To re-read books?

[Clary]

Not a terrifically serious AIBU but still...

Just from a throwaway comment on another thread, do other peopel re-read books or not then?

I mentioned sthg about it at my book group and was met with horror at the idea.

I could give you a list of at least 30 books I have read many times (Austen, Sayers, Fitzgerald, Mrs Miniver), and others I have casually re-read. Eg I read Time Traveller's Wife 3 times (2nd time for book club; third time before I saw film); or Agatha Christies; or Anne Tyler books etc etc.

Not sure why I do it - is it a comfort thing maybe?

Am I a bit weird?

No you are not weird! I have read and reread Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier many many times - yes I think it's a comfort thing!

I re-read loads - Josephine Tey, Georgette Heyer, D.E. Stevenson, Mary Stewart, Dick Francis , and all those children's favourites (Elizabeth Enright, Alcott, Streatfeild, etc.)

Do have a whole bookcase of "worthy" books that I should read for the first time but keep putting off - must do better. Should join a book club.

I am always re-reading even though I have lots unread books on my shelves - someone mentioned the Lucia books - I lent my copies and have not got them back will have to purchase some new ones for re-read as they are brilliant. But my two favourites are I Capture the Castle and My Antonia. Can't wait for my DS and DD to be old enough to read them. Just another 15 or so years to go!

YANBU. One of my faves is the Hannibal Lector Trilogy by Thomas Harris - I read it every other year. I love it. Another book that brings back great memories for me is Graham Greene's Brighton Rock. The opening line captures me now the same way it did when I first read it as an 11 year old. I also love Dickens which I read lots as a child, so I definitely think it is a comfort thing.

On a similar note, I read the Owl and the Pussycat the other day for the first time in years, and had to fight back tears . I just can't wait until I can read all my favourite childhood stories to DS when he's a bit older.

My next re-read will be To kill a mockingbird.

We had a huge clear out when we moved recently . I love re-reading books. In fact, I have just ordered Riders (Jilly Cooper) from amazon because I really regret giving my copy away .

Have just realised that everyone else is posting about re-reading classics, not Jilly Cooper . Am I the only one?

This thread made me think.
I re-read a lot, but mainly stuff I first read 20 yrs or so ago in my late teens. I am struggling to think of anything I have read in the last 10 years that would be on my re-read list. Do we possibly have a more intense emotional response to books at that age that stays with us?

Interesting chamomile.

A lot of my re-reads are booksk I have loved for years (DLS, Austen (I did not read these as a child, I am just old!) as well as What Katy Did etc).

OTOH I do have some more recent ones too - have read time traveller 3 x now and hmmm actually can't think of many more! Ahahaha I think you have hit upon it!

oooh I am a discussion of the day!

Think that's a first for me

Good grief no, YANBU

I often re-read books. In fact, after having a chat with DN who is 11 I am seriously considering re-reading the Enid Blyton St Claire's books. I loved them when I was little. There was about as much chance of me going to boarding school as going to the moon so it really was pure escapism from my suburban middle school in the late 1970s.

Exotic Carlotta, the twins, the mad French teacher who only seemed to say 'Formidable!' I've probably missed an accent or something there....

I'd much rather re-read a good book I've enjoyed in the past than force myself onwards in reading a book I'm really not enjoying or getting anything from. Life is too short.

I have been known to reread books until they fall apart.... and then go out and buy another copy .

A good, familiar book is a friend, a comfort, a strength and a joy. I would not be without them.

I love re-reading books and always have. It is such a joy to see my children enjoying books that I read as a child/teenager too, which often tempts me to re-read them now. I have read most of my books many times and for me personally, if I don't want to re-read it, it's not been that good a book.

There are some books I have read several times in the past and then have 'gone off' them. So I do think some books have a 'shelf life' but others I will reread till the grave!

Piprabbit, my DS1 wrecked a book that was already coming to pieces when he was a baby. I have since bought a copy and we have both enjoyed it! That was Picts and Martyrs by Arthur Ransome. I love his books.

Chickbean, I re-read Georgette Heyer too - probably because her characters are just so likeable and the books kind of predictable - very comforting! I like her detective stories too - slightly less predictable, well the first time you read them anyway!

Georgette Heyer is my comfort reading of choice too. I make it over 30 years that they have been making me happy.....

Tinuviel, funnily enough one of my replaced books is Swallows and Amazons.

Ohmygosh sugarsky, Rebecca has the most gorgeous first line in the English language. "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderly again." BEAUTIFUL!

There are a ton of books I've read so many times that I can recite entire passages: Anne of Green Gables, the Stand, I Know this Much is True, Pride and Prejudice...the list goes on

I love it! It's like visiting old friends.

OMG, why would you not keep books to re-read??!! Everytime you read a (good) book you get something new from it, depending on how you've developed as a person and what new life experiences you have had. Even without that, a book transports you to countries and places. Its like asking, "AM I being unreasonable to visit the same holiday destination more than once."

I agree that certain books have shelf-lives, though. Some just reach out to younger people, but as we get older and more cynical wiser, our tastes change.

I re-read the vast majority of my 1000 or so books. Books I do not want to re-read are normally sent to the charity shops. I have even recently re-read the entire Anne of Green Gables series, despite being well beyond the supposed age range of them.

The idea that a book is a throwaway item is alien to me - I am always disappointed when I buy a book and, having read it, feel that discarding it is the only option because I have no space to keep books I shan't re-read.

Your book club folk sound more peculiar to me than the idea of re-reading a book

I haven't re-read any books yet although I always have the intention. The only books I have re-read are The Stand (stephen king) and Portrait of Dorian Gray. I could re-read both of them endlessly.

I could never throw out a book once I've read it. (Hence groaning Billy bookshelves and expensive house-moving bills for our household).

Now, I know how ridiculous this will sound, and I would only admit it on an anonymous forum like this, but books become part of me once I've read them. It would be like sending a bit of my soul to the charity shop.

I think I am good at only reading books I like and think are well-written though - it's rare I get sucked into something that is (IMO) trashy.

I think a book is an art-form, and is closer to a painting than a newspaper. We recycle newspapers, but not paintings.

However, I am a hoarder, and undoubtedly will one day be pushed out of the house by toppling pyramids of books.

It depends on the book, and how much I loved it.

I love a trashy novel, but I cannot re-read these. I'm thinking crime thrillers such as Tess Gerritson, Patricia Cornwell. Once you know whodunnit, or how the baddie was caught, then the joy of the book is over.

There are other books which I love to re-read eg. PG Wodehouse, John Mortimer.

It is the same with children's books. I can read Roald Dahl over and over and look forward to the fact that dd2 is now 6 and enjoys the proper books that I read to dd1. However, if dd2 wants to read Harry Potter, then she is on her own. I am not going near those books again.

theyoungvisiter - you can get the Lymonds on Abe books and sometimes on Amazon preloved. Some of mine are faling apart (bought in 1985 and reread each year since), so I am slowly but surely tracking the newer editions down.

For all you Sayers fans, I am assuming you have read the two written by Jill Paton Walsh, Thrones, Dominations and A Presumption of Death? JPW was asked by the Sayers Society to write these from fragments of novels left by Sayers, and they are both brilliant. Thrones, Dominations follows on from Busmans Honeymoon, and A Presumption of Death follows all the characters during the beginning of WW2. Fab, and seamless.

Nothing wrong with rereading, I just wish I had time to read more books for the 1st or 10th time, especially as I own so many of them. I found an old diary from 1992 last night and couldn't believe how many books I had read that year. Some I remember enjoying, some I've reread since, some I remember nothing about (many would have been library books).

Another vote for Georgette Heyer here. Due to lack of space in the house and DH and I having boxes of books we had to stash most of them in the attic. So only books which were likely to be re-read or used as reference ended up in our 2 small bookcases. My Georgette Heyers though got stashed under the bed as I couldn't bear them to go in the attic. If I am feeling stressed I re-read a favourite and it makes me feel better.

My mother re-reads 'the shell seekers' all the time. She will read a new book and then read 'the shell seekers' again.