Weekly Geeks: Second Chances

This week's topic:

There have been times in my life where I reread a book (or author) I hated--or thought I hated--but the second time around ended up loving. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever changed your mind about a book or author the second time around? Have you ever given a book or author a second chance?

If you have, I'd love to hear your stories. Blog about your experience(s) in giving second chances.

If you haven't, I'd like you to consider giving a book or an author a second chance. You can blog about your intentions to do so--or if you're a quick reader, maybe you can even squeeze something in!

Can't think of a single book or author? Don't worry, you can stretch this one to include movies or music if you prefer.

It is just very interesting to me how time can change tastes and perceptions. How subjective the reading experience is and always will be.

How I Came To Love A Monster, A Rambling Review of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

The True Meaning of Smek Day by Adam Rex. Glowing review (second review). Not so glowing review (first mini-review). One was written November 9, 2007...the second was written November 18th, 2007. Short amount of time between the two. But oh-such-a-difference those days in between must have made in my mood.

Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson (the first book). The oh-I-hate-it review from November 30, 2006. The oh-I-love-it-so-much-I-want-to-read-it-for-my-book-club review from October 24, 2008.

These books represent different 'cases' of why I gave a book a second chance:

• Giving assigned reading from years-gone-by a second try. Hated a book (or author) when it was assigned to me in high school. Curious to see if my "adult" self will appreciate the book more. Frankenstein falls into this case. As does Silas Marner.
• Series books. Didn't particularly care for the first book in the series, but for whatever reason, felt compelled to read the second. Octavian Nothing by M.T. Anderson is a good example of this. I needed to read the second novel, for Cybils purposes, and knew that I'd have to reread the first one in order to be fair. It'd been too many years since I'd read the first one. And I felt I would have a hard time picking up the story again. The Shadow Thieves is another good example of this. The link is for the newest review...here's the link for the first review.
• Completing Abandoned Books. Sometimes I give abandoned/discarded books a second try. These are books that I've read some in. In the case of The True Meaning of Smek Day, I was only seventy-five pages from the end. But I was hating it so much, I stopped reading. About eight or nine days later, I revisited my decision. Couldn't I finish it? It wasn't that much further after all. Surely those last pages could be done quickly. But I found myself confused. When did this character get introduced? When did that happen? How did I miss that? After a few pages, I decided to start from the beginning. I was just looking to re-orient myself to the story, the characters. But I found that I couldn't put it down. I ended up loving it. Really loving it. I couldn't believe that this book that had annoyed and frustrated me so very much just a week or two before was now my new favorite. But it happened.

It's a bit scary (in a way) to realize how big a role moods can play in how much you like, love, or hate a book.

Now, I have read a small handful of books that didn't improve upon second reading. (Wuthering Heights comes to mind.)

Which book will I never, ever, ever reread no matter what? JUDE THE OBSCURE by Thomas Hardy.

© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews