HAPPILY EVER AFTER discussion

What are your feelings and thoughts on re-reading books?

ON READING FICTION:

A feeling of intense happiness and a sense of great comfort, invade my entire being, whenever I can escape into the wonderful world of fiction, where love flourishes, justice prevails, tolerance is encouraged, compassion is felt, mercy is recommended, good triumphs over evil, and a happily ever after is achieved :-)

The positive characters in these books become close friends. They touch me with their sincerity and kindness, delight me with their humour and decency, motivate me with their optimism and wisdom, inspire me with their faith and goodness, impress me with their courage and intelligence, reassure me with their weaknesses and eccentricities, and improve me with their principles and values :-)

ON RE-READING BOOKS:

Now, I would like to mention that the same feeling of immense happiness and a sense of well-being, prevails over me whenever I re-read one of my favourite books :-)

In fact, sometimes, re-reading a book actually seems to enhance the pleasure and increase the level of enjoyment :-)

It's rather like revisiting someone who is a sincere and loyal friend, decent and compassionate person, and an interesting and entertaining companion :-)

Moreover, I even get to learn something new each time I read a certain book again.

At this point, a confusion can arise, that how can new knowledge be gained from re-reading a book of which the story and it's conclusion is already known ...unless maybe the reader is somewhat lacking in either concentration or memory that he or she keeps forgetting the contents of the book...!

Well, I guess I should confess that this does happen to me sometimes...!

Especially if I am re-reading a book after more than five years of interval, and have read numerous other books in between.

However, my claim doesn't really pertain to learning new facts, instead it's more about understanding and appreciating the same old words of wisdom in a better manner.

As we go through life, we experience new events, encounter different people, and feel varying emotions. This process often results in our mental maturity, some wisdom, personality development, character strengthening, reinforced values, altered attitudes, added insight, fresh perceptions ...and though the book remains the same, we read it again as a different, and if we are fortunate, improved, person. 

Hence, it's my belief that at the various stages of our lives, every time we read the same book again, we usually manage to learn something new :-)

I'm a huge proponent of rereading. With my absolute faves, sometimes I'll just read a particular scene or passage.

saves a lot of trees

As much as I love reading romance, a lot of the plotlines are similar, so unless it is a really outstanding story, I don't see a reason in re-reading a lot of them. There are just too many good books out there and not enough time.

That is one of the many reasons I appreciate these sites where we can list our books and review/rate them. I can get a sense of re-reading a book just by looking at my (or someone else's) review.

This also helps me get rid of books I've already read. Other than classics, I try to get rid of everything I've read unless it is an absolute favorite. No one else in my family reads romance, so there's no sense in hanging on to those.

I used to hang on ALL my books. Then I began to realize that some of them were just taking up space.

Interesting that you revisit books by reading reviews. I wouldn't have thought of that.

Abigail wrote: "I used to hang on ALL my books. Then I began to realize that some of them were just taking up space.

Interesting that you revisit books by reading reviews. I wouldn't have thought of that."

Abigail, sometimes I'm lazy and put a short and sweet review which might not help me much in remembering a complete storyline. For those I would have to read other people's reviews to get details.

This is normally done when I'm helping someone locate a book with an unknown title on this site or on LibraryThing. If I think I've read it before, I'll get the bug to help them try and find it. You know how that is, when you are like, "That sounds like a Linda Lael Miller" then you search your list of Millers read and end up spending two hours looking through all your books! haha Or is that just me? The "Name That Book" searches are probably the main reason I add detail to my reviews. It will save me time later!

I often reread my favorite books, or at least passages I particularly enjoyed. One that I truly love and which I believe is no longer in print or available on Kindle, is The Piano. It was also a movie with Holly Hunter.

Dawn, yes!!! What did readers do before goodreads?