I will read anything you put in front of me. When I was little, I’d read the back of the cereal box at breakfast if that was the only thing at hand. And I’d read the front and the sides, too, if I hadn’t finished my bowl of Cocoa Puffs yet.
An overheard conversation shocked me to the core one day. Two women were discussing the next selection for their book club, and one asked the other if she would buy it. The second one said with a shrug, “I’ll just go to the library. I don’t buy books, because I’ve never found a book I’d want to read more than once.”
Wait … what? WHAT?! Okay, sure, I’ve read some books I enjoyed but didn’t really connect with, and even a few you couldn’t pay me to read a second time. But when I find one I like, I’ll re-read it over and over again. I’ve read more books than I can count more times than I can count.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Black Beauty. A Wrinkle in Time and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. Smoky the Cowhorse. Mary Stewart’s Merlin Quartet. The Last Unicorn. Jane Eyre. Catch-22 and Slaughterhouse-Five.
These are just a few of the books I return to again and again, because they appeal to me on so many different levels.
- The writing is lyrical and poetic, a joy to read for the sheer pleasure of how the author puts words together. As an editor and as a writer, that’s what I aspire to.
- The stories feel compelling, meaningful, and relevant to my life. They help me learn a bit more about who I am and who I want to be.
- The characters are real—complex and substantial. It doesn’t matter whether they are an English governess, an awkward teen, a World War II bombardier, or a 19th-century London cab horse; I relate to them, and they speak to me in ways and words I understand.
- The authors explore profound truths, like who we are and how we’re connected, and why that’s important.
And that doesn’t even touch the children’s books I’ve read probably hundreds of times, first on my own and later to my children. Ones like The Velveteen Rabbit and The Giving Tree and The Little Prince that still make me cry. And ones that are simply pure fun to read, like Green Eggs and Ham, Curious George, Harold and the Purple Crayon, and anything at all by Sandra Boynton … especially But Not the Hippopotamus.
When I make a new friend, I don’t want to spend one three-hour lunch with her and then never see her again. When I hear a song I like, I want to listen to it again and again so I can catch all the lyrics. Books are the same: Every time I read one of my favorites I find new insights, discover a detail I’ve forgotten, or relive a cherished memory. Why wouldn’t I keep doing it?
What about you: Do you read a book once, then toss it and move on? Or do you enjoy re-reading? What are your favorite ones to read over and over? I’d love to hear about them!
There are so many books to read, ones I have lists of, ones on my shelves, purchased, ones in my heavy bag carried home from the library. So I tend not to re-read. Too little time too many books.
Now my husband on the other hand…
Ginny, thanks for your tribute to lasting literary friends! I find I keep learning new things from my favorites as I grow and mature and my perspectives and body of experience change. Jane Austen’s books are favorites of mine, as are L.M. Montgomery’s books. And poetry always seems to have new depths to reveal.
I understand the whole “don’t buy books, get ’em from the library” policy because I practice it. I read too many novels to buy and shelve them all!
That said, when I find one(s) I really value, I get a copy and keep it, usually rereading it years later. It’s astonishing, when enough time passes between reads, how differently I perceive the stories. In fact, I used that criterion last summer to open up some shelf space. Books I’d adored 20+ years ago and reread left me flat or even turned off. So out they went.
Meanwhile, the new ones I reread in the future might go the same way, or earn permanent position. At intervals I go on binges, acquiring the full ouevre of my favorite authors. It was easier to do that back in the used paperback era, when you could go to a favorite bookstore or a tag sale and come home with a bag or two and fill in the empty slots in a series. Nowadays, I’ve become the beneficiary of shelf purges by my smalltown library. That gained me an ENTIRE matching set of Zane Grey novels (60+). Had to build a special shelf for them. Next week I will receive a carton of duplicate copies of Dick Francis novels, bringing my collection to 3/4 of his works.
And so on, and so forth.
Thanks for your thoughts, Carolyn! I used to think I could never have enough books, and now as I contemplate moving into a smaller home it seems I don’t need to keep them ALL. Still, some books I will keep until the day I die…and I may have those interred with me so I can read again them in my next life.