Is once ever enough?

Here are seven of the eighteen books written by Douglas Clyde Jones. Most of his books were novels having to do with the American West. Jones began his career as a writer with a novel about the Seventh United States Army Cavalry encounter with a variety of Indian tribes at the Little Bighorn River in Montana on June 25-26, 1876. Another of his novels is about the "incident" at Wounded Knee in South Dakota on December 29, 1890, and involves many of the same individuals who fought in 1876 in Montana. Jones, by the way, served twenty-five years in the U.S. Army, then taught journalism at the University of Wisconsin. I have read all of his books, a few two or three times.

 

As for the music, there is none. But, there are two videos from MsMojo with lists of books you should read "if you know what is good for you" .... sort of teasing with that ending. Actually, MsMojo is a video content producer and publisher that is located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It offers published Top 10 pop culture lists on infotainment topics catered to a broad audience, but with a core viewership of young female millennials. Whoops .... just to clarify, I am part of the "broad audience" ....

 

Not exactly a mystery, but a good question

 

"What makes us reread a book?" was the question posed by a headline for a newspaper article by Laurie Hertzel, senior editor for books at the Twin Cities Star Tribune. She went on to explain why she has read four times, "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, beginning in school -- in junior high -- she thought.

 

She then proceeded to name a few other books she has read more than once and to give a few of the "so many reasons why we reread books."

 

I have a few books I have reread multiple times, beginning with, "The Last Trail," by Pearl Zane Grey when I was in elementary school. (I would wager you did not know his first name was Pearl, did you?) It was when I had completed that novel I began writing the dates I had read a particular book inside the cover. I no longer recall the reason I began doing that, but the date usually was accompanied by a brief comment about where and when I had obtained the book and my opinion of it. This has been a handy habit over the years for obvious reasons.

 

My own record for Gatsby is only twice, but I like to brag that I have read every novel, short story and poem published by Ernest Hemingway, plus a few magazine articles and most biographies, some multiple times. The same is true of novels by James Michener, in particular his Korean War novelette, "The Bridges at Toko-Ri," and the epic settlement of the west tale, "Centennial." I continuously am going back to reread segments of Centennial.

 

I have sort of a collection of books about George Armstrong Custer. One of them, a novel, "The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer," by Douglas C. Jones, I have read nine times. The book is seriously researched and much of the story comes from testimony at the court-martial of Marcus Reno. Again, I would wager few are aware of this event. I have a copy of the official record of a court of inquiry convened at Chicago on January 13, 1879, by the then president of the United States upon "the request of Major Marcus A. Reno, 7th U.S. Cavalry, to investigate his conduct at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, June 25-26, 1876."

 

I could go on, but I will wrap this up by giving an explanation Ms. Hertzel suggests as some of the reasons we reread books:

 

"The right book can be a touchstone through your life, something that brings you back to a particular time or feeling. Sometimes a book changes with each reading, grows more complex and interesting. Sometimes you just want to dive into a familiar story -- for the coziness of it knowing in advance precisely how much stress and angst there will be, knowing what ending you are heading toward. Comfort reading, I guess."

 

Those words describe some of the reasons why I choose to reread, even though I know there never will be enough time in a lifetime to read everything which I would like to .... and, to reread books is to lose the time which could be spent reading new books, which is a tacit acknowledgement that you are ending a journey before the natural time has arrived for it to end.

 

I would add another personal reason to those suggested by Ms. Hertzel. Reading to me is studying. I want to learn about people, places and things. In the simplest words, I want to know what makes people tick and use it as a tool to better understand myself. Novels are particularly beneficial, I believe, as character studies of the individuals in the story and, very often, any book (every book) allows me to see inside the mind of the writer.