I realize that for book bloggers this question comes with a little baggage. We love re-reading our favorite books, but we also feel a lot of pressure to keep up with new releases or read ARCs or finish our never-ending tbr. I know that a lot of us don’t prioritize re-reading. But I’m still curious.
My first year blogging I didn’t re-read a single book. My second year I started doing “Favorites February” and re-read the Percy Jackson series, but then didn’t re-read anything else for the entire year. By my third year blogging I knew that if I wanted to re-read books (which I did), I was going to have to be methodical. That was around the time I started doing my genre rotation, so I worked a re-read into that. These days I force myself to re-read something after I’ve read four new books. So about 20% of the books I’ll read this year will be re-reads. Maybe a little more, because of series. That being said, I abandoned by genre rotation last summer, so we’ll see if I can keep it up this year!
Do you re-read books? How often to you re–read? Let me know in the comments!
Never Not Reading 
That is so true about book blogger not being able to reread as much as they might like……. because of the pressure . This year and just now is the first time in a long, long time like 5 or more years I started rereading 😛 I decided if I do audio I still have time for other normal review copies and and all that. Im only on the second book of a reread and so far good but we shall see how long it lasts 🤷♀️😂
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Yet another reason not to do review copies! Honestly had never considered that ARCs would take away time from re-reads, but I feel more and more like ignoring them was the best choice for me every day.
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I’m doing less and less as well and I’m now VERY selective and picky now when it comes to them 🤷♀️😛
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i honestly don’t like re-reading books i’ve already read! this is a characteristic that doesn’t apply only to books, i have difficulties doing the same thing twice, and over and over again! i might try to reread a favorite book but only 4 years or more after i read it for the first time, so i forgot a big bunch of it!
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So do you like, not re-watch movies either? This is literally unfathomable to me.
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I do re-read quite a few books but they tend to be childhood favourites that I really fancy reading in the moment. Particularly last year, I found that I needed to mood-read more than ever and these typically tend to be re-reads (as I guess it gives me more comfort)!
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It seems like a lot of people did lots of re-reading in 2020! I get that, we all needed some comforts last year, and old favorites are definitely comforting.
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Very rarely! I haven’t been blogging long and I can see how a blogger who would want to reread something wouldn’t because of the pressure to post new reviews. For me though I rarely feel the urge to reread something unless it an an absolute favourite. With Silver Flames coming out in a few weeks I have a reread planned for the ACOTAR series but thats the first one in probably years. There are just so many amazing new books available I find it difficult to want to go back and read something I already read. Saying that sometimes its been so long since you read something a reread is nice because you forget everything that happened lol! 😀
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Definitely, my awareness of just how many amazing books there are out there drives my reluctance to re-read books. But, like, reading is *fun*, and half the new books I try are just meh, so knowing my re-read is going to knock it out of the park is a big motivator for me.
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I only reread books if my book club is doing something I previously read
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I would definitely cheat and not re-read it. Unless I really wanted to, I guess.
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There is one series that I re-read every December, and then I try to re-read some other childhood favorites throughout the year, like Stuart Little, or A Little Princess. I love to re-read, I pick up on things that I might have missed, and I love seeing if my feelings have changed.
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Ooo, now I have to know! What is it you read every December?
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Harry Potter.
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Of course. I used to read them every summer. Miss those days.
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I know how touchy of a subject Harry Potter is, that’s why I didn’t mention it at first.
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I understand. I haven’t talked about it on my blog at all since summer. But I’ve been slowly bringing it up again here and there.
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I am constantly rereading books; another carry-over from childhood, I suppose. The books I love are reread, of course, but if I have a book that I didn’t like (particularly one I have to review) I never judge on the first reading. So much depends on mood, timing, events…phase of the moon…I don’t know. But they get reread a couple of times. And the ones I love…several times a year.
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I used to have a solid five books that I *had* to read every year. I kind of miss that, honestly.
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I plan to reread but I can read less reread book than I have planned every year. It’s getting tough to reread with all the new books coming and even those already released books that I haven’t read yet.
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I know, my backlist is so huge. I don’t generally do a very good job of keeping up with new releases, but the size of my tbr is a constant worry.
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Interesting question! I don’t reread as much as I did when I was a kid, but I had access to fewer books then! Now I’m more likely to reread classics and books I really love and don’t really reread books in a series just to remember what happened in them.
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I was a big re-reader when I was a kid! I don’t think it was because I didn’t have access to books, because I did, it was more that I didn’t know how to find something new. I remember literally walking down the aisle at the library with my eye closed and picking a book at random. Never seemed to work out very well. But if I re-read something I already knew I liked… I must have read the Bunnicula series twenty times.
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I don’t usually re-read books just for fun. I feel less enthusiastic about the book if I know the ending. But every once in a while, circumstances force me to re-read my favorites, and then I am always gobsmacked by how good the book is and by how much of its goodness I had forgotten.
“Circumstances forcing me” could include: I want to blog about the book because it ties in to something that’s on my mind … I need to read it with my kids as part of their education … I saw it discussed on someone’s blog and thought “I really should go back to that.”
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I don’t have the same feeling at all. I love going back to a book after knowing what will happen and finding all the little hints and foreshadowing along the way. It also makes it more clear how the character grows. Re-reading is sometimes even better than reading it the first time for me.
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I do reread a lot, though I think I probably reread more when I was growing up. My family didn’t go to the library too often, so I read what I had over and over. Now I can go the library whenever I want for new releases, so rereads happen less often, sadly.
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I read so quickly when I was a kid. Probably because my reading level was so much higher than my interest level. My teachers let me go to the school library whenever I wanted, but I still reread more than anything.
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My school library was not remotely accommodating. We went once a week and were allowed to check out one book. If the class was noisy, we were punished by not being allowed to check out a book at all. And the librarian wouldn’t let me read anything but beginner books even though I was reading books like Little House on the Prairie because she thought all kids read the same books based on grade or something.
I hated that I was forced to check out books that were below my reading level and interest level, and it made me feel like the librarian wasn’t listening to me and didn’t respect me. She wasn’t trained, though. I think she was just someone’s mom, probably.
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Probably. It’s amazing how many bad school librarians there were/are out there, and how sad it is. It can turn people off from the library (and reading!) for the rest of their lives.
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So true. 😦
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I rarely reread, because there are so many books I haven’t read stealing my attention away!
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#relatable
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I totally agree with what you say about book bloggers and rereading! It’s a challenge! And I usually don’t, but recently I’ve started rereading in anticipation of new releases, especially the books I absolutely love!
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A lot of times I have to re-read a series before the new release in order to fall back into the world effortlessly.
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Exactly!
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As time goes by, I tend to re-read books more and more often. Books do not change, but you do, so you find different things every time you read them. You get intimate with the books, you know them almost by heart, but it seems they know you too. Re-reading, your go deeper in the understanding of the books, but also in the understanding of yourself.
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That’s such a great point, that I don’t read a book the same way now as I did when I was 18, and when I’m 50 I’ll read it in a different way still.
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20% sounds like an ideal amount! I was a big rereader before my blogging days, although growing up it was definitely harder for me to get ahold of new books so that played a factor. With blogging, it’s not so much that I feel like I *have* to be reading new things all the time, but I am more aware of how very much is out there now that I’m online a lot, so I feel like there’s a lot I don’t want to miss out on. The last five years or so I’ve barely reread at all, but it’s definitely something I enjoy and would love to find a way to get back into!
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Getting my hands on new books was difficult for me, as well, and contributed to my re-reading. Rediscovering the library was as influential to my lack of re-reading just as much as blogging was, because I didn’t have to pay for the 115 books I read last year.
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I’ve been re-reading a lot less but when I reread, I tend to reread the same few books because I already know I’m going to enjoy the story
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I also tend to read the same couple of books over and over again. This year I’m trying to reread some books it’s been 10+ years since I last read.
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Oh man, I used to do rereads ALL the time. But then I finished college and got back into reading new books and blogging, and now I only do it occasionally – mostly when I’m feeling stressed lol. Reminding yourself to reread something after x amount of books is a good idea!
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I feel like it forces me to actually do it. Which is weird since I actually tend to *prefer* re-reading, that I have to force myself to do it. Book blogger life, amiright?
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I love to re-read books, but with so many books out there, I don’t tend to re-read as often now. Which is a shame! Some of my favorite books are the ones that have given me entirely different experiences and insights with each reread. It’s been great reading books I loved as a kid with my oldest—gives me a chance to retread old favorites. Some hold up better than others… XD But I ought to do this for myself more often, too!
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I’ve always re-read childhood favorites to my classes, and I’ve definitely also noticed that some don’t hold up so well. It can be surprising which ones do! Animorphs, for example, they ended up really enjoying!
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#rereadseverybookIloveXP
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