Do you find that the books grow with you?

[Darby]

I've re-read the books many times over the years, and each time I notice that they are not quite the same story I read last time. I originally had a single paperback copy of the LOTR with Bakshi's Ringwraiths on the cover.
When I was 12 it was a very cool adventure story. I'd just heard it on the radio, so I had to read the books. Aragorn kicks butt!
When I was 14 it was an escape from a very difficult reality. I found secluded places in the park to read, and memorized the poetry and talked to trees. I wondered if (hoped that) Tom Bombadil might be lurking somewhere just out of sight.
When I was 16, I fell hopelessly in love with Faramir. I wrote highschool essays about the mythic role of the Hero, using LOTR as my main text.
When I was 18, I took my book with me into the Army and read my copy of LOTR under bushes by the light of a masked flashlight (I was supposed to be standing watch - but I'm half blind anyway, so it's not like I was going to see anything out there that I wouldn't hear first. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]). I suddenly had a shocking new appreciation for what the characters must have gone through, eaten by flies, cold, wet, exhausted, etc... PJ's movie is nice, but for me Middle Earth will always be somewhere on the Canadian Shield.
That copy didn't survive, so shortly after I bought myself a nice illustrated hardcover set. And the BBC radio tapes while I was at it.
When I read the books again, I was in University and I found myself very impressed by Frodo's quiet intelligence and decency. I decided he was the real Hero of the story; the heroic Academic, battles fought in the mind and soul.
A couple of years later, I fell in love and the romance of the elves was what attracted me most. I finally read the Silmarillion and I remember long walks in the national park with my true love as we deconstructed the history of Middle Earth.
Then, a few more years passed, and I found myself reading the stories aloud to my own child. This time it was Sam's character that spoke to me the most. His patient service to Frodo. The fact that he's the perfect servant, not in the grovelling sense, but in the same sense that the Gardener in the proverbs is God's perfect servant, tending to his crops (which are the people for whom he has responsibility). It's honorable service. Maybe, it's really Sam's story after all?
Every time I read this book, it's a different story. Different themes, different characters, come into focus.

Have any of you noticed this, in your readings? Do you find your own life reflected in these books? How?