The Value of Re-Reading: The Best Books Are Worth Going Back To

When I was younger, I used to make a list every summer of all of the books I planned to read over the long school break. I would stand in my family’s large book collection and write down every title that caught my interest. Usually this list would reach into the hundreds.

As you can imagine, I rarely finished the list of books I set out to read. But I did get to dive into some pretty great new books. I learned to appreciate classic literature more, dove outside of my normal reading, and through Dee Henderson my non-romance appreciating self slowly began to soften.

One year, however, I looked at my always-growing personal shelf of horse books, and wondered how long it had been since I read them. So that year, I decided to dedicate my list to re-reading all of those old books I had loved so much. And I found that I enjoyed the story just as much as I did the first time, if not more, because I found old information that I had long forgotten from reading it before.

If you’ve loved books, but never read the same book twice, I am here today to tell you that yes, rereading is worth it, because rereading allows you to fall in love with the story all over again. Not to mention that if you’re a writer (like myself), then rereading is even more important.

Ready to dive in?

What Makes it Worth a Re-read?

But, you may ask “Why reread?” A valid question indeed. We already know what happens– the magical suspense of the plot is gone. So why bother with rereading?

To understand that, we need to ultimately ask the question– what makes a book worth rereading?

When I was around thirteen, I discovered a fantasy series called The Guardian Herd. Now, I wasn’t a big fantasy buff back then (shocking, am I right?) but I was just diving into the genre and the premise of the book (a black pegasus destined to become the most powerful equine in the world doomed to die on his first birthday) intrigued me, so I downloaded it onto my Kindle and began to read.

Would you like to know how many times I have reread that series?

Five times. All four books. Sequentially. I ultimately fell in love with the world and the characters, and because I did, I wanted more of them. Rereading brought new details to light– I paid more attention to interactions and dialogue, instead of speeding through to figure out what happens next in the plot.

Even more interesting, I could never be hooked the same way with the spin-off series, Riders of the Realm. I was thoroughly annoyed with it, did not really care about the human POV that I felt polluted my precious pegasi, and it never gave any answer to what happened to the other characters after the end of the last TGH book Windborn. It was a good plot, no doubt– but I did not care about the characters (and it didn’t help that they changed the cover art, which I thought was a lot uglier and would have rather had the other old art back). I’d skim through the all-too frequent human POV of Rakki and read more of Echofrost’s POV, but even so, I found myself not caring.

I will admit I ended up being so annoyed and so frustrated I skipped to the end of the series and was appalled to find that exactly what I hoped wouldn’t happen, did happen in the end, and I shut the book and didn’t read any more. The last two books in that trilogy still sit on my shelf, skimmed, but not read.

So no, I am not saying you have to reread every book you’ve ever read, but you should reread some books, especially if you’re a writer. What makes a book worth rereading will ultimately be up to you, but if you’re not sure, here is a small list of books that I have reread over the years, and some books that I found hard to read twice:

• The Saddle Club Series
• Thoroughbred Series
• The Phantom Stallion Series
• Black Beauty
• Misty of Chincoteague
• The Hiding Place
• Extension Squad
• The Mysterious Benedict Society
• The Chronicles of Narnia
• How to Think Like a Horse
• Do Hard Things
• This Changes Everything
• My Side of the Mountain
• The Guardian Herd series
• A Whisper of Horses
• A Pony Express Christmas
• The American Girl Books
• Animal Farm
• Sea Star, Orphan of Chincoteague
• Greetings from Witness Protection
• The O’Malley Series
• The Star that Always Stays
• The Devil’s Arithmetic
• The Giver

Now, some of these (like Animal Farm) were just because they were short and I liked them. Others (like Extension Squad) were just because I was totally obsessed with the world and a few were series that I owned collections of and I liked to go through the books again.

Here are some books that I found I disliked rereading, and why I didn’t go back:

• The Black Stallion– I despise the prose. It reminds me too much of my twelve-year-old writing. And the plot no longer captures my attention. I used to reread it when I was little, but I’ve found it harder to pick up the better of a writer I became.
• Stormy, Misty’s Foal– I don’t know why I don’t like rereading this book. Perhaps because Misty isn’t in it as much. It was just less exciting.
• A Little Princess– Didn’t capture my attention. A good story to read once, but not more than once. Perhaps that’s just my opinion.
• Mystery novels. The Jack Russell books were an exception, but I lost my attention after reading the mystery once. After all, I already knew who did it!

Look through your own book collection. Are there books you think you’d be interested in rereading now?

But… Why Reread?

If thinking about your favorite books and why you fell in love with them hasn’t convinced you on rereading them yet, you may still be wondering– “But, why reread? Haven’t we already read them? Don’t we know what’s going to happen?”

To which I ask– why do you spend time with a close friend that you know very well? To learn more about them, correct? The same goes for books.

When you first read a book, you are less focused on the prose and more focused on the characters and plot. You want to figure out what happens, if the characters survive, and if certain hoped-for events would happen along the way. If these things don’t happen, or if you lose interest in the characters (*cough-cough*, Riders of the Realm) then you as the reader end up disappointed and you’re probably not going to pick up the book again. However, if you’re pleasantly surprised, then if you read the book again, you’re falling in love with the world all over again, without the stress of figuring out just what happens next. You see the finer details– for instance, when I read the Extension Squad books twice in two weeks (they’re short books, and I was inspired to write a fanfiction), I noticed a lot of smaller details I’d missed in the first books, including a whole conversation between two characters that revealed some particularly useful and perhaps pertinent information that could link to the next book.

Rereading allows you to get to know the characters and world better. It also helps, if you’re a writer, for you analyze the writing and characters itself. I’ve done it so many times rereading it’s become habit, which is why I no longer enjoy The Black Stallion (it also made for reading The Cat of Bubastes excruciatingly painful). Good reading strengthens writing, and rereading helps you to implement what you read.

And sometimes rereading is just a fun way to relieve memories. There is one book particularly that reminds me of Toby Mac’s music album Portable Sounds, because I read the book with headphones on listening to that album.

Not to mention, rereading keeps you reading books if you can’t find what you like, and reading twice also helps increase your vocabulary. And if you just reread because you absolutely adore the books, then go ahead!

Rereading has so many benefits, a simple Google search reveals dozens of articles explaining the benefits of rereadings. But perhaps C.S. Lewis summarized it best with these words:

No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.

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It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

C.S. Lewis

Good books deserve to be reread, and there is always a joy in getting to know an old friend again. So go to your shelf, grab that old book, and dive back into the world that you love.