Writing about re-reading: The Second Time

Overarching question to keep in mind:
How do you as a reader bring a different self to a body of work at different times in your life?

For this in-class writing, I ask you to address all of the following questions in a well thought out response (1 1/2 - double spaced, no more than one page). Please do not simply answer the questions one after another. The questions posed are meant to build on one another so you think deeply about not only who you were when you first experienced your novel but also what the novel meant to you.

I suggest you do some brainstorming before you start writing. Maybe answer each of the questions and then see how you can weave those answer into a cohesive and comprehensive response. This is NOT a SPA structured writing. This is personal writing. You can use I, you can be more casual, but you still want to have a solid structure and purpose.

The Facts

1. Title & author of the book.
   
2. How old were you when you previously read this book?
3. Where were you when you read this book?
4. What time of year did you read this?
5. Did you read this book for pleasure or for school? If for school, what grade and what teacher assigned it? If for pleasure, who suggested you read it?
6. What was going on in your life while you were reading this book?
   
7. Have you ever recommended this book to anyone else?
8. Have you ever shared your passion for this book with anyone else?

The impressions

1. What made you choose to re-read this book?
2. What is your dominant impression/strongest memory from when you last read this book?
   
3. How have you changed since the last time you read this book?
4. Do you expect the book to be different? better? worse? more/less interesting?
   
5. What impressions of the book do you hope remain the same?
6. What impressions of the book might change?

Feel free to incorporate other information. The more thoroughly you respond to these questions, the more material you will have to work with when we revisit them at the end of your reading.

When you are done with this, please proceed to the next activity on the blog: Making Connections.