Re-reading books you own

sniffer66 · 07-09-2009, 8:53 AM

I tend to buy most of the books I read and have two groaning bookcases. I dont believe in throwing books out or selling them on as I tend to re-read each book every few years. My wife thinks this is odd and nags me to get rid of them to make room for new ones. She can't understand reading a book more than once.

Do you read books once or re-read them over and over ?

Edit: Could a kindly mod please edit my mistype in the title to say "Books", thanks !

Stream62 · 07-09-2009, 9:00 AM

Yeah I reread quite a few books some i must have read 5-6 times. Depends on the book, a load of my favorites I reread whenever I don't have a 'to read' pile.

Used to also not give / throw any books away but ran out of space with multiple bookshelves all over the house. Finally had to get rid of a load last year when the little one turned up! Still got a load of shelves worth but got rid of half of them to local charity shops. But did just get rid of those ones i've only read once and was unlikely ot read again... was hard parting with some but was quite ruthless!

Toasty · 07-09-2009, 10:49 AM

I used to be a book collector, but not much of a book re-reader. I sympathise with your wifes view a little. I have loved reading my collection, but for me its never the same second time round and often find I abort, or "Speed Read" a second reading.

My view now is that there are literally thousands of books to explore, so why not read as many as possible instead of limiting to a small subset I've already read. On that note, I've stopped collecting and use the library more and have given a lot of books away to charity shops. I still buy books, but not with a view to keep, unless I think other members of the family may enjoy them.

Edit: As a side affect of all this, I've discovered a lot of great Authors and books I would never have previously considered.

mossym · 07-09-2009, 10:51 AM

i often reread books..but i do concentrate almost exclusively on WW2 history, so they are pretty factual and more reference books than fiction so don't lose much in the reread..they also tend to have a more limited market so not so appealing to buy second hand for others

Codehead · 07-09-2009, 10:55 AM

Mrs Codehead has a large pile of Anne McCaffrey books which she reads over and over again. She will even restart the same book if she can't be bothered to get up and get another one! She will even restart at a random point in the book!

I can't do it, I used to read my Pratchett library over and over in order, but with 30 odd books it's a good while before I repeat one.

I am a hoarder, I hate getting rid of books (unless I didn't enjoy them), but I will only read most of them once of twice.

**Theydon Bois** · 07-09-2009, 1:09 PM

/agree

I am in the horder and collector group - and quite often if a book came out a good year or so after the previous one, then I would read from the begining again. Feist Magician is a good example for me - I must have read that book at least a dozen times.

It does help that I read fast and have a short term memory for books - I know the gist of the story, but little things I miss becasue I forgot, or speed read past them by accident.

**Theydon Bois** · 07-09-2009, 1:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sniffer66

Edit: Could a kindly mod please edit my mistype in the title to say "Books", thanks !

Done.

Codehead · 07-09-2009, 1:15 PM

Ah, we have mods now.

Not that this area should be too taxing.

**Theydon Bois** · 07-09-2009, 1:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Codehead

Ah, we have mods now.

Not that this area should be too taxing.

Yep, Me and Iron Giant

vader100 · 07-09-2009, 3:58 PM

I've got a good hundred or so books and re read most of them at least once. I am also keeping many of them for my kids so they have the chance to read them as they grow up.

dng007 · 08-09-2009, 7:02 PM

In theory I re-read, though I always have such a large backlog of unread books, in reality it'll likely be years before a book gets re-read.

I rarely get rid of a book, unless I really didn't enjoy it. I tend to keep the vast majority of my books up in the loft, where I have several bookcases filled up with them all! That way they're not cluttering up the house, but still easy to hand should I fancy re-reading one.

Scholes18 · 08-09-2009, 7:28 PM

Only tend to buy books i really want so as a result i end up re-reading them several times over.

As an example im currently re-reading "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett which i must have read 3 or 4 times since i bought it.

Thats certainly not the only case.

**Hillskill** · 09-09-2009, 1:55 PM

Never ever re-read them, once its done its done.

Harj · 10-09-2009, 5:17 AM

I've re-read Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence, surely I deserve a medal?

rickinyorkshire · 10-09-2009, 9:33 AM

Yes i do re-read my books more than once, some i have read 5 times or more.

DPinBucks · 10-09-2009, 1:05 PM

Do it all the time. In fact, I should think that 60% of my reading consists of re-reads. For a start, it saves me a fortune.

Perhaps I've never grown up properly.

Kids love to have a favourite story retold time and again, and so do I. I think our enjoyment comes in the telling, not simply the ending.

Do you not think that a similar attitude applies to films & TV series? How many of you who never re-read a book also never watch repeats of films? I'm not making a point here; just asking out of interest. I can re-read a book or watch a repeat of, say, Morse, much more frequently than I can watch a repeat of a film (I know that doesn't seem to make sense, but it's true).

My mother would occasionally start to read a library book with much enjoyment then at page 100 or so suddenly realise she'd read it before. At that point she'd stop reading it. I never quite understood that.

GasDad · 10-09-2009, 1:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DPinBucks

Do you not think that a similar attitude applies to films & TV series? How many of you who never re-read a book also never watch repeats of films? I'm not making a point here; just asking out of interest. I can re-read a book or watch a repeat of, say, Morse, much more frequently than I can watch a repeat of a film (I know that doesn't seem to make sense, but it's true).

I'm very similar, I'd say around 50% of my reading is re-reads, of which 50% is probably fiction. But I still manage at least 2 new books a week.

As for re-watching good drama, rather than re-watching films - I've never thought about that before, but your analysis also fits my behavior. Perhaps we concentrate at a different level when watching a film - so it bears less repetition.

mentalpen · 10-09-2009, 1:37 PM

Most of the books i own have been re-read atleast twice.

littlesheepy · 10-09-2009, 4:58 PM

I've got a couple of favourites that i re-read over and over that i own. Otherwise i try to keep reading new things. As i work in a library it's useful to try and keep up to date with newer things too

Battle · 12-09-2009, 9:44 PM

Im up to a couple of thousand books now in 9 large book cases and many of them have been re-read but as Im constantly buying new ones its not as commom as it used to be before I could afford to buy anything that took my fancy.

My most re-read book is probably Legend by David Gemmel, closely followed by various titles by Mercades Lackey or Pratchet

Re-reading just give you more insight into some books giving you the chance to notice clues you missed the first time.

Orson · 17-09-2009, 12:56 AM

My wife thinks the same as the OP's, and she can't understand why I need to keep them once read.

I do re-read some I have read, but not too recently, I think a bit of my mind 'shuts away' the main parts and the ending, as I never know what's about to happen either

.

And I've got the last 2 Stephen King - Dark Tower books to read, but it's been such a long time since I read the first few, I'm going to start from book 1