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Original poster

Have you ever had a book you were utterly consumed by previously, then you've read it again ....and got no further than page 8?

22 replies

snigger · 07/09/2012 17:52

Feeding from funtime fuschia's thread on books you can't finish, I remembered the Gormenghast trilogy.

I lost a week on those in my teens, and picked them up again the other month...and just can't quite crack them.

Is it loss of IQ, interest, or am I now a pod-person?

OP posts:
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BeauNeidel · 05/10/2012 10:17

I still own the Flowers in the Attic books Blush All of them. I still read them when I want to read but don't want to think too much.

I am re-reading One for the Money (Stephanie Plum). I read the whole series really quickly and enjoyed them all, this time round I'm about 5 chapters in and bored. I don't normally re-read detective/crime books, maybe that's why?

I am also so pissed off with the film of The Time Traveler's Wife. I haven't even seen it, but the trailers and the fact that Eric Bana is in it is enough to sour the reading experience for me!

hoodoo12345 · 04/10/2012 16:53

Ben Hur
Loved it as a teenager, felt like a different book when i attempted to read again last year, gave up after a couple of chapters.

BeatTheClock · 30/09/2012 23:02

I very rarely re-read books esp ones I've loved. I think my enjoyment of a book is often influenced by lots of other things. Re-reading it will inevitably never be as good and then I'll be disappointed and the memory of it as a fantastic book will be ruined.

Like trying to recreate a brilliant holiday. Just going back to the same place doesn't mean you'll have the same good time.

Benaberry · 30/09/2012 22:56

Mists of Avalon

Adored that book as a teen, re-read it many times. Recently downloaded it for my kindle as hadn't read for ages, and suddenly found myself really underwhelmed. In fact I positively struggled through the last 200 pages.

Possibly wasn't helped by reading it straight after Bernard Cornwell's Arthurian trilogy, which is a very different, much grittier telling of the same story, which is one of the best versions of the Arthur legend I've read.

Heartbroken though - I loved that book for so long. Will give it another go in a couple of years and see if the magic is back...

TheHeirOfSlytherin · 16/09/2012 18:18

Northern Lights

fuzzywuzzy · 16/09/2012 18:17

Read them when I was 12 couldn't read them again

fuzzywuzzy · 16/09/2012 18:16

Flowers in the attic
Petals on the wind
If there be thorns
Seeds of yesterday

There's also prologue
Garden of shadows

FermezLaBouche · 16/09/2012 17:43

Woah, woah, woah! You mean there were sequels to Flowers in the Attic? What are they called???

janesnowdon1 · 14/09/2012 12:05

Agreeing with lots on here- Mill on the Floss, Tess, Ghormenghast . I absolutely adored books by Thomas Hardy especially Jude the Obscure as a late teen. Read it again and other Hardys recently and thought they were all very poor and melodramatic.

ElizabethX · 13/09/2012 18:09

The Dice Man.

Laughed like a drain first time. Came back to it a few years later and couldn't crack a smile. Very 60s, not in a good way.

Autumnalis · 12/09/2012 17:15

Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

A lot of Milan Kundera.

hackmum · 12/09/2012 17:08

When I was younger, one of my favourite books was The World According to Garp. I read it twice. Years later, I read it again and was so disappointed. I finished it, but just didn't rate it any more.

randomfennel · 12/09/2012 10:10

I used to love Dickens as a teenager. Can't read him at all now. It took me months to struggle through Bleak House last year, and I skipped loads of it.

Original poster
snigger · 12/09/2012 10:08

Oh, I haven't thought about Flowers In The Attic for years!

I read the whole series strictly against the wishes and knowledge of my dear mama, under the covers with a torch. Bleurgh.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is another one - captivated me when I was fourteen, complete 'meh' now.

OP posts:
MrsJohnDeere · 12/09/2012 09:09

Birdsong

Takver · 12/09/2012 08:58

Yes - mine was House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende. The first time I read it, I thought it was amazing, bought copies for friends etc. Second time I tried to read it, I just couldn't, it felt like eating too many chocolates all at once, that kind of rich over sickly feeling.

Busyoldfool · 11/09/2012 20:48

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and sequel. Read them during a long train trip, (10 days) and was rivetted. Just wanted to know the answers. Picked them up again just to look through them and the endless details and self-obsessed stuff made it unreadable. Happily gave them away.

BestIsWest · 11/09/2012 19:40

I haven't read the great Gatsby sunce I was 14. There's a copy upstairs somewhere. I'll have to give it a try again then.

Flowers in the Attic - I remember devouring that at 17.

KatieScarlett2833 · 11/09/2012 19:18

Flowers in the attic

In my defence, I was 12 when I read it the first time...

And YY to the Great Gatsby. I downloaded it to remind myself while DC were studying it for exams, so we could chat about it. I have re-read it about 4 times since.

AnonymousBird · 11/09/2012 19:15

I very recently re-read Tender is the Night. My memory is that I thought it was glorious 20 years ago, but sadly this time I had for force myself through it.

On the flipside my similar recent re-read of The Great Gatsby was OMG 5* still, utterly utterly fantastic.

Just don't know why that is!

BestIsWest · 09/09/2012 22:43

Yes, I adored A Suitable Boy the first time I read it, it really is a fantastic book However I've tried several times to read it again and just can't get back into it.

NotGeoffVader · 07/09/2012 18:00

Sadly yes - The Mill on the Floss. I know, I should be ashamed. I read it a lot between the ages of 19-24 and loved it. Reread it recently and got really annoyed with Maggie. I wanted to SLAP her. Book now at charity shop.

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