Hit 50 book club debates logged and it changed my view on rereads

I keep a spreadsheet of every debate topic we've covered since we started in 2021. Last month we hit number 50 and I looked back at the pattern. Turns out about 30 of those were arguments where someone hated a book they first loved in high school. I always rolled my eyes at that take, but then we did The Great Gatsby for our 47th pick and I found myself on the hating side. It wasn't the writing, it was me being older and seeing the characters as pathetic instead of tragic. Has anyone else flipped on a book hard after a decade or two, or do you stay loyal to your first read?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

chen.phoenix22d ago

Count me as one who flipped hard, but it wasn't Gatsby for me. It was Catcher in the Rye. Loved Holden at 16 because I thought he was the only honest person in a fake world. Read it again at 34 and wanted to shake him. The book didn't change, my patience did. Sounds like your spreadsheet caught the same thing, just that the flip has less to do with the books and more to do with what we bring to them the second time.

10

thomas_wright4122d ago

Did anyone else notice that the books we loved at 16 are usually the ones that make us cringe the hardest later? I had the exact same thing happen with On the Road, thought Dean Moriarty was the coolest guy alive, then reread it in my thirties and just felt tired for Sal the whole time. It stings a little to lose that, but it also means we actually grew up instead of staying the same reader forever.

1