Thread: Can you re-read a book you enjoyed 20 years ago?
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Old 12-24-2010, 09:40 AM   #53
Polyglot27
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Just4kix View Post
It seems that everyone can enjoy re-reading the classics.

What is the 'newest' classic? I wonder if any of today's books will become classics.
Italo Calvino, in his delightful essay titled "Why Read the Classics", gives 14 definitions of what a classic is. Among them:
(1) The classics are the books of which we hear people say, "I am rereading..." and never "I am reading..."

In (2), he goes on to say "In fact, reading in youth can be rather unfruitful, due to impatience, distraction, inexperience with the product's "instructions for use," and inexperience in life itself.

This essay is included in the anthology "The Literature Machine" in the British translation, and I think "The Uses of Literature" in the American edition.
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