I am a huge fan of Ann Fadiman's. Re-readings is a collection of essays she has collected in which authors return to books they read when they were young. They reminisce over how they first perceived the book and how those perceptions have changed. The book as a whole took me a while to finish. I enjoyed sitting down to read one essay at a time, but it was not a collection that I desired to read straight through. Some essays really captivated me. They all introduced me to new ideas about things I had read or encouraged me to pick up a book new to me. Overall, though, I found the concept behind the book as the most interesting aspect of it. I would really like to write my own "re-reading" essay, but think that I still need wait a few years in order to try the experiment in the same spirit as this book presents it. ( )

Although Anne Fadiman is the editor, rather than the author, of this brilliant collection of essays, it very much reminds me of her collection Ex Libris. Both are testaments to the love of books and of reading. These essays sparked in me a desire to read more writings by the authors who contributed and the authors they write about. I very much enjoyed Fadiman's foreward reflecting on the project of re-reading and on the disillusionment she experienced re-reading C.S. Lewis' The Horse and His Boy. How sad it is when we go back and realize that the shining stars of our younger years are kind of asses! I also loved David Samuels' essay on reading and re-reading Salinger's Franny and Zooey, especially since I had just re-read the novel in question for the first time since my teenage years. Patricia Hampl's essay on Katherine Mansfield was wonderful & sad and made me want to read Mansfield for myself. Nearly all of the essayists share Fadiman's infectious love of reading and books and her ability to make the reader love whatever topic they happen to be writing about. Highly recommended. ( )

I don't know why but I love reading about books, about reading, about other people reading... ( )

I was hoping for more by Fadiman

An interesting collection of essays brought together from a regular feature in the publication 'American Scholar' where writers and critics wrote a short piece on a book they read in their youth and reread as an adult. As with any collection, some pieces are more interesting than others. I was surprised that one of my favourites, an essay by Arthur Krystal, was about a boxing novel, when I can't stand boxing! It is a testament to Krystal's ability as a writer.

The books surveyed range from the well-known to the obscure. It is not really the books that are reread that are important here, however; rather it is the reminiscing about reading as a younger person, how books form our opinions, and the effect a book can have on a reader. A book that is sure to delight, at least in some parts, any reader. ( )