Re: 25 Classic Books That Have Been Banned

On Fri, 14 Feb 2025, Rich Ulrich wrote:

On Fri, 14 Feb 2025 08:46:55 +1100, Peter Moylan <peter@pmoylan.org>
wrote:
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On 14/02/25 08:21, D wrote:

On Wed, 12 Feb 2025, Judith Latham wrote:

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Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

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Excellent! Will read again.

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I did read it again, and was disappointed. Somehow, for me, it had lost
its air of originality. I'd almost classify it as a "read once" book.
Many of the other books on the list can be read with pleasure multiple
times.

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"Read once" vs. "read multiple times" -
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In my youth, almost every book of fiction was "read once".
I read fast, but I remembered large amounts word-for-word
and that made re-reading less pleasant.  But I did develop a
habit of re-reading series, where the latter stories added
depth to what I had picked up on first-read.
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I still read fast, which I've realized is often "too fast."
Especially, I still missed a lot of social interplay and clever
dialog, even though I try to pay more attention. These days,
I'll re-read a book within a few weeks if I did enjoy it.
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Back in the early days when I seldom re-read, the one book
that fascinated me enough to re-read was "Cat's Cradle."
To my surprise, it did not surprise me at all -- it seemed to
evoke only the same insights and reactions that had impressed
me on the first reading.

I think I read faster than average. I frequently get anoyed when shoulder browsing and people take way too long time to read through text on their computer.
I also moved from read once, to read many. I enjoy re-reading my favourites every couple of years to a decade or so.
It's about the mood and the "feeling" I want to get into, and when I read a good book, I might actually read it slower to savour it.
If I read boring books, or read for work, I accelerate at the cost of some dialogue or boring background descriptions. At work it is even easier because I know why I am reading and what I need which allows me to skip a lot of reading.

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Having said that, I still acknowledge that Catch-22 is an important
literary work. In fact, when I released my mailing list manager, I
called it MajorMajor.

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