The pleasures of re-reading

One of the things we discover as we mature is that the familiar is really quite unfamiliar, if observed attentively. Over 30 years ago, Annie Dillard published a book called “Teaching a Stone to Talk,” in which she recounts all sorts of surprising things about everyday objects. “I could see the shape of the land,” she writes, admiring a country landscape of fences and pastures, “how it lay holding silence.” 

So too, the most familiar books reveal more about themselves when we attend to them anew. And our growing experience allows us to approach our favorites from different angles. In a sense, rereading the same book produces new insights because the reader is a different person. Indeed, a good book is very much like a mirror: The glass is the same year after year, but the reflection in it changes over time.

"Hello, Old Friend, Time to Read You Again", The Wall Street Journal.