Re-reading Books

Another reading quirk of mine. It may be worse than my last one (about spoilers). I’m just going to get it out there. 

I loathe re-reading things. H-A-T-E, what does that spell? Yep, I hate it that much. 

But I feel like I have to be fair. It’s not just books I hate re-reading. I hate re-watching movies and TV episodes. I hate re-reading research articles I know I should look at again because no one (and I mean no one) understands those articles the first time around [unless it’s your niche of the science world]. I also hate eating the same meal twice in a row. I hate listening to lecture podcasts if I already went to class. It’s just the way I operate. 

But you don’t really care about all those other things.

There are a variety of reason why I hate re-reading things.

1. Boredom strikes me easily 

This is a fact about me; I get bored really really easily. I hate just sitting around and not doing something productive or new. This hits me hard when I start to re-read a book. I mean I read the book before and I have a decent memory, therefore, I remember reading said book. Thus, I end up skimming, which definitely defeats the purpose of re-reading.

 2. No patience

I have no patience. Zilch. Zero. Okay, I’m definitely exaggerating here, but I’m not a patient person (which is horrible to want to pursue a career in the publishing industry, I know). Now what does that have to do with re-reading books? Well I know the plot and so I know what parts are really great. The scenes that make you read faster than you think you can and that give you goosebumps. I know where those are and in order to get there, I have to get through other parts of the book. Parts that were great the first time I read it, but are dragged out the second time. Having to go through the entire introduction and crucial layer of the foundation is like waiting in a long line for a movie that starts in ten minutes. You just want it to go by faster. And because I’m not patient enough to deal with it, I will inevitably stop re-reading no matter how hard I try. 

3. Re-reading is wasted time. 

I know people are going to disagree with me, but for me, re-reading books is a waste of time. I know reading a book more than once should give you another perspective on books. I know that I’ll be able to pick up on the symbols and foreshadowing and other little gems in books if I read it a second time, but I can’t do it. Re-reading a book is time I could be spend writing or doing something more productive. Better yet, I could be re-reading a new book! Why should I re-read a book if I already remember the basic plot line and characters? Sure, I know the feeling and being pulled into that book’s world is amazing, but I can get that feeling (and new ones) from other books. And the list of books is never-ending.  

This is also why I don’t give out many 5 star reviews. Because the 5 star reviews are only for books that I can see myself re-reading in the future. So it’s got to be pretty damn good. But because of my special classification, all 4 star books are ones that I would recommend to my friends and people in the street. 

This isn’t to say that I don’t re-read books at all. I have re-read books (especially when I was younger). The one book that I have read many many times is Homeless Bird by Gloria Whealen. It probably helps that the book is Middle Grade (MG) and I can power through it in about an hour. But I have re-read books….I just can’t think of any recent books. 

Do you guys re-read books?