The Ritual of Returning to Books

Claire and Linda discuss the sublime experience of reading something that resonates with you so deeply that you return to the book as often as possible--in other words, you make it a reading ritual. If you are lucky enough to encounter a book that moves you when you are young and begin a ritual of rereading that book year after year, you can enjoy an evolving relationship with the text, much like enjoying the evolution of personal relationships. In this episode, we unpack why Linda does not habitually reread books but wants to (it’s never too late to begin a tradition!) and why Claire returns to certain books again and again. 

 

Books discussed during the episode:

The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard  The End of the Affair by Graham Greene The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova Christy by Catherine Marshall  Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder  What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons