I’ve only reread one book. What makes you reread a book if you have so many TBR?
I’ve only reread one book. What makes you reread a book if you have so many TBR?
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I’ve only reread one book. What makes you reread a book if you have so many TBR?
Comfort, enjoyment, deeper reading.
Same reason I watch a movie more than once I guess haha I just enjoy it over and over again
Catch things i missed the first time around!
Same reason people have favorite chairs or vacations.
I don’t reread books.
Sometimes I catch something I didn’t before, and often my views on the book change as I learn and grow. I’ve read Dragonlance dozens of times. In my teens, one character was my favorite but now another is for different reasons
It makes me feel happy ?
I dont
If its fantastic lol
To enjoy the genius of a great wordsmith
but so fantastic that i need to catch it another time–or if its been years and i remember loving it but cant remember how it ended/the journey
Going through a rough patch and have lost my interest in reading. Planning on jump-starting it by re-reading a few that I loved.
Comfort reads. Harry Potter. Cassandra Clare’s series. David Eddings. They all feel like Home.
Usually, only if it’s in a series that is still in development. When a new book is getting released, I’ll reread the previous books in the series to remind myself of the details.
Love…
I do with a very few. For example, The Alchemist, at different times in my life I learn new lessons.
I miss characters. Sounds silly, but true.
@Anna I agree. Some characters you always want to be there.❤️
I loved it and I miss it. I rewatch movies, too.
I reread books often. Because I know the end, I notice lots of details I missed the first time. Full disclosure: as an English teacher, I would reread every book each time I taught it. So it’s probably something very ingrained in me.
I did the same when I was teaching. And I also reread for a deeper experience with the book.
I reread books, a lot. Especially if I am in a reading slump or if I just need something that I know is light. I definitely read the entire Harry Potter series starting the beginning of July every year. It is like going back and visiting old friends.?
It’s like visiting a loved one❤️❤️❤️
I tried re-reading the beats. I think I’m too old. I also never re-read books.
I’ve only re-read a handful of books and it’s the ones I love the most. I’ll only re-read them if it’s been long enough to forget some details.
I don’t reread anyting. I don’t have time there’s too much I want to read. Sometimes I will watch the movie over and over though.
i want to hang out with my friends (the characters) again.
@Mishka. Exactly!
I almost always read books for my book group twice. As its leader, I often read a book to see if it’s a possible book pick. Then I read it again just before the group meets, for depth, quotes, questions and details. I also read books I like most again just for the joy of it. And I read poetry again and again, because that’s what poetry is all about.
Comfort. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed by the number of TBRs to read that I need to retreat into a book I absolutely know I will love.
It’s like visiting an old friend for meaningful time. Seeking depth of introspection and appreciation.
Cleansing. Clearing the palate.
Good writing
Book Club!
If I enjoyed a book I can always reread it. A book is more enjoyable on rereading, because I.am.not in a hurry to find out what happens. I don’t read that many new books, usually only have about twenty unread books at a time, and rereading a book I know I will enjoy is more fun than reading something new that turns out to be no good.
Great stories!
I often re-read my favorite books and enjoy them just as much the 2nd or 5th time around. Some books I read every year or two. I love the characters and the writing. I was blessed at birth with a bad memory so it’s almost like reading it for the 1st time but knowing I’ll really enjoy it.
Because you get more out of a book when you reread. The first time you read a book, you have to focus on plot. The second time, you know the plot, so your mind is free to focus on other details and you can get SO much more out of it.
Plus, it’s like visiting old friends. Haven’t you ever rewatched a favorite movie or tv show?
I’m rereading The Stand right now…for probably the 10th time!
Outlander
Very interesting answers – I never thought to reread a book because there are so many new ones to read. I am a keeper so my shelves are filled with all my favorites – so maybe I will try it – especially if I’m in a reading slump.
@Robin I’ve found it is the best way to get me out of a slump!!
Indeed, I rarely reread because my TBR lost is so long. I have about 4 books that I HAVE reread and it because they were SO SO good. I did however wait about 7 years. Long enough that I could remember (and still love) most of it, but the details were fuzzy enough that I felt like I was discovering it all over
Excellent question and I don’t have a good answer. I don’t reread a book for years and then all of sudden someone mentions it and I can’t wait to read it again. When I do reread a book it is even better than the first time. The older I get the more I do this.
For me it is like visiting with old friends. Each year I read Anne of Green Gables, either Beach Music or The Prince of Tides, The Notebook and a few others. Anne is especially like visiting my oldest dearest friend.
I almost never reread but once in awhile when I finish a fabulous book I start over right then and read it again bc I want to savor it and I read it too fast and I want to enjoy it again. …I did this with A a Gentleman in Moscow.
I really never reread books. Too many books out there.
I reread books as a kid, but not as an adult. Too many books and not enough time.
I love the story!
Additionally, I’m a teacher so some I have to reread every year ?
I still have the first book I ever bought myself when I was 13 and I still re-read it every now and again because it’s an easy read
I’m currently rereading a Prayer for Owen Meany. It’s the 3rd or 4th time. A book club I was going to picked it, and I used it as an excuse to read it again, since I knew how much I loved it.
When reading a great story for the first time, I tend to focus on the plot. On the second read, I focus on the uniqueness of the writing: imagery, symbolism, etc. I don’t reread many novels but I’ve reread The Lord of the Rings and The Road multiple times.
When I’m stressed out I tend to reread books I’ve loved over the years. Its just really relaxing for me to sit down and visit a world I enjoyed before. I usually reread a handful of books a year and I always feel much lighter afterwards.
I have tinnitus, and listening to old audiobooks helps me get to sleep. If I listen to new ones, I might get caught up in the story and stay awake.
I am with you! There are too many books I want to read to go back and reread them. I have read the first 4 Harry Potter books twice. That’s it.
just to go back to the place that so pleased me once before.
I’ve only reread two books. Memoirs of a Geisha and The Color Purple. I can’t pick up The Color Purple and not sit down and reread it.
It depends on the book. When it is in a series, sometimes I go back to earlier books in the series to refresh my memory about something. Other times, I reread to clarify what I have read.
If I have had a bit of a reading slump or nothing I’ve read has been fantastic, I reread something I know I love. When each of my kids were born too I did some rereads because new mom fog had me too exhausted and brain dead to focus on something new!
Me too, but there will be others. Mostly from school/childhood when I hated reading and did not appreciate literature. There are at least a couple that I own and they moved me, so I say will reread them sometime.
Understanding that it isn’t a contest and that if I truly loved a series it would be madness to never revisit it… What a strange practice, and while I’m not aiming this at you I find this whole “must read 1700 books this year without fail” just strikes me as for the sake of it, but perhaps at the same time people who are able to take new things away from a book each time they read it is likely because they speed read and unwittingly miss half of the story :/
Quality over quantity seems to be In effect in all other areas of life, except reading goals it seems… It just Puzzles me, is all 🙂
It’s almost as if people have different personalities when it comes to reading! 😛
? I know right, what a fascinating modern age we live in 😉
Rereading a book you know you’ll never be let down, you already love it, so now you can delve deeper and learn more. As you read it’s like walking down a familiar street but noticing a few shops you were too busy to notice before.
Loving it the first time.
I re-read all the time. I have read Lord of the Rings 7 times, for example. I’ve read The Heart’s Invisible Furies twice this year! I love revisiting books that made me fall in love.
It’s like an old friend.
Some books I’ve read multiple times: Ender’s Game series, Lonesome Dove series, Assassin’s Quest series, Outlander series, Game of Thrones series, Jack Reacher books, Harry Bosch books, everything by Robin Hobb, Shantaram, the Wool series, Odd Thomas books, Gentlemen Bastards series, Pennsylvania Bunker series, To Kill a Mockingbird…and more. I love re-reading.
I sometimes reread an earlier book in a series to catch the references made in later books.
Other than rereading some of the “forced” books from junior high and high school, I don’t reread. So many books out there, why read the same ones? The Dark Tower series is pretty much the only ones I’ve considered rereading.
I forget ?
Cause it is like getting new slippers for Christmas and they are great but the old ones are just soooo comfortable.
I rarely re-read, but a couple of long, detailed books caused me to re-read several times. I’ve read the Lord of the Rings trilogy 5 times (4 before the movies were ever thought of and once again when they came out) and I’ve read Far Pavilions at least 3 times. Any others I re-read for classes (Great Gatsby, Hamlet, To Kill a Mockingbird..).
Book club picks when I can no longer remember the book. I’d rather not reread but it’s interesting to see what you get out of a book when you reread at a different time in your life.
I don’t reread much at all because of my lengthy TBR list. However, I was an English teacher for 26 years and reread every book I taught every year. (They changed over time and I wasn’t always teaching the same level!). So there are a few that I have read and read and read…and read!
What was the book you reread @Robbie? Me Madame Bovary for 3 classes (I love that book) and Tom Sawyer many times because it was one of the few books we had in the house.
The Art of Racing in the Rain. Had read it before and then read it when my dog died.
@Robbie all pet owners should read this one …
People think it’s so sad but no more so than any story that has death in it. I was comforted by the philosophy and used 2 of the lines in the book for his send-off.
following
Only do it if I forgot I read it years ago until I’m half way through ? Not a re-reader
I reread all the time….do it when I want to have another visit with a “friend.”
Sometimes a snippet of a scene pops into my mind, and I have to re-read, others are just favorites and worlds I want to spend time in again and again.
Harry Potter. They are my favorite. I love escaping to Hogwarts. I reread the series every year or two.
Because you loved the book so much–and because when you re-read a book your perspective often changes–because you are a different person even a few years later.
I re-read the Shack. It touched my soul and I needed to re-read it a few years later.
My favorite books are usually those that leave me uplifted, happy, thoughtful, inspired. I go back to favorites when I need a boost and I don’t feel like taking a chance on one I haven’t read yet.
The familiarity. Especially when my depression kicks in, I love to reread books to recapture that feeling I had when I read it. Plus sometimes it is hard to get into a new book – like, “I already have all of these great friends, why do I need more?”
Usually it starts playing on my mind. I reread the classics because I want to remember what happened. I’ve reread 1984 for the same reason or after discussing it with someone – it’s one of the few books hubby and I have in common as he isn’t a reader (how did that happen? – I was severely misled in the early days). And I reread Handmaid’s Tale after watching the tv show. I’ve always intended to reread Captain Corelli’s Mandolin because I loved it but after 20 years I still haven’t. And I’ve reread non-fiction because they’re interesting, my favourite to reread being a book called Life At the Extremes by Frances Ashcroft.
If I love them. If they’ve touched my heart deeply, or taught me something that fundamentally changes my understanding.
Or, if I’m reading to a toddler and they want to hear “Is Your Mama a Llama for the eighty -fifth time. ???
I know Green Eggs and Ham by heart…??
I’ve only re-read one and that I’ve read 3 or 4 times.
@Cassandra what was it? Just curious.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
@Cassandra good choice
For me, I don’t reread because there are too many others I want to finish.
Coincidentally, I was thinking about rereading books. I was wondering if I could manage to reread several I’ve been thinking of without sacrificing too much time for my tbrs. Some books I loved I must reread because I miss them. And sometimes I reread to see if I can get more or something different from them. And sometimes because I want to recreate a certain atmosphere.
Sometimes I just pick one up and get sucked back in. Sometimes I want to see why I liked it so well, and maybe enjoy it again. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. 1984 blew me totally away when I first read it, on the third read (after I’d read much other Orwell) his nbred class bias made it kind of sour.
Two things for me. #1) I have “comfort books” that I return to when the real world is too rough and I need to know that there are still happy endings and people are reliably good to each other. And #2) I have a different perspective because I’m in a different place in my life, and that helps me see things in stories I may have missed or ignored the first time I read it. (For instance, reading To Kill a Mockingbird as an adult was completely different than when I was 16 and it was required…)
It’s like meeting best friends again. Lov
Sometimes a book makes me feel a certain way, and later I want to feel that way again. It’s like having a library of moods.
Most great book lovers and the most literate will reread books, sometimes three, four, five times over, simply because they love words, stories, an idea, a turn of phrase, and most possess the reading speed and the resources to work in new materials and read some of those again in turn. In this way, they themselves become writers — sometimes great writers or great at whatever they do. Read the biographies of the most lauded men and women in history, past or contemporary, and you will find that almost everyone of them refers to favorite lifeshaping volumes and favorite authors. That’s another issue — authors can have a tremendous influence upon us, but only if we read all their work and much of it two to three times over — that or more. It’s something that readers discover in the process of learning as their literary and intellectual lives progress. I hope that you’ll choose carefully, choose the best your abilities can deal with and forget any fears of missing something good. It’s impossible to read everything good in a hundred lifetimes, so if you’re going to enjoy something twice, or ten times over, have at it with no guilt.