The Beauty of Re-Reading

Re-reading is a funny thing, don’t you think? I myself was a massive re-reader back when I was a kid, going back again and again to the worlds I loved reading about. However, as I was growing up my urge to re-read decreased and since discovering BookTube, starting blogging and joining Goodreads that urge has been almost none-existent.  I find it rather amusing that possibly the most bookish of all the social networks out there does not encourage re-reading when after all re-reading is also reading. Why do I say it does not encourage this practice? One of the major features of Goodreads is its Reading Challenge and re-reads don’t help towards completing the yearly goal. A shame in my opinion.

But, as I said, blogging and BookTube are to blame as well. So many books are thrown into our faces and there is so much to review that is almost impossible to take the time to get back to books we have already loved. Since the beginning of August my (reading) mood has been behaving weirdly: I felt like reading all the books and none at all. And so the dreadful slump began and while I thought I didn’t really mind it – the last couple of weeks have been quite hectic – there was also this little annoying inner voice telling me to pull my stuff together and get back in the reading-wagon. The problem? I didn’t want to pick up a new book and so the idea of a re-read started to get stronger in my mind.

My initial thought was to re-read Harry Potter but you see, I only re-read it during Christmas time. It’s a tradition for me and I didn’t want to break it. My other option was Percy Jackson because who doesn’t love a witty and phenomenal hero and a series about Greek mythology? I don’t even know how to explain my feelings while re-reading it. I knew the story and I knew what was going to happen and still, I felt excited about it. But, at the same time, there were things I had forgotten. You see, during the first book Percy is supposed to be 12 but he felt way older and mature, which is very nice because although being a MG book any adult can also enjoy it and let’s not forget about the dialogues. How much I’ve missed the dialogues, especially between the demi-gods and the monsters – such great comebacks. I laughed out loud so many times, they are impossible to count and in the end, I got back what I wanted the most: my desire for reading. Even more so, instead of just re-reading the first book, The Lightning Thief, I think I will re-read the rest of the series, alternating them with other books as well.

Many people are scared of re-reading because what if they didn’t like the book as much as they did the first time? I fear that also and that’s why I always go back to books I know will never fail to amuse me, to books I know I will love no matter what and that’s the beauty of re-reading: feeling excited for a book you know well, revisiting it again and remembering things you have forgotten and along the way, picking new stuff up.

What about you? Do you like re-reading? Do you feel pressured to read new books instead of revisiting those you’ve loved?