Rereading is one of my favourite things to do when I'm feeling run down, stressed out or even just nostalgic. In fact, rereading is something that I do on any occasion, because it's something that I feel I need to do. No question about it. I get bombarded with questions from family members like "Haven't you read that one already?", "That one? Again?" and my personal favourite "What? You don't have enough books to read?" so often that in the future, I'll just redirect them to this post, which, in a nutshell, is 'I Love To Read Books Over and Over Again So Just Shh About It Already'.
Happiness:
One of the main reasons for picking up a book time after time is if I'm feeling a bit down. Sometimes only old friends and familiar tales can pick me back up quickly enough to get back on my feet and where better to find them than in books that I've known and loved countless times before. I know that these'll cheer me up so they're the first things I look for when I'm feeling down and out about the world. This is around about the time that I'll generally pick up Fangirl because I know without a shadow of a doubt that that's my favourite book and it will never fail to make me feel better.
Nostalgia:
Everyone has bouts of nostalgia now and then and sometimes there's no cure for it but to relive the time that you're feeling nostalgic about through old photographs and memories. But what if it's book nostalgia? Reread the book! I actually get this more often than you would think but I rarely act upon the urge to reread. Mostly because I absolutely always get nostalgic about the Gallagher Girls series, and that's a whole damn series. However, I live with the motto 'A Girls Gotta Do What A Girls Gotta Do' and sometimes that girls gotta reread a whole damn series.
An Itch You Can't Scratch:
Do you ever get that feeling, where there is a specific book that you want to read, with a specific type of character and a specific type of plot that makes you feel a specific type of way that you need to read, but there are absolutely no unread books that fit that criteria on your bookshelf? And the need makes you feel sad anyway because you know that no book like that will ever quite be like To All The Boys I've Loved Before and so what do you do? You reread it. And you harbour no regrets, whatsoever.
To Recap:
No doubt about it, sometimes a reread is just necessary. Lets say that you've recently gotten the new book in a series that you read last year, but you can't remember a single thing that happened. For example: The Raven Cycle and Throne Of Glass, two series with so much happening and so many important twists and turns. What do you do? Do you just hop in to the new book blind and hope that it all makes sense? Or do you go back and reread the series so that it's all fresh in your mind and you get the full, all encompassing experience? I know what I choose.
Love:
And sometimes you just love a book so damn much that you need to read it over and over again because there is always something new for you to find and there's always another element that you love even more the next time around and not experiencing that is just too damn heartbreaking to even consider. *Cough* All of the above.
I agree with all the points you make here. I'm a big re-reader and I LOVE to return to some stories and characters. I never ever ever get tired of Harry Potter, for example. Sometimes it's great to simply sit down with a book you KNOW you are going to love. And it's great to reread books as a recap, so you can experience it all again before you continue the story (I do this frequently)
ReplyDeleteLike you said, it's always lovely to read a 'safe' book (a book you've already known and loved) when you're slumping. It's the one thing I pretty much always do because I know that I'm just going to adore it all over again and it'll get me back into the reading mood.
DeleteLove this! I love rereading, it's so interesting to go back to books and see what you think of them now compared to then. I do it when I'm too lazy to invest myself in a new story. I do it when I want some comfort in something I know and love. I just love it, love love love it. Books aren't made to be read once and cast aside.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful point you made at the end there! What a waste it would be for a book to be read and loved only once. It frustrates me more than anything when people say that they've read it once, they don't need to again, but there are always more things to love about a story!
DeleteI totally feel everything about this post. Before I started blogging, I used to re-read ALL the time. Whenever I felt like reliving the feels of a certain book, or when I finally got my hands on a new book in a series I was reading - I just reread. But I have only reread a tiny handful of books since I started blogging. Which makes me really sad, because I used to LOVE the feeling of home-ness that came with re-reading. And now this post has made me want to go back and re-read the books I used to re-read all the time before I blogged. Namely Wildwood Dancing and Diary of a Crush: French Kiss. *sigh*
ReplyDeleteIn the future, if you ever get the urge to reread just imagine me sitting back stroking my cat yelling 'DO IT CHIARA, DO IT'
Delete