‘I’ve already read that years ago, I’m looking for something different’…years ago when you were still in high school, stressing over the guy/girl you wanted to ask to prom, when your Ice Age Magic the Gathering cards were becoming less cool due to the next edition being released, when grunge rock was considered heavy rock. These were very different times, your priorities were vastly inferior to what you now prioritize…work, family, children, politics, etc. Pick up any book, reread it or re-watch any movie and you will no doubt gain a different perspective and reflect on that work differently.
I recently re-watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory with my two young boys and I picked up on a few things not previously caught on as a child myself. The humor is at times inappropriate, I relate now to the parents of the kids touring the factory (instead of the kids as I did when I watched as a kid), etc etc. My point is, this movie has changed within my own perspective 25 years later, despite the movie itself not changing.
Apply this to magic books and DVDs and you’re in a revolving door of rereading and picking up new insights, ideas, moments as your knowledge bank grew from the last time you spent time with that work. I completed the Jamy Ian Swiss trilogy books and Ascanio’s first book in his trilogy, and I’m going to read them again (and again, and again…) as my knowledge bank has grown so much simply by finishing these books.
The learning is perpetual, and that should feel good. Your lifestyle, environment, location, recency of similarly consumed content, etc, all impact how you contextualize the content consumed at different points in your life. I recall a recent post from Ben Earl that inspired this very post.
Ben reads books to learn how the author thinks, understand how they solve problems…get inside the authors head and walk around their shoes for a minute. I think your first read can accomplish this worthy practice, but a second read in my mind puts the content back in the reader’s court to determine how to contextualize and reflect upon the material. Rinse and repeat this process throughout your life and you’ll likely find yourself more enriched focusing on repeated quality content vs quantitative.
If you don’t, you should follow Ben Earl on Instagram, he’s a clever fellow bringing thought provoking content into ‘the gram’ in a unique way.