Showing posts with label Pride and Prejudice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pride and Prejudice. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Question: What book would you love to read again for the first time?

We are reorganizing our bookshelves, and I keep stumbling across old favorites that I vividly recall reading for the first time.  I thoroughly enjoy rereading favorite books, but there is nothing quite like the first time you fall in love with a story and its characters.  That first time is full of new discoveries - dialogue that moves you to tears, characters so beautifully crafted that you ache for them when their hearts are broken and cheer for them when their dreams are realized, and pages that keep you up late reading with urgency because you simply must discover how the story ends.  As I sort through some of my old favorite books, I find myself wishing that I could read several of them for the first time all over again.  How awesome would it be to read them again with that original sense of excitement, surprise, and urgency?


For example, I still clearly remember the first time I read Pride and Prejudice, and I would absolutely love to meet Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy for the first time all over again.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to relive the moments of their first (unfavorable) impressions of one another, to feel Jane's heartbreak at not knowing whether Mr. Bingley will return, to wonder whether Mr. Wickham is trustworthy, to meet the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh for the first time, to thrill at the fabulously tense exchange when Elizabeth refuses Darcy's proposal, to travel to Pemberley and feel Elizabeth's sense of embarrassment at unexpectedly encountering Mr. Darcy there, and to gradually discover exactly how perfect they really are for one another?!  I would LOVE to have that experience again!  


So, what book (or books) would you love to read again for the first time?