Re-Reading Books: 7 Reasons Why You Should Be Doing It!

I’m sure all of us have rather big TBR lists or physical piles and there isn’t enough time to read all of the books on them – so why should we be re-reading books? Shouldn’t we be trying to conquer our TBRs instead? Well, obviously. I think conquering your TBR is so important, that I shared four tips on how to do it! But I also really like to re-read books that I loved the first time around! Today I’m going to talk about why you should take the time re-read your favorites!

Reason #1: You Know You Love The Story!

I feel like this is a great feeling to have when you’re going into a new book! Sometimes you pick up a book and you wonder if you are going to end up enjoying the story or if it’s going to be a disappointing read. And no one wants disappointing reads! But if you’re picking up a favorite book or series of yours, you already know that you are going to enjoy the story! I’ve actually re-read quite a few books this year already (books two and three in the TMI series, ACOTAR and ACOMAF and Lady Midnight) and I loved doing it!

Reason #2: You Get To Concentrate On Different Aspects Of The Books!

This is something that I tend to struggle with. Usually, when I read a book for the first time I get really sucked in by the story (which is great, obviously) and I will miss out on certain things about the story.

With all of my re-reads this year I realized that I was able to look at different characters more closely and get to know them more. I was also able to pick up on the foreshadowing that was put into books that I missed before – even if it’s spelled out exactly (Lady Midnight, I’m looking at you and laughing my ass off at myself for not seeing it the first time around)!

Reason #3: You Get To Spend Time With Characters You Love!

We all have our favorite characters that we talk about for days on end which probably has people rolling their eyes at us. Sorry not sorry about that! I know I certainly can’t stop talking about characters I love (you may not have seen it as much on here, but on Tumblr or Twitter – boy, I don’t shut up about them!) and getting to dive back into their worlds is always so much fun!

Before I actually started my re-read of ACOMAF I randomly picked up the book and read through a good chunk of Feyre and Rhysand scenes I had tabbed and I was so happy while I did that! I missed those characters and getting to be reunited with them was awesome!

And as an even more recent example: After I had written the title for this post, I walked over to my bookshelf and randomly picked up Clockwork Angel to help me think of reasons for this post but then I ended up re-reading Magnus and Will scenes instead. I didn’t even remember that I had tabbed those scenes – or that there are Will and Magnus scenes! I seriously need to re-read The Infernal Devices soon! It’s been too long already.

Reason #4: You Get To Familiarize Yourself With The Story For The Newest Release!

This is definitely more of a practical and logical reason compared to the previous ones, but it’s also a very important one, I think! With how the release schedule for series works there is usually about a year between books and if you are anything like me, you probably have no idea what happened in the previous book by the time the sequel releases. So what do you do now? Do you just hope for the best and jump into the sequel (I have done that too many times) or do you re-read?

Again, with the re-reading I have done this year – especially the books that I re-read in preparation for the newest release, I found that it’s so helpful as you have all the events fresh in your head and you aren’t trying to remember what the hell a character is talking about (this happened when I finally read the last two books in Richelle Mead’s Bloodlines series)!

And if you’re a big fan of either coming up with theories or watching theory videos on Booktube, this is definitely going to help you out a lot! I can’t wait to watch all of the Lord Of Shadows crackpot theory videos once I finish my re-read of Lady Midnight! Those videos are always so much fun!

Reason #5: You Get To Finally Finish The Book And Continue With The Story!

The very first time I ever read Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Boys I just couldn’t finish reading the book. I gave up somewhere about a hundred pages into the story and I never thought I was going to pick the book up again and give it another try. But I did and I was actually able to finish the book!

I feel like with the Raven Cycle Quartet, in particular, it might take the reader a bit of time to fully get into the story and get used to the writing style! Me deciding to actually give it a second chance and re-reading the beginning definitely helped a lot and now the series is one of my favorites! I’m so glad I decided to re-read The Raven Boys because I would have missed out on a great story otherwise!

If you have struggled with a book before but you are willing to give it a second chance, definitely do! And if it’s still not your cup of tea – at least you tried, right?

Reason #6: You Get To Fall In Love With Your Favorite Book All Over Again!

This might be my favorite reason to re-read a book again: you get to fall in love all over again! I have so many books on my shelves that I have read multiple times and that I can’t wait to read many more times because I just love them so much and each re-read just reminds me of my love again. And who doesn’t want to feel that?

But to be completely honest here, there is a chance that you might pick up a book you loved a lot when you were younger and you realize that it isn’t as great anymore. This actually happened for me with City Of Bones by Cassandra Clare when I re-read it at the end of last year! I couldn’t remember anything negative about the characters from my first time reading the book years ago and then when I was re-introduced to these characters it definitely rubbed me the wrong way how Clary was portrayed in the books.

I didn’t enjoy the way she acted towards Isabelle and Alec (both characters I love a lot) and I didn’t like the way she felt about herself either. She kept whining quite often or comparing herself to other women around her and only concentrating on the things she was lacking in her own eyes and it annoyed me this time around. This was definitely also influenced by the way these characters are written on the show Shadowhunters, not gonna lie.

So yes, there is a slight risk of you picking up your favorite book and realizing that it’s not all that anymore – which is really sad. But! It can also show you how your reading tastes have developed and that you’re looking for different things in books these days and I think that’s a great thing to happen too! You can still appreciate a book for all the things it represented for you at a younger age – there is nothing wrong with that!

Look at me going on this huge tangent that turned a positive aspect into something negative… oops! No, but seriously: You get to fall in love with a book again and that is the best feeling to have! I can re-read just short passages of any of the books in The Infernal Devices and I remember how much I love that trilogy. Or I read through passages of ACOMAF and I am flailing and fangirling again!

Reason #7: You Get To Take All The Time You Want With The Book!

If you’re an avid reader and spend time on any kind of social media, you probably know this feeling all to well: the fear of being spoiled for a highly anticipated new release! I remember when ACOWAR came out and people started reading it, Goodreads became a minefield of spoilers. Whenever I was trying to scroll down my timeline I always had to be really careful as not to get spoiled – that was the last thing I wanted. And I am sure this exact thing is going to be repeated once people start reading Lord Of Shadows.

The beauty of a re-read is that the book has most likely been out for a while and you know exactly what happens so you’re not rushing through the book to finish it to avoid being spoiled (this was me while reading ACOWAR). Instead, you get to take all the time in the world you need to read the book which is something I have come to really appreciate while re-reading Lady Midnight especially. I know that I still have a few more days to read the last half of the book and I don’t find myself stressing about having to read it at all times. I’ve actually been catching up on my shows in between reading sessions and it’s been great!

To be honest with you guys, I didn’t always re-read as many books as I did this year (I’m currently on my fifth re-read) because I wanted to complete the Goodreads reading challenge I had set myself for that year. And up until a couple of months ago, re-reads didn’t count towards your reading challenge and I hated it. But now that they actually count and don’t take away from previous years, I am basically sitting here like ‘RE-READ ALL THE BOOKS!’.

How do you guys feel about re-reads? Do you re-read often or do you prefer jumping into new books? Let’s discuss in the comments below!