📌 Why DO We Reread Books?
I don't have the answers, but I do have some thoughts.
I have been thinking a lot about rereading recently.
Often it’s only logical—for example, we may reread to understand, especially when dealing with complex concepts or stories. That is certainly the case with many young readers! Similarly, writers often reread purely for craft reasons—to analyze how a text was put together. Maybe the next book in a series (or even a movie adaptation) is incoming, and we want to prepare ourselves by refreshing our memories on details and plot points. Or perhaps the author has passed on, and we simply don’t have further options for their specific voice! [EDIT: Jennifer, pointed out another terrific reason: sometimes we reread to share—like when we reread old favorites to/with our kids.]
Those all make complete sense. But that’s not the sort of rereading that’s on my mind right now.
What I’m specifically thinking about is: why do we reread something we already know by heart? Those things we’ve read, oh, maybe even dozens of times (if not more)? (I include novels in this, so it’s not enough to explain it as the love of the art.)
I don’t know if this is right, but I think it may boil down to (roughly) one of three reasons.
Even if the books are the same, we are a bit different each time we read. Readers are constantly learning, evolving, and growing—and much like you can’t step into the same river twice, our perspective on the texts we love changes in ways, big and small, as we amass more life experience. Similarly, sometimes when we reread a story we remember, say, from our youth, we also gain perspective on the child we used to be and how far we’ve each come (or, sometimes, not!).
We reread for the same reasons we visit our old friends or family: to recapture feelings of nostalgia, security, and/or comfort. I moved a lot as a kid, and I think part of what I loved about rereading is that even when nothing around me looked much the same, I was always immediately at home in the fictional worlds of Stoneybrook or Where the Sidewalk Ends. In many ways, a good book (or a shelf of them) can act like a security blanket.
Rereading is one of the healthiest ways to self-medicate. We all know the world can be unpredictable. Sometimes it’s not just comfort you seek when you dip back into an old text! Perhaps you need a reliable laugh! Or maybe you are dealing with anxiety, and the last thing you need is something else (even if a fictional character) to worry about. Or perhaps you are just feeling uninspired, and paging through an inspirational standby helps you get back into the creative headspace you need. I recently enjoyed this article in The Seattle Times about reading by mood—an idea I find very intriguing! There was even a bookstore here in Seattle that organized its spaces by emotion, mixing nonfiction, fiction and kids together (though it has since been bought out and I’m not sure if it still keeps the old system. I have it on my list to check out).
What all three of these perhaps “less logical, more emotional” reasons to reread have in common, though, is an emotional truth that’s not unlike the Maya Angelou quote...even if you don't always remember exactly what a book said, you always remember how it made you feel.
What have I missed here? What drives you when you reread—especially knowing all the other good books out there you may not have read yet?
Yours over and over,
Elayne
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