Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme, hosted by Rukky @Eternity Books & Dani @ Literary Lion, where we get to discuss certain topics, share our opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! I’ve listed the upcoming topics in brief at the end of my post, but check out these pages for more information on November 2020 prompts & a list of past prompts!
Now without further ado… This week’s topic asks us about:
rereading books
(SUGGESTED BY ARIA @ BOOK NOOK BITS)
Examples: Do you reread books? How often? Do you reread a series before reading the newest book? Is there a certain book or series that you always come back to reread? Do you count rereads towards your monthly/yearly goals? Do you feel guilty about rereading books?
Do i reread books?
As frequently as I go on about wanting to reread many books, especially the ones that are my favourites, I actually don’t reread often. Prior to the last two years I think I probably only reread one or two books a year or practically once in a blue moon. My memory is notoriously bad and I often can’t remember what I did earlier in the week let alone the details of books I read years ago, so I always intend to reread more; but with my ever increasing and already endless TBR I find myself feeling less motivated to pick up something that I’ve already read before.
I know many book lovers reread regularly for the comfort of knowing what comes next in a story, plus the fact that it’s a guaranteed win as it was such a joy to read the first time, and I totally get that. That said, I think part of the reason why I don’t reread so often is because I know what happens already and while I might’ve loved it the first time, I feel that takes a bit of the excitement away the second time around.
Aside from that, I think I also just like the idea of “preserving” how I felt about a book after that initial read especially if I really loved it. With rereading there’s always the possibility those feelings might change, and while of course sometimes it’s for the better, I think I prefer keeping those original feelings even if that means the finer details of the story/characters are fuzzy.
do i reread a series before the newest book?
Usually a good amount of time passes between books in a series and because of my awful memory, I know that if I pick up the latest without rereading (or at least recapping) the previous books, I won’t have a clue as to what’s going on! Though considering that my pile of unfinished series keeps growing because I say I’d like to reread the previous books, it’s a pretty good indication of how often I actually get around to doing it 😂 Oddly enough I only started wanting to reread series’ from last year, when before that I was fine with relying on recap sites to refresh my memory–I might struggle at the start but I’d eventually come around to (mostly) figuring it all out by the end. I’m quite tempted to just say “eff it” and pick up the newest book(s) for the series I have waiting in the wings, but I know I’ll come to regret that decision if I do it 🙈
REREADING THE ONES THAT GIVE ME COMFORT…
That’s not to say that I never reread or get around to rereading a series though! Last December, I reread the first two The Folk of the Air books before the finale came out. This is where that whole ‘changed feelings’ thing happened because I remembered adoring The Cruel Prince when I read it for the first time in 2018, but when I reread it those feelings changed… considerably! 🙈
I occasionally reread poetry/prose books, such as Lang Leav’s Memories, but my “go to” rereads are my favourite Austen’s: Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. For some reason, probably more sentimental than anything, I can keep rereading these two books over and over again and I’d still love the stories as much as I did the first time(s).
TOWARDS MY YEARLY READING GOALS & NOT FEELING GUILTY!
I find it kinda amusing how strict people are with what does and doesn’t count towards monthly/yearly reading goals 😂 If someone wants to include audiobooks, children’s books, and rereads towards their yearly count, then why shouldn’t they and why are you policing them about it? It’s not a competition and it will have zero affect on you and your reading goals! But I digress… 😬
I do count my rereads in my yearly goals because I’m still reading a whole ass book after all! Do I feel guilty about it? No. Do I feel guilty about rereading? Also no! As a mood reader I’m very much for picking up whatever fits my current feelings and if that means rereading something then I’ll go for it, and I encourage everyone to do the same! Of course, it might be slightly different if you’ve committed to reading something before a certain date, but I do find that if I really force myself to read anything I’m not in the mood for, it’ll only negatively influence my feelings toward it, and that’s not fair to either the story or the author!
What are your thoughts, friends? Do you reread books and how often do you do it? What are your “go-to” rereads? Do you also count them towards your yearly goal? Tell me all!
dinipandareads 
I agree with everything you said here. I rarely re-read books because the thrill of not knowing what’s going to happen is missing. And I have re-read Pride and Prejudice a few times as well–and enjoyed it just as much as I did the first time.
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Thank you! Glad to know I’m not alone in these thoughts 😊 I think there’s just something really special about Jane Austen’s books that make it just as enjoyable the second, third, fourth, etc. time around! Or maybe it’s the whole “classics” thing because there’s so much to always take away from it. Not that I read a lot of classics coz it’s mostly Austen for me 😂
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I am so terrible about rereading! It is something I would love to do, but new books are always fighting for my attention.
There are a few books that I will always reread though. Pride and Prejudice is definitely one!
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Yep, definitely get that! There’s so little time as it is but then there’s also endless new worlds and characters to discover that it’s so much easier to go for the new books on the TBR 😂 Glad to know I’m not the only one who loves to reread Pride and Prejudice! 😍
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I used to re-read my favorite books quite a bit when I was younger, but that was mostly because I didn’t have access to new books in the first place. I didn’t mind because it was fun “revisiting” my favorite characters and reliving the best moments in the story.
I haven’t re-read anything recently though. I’m just trying to get through my ever-growing TBR list. 😁
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Fair enough! I know a lot of readers love rereading books because they know what’s going to happen and re-experiencing the joy of being with favourite characters, settings etc., so I totally get it. The ever-growing and already endless TBR definitely makes it hard to find even more time to reread books 😂 It’s the best kind of struggle, though? 😜
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I totally agree about it being a good struggle, haha. Having that TBR list means I always have a new adventure to look forward to! 🙂
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I don’t normally reread. I do sometimes relisten and it’s kind of the same books over and over. Usually it’s Tijan’s Fallen Crest High.
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Re-listening is something I’ve yet to do! I think I’d love to re-listen to my favourite books as a way to reread them. That’d be a lot of fun, I reckon 😍 (well, hopefully if I like the narrator LOL)!
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I don’t really re-read books either. There’s just so many more stories I want to devour. I also am so scared that my feelings will completely change the second go around. Especially, with books that I’ve read like 10 years ago because my preferences have changed over time. I definitely count re-reads as part of your yearly goal. You are reading a book! I did recently read the graphic novel for Fangirl. I loved it and made me want to re-read the book.. so maybe it might change in the future, who knows!
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Definitely with you there, Leslie! There are just WAY too many books (and don’t our TBRs know it)! 😂 Glad to know I’m not the only one who fears the change in feelings about a book. I feel that way a lot about my ultimate favourites… That said, I do reread graphic novels a little bit more than full-length novels. They’re just so easy to consume and none take more than a few hours at most. I need to check out the Fangirl GN! I love Pumpkinheads which is also by Rowell (and one I’ve reread a few times already)!
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Yesss!! My first re-read in a long time was Saga this year! haha. I love it and graphic novels are so quick. Plus, it was last year when I started reading them and didn’t think my feelings would change and they didn’t! haha. Ohhh.. I haven’t read Pumpkinheads but I’ll add it to the list now!! I also got the first two volumes of Scwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic and plan on getting to those. GN might be the way I re-read some of my favorite books. lol!!
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I love re-reading books but I feel like I rarely have the time now days. I’m usually so busy with new books because my TBR is never ending.
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I think that’s probably the main reason why I don’t reread as often! It’s enough of a struggle finding time to read all the unread books on my TBR, let alone to carving out more time I don’t have to reread books! 😂
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We have very similar thoughts on re-reading! There are very few books I re-read and the ones I do tend to be all time favs. And *of course* rereading counts towards your reading goal!! You read the book, right? I don’t understand the policing of other people’s reading goals, either 😂 Loved your post!
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[…] I thought that this was a pretty fitting topic as just last Friday, I shared my thoughts on rereading and I said that while I’m not much of a rereader, I would like to do it more–if only it […]
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I’m glad you linked to this in your most recent post; this was interesting to read & consider. In high school, I didn’t count rereads on my list because I wanted my reading list to be a record of all the books I read in my life from that point forward, easily tallied by counting the numbers, and repeats messed with that. A few years ago, though, I came around to your “I still read a whole ass book” way of thinking (and writer, i lol’ed at that phrasing), partly because Goodreads made it easier to create a literal reading record, and partly because it’s actually cool to track how many times you’ve read a specific book.
I still have rules about my personal challenge though…I don’t include books under 100 pages (or heavily illustrated books that seem like they’re below that amount given the text-to-page ratio), because when I tell people I read 100+ books a year, I want to make it clear that these are full-size books, I’m not throwing in a bunch of 60-page kids’ chapter books w/ double spaced font and/or full page illustrations to inflate my count.
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I don’t usually reread, but sometimes it happens. Sometimes people really exaggerate when they talk about what should count to reading goals, if you read/listen to it during the year… it counts, I don’t care if it’s the tenth time you’re reading or listening to that book. Unless, you decide it doesn’t count! 😂😂😂
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I feel the same way – for the most part i don’t reread a lot because I know what happens throughout the book…although, lately I have started wanting to read some of the books that I read years ago and I think it’s partly because they aren’t so fresh in my mind anymore and I can actually enjoy them again.
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[…] A great post from Dini: Let’s Talk Bookish: Rereading Books […]
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[…] recall how to get the exact post numbers info but I think my most popular post this year was my Let’s Talk Bookish discussion post about Rereading Books! This was another really fun discussion post to write […]
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