Reading it Again

Great books stay with you. They linger on in your thoughts and can influence the way you see the world. But sometimes letting a book linger isn't the ultimate show of admiration. It is the re-read that truly says, "Yes, book, I love you."

And man do I love a lot of books, and I love, love, love re-reading them. I feel like I get something new out of it every time. I have re-read several of my favorites several times, and I'll even re-read books that I wasn't a huge fan of, just to give it another shot when I'm at a different point in my life.

Now, I'm kind of an extreme example of a re-reader. So extreme that I have, in fact, read the Harry Potter series at least 10 times. In my defense, I had to re-read them all before each book came out, and of course I had to read them all again before each movie! So it just became a habit of reading them every year. I've already done my re-read for this year, but I'm already getting the itch again. I can almost see my boyfriend's eye-roll as I type this.

But I know I'm not alone. My mom used to re-read The Lord of the Rings every year, until us kids came along and took up a lot of her time. Sorry, Mom. And my dad loves him some Tom Clancy (RIP). I think I've heard a few of his audio books at least three times over the years of our family road trips.

So that's me and my book worm family. What about you? Do you have favorites that you read every year? Or are you more a fan of retiring a book to the shelf once you've finished it?