A Case For the Reread...

There are so many books. I could read a new book every day and still never run out of new things to read. When I was a kid, I had a vague idea that I would read everything out there. It is just impossible. I know plenty of people who, when faced with this realization, develop an idea of never rereading anything. Press ever onward.

I am not one of those people.

Every once and a while I get the urge to reread something. Notably, I reread the Harry Potter books every year as they were coming out. So I read book 1 seven times.  I've reread Mercedes Lackey's Valdamir books several times. I used to reread Alice's Adventures in Wonderland every time I got sick. I reread the original Dune series four times, mostly to irritate my then boyfriend, I think. When there is a long gap in reading between books in a series, I'll often reread the early books before continuing on.

There are a lot of reasons to reread. Here are my favorites:

• For a dense text, rereads allow access to greater meaning. I'm not saying that every book operates on enough levels for this, but as a Brit Lit teacher I end up reading the same twenty odd texts over and over...and over...and...over. Most of them I regularly discover new levels of meaning in.
• Companion reading. When someone I know is reading a book that I know is good, I'll sometimes pick it back up for a reread. The reason is that it is fun to talk about a book with someone else who's read it.  It's a community thing.
• Literature Linking. So the most awesome thing about books is that they are really all part of a big conversation that spans the whole of literary history. Call it monomyth or literary allusion, it doesn't matter. All books borrow ideas and link together in a complex chain. Most of the time, that sort of floats under my awareness. Every once and a while, I spot the conversation. I see how two books connect across time. Once that happens, well, then I gotta reread the book.
• Spending Time With Old Friends. Some books are just like old friends. It's the intellectual equivalent to comfort food...but kinder to the waistline.

In the end, I think it's valuable to do a little rereading. It provides balance and shows us the ways in which we change and the ways we stay the same.