I cannot recall offhand anything in Tolkien's Letters alluding to the number of times people will read a book (and certainly nothing prescribing or advising against re-reading), but I am reminded of any early dismissive review of LOTR saying, "This is a book few people will read more than once." (quasi-quote) To which the irrepressible Tom Shippey commented that this seemed a safe bet to the point of making the statement trivial, as not very many people read anything more than once, but in the case of LOTR, whose devotees read the book over and over, it's actually wrong!
The Magician's Book by Laura Miller is an account of the author's reactions to Narnia, from loving it as a child to feeling horribly betrayed when she learned (age 13 or so) that it was a Christian allegory* to coming to terms with it in later life.
*Lewis himself, and his defenders, insist that it's not an allegory (Aslan standing for Christ) but a "supposition" (suppose there were another world and Christ incarnated as a lion in it). To my mind, this is a distinction without a difference.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-08-08 04:32 pm (UTC)The Magician's Book by Laura Miller is an account of the author's reactions to Narnia, from loving it as a child to feeling horribly betrayed when she learned (age 13 or so) that it was a Christian allegory* to coming to terms with it in later life.
*Lewis himself, and his defenders, insist that it's not an allegory (Aslan standing for Christ) but a "supposition" (suppose there were another world and Christ incarnated as a lion in it). To my mind, this is a distinction without a difference.