Nothing Remains the Same

A New York Times Notable Book and a San Francisco Chronicle Book of the Year: A look at the pleasures and surprises of rereading.

Compared with reading, the act of rereading is far more personal-it involves a complex interaction of our past selves, our present selves, and literature. With candor and humor, this "inspired intellectual romp, part memoir, part criticism" takes us on a guided tour of the author's own return to books she once knew-from the plays of Shakespeare to twentieth-century novels by Kingsley Amis and Ian McEwan, from the childhood favorite I Capture the Castle to classic novels such as Anna Karenina and Huckleberry Finn, from nonfiction by Henry Adams to poetry by Wordsworth-as she reflects on how the passage of time and the experience of aging has affected her perceptions of them (Lawrence Weschler).

A cultural critic and the acclaimed author of Why I Read, Wendy Lesser conveys an infectious love of reading and inspires us all to take another look at the books we've read to find the unexpected treasures they might offer.

"Delightful." -Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce

"Anyone who has ever approached a once favorite book later in life... will find in this memoir moments of bittersweet recognition." - The New York Times Book Review

"Reflect[s] deeply and candidly on how a reader's life experiences alter her perceptions of literature... [Lesser] has truly fascinating and original things to say about a compelling assortment of writers, including George Orwell, George Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Dostoyevsky, and Shakespeare." - Booklist