Re-reading a book is a lot like re-watching a film for me, I don't want to do it immediately, but there is value in doing it some years later where the details become less certain. I'm actively aware that even during tasks such as talking, my brain condenses and throws away most information. The import thing really is to develop and capture the right abstractions.
There are a few books I have gone back and read simply for enjoyment, for example Hitch Hiker's Guide to the galaxy was a pleasure to read. Some more dense materials that I know I will gain a lot from, I find it difficult to muster the motivation to re-read.
Dune, like Lynch movies, are pieces of art you appreciate differently at different ages.
But you always come back to them … [at least I always come back to them ;)]
> but there is value in doing it some years later where the details become less certain
Completely agree, but I also think there's value in re-watching within a short period of time. I find you retain enough memory from the previous viewing to be able to see subtle details and connect things that you maybe wouldn't have been able to in a first viewing.
And also, you can just drop the analytic brain and immediately rewatch something because you find it to be a beautiful film moment-to-moment.
> Completely agree, but I also think there's value in re-watching within a short period of time. I find you retain enough memory from the previous viewing to be able to see subtle details and connect things that you maybe wouldn't have been able to in a first viewing.
Maybe it is ADHD speaking, but I find it very boring if it is too predictable. If I'm bored, very little goes in anyway.
> And also, you can just drop the analytic brain and immediately rewatch something because you find it to be a beautiful film moment-to-moment.
There are some things I rewatched shortly after because it was beautiful. I like to also re-read George Orwell's 1984 annually so that I can figure out what my UK government plan for me next.
Yea, I have re-read things for goals as well. I also re-read things for the mental approach it may instill for a period of time while and after reading it, to enjoy it (like you said), or to see how the perspective fits to my new mental models a few years later. Three fiction books I constantly go back to at different times are Brave New World, The Alchemist, and Prey.
I'm curious what books others go back to over time.
> I also re-read things for the mental approach it may instill for a period of time while and after reading it, to enjoy it (like you said), or to see how the perspective fits to my new mental models a few years later.
I feel my mental model actively changing. I read something last night (a great book on genetic programming) that I could feel actively unwinding an undeserved bias of a previous self and opening a new path for creativity.
Sadly, I suspect many actually do not make any real progress in developing their mental models. Some, after many years, I have the same conversations with about fundamentally the same subjects.
> I'm curious what books others go back to over time.
For me, George Orwell's 1984 & Animal Farm, various short classic stories, etc. If our learning processes are somewhat a support vector machine, I try to reinforce the ideas that originally drastically changed my internal model.
It's not always books and media either. I listened to Mao's Great Famine [1] over several days - and it's harrowing. I like to revisit foods that remind me of childhood (flashes of memory from being younger than 2), like orange & mango juice, and strawberry & banana smoothie.
There are a few books I have gone back and read simply for enjoyment, for example Hitch Hiker's Guide to the galaxy was a pleasure to read. Some more dense materials that I know I will gain a lot from, I find it difficult to muster the motivation to re-read.