It was once one of many questions posed by Goodreads: Do you re-read books?
There were mixed answers, as always.
No, because there are so many books and worlds and characters to discover, why bother re-reading books and not discovering new ones?
Yes. For a number of reasons. Because going back to old stories means you pick up on the details that you miss. You remind yourself of what happened, gain different view points.
There are numerous quotes I've seen around, along the lines of: "If you don't re-read a book then there was no point in reading it at all" and "To read a new book is to make a new friend, to re-read a book is to greet a new one."
I'm definitely a re-reader. I always have been.
One year, I had an aim to read every book I owned before the year was out. Which I did (sort of; I read all the ones on my shelves which I actually liked). But when we went into the new year, I had a problem. I had nothing left to read. I didn't feel like reading any of the books that I had actually read multiple times by now. By this time, a few things had changed. I was no longer a student or someone completely unemployed. I had a part time job and money which I had actually properly earned instead of being handed. I was starting to branch out from reading the teenage novels I had immersed myself in for so long.
So I started to read new books. I spent most of that year reading new things instead of re-reading and I was really enjoying it. At this point, though I discovered I loved reading new things, I also discovered anew the wonder of re-reading. Because it was really nice to return to an old favourite after reading many new ones. Reading new things is exciting, re-reading books is somewhat relaxing.
It has been proven that we all read, watch and listen to things we know well, especially in times of uncertainty, because we know what is going to happen. We can prepare ourselves and our emotions for what is coming. There are no nasty surprises.
Asides from that, it helped to re-read books whenever I felt that I couldn't afford new ones.
At one time, my funds became more limited and so I resorted to the library, having avoided it for various reasons up until then. Through this I made many more discoveries. One was that it actually took the stress out of trying something new because I didn't have to worry that I just spent money on a book I would hate. This made it far easier to discover new books. Another thing I discovered was audio books. I wasn't really sure how to start with them. Would they work for me? So I began with an old favourite and found that it was a wonderful way to re-discover books I had read time and again in a different way.
It's fair to say that since starting to use the library, I re-read less than I used to.
I've also discovered that there is a slight downside to re-reading some books: You might discover that, actually, they're not that great. You might see the flaws and so it slightly ruins a book that you enjoyed the first time.
But it is still something that I do and have been doing recently. During Lockdown I did a lot of re-reading because I didn't have access to the library and only a tiny old smart phone as my one digital device for just about everything hampering my use of the e-library. So I re-read books I owned from before I became a regular library user. I read an extremely complicated series which needed plenty of time and focus. I re-read The Hunger Games because I felt like I needed time and space to process the emotions. I re-read other books because they suited my mood, or seemed appropriate because of the weather, or simply because reading one book reminded me of another one I read around the same time.
I still re-read books if they're part of a series and I need to remind myself of what happened before, or because there's an adaption and I want to read the original material again first.
There are many reasons for re-reading and many advantages. But if there are some people who feel they don't want to re-read and keep moving forward with new things, well that's fine too.
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