Prompt #2

I must confess that I am a rereader. Sometimes I do it because I feel as if I missed something.  Examples are the book War and Peace and Crime and Punishment which I had to reread to get the full meaning. Yet, rereading does not always have to be because you did not understand something. There are times when I find myself rereading a paragraph either because I cannot believe what I am reading or because I really like the way it sounds. Then there are the times I read for pleasure. I have read Mythology (by Edith Hamilton) about seven times. I have also read the Iliad and the Odyssey about four times each mainly because I always see something I missed the times before. Rereading can be a chore at times but it can also be a pleasant experience. One tends to overlook a detail assuming it is not important and then upon rereading one realizes how vital that little detail was. Of course, knowing the ending can make rereading a bit dull at times but if you get absorbed you can always see something you missed. Most times, anyway. Every time I reread something I can pay more attention to the details rather than the outcome. It makes for a more relaxed reading and also for a more informative one too.  However, it is crucial that one goes back and rereads something they do not understand. There are times one must accept they are wrong and retrace their steps back to the place they made the mistake. One must also keep in mind that some things will never be clear no matter how many times one might reread. An example is whether Hamlet was really mad. This question has been asked for many decades and remains unanswered. Rereading can open doors one may not have seen before but also requires patience and a great deal of concentration.