This year, I decided I would re-read several books I feel I’ve been missing for some reason or another. I even have a list to show how serious I am:
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Salem’s Lot by Stephen King
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
Actually, if you know me, I love lists but they have absolutely no bearing on how serious I am about anything at all. I just love making lists! My husband will defend this statement. I believe he secretly hates my prodigious list making skills, mostly because I tend to put them in places he can see them and they’re usually to do lists.
Right now (more like all of February), I’m working my way through Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell as part of a read along and now that I look at the list again, I can’t wait to get to the others. The Mists of Avalon maybe coming up soon. I love me a little Arthur…
Do you re-read? Do you make crazy book lists? You know you do, just admit it. 🙂
Happy Sunday, a little on the late side.
Just Book Reading 
I love re-reading. There’s been an article recently saying that re-reading books is good for you. It makes you better as a reader – and also improved your mental health.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9084394/Rereading-old-books-enhances-the-experience.html
Personally I agree. I love re-reading. You do get more out of a book by reading it twice – of course you do. You see things that you didn’t know to notice before!
I’m re-reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle at the moment by Haruki Murakami and love-love-loving it. I think Murakami definitely improves anyway on the second read. When i read this the first time, it was only my 2nd Murakami book and though I enjoyed it I was finding it a bit confusing. Now with a bit more experience, and also because I’m more familiar with it – i’m actually enjoying it a lot more.
I’m not very good with lists myself. Even though I’ve made my self a long list of challenges to complete! What I am finding that helps is actually taking the books on that list and putting them on the shelf above my desk because it just makes it easier to choose. Otherwise I have to dig through my bookshelf which is 3 rows deep with more stacked on top… time consuming as not only do I have to dig them all out I have to then try to get them all back in again. Why is it that things never go back in the same as before?
My most frequent re-reads are North and South (read 5 times, practically seem to read it once every year! Might give it a miss this year. The Harry Potters of course, Howls Moving Castle and Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones. It’s only really been the last few years I haven’t re-read much at all especially since joining websites like Goodreads. Last year I did make some effort though to re-read some childhood favourites that I’d been wanting to and didn’t regret it because I got so much more out of them now then I did back then. Even with Children’s or YA books you can read them from a different light when you’re older and it makes them more interesting.
I do the same thing with books I want to read. I have a small pile (well, small isn’t a good description) of books on a side table by my desk that I add to which keeps me from going back to the shelves and picking up something else.
Howl’s Moving Castle would be great for a re-read. I read it for the first time about two years ago but I keep watching the movie over and over which I’ve fallen in love with. I need to get more of her books.
Before Goodreads I probably re-read Howl about 5 times a year. It’s so short and never, ever gets dull. I love DWJ books for that. I’m not sure how she does it actually.
I enjoyed the film too – well, I love Studio Ghibli films anyway and when I heard they were making a HMC I practically fell off my chair and hopped up and down. I wish they’d do more of her books – I think that they do work strangely well together. They both have the same kind of quirky stories and characters. I enjoyed the film especially after watching it the second time around and not being quite so put off by all the changes. They Japanese-ified it of course but it was still very much Diana Wyne Jonse-y.
I never re-read. There are so many books I want to read, and so little time. I envy you re-reading.
It’s hard to get myself to do it with a pile of new books staring right at me but I’m enjoying it so far. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it up.
I love re-reading as well. The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of my favorites! 🙂
Mine too! I’m hoping I still have the same love for it.
I made the same decision a few years ago and sadly completely failed to stick to it 😦 I think rereading is wonderful, but I’m always lured by all those shiny new books…
Yes, the shiny new books do cause me to pause in my re-reading efforts. 🙂 Right now I’m trying to stay away from the bookstore. Too tempting!
I re-read all the time! Sometimes even immediately, because I read really quickly and miss things. Sometimes I’m not ready to leave the world of the novel, like with The Hunger Games. I read the entire series twice in a row over the course of a week because I didn’t want to say goodbye to Panem just yet.
Right now, I’m actually re-reading “Gods of Greektown” by John Karrys – http://godsofgreektown.com
It’s one of those books that I read too quickly (because it was so good) and I want to absorb more the second time around!
I miss stuff too because I do sometimes read too fast and that’s what I’m really enjoying so much about re-reading, finding all the details I missed!