I’m re-reading the first volume of the Aubrey-Maturin series, “Master and Commander.” I think I read the first three volumes 25-30 years ago, and then stopped for some reason. I barely remember any of it.
I’m enjoying the book but I also find it overwhelming. The author, Patrick O’Brian, throws out a lot of nautical terms and rarely explains any of it.
So I did a web search on “how to read Patrick O’Brian,” and saw this advice:
First read-through just enjoy the ride and feel the ambience. You can enjoy the story without understanding all details. Looking up everything just makes reading too slow for a first pass.
Next circumnavigation you can start looking up things and understand the subtle jokes. After the tenth round there are still some that you missed.
And that’s what I’m doing.
I don’t know whether I’ll read the series again — let alone ten times!