# “I’ve read it already” by C.S. Lewis

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2009/10/09/ive-read-it-already-by-c-s-lewis/
- Published: 2009-10-09T20:43:53-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers ‘I’ve read it already’ 
to be a conclusive argument against reading a work. We have all known women who 
remembered a novel so dimly that they had to stand for half an hour in the library
skimming through it before they were certain they had once read it.

But the moment they became certain, they rejected it immediately. It was for them
dead, like a burnt-out match, an old railway ticket, or yesterday’s paper; they 
had already used it. Those who read great works, on the other hand, will read the
same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of their life.”

–C.S. Lewis, _[An Experiment in Criticism](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521422817?ie=UTF8&tag=toletaupanre-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0521422817)_(
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), 2.

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