Do You Grok Rereading?

I stayed up until three in the morning finishing the last few hundred pages of Robert A. Heinlein’s, Stranger in a Strange Land. I hadn’t read it in at least ten years and must say it was just as good if not better than I remember.

For those of you who haven’t read it, I recommend you go out and get a copy today. Make sure you grab the uncut version. It’s 60,000 words longer but well worth it. For the rest of you I suggest it’s time to pick it up again.

It’s only within the last few years that I’ve begun to appreciate rereading books. When I was younger, I felt like there were too many books to read, too much information to enjoy and absorb to waste my time with something I’d already experienced. I guess I had to give myself some time to separate from what I had read.

Now I find rereading texts I loved in my early twenties to be a fulfilling reminder of who I was back then and how I’ve grown as a person (or haven’t in some areas). The correct book refreshes my idealism which seems harder to hold onto as I get older.

So, I also recommend that you go back and reread some of those texts that helped shape the person you are today. You’ll get a kick out of it.