It’s not that I don’t like to read new books. There’s nothing quite like that rush of falling in love with a cast of characters and their world. Especially when I discover a new series and the love affair can be thousands of pages long.
But, truthfully, other than the rush you get once or twice a year when you find a fantastic new book/series, I like re-reading better.
Even when I’ve discovered a new fictional world to love, the first time I read a book, I’m so anxious to see how the characters are finally going to admit their feeling for each other, solve their mystery, find their version of the holy grail, or come to their emotional epiphanies that I don’t always enjoy the book as much as I do the second (or tenth) time when I already know what’s going to happen.
I’ve started to realize that other people find that odd.
But here’s the thing: when I want an Edward Cullen fix, Rob doesn’t do it for me. When I want to visit Hogwarts, popping in a DVD doesn’t make me feel like I’ve spent any time there. Even my favorite book-to-movie adaptations [insert a BBC Austen miniseries or Hunger Games movie here] can’t quite measure up.
I have to read the book again.
The problem with this is my monolithic to-be-read list. There is never enough time to read everything I want to read, new books or old. Sometimes I think it would be nice to quit watching TV and just read, but then I remember I like TV. And I’m not Amish.
In the last several years, my Audible membership has helped. I have listened to a large number of books I love while washing dishes and walking my dogs. But sometimes I still want to pick up the paper-and-ink copies. Yet when I do, I feel like I should be reading something new, because that TBR pile seems to get bigger every day.
Which brings me to the realization that yes, I’m crazy. Reading is fun. Stressing about how many books I want to read and am not getting to is ridiculous. Especially when I won’t enjoy half of them as much as I would enjoy re-reading Everblaze for the third time.
My one and only New Year’s resolution this year was is this: I am going to give myself permission to read whatever the heck I want to, whenever I want to. Because what’s the fun in being an obsessive geek if you don’t give yourself permission to be who you are?
So what about you? Do you re-read books? If yes, which books do you keep going back to? If not, why not? I’m seriously interested—please tell me. (Partially because I’m always looking for another cast of characters to obsess over!)
