The Pleasures of Reading and Rereading

One of the pleasures of being an English teacher for 25 years was the opportunity to reread - and re-reread - beloved works.

To Kill a Mockingbird.

The Magician's Nephew

Jane Eyre

The Merchant of Venice

Macbeth

"I Have a Dream"

Assorted poems by Dickinson and Frost, and essays by Chesterton

And more.

Alas, with the end of my teaching career I won't be doing that for school reasons. But I have begun to reread works that I've been wanting to reread - works that in some cases I originally read decades ago.

In the last year, for example, I reread Mr. Blue, The Power and the Glory, The Screwtape Letters, and 1984. 

There are more books on my reread pile for next year.

I'm currently rereading Chesterton's Orthodoxy with our local Chesterton Society.

Although I've read The Fellowship of the Ring a couple of times, I have not reread the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I plan to do so - especially given the current political climate!

I have also reread a couple of the Narnia books  - but there are others I have not read in a long time - The Last Battle, for example. 

It's been a while since I've read A Tale of Two Cities, or Les Miserables, or The Long Loneliness, or The Seven Storey Mountain or Brave New World or Mere Christianity or One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - just to name a few.

So in addition to my Shakespeare reading project of one a month - I've only read 15 of his 38 plays! - I plan to do some rereading of books in the coming year. That will be on top of the books I've never read before.

Ah, the joys of retirement.

Ah, the pleasures of reading.

Pax et bonum