Do you reread books or are you done with them once you’ve read them?
I like to reread books sometimes! Rereading is especially good if I’ve just finished something heavy or intense; I can follow that up with something that I’ve enjoyed before so it doesn’t take too much effort and I can have a bit of a break. I also don’t have the greatest retention for what I read, so even if I’ve read something before there’s no way I’ll remember everything. And there are certain books that are comforting and cozy and those are great to reread when I want that kind of mood.
I re-read books frequently. But then, I am a fast and voracious reader. I’ve recently been trimming down my library from around 7000 books due to an upcoming move, and there’s a hardcore of about 2000 I’m unwilling to get rid of because they’re either reference materials or old friends I expect to re-read before I die. There are some things (LOTR, much Heinlein, Oz books, Alice in Wonderland…) that I’ve read a dozen times or more.
I do re-read some non-fiction, mainly history. But most of my well-worn books are fiction.
Alright, I like you.
Definitely. There are books that have hit me differently as I’ve grown. :)
I typically re-read the LOTR, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion once a year. Well, The Silmarillion is once every two years because, whew, it is a dense one.
Wow, that’s a lot of rereading. Me and some friends do a LOTR watch party every year, making food and eating food as they eat it in the movies. But reading the books every year, that’s quite a feat!
It’s just evokes a feeling of deep comfort for me. The Hobbit was the first novel I read by myself as a kid, was so proud to finish it haha
Ever since, returning to The Shire and Arda brings out that same feeling of a warm childhood home.
Makes it easy to go back for a visit every year 😄
I’ll get around to The Silmarillion eventually; I have to psyche myself up for it, ha ha!
Oh definitely. I’ve read the Dark Tower series by Stephen king 3 times! There are others, but that’s probably my top
Dark Tower is on my radar to reread soon!
Oh heck yes, probably more than I should. I have a shelf next to my bed of my most frequently re-read books (novels, a few short story volumes) and honestly the last few years those are almost all I have read
I’m on my third Sanderson Cosmere reread… So yes :D
I’m in a similar boat. Some of his books I’ve read 3 or 4 times, some only a couple times.
I actually missed a Stormlight Novella and the fourth Wax & Wayne book is coming out so there’s lots of new material too!
I still need to read that novella, but the last wax and Wayne book has been out for a minute
The 4th book came out in Nov last year. I kinda forgot what happened in the 2nd and 3rd books. So giving those a re-read before I sink my teeth into “The Lost Metal”.
Honestly, might re-read the first trilogy too afterwards.
I haven’t done a full Cosmere reread, but I like to reread the previous books in each series before a new one comes out. There’s so much forshadowing that you pick up on in rereads!
I might go again before the next stormlight release
So worth it!
Sometimes - Dune before the release of film.
But usually rereading books in en when I read translated version before.
I had to reread Good omens because teacher said that it is necessary to read translated version.
I only reread my so-called “comfort books”. Whenever I feel like I’m having a hard time in my life I grab my Dune or my Foundation and feel amazing for a little while, being immersed in these worlds I love so much.
I definitely reread my favorite series. The thing about re-reading a book is that you don’t actually ever get the full experience the first time around. Well-written books are full of foreshadowing, not just of plot points, but themes. The first time you read a book, you don’t really know what it’s about yet, what the book will eventually decide is it’s overall thesis, and where the characters’ journeys will take them. Critical moments that shift the trajectory of a story may happen quietly, only important in retrospect.
When you read a book a second or a third time you get to do so with all of the context of where the story is going, and it lets you catch so much more.
This example is from television, but The Good Place is my favorite show, and (spoilers) one of its central theses ends up being the modern world makes unethical choices unavoidable.
Very early on in the show we get a scene of Eleanor making fun of her boyfriend when he says they should find a new coffee shop, after the owner of their current one is outed as a sexist pig. She lists a bunch of other products they buy like smartphones and sports games and says that bad stuff is unavoidable so why bother?
At that point in the show, the scene is just a way to show you what a dirt bag Eleanor was on earth. But on a seconds viewing, with foresight, you can clock it laying early groundwork for one of the main arguments that the show wants to make.
This is one of the reasons I don’t mind getting spoiled on stuff, and in some cases will spoil myself on purpose. When you know how the story ends, you get to pick up all the little things it does to get there, without reading or watching it twice. I went to film school and am a bit of a story nerd so for me that’s the most enjoyable part of watching someone else tell their story.
The Good Place is one of my favorite shows, too! I need to rewatch it, again, soon.
There are a few books and series that I go back to every couple of years - they’re my old dependables when I want to sink into a story that I know I’ll enjoy.
Most books only once, a few a couple of times, and my favorites multiple times.
Yes! I love to reread my favorites. It’s like visiting old friends. Pride and Prejudice, Lord of the Rings, the Wheel of Time, Matilda, Watership Down. Can you look at a favorite painting too much? That’s how it feels to me- another visit to a beautiful work of art.
Almost never, at this point. I feel like I must be a pretty slow reader. I get through maybe 20 books a year right now. (This does not include all the kids books I read with my kid. We read together every night. Currently in early chapter books. Longer books it’s hard to keep his interest more than a few nights in a row).
But at my current pace it would take 10 years just to go through everything I own and want to read.
Yeah, I’ve actually reread several series usually with a year or more in between readings. I like it because it helps me solidify the book into memory more and it allows me to see all the little details the author hid that I may have not picked up on in previous readings.
Also my memory isn’t always the best so I get to relive some of the fun parts that I don’t remember after the gap between readingsOf course I do.
I go through several phases: sometimes I am busy reading new books, and other times I am in “reread” mode. This happens for novels and essays as well. I have always been doing that, since I was a kid, and there are books that I have been re-reading since then.
And this is without even mentioning poetry which, in my experience, expects to be read multiple times (in no small part due to the same processes by which we enjoy music - based on repetition and familiarity).
