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?

[snigger]

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?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Birdsong

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.

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.

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.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

A lot of Milan Kundera.

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.

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.

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

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

There's also prologue
Garden of shadows

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

Northern Lights

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...

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.

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.

I still own the Flowers in the Attic books 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!