It’s another summer Monday. Let’s meet up again . . . over in the Read With Us LOUNGE!

This weekend, I finished reading Ann Patchett’s new novel, Whistler. I loved it, and I wasn’t quite ready for it to end (that Ann Patchett . . . she creates magic in her books . . . ), so you know what I did? I went right back to the beginning and started reading it . . . all over AGAIN!

I do that sometimes.

When I mention to other people that I sometimes re-read books, they are usually taken aback. Why would you DO that . . . I’ve been asked more than once. They think it’s . . . unusual reading behavior . . . (So many books and so little time yada yada yada.) But it’s not unusual for me. I’ve been re-reading my favorite books . . . for as long as I’ve been reading.

As a child, I read and re-read books all the time! Heidi and National Velvet and Island of the Blue Dolphins. A Wrinkle in Time, The Phantom Tollbooth, the entire Little House on the Prairie series. Misty of Chincoteague and Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking. I loved them all (and many more) . . . over and over and over again.

My re-reading “habit” has followed me into adulthood, too. I re-read books for a variety of reasons. Sometimes – like with Whistler this weekend – I’m just not quite ready to break the spell the book cast over me, even though I’ve technically “finished” the book; I’m just not ready to let the story go. Sometimes – and especially if I’m in a reading slump or if I need a story to comfort me – I’ll pull out an old, comfortable favorite to re-read . . . Still Life by Sarah Winman, for example. Or anything by Elizabeth Strout. It’s always nice to wrap myself in a book I already know and love. Sometimes I’ll re-read a book because it was so cleverly written, and I want to go back to the beginning and appreciate how the various threads of the story came together, like when I recently re-read Ben Lerner’s Transcription as soon as I’d finished it. Sometimes, it’s pure nostalgia that gets me to pick up a book and re-read it (John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany, for example) and sometimes I just can’t remember the details of a book anymore, even though I know I’ve alread read it — and liked it (Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner comes to mind; it’s a book I plan to re-read this summer).

So many books I’ve loved.
So many reasons to read them again!

How about YOU? Do you ever re-read books? Under what circumstances might you decide to re-read a book? Have you ever been surprised by a re-read? Do you have any titles you read (or have read) over and over again?  Or . . . would you never consider wasting your precious reading time on a re-read? 

As always, there are no “right ways” or “wrong ways” to read books. We read for our own pleasure – however we derive that pleasure. So whether you like to re-read books – or would never consider such a thing, it’s all good here in the Lounge. (No rules. Just fun.)

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The Read With Us LOUNGE is now open for the summer!
Grab a book. Find a comfy spot to read with us for awhile.

No rules!
Just fun!

And be sure to visit Bonny and Carole today to see what they’re talking about in the LOUNGE.