there are a few books i’ve read after a few years and seen in a different light. for example prep by curtis sittenfeld was one of my favorites in 9th grade because i loved the school drama aspect and was also a kid way too stuck in my head, but reading again as an adult felt way more the politics of navigating friendship and love distilled into a teenage perspective and how it ripples through your development into adulthood.
by rain_in_numbers
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**The Last Unicorn**, by Peter S. Beagle.
By Nightfall by Michael Cunningham
Oryx and Crake and Year of the Flood (both my Atwood). I reread the trilogy every couple of years and I get very different things out of the first two books depending on what is going on in my life. The first time I read Year of the Flood, I couldn’t appreciate some of the themes they way I was able to later.
I find it interesting to see how my opinion of Holden from catcher has changed through my life.
As a kid, all fire and blood, I saw a kindred spirit.
As a young adult, I saw an annoying little kid.
Now as an adult, maybe even old if judged on grey in beard, I see a child who is hurt and hurting, lashing out, and breaking.
It brings to mind that old saying, that no man can come to the same stream twice, for by the next visit either the river has changed or the man.
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
I definitely agree that your reception of a novel has a lot to do with where you are in your life. If you read the same novel again in another 5 or 10 yrs, it may resonate with you in a whole new way (or not at all) bc you won’t be the same person you were the last time you read it.