I love a good book, for the learning and the enjoyment. I like to read widely and frequently. I virtually always have access to good reading, regardless of whether I am sitting at home (with its curated piles of yet-to-read books) or I am out traveling and perusing the Internet for electronic books, then experiencing them on my e-reader.
This post is not about any specific type of book. Rather, it is about a particular type of reading. Of course, I enjoy browsing for new reading material, perusing an author’s most recent work or discovering the next chapters in long-running narratives. However, I also like to make time to re-read.
You have only so much time. When you look for your next read, it might feel a bit counterintuitive to consider something that you already “finished.” Why would you do that?
Why indeed. Let’s take a look.
No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.
Heraclitus
The famous aphorism reminds us that you cannot step into the same river twice. The river itself is in a constant state of flow and change, but so are you! On some level, perhaps imperceptibly, you are different, from moment to moment. It is virtually impossible to replicate precisely the same experience.
Clearly, in the same way that you cannot step into the same river twice, you also would not be able to step into the same ocean, forest or shopping mall twice. What they all have in common is that they have the traits of dynamic systems. They all experience changed states all the time. And again, so do you.
Perhaps you have browsed and examined the changes between different editions of the same book. More nuanced, maybe you have read different printings of the same edition and still found clear differences. Quite subtly, perhaps you have read exactly the same text twice and noticed things on second reading that eluded you during the previous one. The words were there, but you did not see them.
Can you read the same book twice?
We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are.
various
It is impossible to avoid. Who you are, your abilities as well as your limitations, your life experiences – from your youngest age until now, the cultures you live in and the social norms you experience, your beliefs and biases — it all influences how you look at the world. It colors your perception and informs how you interpret your experiences.
The very act of reading a text changes you and influences how you think about the subject matter. You will be a different person, such that you will not be able to have the experience of reading that text for a first time again.
Time matters, because changes happen over time. The more time has passed since you read a text last, the more you – and your perspectives – will have changed. On the other hand, there can be value in not waiting too long.
Déjà vu is “the phenomenon of feeling as though one has lived through the present situation before,” even though one is encountering it for the first time. Vuja-de is a play on that, a reversal of the term. It is about experiencing the familiar with a fresh perspective, to see the new in the old.
Looking for the new within the familiar can have numerous upsides. You build more perspectives, a more complete, richer understanding. You can discover ways to innovate as well as creative problem solving approaches. You build deeper appreciation and openness to ideas.
Of course, before you can experience the new in the familiar, you have to first establish that familiarity. It is a relationship between you and a subject matter that goes through cycles, beginning when you first encounter it.
Re-reading helps enable this.
To re-read means not only to experience the reading of the material, but to also receive a mirror that reflects back ways in which you are changed. Can you tell how it is different than last time and do you know why?
As so often, there is depth in a seemingly simple thing.