。自那以后，她每五年就重讀一遍該書。每當她的人生到達新的階段，米德都會翻看書重讀，而每次閱讀都能給她帶來新的感悟——從渴望外出闖蕩的少年時期，到最后移民美國，再到經歷了多段感情，最后成為一名母親，該書始終與她的心靈契合。 米德在四十歲時做了一個新的決定：她決定拾起筆桿，書寫自己心中的情感。米德打算深入研究《米德鎮的春天》這本書對艾略特來說是否有重大意義，并結合自身經歷，談談這本書如何塑造了自己。米德成功撰寫了《通往米德鎮之路》（The Road to Middlemarch）一書，并融入了自己的經歷（美版名為《我在米德鎮的日子》），該書銷路甚廣，見解獨到，作者像一位睿智的師長，又像一位健談的知己，向你講述米德鎮和她的故事。 薩曼莎·埃利斯是一位劇作家，她花了許多時間研究《呼嘯山莊》（Wuthering Height）。十二歲時埃利斯第一次讀艾米莉·勃朗特（Emily Bront?）的這本哥特式浪漫小說，她立刻身陷其中，欲罷不能，從此每當生日前夕，埃利斯就要重讀這本書。今年是埃利斯的第三十九個生日，但她不得不打破這一傳統，因為她要完成新書《如何成為一個女主人公》（How to Be a Heroine），該書是埃利斯在反復閱讀《呼嘯山莊》后的有感而發之作。 埃利斯曾與好友結伴前往英格蘭北部的約克郡（Yorkshire），途中兩人曾就《呼嘯山莊》有過一次激烈討論，由此定下該書的寫作事宜。簡·愛（Jane Eyre）和凱瑟琳·恩肖（Cathy Earnshaw）誰更偉大？討論過后，埃利斯才意識到她將簡·愛視為偶像，渴望像她一樣獨立，實際上卻一直在向凱瑟琳看齊。為此，她又重回書中，開啟一趟心靈之旅，終于了解如何像一個真正的女人那樣生活。寫自己的感悟其實很難，就像米德所說的，經典還是經典，我們在不同年齡階段的感悟卻不同。 米德和埃利斯無數次的閱讀經歷都表明，好書經得起反復推敲，每一次閱讀都能帶給我們新的體驗。這樣的書足夠我們讀一輩子。此外，這兩位作者也探究了重復閱讀背后的動機。 對于孩子來說，讀書是一種享受。現實世界瞬息萬變，而讀書可以使我們放松。孩子一旦養成了睡前閱讀的習慣便會一直保持。對成年人來說也一樣。 正如老年作家拉里·麥克默特里（Larry McMurtry）所說，“從前我讀書是為了尋求新奇感，現在我讀書是為了尋求安全感，書中世界平穩安逸，讀書能使我放松。” 只是很多時候，事情往往不是這樣，每次重讀舊書我們都能發現新細節。隨著我們思想的成熟，我們的見解也在發生改變——比如，我們會為書中努力拼搏的人喝彩，又敬佩那些腳踏實地，慢慢前進的人。 對此，弗拉基米爾·納博科夫（Vladimir Nabokov）就有相應的看法。他認為，人在第一次讀一本書時眼睛需要從左向右逐行逐頁的移動，這會干擾人們對文字的藝術性解讀。當讀到第四遍時，出于對文本的熟悉，人們再看書就像看一幅畫那樣直接。“讀書這個說法并不恰當，一本書是不能被一次性讀懂的，只能去重讀。” 經過反復驗證，科學家也表示，閱讀舊書有益于我們的身心健康。通過對美國和新西蘭的讀者進行調查，發現我們讀完第一遍書時，心中難免會存疑。當我們再次拿起書本，才能品味細節，才能隨著情節發展，體會心潮起伏的感覺。美國一所大學的研究員克里斯特·羅素曾在《消費者研究》（Consumer Research）雜志就重讀舊書這一問題發表了一篇文章，文章指出，重讀舊書不僅能加深對書的理解，也能增進讀者的自我認識。 本文重點 我們通過重讀舊書，還可以發現我們上次的閱讀思路（如果你有在書頁上涂鴉的習慣的話）。其實，即使你未做任何筆記，讀到熟悉的文字，你也會想起舊時舊景，以及那時的自己。 多讀書，多經歷，都能幫助我們成長——讀舊書更是如此。 比起導演和音樂家，作家更能激發我們的想象力，那些愛，誓言以及背叛，種種情感都由作者寥寥數語勾勒而出，具象化地浮現在我們眼前。我在各個社交網站上發布調查，詢問別人正在重讀的書籍，回復中只有西里爾·康諾利（Cyril Connolly）的《希望的敵人》（Enemies of Promise）一書不是虛構故事而是文學評論及回憶錄合集。書籍將作者與讀者聯結起來，而為了達到這種效果，我們必須在閱讀時將書的內容與自己的生活經歷相關聯，以便與之產生共鳴。 也許，更多時候我們應該問問自己為什么不經常翻翻舊書。畢竟，我們會挑出自己喜歡的電影反復看，也會把一張唱片聽上好幾遍。我們把破舊的平裝書當做寶貝，卻鮮少重讀它們。不可否認的是，讀一本書就會占據我們很多時間，但正如米德和埃利斯所說，重讀舊書會是我們收獲頗豐。我們不一定要讀那些文學經典，我的清單上列出的重讀書目有：菲利普·羅斯（Philip Roth）的《安息日劇院》（Sabbath’s Theatre），EL·多克托羅（EL Doctorow）的《拉格泰姆》（Ragtime），唐娜·塔特（Donna Tartt）的《金翅雀》（The Goldfinch），——等我看完《戰爭與和平》（War and Peace）就去重翻這些舊書。 （譯者 rosemary02 編輯 丹妮） 掃一掃，關注微博微信
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