But I'm re-thinking this notion. Since our Book Club started up last fall, I've found myself having to re-read a couple of novels that I recommended to the group. Since I read them several years ago, I figured I better refresh my memory so that I can talk intelligently about them. And you know what? I am enjoying them just as much on a re-read, and it's amazing how much I've forgotten.
Right now I am re-reading Half Broke Horses, by Jeannette Walls (who also wrote The Glass Castle.)
Guess what? I'm enjoying the voice, the breezy writing style, and the hard-scrabble tales of this amazing woman all over again. Favorite part so far? When she rides her horse, Patches, 500 miles across New Mexico and Arizona to take a job teaching school. It took her 28 days, camping out by herself, and she was just 15 years old.
You gotta admire somebody like that.
How about you? Do you ever re-read books that you loved the first time around?
5 comments:
I've reread The Hobbit, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Pride & Prejudice, The Outsiders, Catcher in the Rye to name a few. So yes, I do reread favorites! It's like revisiting an old friend.
I've reread only a few books for my own pleasure. But, I read aloud to my students and my sons for many years. There were many favorites that I liked to read to them. Among them: Charly, On the Beach, The Mysterious Island, The Cricket in Times Square, The Math Curse, The Hobbit, and just about anything by Gary Paulsen!
Wow...talk about an eclectic list!
Ah, interesting, Margaret and Dreaming. So some of you do. The other one that I re-read recently, for book club was The Outside Boy, by Jeanine Cummins. I really loved some of the descriptions in this story of an Irish gypsy boy in the 1950's. And I think I'll try reading The Incredible Journey again, too. One of my favorite animals books, ever.
I find that reading a book for a second, a third, or even a fourth time is a different experience from the first.
Harry Potter is a great example. I've read the books more times than I can count and every time I do, I pick out a new detail.
I've been rereading Tamora Pierce's IMMORTALS series at least once a year since fifth or sixth grade. I just love the characters and the story so much that I never get tired of them. When I was younger, if I finished one of the books and didn't have something else to read, I'd just open it up from the beginning and start reading it again!
Oh my goodness, I re-read books ALL THE TIME!!! Every single book on my bookcases I've read at least twice, and most of them I've read three or more times. It helps that I'm a very fast reader, though, so I can still devour new books while checking in with old favorites, too!
I especially love re-reading my favorite childhood novels: Anne of Green Gables series, Little House series, all of Roald Dahl and Sharon Creech and so many more. I always look forward to re-reading every few years To Kill a Mockingbird, The Thorn Birds, Gone with the Wind, Lonesome Dove, The Pillars of the Earth, and World without End.
I'm choosy about which books I purchase to include in my vast book collection. I make sure it's a book I'll want to enjoy again and again!
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