michael_nielsen

Examples of books (or stories) that you reread years later, & found to be much better? For me: Arrival (Ted Chiang, loved it even the first time); Speaker for the Dead (ditto: loved it at first, even more upon reread); the Great Gatsby (didn't like first time, loved the second)

The optimistic interpretation of this happening is that it's a sign of some kind of personal growth inbetween time.

Gatsby: I read at 20, and thought it varied from dull to mildly interesting. I reread about 15 years later and it was just astonishingly good. Pretty sure it's not the book that changed

On Arrival: well, um, as several of my friends have learned (at great length), I'm a little irrational on this subject. I thought it was superb the first time I read it. The second time I decided it was a work of absolute, utter genius.

I love this. I had many takeaways from SOYL, but related to your notes, in particular I mulled over the human desire to connect knowledge with responsibility, an impulse contingent on the belief that one can affect change over time.