I can trace different periods of my life back to the music with which I decided to fill my ears and the stories towards which I let my eyes venture. Rereading tends to bring a part of me back to previous points in times, and occasionally, I partake in this.
But there are few books I revisit often. Because only a few books are composed of words that affect me differently during each read.
L'Insurrection qui vient (The Coming Insurrection) is one of those books. I picked it up just over a year ago at the MIT Press Bookstore on a whim. Little did I know that the book would get so much attention a few weeks later: an impromptu book-reading in New York attended by the police, condemnation on a Fox News broadcast as "the most evil book...in a long, long time", and accusations that it indirectly caused massive raids with helicopters and anti-terrorist police.
The Coming Insurrection examines the tenants of Western politics, philosophy, and lifestyle - and immediately dismisses them. It's not a light read, but it's playfully worded. Even if you are so rooted in your beliefs that the book won't change them, it will shake your way of looking at them because you probably will have never before confronted a view so staunchly opposite that of your upbringing in every single way.
Each time I've read this book, I've been alarmed, confused, put off, you name it. (Even when reading it in the poetic original French.) But even though the words are clear, strong, and ever the same, it pushes me differently each time.