Comfort In the Pages: The Joys of Re-Reading Your Favorite Books
One of the reasons that I enjoy re-reading is that I may find a new detail I had glossed over in previous readings of the book. Re-reading the book helps me better understand the story and what the author wanted the audience to gain. When I find those hidden details and foreshadowing I missed, it feels like I am reading the book for the first time. I can form my own theories about the themes of the book, take a deeper look at the perspective of the characters, and understand why they might have acted the way they did. I can then share those theories with other readers who have read the same book as me and have in-depth conversations.
Second, I enjoy reading both book series and stand-alone books. When it comes to releasing a book in a series, it can take over a year for the next one to appear. But that doesn’t stop me from re-reading those books in a series, regardless if the series is complete or not. I enjoy the continuation of a good story. Re-reading a series allows me to go back to the beginning and see how one particular character I could not stand transformed to becoming my favorite character in the series. When an author finally releases the newest book in the series, re-reading from the beginning lets me have the events from the previous books fresh in my mind and helps me be both emotionally and mentally prepared.
I can talk forever about the joys of re-reading books, but the biggest reason I love them is that they can be comforting to me. There are some books I associate with happy memories, and when I re-read them, those memories will return to me. Harry Potter is one book series I associate with great memories with my family. Most of my family members and I have read the series and watched the movies together. During family get-togethers, the topic of Harry Potter was always on the table, and we would talk for hours about the series. Now that I am older and my family has moved away, it is hard for us to all get together. But whenever I re-read the Harry Potter series, I am reminded of the great times I had growing up, and I can feel the love they have for me, even though we are miles apart.
To me, re-reading is not only a hobby; it’s similar to visiting an old friend you haven’t seen in a long time. It has brought comfort to my life and helped me gain a new understanding of the book within its pages. No matter what might be happening in my life, whether it’s good or bad, re-reading helps me take a step back and get lost in a world with characters I cherish.
The books in my re-reading rotation are available in the Mercer County Library System collection. I encourage you to take a look and check them out. You never know; you might find a book to add to your re-reading inventory!
A horror story of a children's pet cemetery and another graveyard behind it from which the dead return.
What happens between the penetrating cold terror of an old hotel, a haunted place of seductive evil with a malevolent will of its own--and a five-year-old boy of innocent beauty whose mind mirrors the nightmarish secrets of its past?
Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a fiery passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse or she will lose Tamlin forever
After she has served a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, Crown Prince Dorian offers eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien her freedom on the condition that she act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Rescued from the outrageous neglect of his aunt and uncle, a young boy with a great destiny proves his worth while attending Hogwarts School for Wizards and Witches.
Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon.
Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders. But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away ... because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them. With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant. She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise. Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.
--by Rebecca Eaton., Hollowbrook Library Branch Manager
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