I’m trying to be more comfortable with the idea of re-reads.
When it comes to films and TV I have loads of go-to comfort rewatches but with books for some reason I think no, there are so many books out there, read something new.
Or sometimes I just want to open a favourite book and read my favourite chapter but another little voice says “this is a waste of time.” Ugh
Anyway I thought it might help me and be nice to hear about other people’s comfort re-reads. What do you get out of it? What leads you to re-read? How do you deal with the voices (if applicable) which tell you only to read new things?
by OpenCantaloupe4790
9 Comments
i re-read We Have Always Lived In The Castle and Pride and Prejudice every 3-5 years but they aren’t exactly comfort reads.
If I need something short to get lost in and not think about to much I re read Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.
I reread a few books yearly and I get something new out of them every time!!
Personally, I don’t reread for comfort. I reread to find new things I missed the first time around. I reread to discover more of the ways that the author pulled their story together than I was capable of perceiving the first time around.
To me, rereading is less of a routine and more of a game. What didn’t I notice before? What hints and clues were dropped that I could have possibly seen coming, but didn’t?
My favorite version of this lately was my reread of *Annihilation* by Jeff VanderMeer. The level of planning that went into that series is off the charts high, and rereading book one was almost an entirely different experience altogether from reading it the first time.
Have you read any r/discworld books by the late Sir Terry Pratchett yet?
Sarcastic, funny, wise, moving, brilliant and entertaining, they’re quite, quite re-readable, in my experience. Sure, you’ll know the gist of their stories once you read them, but you’ll keep finding new layers of meaning, new references, and yes, new hidden puns and all kinds of clever wordplay and stuff each and every time you return to them.
And they keep the voices gleefully quiet.
I mean if you’re a language learning model, you should always be searching for new content. But if you know you don’t like to re read it feels pretty nice to give a book away when you’re done. Only downside is people see your bookshelf full of to be read books and assume that those are your all time passions.
I have started re-reading more and I love it. If I loved a book why should I only read it once in my entire life? As you say with tv and movies there’s no shame around rewatching. I sometimes will do my reread as the audiobook so it feels like a new experience.
My most reached of comfort reread is Harry Potter series. Admittedly I’ve reread them less in recent years given the author situation but I used to reread this every 12-18 months. I was having a hard time at work a few months ago and decided to listen to Deathly Hallows during my commute and it really made going into work so much better.
Outside of that:
– A gentlemen in Moscow by amor Towles: this is such a long and winding story full of world and character building. The story taking place in a hotel over the span of someone’s life somehow makes the book feel cozy in a way?
– City of Thieves by David Benioff: Lev and Koyla are characters I think about often. I find this a quick read to fill my soul when I haven’t read a book I liked in a while
– The Hearts Invisible Furies by John Boyne: this is another long one that spans the course of someone’s life. I think I find these types of stories comforting to reread cause the anxiety of what happens to them is gone (I may not remember all the plot points but I remember the end) so I can really feel like I’m just sitting back and along for the journey
I typically reread all the Guards books by Terry Pratchett every 10 years or so. They’re just so easy to love and more and more as I get older in America, the politics and environment of the Ahnk-Morpork makes more sense.
It really is just like with movies or tv though, to me. There are tons of movies and tv shows out there too, but I don’t think it’s a waste of time to re-watch favorite tv shows or movies, or re-read favorite books. I also read and watch plenty of new things, but even if I only read or watched new things I’d never be able to read or watch everything out there anyway.
I love re-reading favorite books because they are a comfort. I like to revisit those worlds and characters, and / or the writing I enjoyed before. And I will catch new things or perceive things differently each time I read.
I find a lot of new books to enjoy too but honestly it feels like more of a waste to me to read something new that I end up disliking when I could have read something again that I know I love. So it can go that way too.
I can almost never re read books or series no matter how much I liked them. The exceptions are Harry Potter (fuck JK Rowling, she gets none of my money, I’ve had the same box set of books since I was in high school) no matter how cringe, it’s comforting and nostalgic to me. Also the full Assassins Apprentice series. That one has less mass appeal, and people love it or hate it, but it’s all about suffering and sacrifice with a really immersive fantasy setting.