This week’s Let’s Talk Bookish prompt comes to us from Fives @ DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE, who wonders about re-reading books.
Prompts: How many times is enough? Why re-read at all? Is re-reading just a comforting pastime? Or is there excitement to be relived? What kind of books do you re-read? Do you ever re-read books you don’t like in hopes that it will be better the second time? Were there any books you didn’t like as a child but liked as an adult, or vice versa?
I am not much of a re-reader. I will occasionally re-read part (or all) of a series when a new installment comes out. And there are some books that I do love so much that I will reread them occasionally, just for the comfort of visiting an old friend. But most books, if I revisit them at all, it’s only bits and pieces that I will re-read.
I do reread some books as soon as I finish them, if I am not quite ready for our time together to be over. I did that with the Fallen Angel series, which I blew through in a few days, and then was so devastated that it was over, that I just read it again. From the beginning. Maybe twice more.
But, for the most part, I think that there are too many books out there that I want to read, that I can’t afford to spend a ton of time reading stuff that I have already read.
What about you guys? How much do you reread?
fifty-two 
Great post! I think rereading for a new series is a popular one. I also agree with sometimes just reading a part of a series for nostalgia’s sake. But you’re totally right, not much time to reread when there’s so much out there to read!
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I never used to re-read, then covid hit and lockdowns occurred and I couldn’t settle to a single book, so I turned to some old favourites. I have so many books on my TBR that I don’t re-read all that often but if I’m in a real slump then I will dig out an old favourite.
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I’ve re-read two authors in my life: Georgette Heyer (Regency romance) and Rex Stout (mystery). But the rest have been one-and-done, with a few exceptions.
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I used to re-read a lot more than I do now, it’s so comforting.
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I don’t re-read much at all but I’m hoping to do a re-read project this year for some five-star reads that I remember loving but … well, don’t remember much of anymore cos I read them a while ago (and my memory is just shoddy)! Great post 🙂
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I’m not a re-reader either. Movies based on certain books that I’ve read have caused a few re-reads but otherwise I don’t really think about doing that.
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Goodreads and tracking my reading actually radically decreased my rereading (especially back before it could track multiple reads). I’m always reading something and it was easier to just grab some old favorite off my shelf when I’d finished a book.
So I’m grateful for the push to try new things. Even so I do still reread some – I’m rereading the Susan Sto Helit (Death) subseries of Discworld at the moment. A book can definitely be more, yet differently, enjoyable on a re-read. You don’t have the suspense of wondering how it turns out, but you can pick up things you’d missed or forgotten, noticing connections to other books you’ve read since, and just enjoy spending time with those characters again. (And sometimes they are just comfort food when you want to shut out the world and sink back into an old favorite where you know exactly what you’ll be getting)
And there are definitely books I enjoyed as a kid that I just can’t now — I didn’t notice the clunky stilted writing back then (*cough* original Hardy Boys *cough*) but it’d be punishing to wade through it now.
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