When I first properly became a reader and aware of the reading community when I was fourteen, I had a very small collection of books. It could have filled a shelf and was all the YA classics at the time. The Mortal Instruments. The Hunger Games. Divergent. I was a big fan of all them at the time. Back then, as I had such a small collection of books, I would reread them all the times. I must have reread the Divergent series at least three times in one year.
Now that I have a much larger collection after many years of accumulating books, my rereads have become far and few. I typically reserve it for favourites of mine, books by Cassandra Clare and the Harry Potter series. Recently, I reread the first Noughts and Crosses book for the first time since I was fourteen. I had watched the TV show adaptation and wanted to refresh my memory on it. Rereading it got me thinking about rereads in general.
Why Is It So Comforting?
As a reader, I am always looking for new worlds and stories to consume. I am always ploughing through books just so I can start the next. Yet, when I do reread old favourites, it is an oddly comforting experience. It's like crawling into bed after a long day. Returning to familiar worlds, yet still being shocked by the twists and turns. To put it simply, it's nice to be in worlds you know and with characters you love.
Finding the Balance Between Old and New
In an ideal world, I would be able to read as many new books as possible while having time to return to favourites. However, in the real world there simply isn't enough time to read all the unread books on my TBR, especially if I'm giving up that time to reread books. Something I plan on doing more in the future, is rereading books so I can continue with the series I have started. I would like to tackle more of the series on my TBR and my problem is that I have read the first book, but have never made an effort to continue. There, I would find the perfect balance, between old and new books.
Those are some of my thoughts on rereading books. What are your thoughts on rereading books?
Carenza :) x
