Reading and re-reading Jane
November 12, 2007
A survey conducted to mark the 2007 Costa Book Awards found that Pride and Prejudice is the third most-re-read book in the UK.
The research also showed that 43% admitted to deciding whether they will finish a book after only the first chapter.
“The public want instant gratification and there has never been a more important time to remind the reading public not to judge a book by its cover,” said literary agent Simon Trewin.
The survey also found that almost a fifth of readers read their favourite book more than five times.
Reuters also covers the survey. Thanks to Alert Janeites Nadine and Lisa for the links!
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I find it interesting that Simon Trewin thinks that reading the first chapter of a book is not enough. The last couple of books I’ve read, I could tell from the first chapter whether the book was worth reading or not. Nancy Pearl says that you should give a book 50 pages, unless you are over 50. If you are over 50, you should subtract your age from 100 and read that many pages before deciding. The premise of that is that there is only so much time, and if you aren’t hooked by page 50, it’s not going to happen. That’s not to say that you wouldn’t enjoy the book later in life, but at that point, your time is better spent reading a different book. Hopefully Mr. Trewin isn’t suggesting that we trudge through books we aren’t enjoying for the sake of having finished a book.
Interesting formula you propose there, Ben, Pearl’s Rule of 50. Woohoo! If that’s the case I have only to get to page two to find out. Heh-heh.
Seriously, I think the article is misleading because it fails to take into account the number of times these top-20 books have been revisited on the average. Sure, they mention that 20% of the surveyed claim to have re-read their favourite books five of more times, but I know of a few Janeites who have re-read one or more of Jane’s books more than a dozen times—way more. I, for one, can claim that… well, all except maybe for Emma. I love the book but I did not like Emma, but she is growing on me fast. I have re-read this one three times this past summer alone, once before each time I went to see the musical adaptation (twice), and once more after—so I’m close to breaking the dozen mark. And I am sure some of you out there can put me to shame for having revisited Jane’s novels way more times than that.
Okay, how about this? Persuasion, more than 20 times! I would like to meet a Harry Potter fan doing that.
I’m always fascinated by those who know exactly how many times they’ve re-read a novel, unless it’s less than five. Thing is, I don’t always pick up a book and re-read the whole thing, especially if it’s a book I know well. I read favorite bits and pieces, especially of comfort reading like Jane Austen. I’ve probably read Captain Wentworth’s letter hundreds of times, but not Persuasion as a whole. I go through NA for Tilney’s Greatest Hits but not necessarily the whole novel. I might be looking up a passage for a post or a paper and get distracted and read several chapters (funny how that happens). But I do re-read the novels in their entirety at least once every couple of years. The JASNA AGMs help along with my reading groups, as we tend to concentrate on a novel if it is the AGM theme, so last year I got into MP in a big way and this year Emma.
My sentiments exactly, Mags. The partial re-reads do not count. For instance, I’ve already done that several times to several of the novels just now while writing my comments. To be fair, one must add only the cover-to-cover re-reads to the official count.
Oh, and one tip on how to keep track of the number of times you have read a particular book… start making tick marks after the colophon, to indicate that you have indeed reached the end. Of course, you will have to add these up if you have multiple copies of a novel.