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Do you get a book to read only to realize that you’ve already read the book?

Do you get a book to read only to realize that you’ve already read the book?

Pam #questionnaire

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148 Answers

Susan

It’s happened to me more than once.

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Cass

I’ve wait listed myself on books I’ve already read!

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Marisa

I’ve done that.

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Kae

Never had that happen, I pretty much remember every book ever read. Yes, I do read fairly slow 🙂

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Shirleen

That happened to me recently, and I enjoyed reading it again.

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Josy

@Shirleen , sometimes I go this is familiar. Then I decide to re-read or not. Often depends on what is in tbr pile.

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Shirleen

@Josy I recently reread Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. It had been years since I read it but I kept thinking it was familiar. I enjoyed it the second time round.

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Josy

@Shirleen loved summer sisters also!

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Heather

I’ve purchased a new book and then gotten home to realize I already own it, read it, loved it. I wish I could say its only happened once ?

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Evelyn

@Heather this has also happened to me!

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Heather

@Evelyn I’ve gotten better since I got a smartphone and the goodreads app but sometimes I dont think about checking it! Haha

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Evelyn

@Heather I buy at goodwill a lot and have a closet full of books, so it tends to happen ??‍♀️

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Laura

Yep, done that. There are books I’ll never forget. And others I’ve read and enjoyed in the moment, but they fade from view, and I might re-read a bit before the memories start knitting together again.

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Beth

Unfortunately, yes. I have bought books I had read, and have also managed to buy the same book twice before I get to it in the to be read pile.

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Debra

Oh yeah!!

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Laura

So many times

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Andy

I bought the first Game of Thrones three separate times at airports because I kept forgetting it to took me 10 pages to realize I didn’t like GRRM’s writing style..

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Miriam

You don’t like his writing style and you’re making him rich lol

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Mark

Yes. I got 2/3 of the way thru ‘She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb before I realized that I’d already read it!

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Jacquelyn

Just did that with The Historian. I’ll reread it though.

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Trasi

Yes.

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John

Yup, and worse. I’ve bought books and got home to realize I already bought them and they’re in my TBR pile. ?

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Trasi

That happens to me, and I consider a double-endorsement: TWICE I’ve see the book and wanted to read it 🙂

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Eva

I’ve done that, and gotten really irritated with myself

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Janine

I’ve done that many times!

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Noora

I do a lot of travelling. I was in Finland and got this political book from a German man I met in a airport in Abu Dhabi coming to Seychelles. I sign the book (I sign all my books). Two years later I return to the same b&b on La Digue pick up just any interesting book and start to read. After first chapter I’m like.. wait a minute. I look in the back and there’s my signature. There’s no bookstore on La Digue so the books circle here. I never carry the books, when I’m done, I exchange to a new one or leave it for others to read. But that book also did some travelling ?

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Annette

All the time.

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Jane

This is why I like kindle as it tells me!

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Dana

Yep!

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Joanna

Or that I’ve already bought it. ?

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Kim

I had to re-read every Hamish Macbeth books by M.C. Beaton to know which ones I hadn’t read. Luckily, I love them. Lol… and Debbie Macomber books; I get to last page before it hits me that I’d read them before.

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Susan

Yes, that’s why I started a list a few years ago — but alas sometimes I forget to check it out before ordering a book from the library.

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Faith

I like the way my Kindle keeps track for me.

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Laura

@Faith what sorcery is this?

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Faith

@Laura I have a kindle fire. If I have already purchased a book and I start to purchase it again my kindle immediately !eta me know. I keep a card file for books. But for ebooks Kindles are amazing.

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Will

hasn’t happened… yet

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Nancy

Yes, last week. Was so upset.

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Linda

Yes. Same with movies. Gone Girl is one example. Book and movie both. lol

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Valerie

@Linda That is because it is forgettable.

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Linda

@Valerie Okay, but then why do I keep forgetting I’ve already read it and seen it? lol

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Dottie

Yes

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Maryann

I hate that. But sometimes I reread it and love it again.

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Christine

Guilty

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Traci

All the time….Sometimes I will bring 5 books home from the library and have read 3 of them already. Guess it happens when you read so much.

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Megan

Not since using goodreads

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Jes

Once in a while. Sometimes, if I liked it, I”ll reread it, and sometimes I even pick it out on purpose to reread.

Usually I laugh at myself tho…

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Kristi

Yes,

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Amy

Not too often but it has happened.

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Nisrine

Yesss I was embarrassed to say it thought it doesn’t happen (:

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Nisrine

Yesss I was embarrassed to say it thought it doesn’t happen (:

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RebeccaLynn

Several times. I usually go ahead and read it again☺

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Karen

I’ve done it;( Sooooo annoying….

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Rosanne

Too often!

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Kari

All. The. Time.

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Carol

Yes!!! Just happened again

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Margaret

at my age it used to happen a lot! good reads has helped the senior moment, also amazon tells me i have purchased before.

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Pat

I usually catch on a couple of chapters in.

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Patricia

Rarely, but yes.

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Debi

Yes. Happened quite a few times. One of the things I find with my kindle is that I don’t remember the titles because you don’t see the book cover

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Anna

Many times!

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Maureen

I thought I was the only one! And, when I am buying a book, I am thinking to myself, did I read this already? ?

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Amy

Yes!!

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Rosemary

Yes

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Linda

Yes but sometimes it’s good to read it again.

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Mina

That’s why I now check goodreads before starting a book lol

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Deborah

Yes!

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Patricia

Yes.

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Gayle

More often than I’d admit to. The newly designed cover with little info about the plot in the blurb leaves me thinking this sounds familiar but not enough that I realize I’ve already read it.

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Souha

Happens all the time when we study some excerpts in lit classes or translation and I’m like ‘this sounds so familiar’

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Justine

When I was into Patricia Cornell and the books with Kay Scarpetta. I’d get halfway and say… wait, I read this one already!

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Anne

Been there….done that! Sometimes I read it again just for kicks. ?

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Barbara

My husband reads a lot of serial writers & that happens to him when reprints with a new cover show up.

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Mary

Yes, I was at the Portobello flea market in London and bought an Enid Blyton book, one out of many– I realized I had been so drawn to it because I had already read it as a child. But that was OK.

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Amy

Yes! Richard Russo’s Empire Falls. I reread it anyway. It was not quite the masterpiece I remembered, but it was really good!

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Nicki

Yep…lol

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Andrew

and worse, didn’t like it.

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Jean

Glad I’m not the only one! I’ve got half-way through books before I realize it.

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Carol

Yep – I collect Maeve Binchy books and have a few duplicates.

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Chloé

Never

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Polly

Yes and it’s always a surprise to me. I’ve even waited for a library hold a long time then opened the book, read a few lines and said, shoot, I’ve already read this! ?

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Jenn

Or that I already have one or two copies already…

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Susan

Did that not long ago with a Ruth Rendell.

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Amy

Yes I had already read a book by Harlan Coben, and some how ended up with a digital copy and 3 different covers of paperbacks ?‍♀️

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Beth

More times than I care to admit!

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Carolyne

Just took one back to the library.

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Birdie

Loved Gone Girl. Movie and book also. I don’t usually read a book twice. But The Godfather Trilogy I can watch non stop for days.

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Susan

Great, but it has nothing to do with the question.

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Renée

Yes. I hate when they change the covers!

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Linda

One nice thing about kindle books. They tell you if you’ve already read them on your device. Course it doesn’t help if you read the hard bound version……..

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Deb

I’ve done this at the library countless times! 🙂

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Jennifer

I get tricked when the book is made into a movie and they rerelease it. I get to excited thinking there is a new book. Not just a new cover

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Amy

Yes & YES!

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Pam

Not anymore, that is where Goodreads really comes in handy

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Sherry

Oh yeah, LOL

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Kris

Sometimes I’m a couple chapters in before I realize it. ?

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Linda

Oh good. I thought it was just me. And the last time it happened, I finished reading because I couldn’t remember how it ended. lol

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Marize

This is why I started using GoodReads to keep track

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Elaine

Yes! It was mediocre, and I didn’t realize I’d read it until I got to a scene near the end. So I’ve now read the same mediocre except for one scene book twice.

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Ellie

@Elaine that’s hilarious!

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Rachel

Done that.

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Jean

Yes!!

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Kim

Actually, only once many years ago. Gotta love Goodreads!

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Ginger

Yes

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Patricia

Yes. Especially if I read it years ago, didn’t make much of an impression and then comes out with a more intriguing cover.

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Alicia

Often

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Barb

Yep! And I read it again, enjoying the flashbacks and noticing more detail the second time through.

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Michael

Yes the airports trick you by putting a different cover on one of your favorite authors books. Then you are Homered.???

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Lori

Yes I bought it twice lol

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Rock

I’ve recorded over 700 books read & my memory is shot, so it happens.

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Lauri

Happened more when I still bought paperbacks, suckered by new cover designs!

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Karen

It happens to me all the time. It takes a while to realize it. I’ve been reading 58 years and for me there aren’t a lot of truly memorable books. Books considered “classics” do seem to stick with me though.

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Carol

That is why I have a Collection on my Kindle called “Read”. When I finish, I put the book in Read and remove from my Kindle

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Rosemarie

I donated several books to Goodwill a few years ago, and mistakenly bought some of them back a few months later. :-/

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Carol

@Rosemarie I’m 65 – I sympathize

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Rosemarie

@Carol I’m only 51 :-/

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Carol

@Rosemarie then I don’t feel bad at all. In fact today one of my students said her grandmother was 55. When I told her I was 65, she said “you look much younger. Made my day!

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Rosemarie

Carol Crays Williams hanging with teenagers keeps ya’ young. 😉

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Carol

@Rosemarie so true!

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Susan

LOL

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Carrie

Twice in a row last year…12 Tribes if Hattie and Particular Sadness if Lemon Cake. I had completely forgotten that I’d read them until I started reading them again. It was really unnerving.

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Carol

@Carrie is 12 Tribes of Hattie good?

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Carol

@Carrie so many books, how can we remember them all

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Carrie

Honestly, I can’t remember. So I’m gonna say meh.

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Sheree

Yes. More than once. Sigh.

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Florynce

Yesssssssss?

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Sarah

Yes, but sometimes I’m half way through it before it hits my brain that I had read it.

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Susan

Yes, it’s that nagging feeli ng..” This seems familiar, kinda…”

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Chris

Too many times to count ???

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Janet

When library books used to have cards in pockets inside the back cover, sometimes I would discover I had checked that book out before.

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Michael

Wow you are dating yourself.lol???

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Janet

I almost added that, then decided, why state the obvious, lol.

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Kathleen

Many times ?

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Tee

Yep.

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Vicky

Yeah.

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Steve

Occasionally.

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Susan

Most often with paperbacks I bought in an airport.

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Mickie

Yep

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Karen

Same here!

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Yancy

Uh huh. Unfortunately.

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Jane

Story of my life. I’ll either buy the same book or get it from the library and get half way through before realizing I read it already so I just finish it at that point. I know I have copies of the same books in my collection

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Diane

@Jane The GoodReads App is a wonderful way of tracking what you’ve read, and what you want to read.

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Jane

@Diane yes began it this year and thank God for it!! Helps me keep track of what I read this year and what the story was about . Great app

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Mary

I just finished reading a book I didn’t realize I’d read before until I was well into the first chapter. Since I didn’t recall the in-between parts nor the final outcome, I read it again anyway. It cost me nothing since it was from KU.

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Anne

More than once. Ugh.

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Peggy

All the freakin’ time!

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Leslie

A couple of times i’m half way through a brilliant book then a passage stands out then i remember i’ve got it/read it and remember the whole book putting me of it

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Sarah

Me too

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Thomg

Not too often

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