Susan,
My father prided himself on never rereading a book. He already knew
what it said, so why reread it? I on the other hand enjoy rereading
certain types of book over and over and over again. It's walking
again in a landscape where I enjoy being, and like Ruth and Tamara, I
enjoy learning the characters better, and seeing things I missed when
I was so intent the first time through in finding out what was
HAPPENING - details of ambience, nuances of expression, etc.
There are some books I read for information and am unlikely to
reread: books about wars and other unpleasantnesses, for instance. In
those cases, I do not want to wallow in it. I want information to
understand, and avoid future instances of those situations.
Getting stuck in reliving unpleasantness (especially relational
unpleasantness) can be "rumination", one of those things that goes
along with depression. While it's probably true that redirecting the
thoughts helps one get over the depression, that's not usually
something the depressed person is capable of doing on their own. If
they could, they wouldn't stay depressed. I saw it increasingly
happening with my father as his mind went - he'd take me to task
repeatedly to give him an accounting of the money from the sale of
the farm he grew up on.... and couldn't remember that I hadn't been
born yet when it was sold - or was under a year old - in any case I
had had nothing at all to do with the money, or with the fate of the
draft horses. So in his case, rereading had nothing to do with being
unable to let go of worries or irrational blaming.
--
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Martha Krieg [EMAIL PROTECTED] in Michigan
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