Pickles by Brian Crane for December 30, 2012

I’ve seen a quote that life’s too short to read the same book twice, but I don’t buy it. Books are precious. I don’t have much money and the ones I buy are the good ones, and I’ll usually read a library book twice before taking it back (I do read an average-sized book in 2-3 hours). There are books I read every year. And yes, there are plenty I couldn’t tell you a thing about. Read them, concentrated on it, maybe read it again right off- love to read a good book seeing how they worked in things that mean so much more when you kow the ending. I’ve read all the Jane Austin books several times and can’t remember one plot from the others in a pinch, and I enjoyed them. I just have read so many books things get tangled up in my head…

Jane Austen’s very enjoyable too.

If it was worth reading once, it’s worth reading again.

Some books are a pastime (like on long flights). Others are light entertainment, or sources of information. Some, a very few, become lifelong friends.

I’m a believer in re-reading books also. It amazes me how much I’ve forgotten of what I read years ago.

Well said…….and the last thought is SO true!

Well put Earl,,I re read books all the time, but then my memory stinks so bad its like reading it for the first time

The few books I purchase, I donate to our local library for their book sale events. I know that I can check out my favorites over and over. With 5 hard bound books and several ebooks for travel checked out from the library, I’m always prepared. We are so fortunate to have books available to all.

I hear ya, Earl!

I have a series that I love and will read them all in order twice a year when a new one comes out

I re-read “Huckleberry Finn” last year. It’s an underplayed yet powerful scene where Huck, as racist as anyone of his era, resolves to help his friend Jim, the run-away slave, even though it means burning in hell for helping rob that nice old lady of her property.

It’s too bad, though, that Twain felt the need to pad out the book with the whole foolishness of the absurd scheme to help Jim escape. About 2/3 of the book is great; the rest…meh.

I love rereading a favourite book, but with so many new ones coming out all the time I rarely have time to reread any.

I read the same books over and over too…

I do it so I can get lost in the story.

xxx

A fast look at panels 3 and 7 look like Opals on Earls shoulders…

I like it

The one book for me that I’d never get tired of reading is Tailchaser’s Song.

I have a certain number of favorites that I’ve reread over my lifetime with great pleasure, always seeing something new and savoring the book from a different perspective. Books like James Joyce’ s Ulysses, Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, and the plays of William Shakespeare are some of my favorites.

I especially love John Steinbeck and Barbara Kingsolver – her “Prodigal Summer” is magnificent.

Much of today’s writing is the random assembly of words paid for by the word. Good, well researched, carefully thought out new writing, is rare today. Therefore, sample new authors and stick with the good ones. Keep the best material for re reading, donate the better examples for new readers and place trash where it belongs. Remember, your idea of trash may or may not be my idea of trash. Master wordsmiths, all of them, started as so so writers.

Where I live, physical books in English are prohibitively expensive, even second-hand. I disliked the idea of the ebook reader…until I actually got one and learned to use it. Now I have access to so many books that are out of print or would only be available from specialist book dealers. When a second hand novel of no importance can cost the same as a day’s budget, or a new one one-third of my week’s budget (or more), you become aware of the blessings of ebooks. Gutenberg.org and other sites like it are a gold mine for people who just love to read.

The “Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes”(1976) comes

to mind..Now where did I put that book?

I listened to the audio version of Huck Finn a few months ago on my iPad. It was read by Elisha Wood (Frodo) who did an outstanding job. I had read the book as a boy (say, 50 years ago) so, like Earl it was almost like a brand new experience. And it is still a GREAT book. Read it, or listen to it if you never have. It really is a classic.

…and I highly recommend that all you readers out there read Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”. It may not change your life like it has for so many, but you shouldn’t pass up a chance to read a genuine classic and to expose yourself to ideas unlike any you’ve heard. One caution: Don’t believe anything anyone tells you about her until you have read her and can judge for yourself.

I LOVE my library. I’m always checking out books and cd’s. Some I download to my kindle, and others I just pick up. Cookbooks, fiction, bio and all FREE. I’d be lost without them.

I’ve read the “Foundation Trilogy” at least four times and then read his later additions to the “trilogy”!

My dad has lets say if I can say right, Louis Lamore the cowboy western. To him the author did the story’s riht writtten very descriptive.For me I like the places I go too the scene’s I try to picture in my mind the surrounds the author narrates about.

I have “Huck Finn” along with four other Samuel Clemens tales in a one-volume book. Read, but I don’t remember much from them either.

I’ve read with interest all of today’s comments on this strip and am inexorably drawn to the conclusion that people who read " the funnies " or, if you will, the comics, are extremely literate and articulate individuals.I also, unfortunately, suspect that many of us are “of an age”.We were brought up to love and respect books and reading was the great door to our futures.Now that many of us are retired, or at least have the time to revisit our old friends, we do so with the enthusiasm and exploratory wonder we had when young. What a joy !

To counter balance “Atlas Shrugged” maybe you should also read “The Grapes of Wrath”.

I really, really HATE “boring”…!