Author Stephen King believes a good book should engage its reader on different levels, so much so the reader will read the book twice. I found a particularly engaging YouTube video of King addressing a Master’s Class at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell in 2012. During part of his presentation, he spoke about how the book Lord of the Flies impacted him emotionally on his first reading then grabbed him intellectually– revealed additional layers of story– when he read it a second time. For our teacher friends, this second reading would be the “Close Reading.” King’s Lord of the Flies example then led him to a very clear explanation, of how good books stand multiple readings.
“Any good book, you should be able to read it twice. The first time, what I want from you, is your total attention, and I want you to be engaged, and I don’t want you to be analyzing. I don’t want you to think about the language. I don’t want you to see me at all. I don’t want to be part of that equation.
But, if you come back to it [the book] again, I’d like to think that there would be something else, as well, other than that emotional hit. That emotional jag. That roller coaster eticket ride. There ought to be a little more than that.
Because, a book like The Shining— I spent a year on that thing, a year of my life. It ought to be about something.”
david cooper writing 