Crossword Genius

Leftie carrying reading matter is excited again (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rekindled

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'excited again' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both to do with human feelings as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'leftie carrying reading matter' is the wordplay.
'leftie' becomes 'red' (red can informally mean a political leftwinger).
'carrying' is an insertion indicator.
'reading matter' becomes 'kindle' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'red' enclosing 'kindle' is 'REKINDLED'.

'is' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rekindled that I've seen before include "Aroused (of former interests)" , "Revived" , "Fired over" , "Invigorated" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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