I'm surprised by how many of you like to re-read your books. I can honestly say I've never read the same book twice, just like I don't enjoy watching the same movie or TV show twice (but at least there it's usually only an hour or two so I'm not as opposed to seeing it again). Once I already know how the story ends, there's just no point in going through it again. All mystery and suspense is lost, which just leaves me bored.
I find if I enjoyed the experience the first time, I will read it a second or third. My initial reading is just the first taste. I may go 6 months before I read it again, or longer, but I come back a different person and it hits me a different way. Things that escaped me, or my memory, the first time, become a little more ingrained. As with most things I care about, I don't want to say "it's good" and leave it at that. I want to have a conversation about it, be able to have a conversation with someone who knows nothing about it or knows everything. I also read many non-fiction books, so gathering information is more important than the narrative or if it grips me.
For example, recently I have been making "greatest books" list (3 of them in the last six months). Every time I talk about them, I want to read them again. So I have read two books in the last six months, that have been on my all-time favorites list:
Under the Banner of Heaven and
Of Human Bondage (currently on page 120 of 700 pages).
I spend about 1 hour a day leisure reading (not counting the news, Trekbbs, Facebook, etc). I have the luxury of being able to do it. Sometimes it's all day and sometimes it's 15 minutes, but it all averages out to an hour a day. I find the more I read, the more I can concentrate. The more I read, the more articulate I am. I like to look for words I don't know. I like to look for characters and themes. And I find it more stimulating than a movie or television program. When television or music makes me look up a word, I am endeared to it. But that happens less often than it does with books. I even prefer to read out-loud because I process the words better and my mind is less likely to wander.
I am very particular about my books. If they speak to me, I will treasure them and they give me such joy. I cannot tell you how many times in the last month, I have written the words
The Art of Falling. If they suck--their conclusions or the prose bothers me--I won't finish it. I like to use books as study materials to keep my mind sharp. I like to look up words, look up references because I genuinely feel like a student of the world, always improving, always learning something new. And they say it's good for your brain as well.
So, yes, I do re-read my books because when they are that good, I want to know them like an old friend.
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