Comments on: Stardust: Why Jesse reads better

By: A New Mom’s Guide to Reading Part 2: Rereading « What We're Reading Now

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:34:09 +0000

[...] Rereading, The Forgotten Garden | by Jessica My mother’s reading habits are less like Jesse’s and more like mine. She reads quickly, broadly and plentifully (is that a word? spell check says [...]

By: Jess

Jess — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 17:17:45 +0000

Yes, I loved Neverwhere. I love everything he writes (making good headway on M is for Magic). Agreed about the loss of characters part. When you can’t stop thinking about them, you know you’re hooked (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and A River Runs Through it are like that for me!).

I totally hear you about the poetry. I’m not a huge fan, but what I like stays with me (I’m not much into recitation, but I do say it to myself in my head). Tim loves to quote Shakespeare or Byron or Blake while wandering around the house, cleaning or whatever.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:55:37 +0000

True, all of that. I still get the spirit of your post, though (and agree). One of the reasons why I wanted to start the blog was because I remembered how I used to memorize poems that I loved and nowadays I can just tear through Leaves of Grass in a couple hours and not remember any of them. David Daniel, my poetry teacher in college, said that he would recall lines of Shakespeare sonnets the way most people recall song lyrics. They were just in his head, ready to be brought up like a nice, vivid memory. I can't remember if you liked Neverwhere or not. That might be one of his less "literary" books but it's great. Tori Amos said that she could have just kept reading it forever. That's the mark of a memorable book to me -- when you actually miss the characters when they're gone.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 14:02:55 +0000

Ok yeah, I don’t want to misrepresent myself here. Books I truly treasure (and while I loved Stardust, American Gods or Good Omens is my favorite Gaiman book) I remember (and usually reread evey couple of years).

I don’t think that every book has to be “important” or even memorable. If you read it and enjoyed it and then move on without a second thought, that isn’t necessarily a waste of time. Some books (like some people) are only meant to be momentarily entertaining – not everybody is a livelong friend.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 02:37:26 +0000

Great! I love that, and it’s so true about Neil Gaiman’s stories. They live inside you. Still today, years after reading my last Sandman comic, I’ll sometimes randomly remember a scene or a character and laugh or get a little misty-eyed.

Alas, I do forget books — time is the culprit. I rarely forget the best stories, though.