Thursday, January 27, 2011

To Reread, or not to Reread?

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all." — Oscar Wilde
This post is inspired by this quote. (I'm trying to disprove it ; )



I'm usually good at rereading books. Whenever I run out of new books, I take out an old favorite that I haven't read in a while. Most of the books I reread are just as good, or better, then the first time around. I know whats going to happen, so I don't feel like I have to rush to figure out whats going to happen.  I pay more attention to little details that, before, I missed. Most of the time rereading makes the book more complete to me.

Or I reread a book that I use to love; and end up hating it. Maybe as I get older, my interests change. Maybe, the first time around, I tended to ignore the annoying parts and focus on the storyline; because I already know the whole plot, when I reread I look to the details.

OR the book is amazing, but I read it too many times already/ the whole reason it was so amazing was because of the mystery/action, like Pretty Little Liars. I really wanted to love those books when I reread them, but not so simple if you plain old get tired of them. They were worth reading.

Like Harry Potter. My BFF has read the series about seventeen times (she's on her eighteenth) I got bored after the third time I read it. It's not like it's bad or anything, but I felt as if I pretty much memorized it.

So? Did I prove him wrong, huh? Huh?

4 comments:

  1. Your first statement is what I have a problem with--"Whenever I run out of new books" -- that's why I hardly ever re-read, because I never run out of NEW books that I want to read. Has to be really special for me to read it again. I can' probably count on my fingers the number of books I have re-read. But that's just me...I know there are others who love reading books over and over and that's OK!

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  2. Like Annette said, I'm always adding new books to my TBR pile so I usually don't have time to re-read old favorites

    Also, I don't like re-reading a book if I can still remember most of the details... what's the fun in that? I already know what's going to happen and it's not exciting. I'm going to read the HP series again this year, but only because I feel like it's been a long enough time that things will be [relatively] new and fresh when I read it.

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  3. I kind of disagree with the quote. I love surprise in books, epecially in the action ones and I kind of feel like I don't want to read the book again after all the surprises are gone. The books I don't reread aren't bad books: I just need something new. Don't get me wrong, I do reread but only when I have the time and after I've kind of forgotten the essential plotlines of the story. So when I read it again, I can be all excited and happy and surprised again! That's why if you asked me anything about something i've read more than two weeks ago, I won't remember the plotlines.
    I hope that makes sense ;)

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  4. I've re-read the Harry Potter a lot and I never get bored of it. I think it just depends on the book. I'm sure there are some books I'll get bored of re-reading, but so far I haven't really come across them.

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