Re-reading

[Gail Allen]

Re-reading is a funny thing. Because usually it's a book we know very well that we keep coming back to. At least that's how it is for me. I don't want to re-read it because I forgot what it was about, quite the opposite: I want to re-read it because I remember very well and want to experience it again.

So it made me wonder, both what books other people have read again and again (and if it's Harry Potter, what book comes second after that) and if you are like me and do it to re-experience it or if you do it because you want to catch details you didn't the first time.

Personally the book I've re-read the most times is probably Narnia. I read it for the first time when I had finished Goblet of Fire and there were no more Harry Potter books to be had yet, so I was looking for other fantasy books and I found Narnia and fell in love with it. And it's short enough that it can relatively quickly be re-read.

[Prof. Sky Alton]

I’m pretty much constantly re-reading. I rarely go anywhere (to the kitchen even…) without my iPod clipped to me and some book or other replaying through my headphones. So in actuality I’m one of those people who you occasionally see wandering around with their nose in a book, you just can’t tell.

Partly the re-reading is down to cost: even with my payment plan to the main Audio book provider, I still can’t afford the amount of audio books I’d need to sustain this habit with new material. But mostly it’s down to comfort and pure enjoyment, as Gail said: re-experiencing the emotions stirred up by the book. Although I also do it for the other reason mentioned as re-reading allows me to pay more attention to the quality of the writing at a sentence level. I try not to be one of those writers who ruins their enjoyment in reading by picking everything apart but now and again it’s useful to work out just ‘how’ an author did something.

I think the audio book I’ve listened to the most is My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell because it’s so gentle, funny and soothing that I used to play it to help me sleep during my chemotherapy as a sort of refuge (according to the computer I’ve listened to it around 600 times, though I wasn’t conscious/paying attention for a lot of those). Behind that is the Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix because the stories are just so wonderful and his writing is so beautiful that I’m always finding tiny nuggets of description I never actively appreciated before.

[Gail Allen]

Oh Sky! You just reminded me! That's true. When taking audiobooks into account - and especially those you fall asleep too, I am sure it's actually more likely to be the Nightrunner series for me. And for me it's definitely a cost thing; I just don't have the chance to get as many audiobooks as I need if I didn't re-read them. Because I listen in the car and also when I clean or otherwise do tasks that don't require me to use that part of my brain. So thank you for reminding me!

[Silas Hipolito Crist]

Re-reading... that is just a description of me . I re-read every book that I liked so far and re-reading does not mean only once for me. I am constantly reading LOTR and HP. For other books, I do re-read them if I really like them and if I have plenty of time left.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Re-reads ... I love to re-read! There are some books I've re-read so many times, and it seems each time I understand something more, or am more 'in' the story. It's almost like the life experiences I've had since last reading it might have changed my stance a bit (metanoia) and so I read it from a different vantage point.

If it is a series of books, say, for example, the Harry Potter books, and I read Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone after not reading it in a while, I'm awed again by the sheer richness of the world which JK Rowling created -- and see, even in some of this early (and relatively light-hearted) book, foreshadowings of the entire series! This can happen with all of the books which are of series. This can also happen with a favorite book - one of which, currently, is Ready Player One.

I have found that I tend to acquire books which I have read more than once. I have been fortunate to have some fantastic libraries from which to check out books, and thus find out if I like a book, but if I check it out a couple or three times, that's an indication that I'll end up somehow, acquiring the book (or the series of books). That's what happened with the Dresden Files, the Mortal Instruments, (Twilight), In Death, Tortall, Paladin Prophecy, The Raven Boys, Wheel of Time, House of Night, Harmony, Camelot, Sandman, LoTR, Darkover, Nero Wolfe, and yes, Harry Potter books (along with many others). I also collect books by author - Agatha Christie, Dick Francis, Dan Brown, Michael Crichton ... oh so many ... and reread them. Some folks just 'feel good' and their goodness comes through in their writing and it's lovely to immerse oneself in their presence while reading their stories.