Consuming Fudge

I've been thinking about class discussions on what it means to "consume" literature. After the topic came up about how many times it takes to re-read a novel in order to really consume it, I thought about which books on my reading resume that I have read multiple times.

I have read those meaty "classics" such as East of Eden, Anna Karenina, and Pride and Prejudice two times--maybe two and a half times. But really, I can only think of one book that I have read more than three times:

Judy Blume's Superfudge.

I read this book so many times in a five or six year period. To this day, I don't know why I loved this book so much, but I did...and I still do. Ironically, when I was talking about this with my friend Sarah last night, she told me that she also had a book that she read over and over again when she was young, and it was a Judy Blume book as well.

So why was I more than willing and satisfied to read Superfudge over and over again when I was younger, and now I rarely go back and read a book twice?

A blog post I read a few days ago talked about The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, a novel for adolescents, which for this writer of the blog, had been the first "chapter" book with a real plot development, characterization, etc. that he really connected with, in that he realized that reading is fun--that reading is interactive. And most importantly, that reading is satisfying.

Maybe Superfudge was the first book for me that had this effect. I found a book that was enjoyable and never got old for me. I developed the attitude as a kid that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Why should I try to find other books when Superfudge still made me happy every time I read it?

That attitude eventually changed over the years into a mind set that I seem to have now of "so many books, so little time!" I love reading, and with how many great books there are on the planet, I simply don't have time to read a book a second, or heaven forbid, a third time.

The challenge then in "consuming" literature is to find the happy medium between my childhood attitude and my adult one. I'm still trying to figure it out. And these discussions that we continue to have is helping me evaluate my reading strategies and consumption.

Maybe reading Superfudge again will help illuminate my mind. What a great book.