I knew the father's work before I encountered the son's: I had previously read The Gladiator (1831), a historical drama about Spartacus's slave uprising in ancient Rome and Sheppard Lee (1836), a fantastical novel about a man who dies only to have his soul cycle through other people's bodies until they/he die.
Although I have previously read a few books on planetary science and am an extremely amateurish user of a small telescope I have often found that, though fascinating, much of the information available on astronomy is fairly inaccessible to the lay person.
I'd previously read about the work in development in the editorial page of The New York Times the first time I've seen the arts matter enough to make onto an editorial page.
We had some satisfying back-and-forths over e-mail, with Berthoud digging deeper, asking about my family's history and my fear of grief, and when she sent the final reading prescription it was filled with gems, none of which I'd previously read.
Last month Kelefa Sanneh, writing in the New Yorker, explained how the candidate's ghostwriters based the manuscript on five days of interviews.There is one point in Mr Tomasky's review, however, which gives this reader more sympathy for Mr Cain than anything I've previously read about the man.
I had previously read the 'Zoonomia' of my grandfather, in which similar views are maintained, but without producing any effect on me.
It was unlike many books and short stories I have previously read.
However, actually seeing it happen, intensified what I had previously read.
In some cases, I had previously read several novels by an author but had missed out on certain titles by that writer.
I tapped on that and it pulled in an article I'd already previously read, but hey, you're can't fault its algorithm for identifying something I'm interested in.
