Hoohoo, friends of the blade.
Reading habits change over time. I think most of us who have been reading for a couple of years have noticed that. I noticed it in two things the most: the genres I prefer to read and I started rereading books. When it comes to genres, I now read a lot of romance. I still love fantasy, but I prefer if those have a romantic subplot as well. Or if they’re romantasy. I also started reading more nonfiction, mostly thanks to uni but also because there are many interesting topics out there.
But yes, rereading books. I never did that when I was younger. I thought: why would I? I already know the story and there are so many other books I want to discover as well. How has that changed? I can’t answer that exactly but it either started with The Bone Season or with All For the Game. I do believe it started with the former.
I read The Bone Season for the first time about seven or eight years ago, I think. A few friends and I wanted to do a travelling annotated book and we chose the Bone Season for it, sending it back and forth with our annotations. It was a fun experience even though I didn’t enjoy the book that much. For whatever reason, I still decided to continue the series and picked up book 2, The Mime Order and whew boy, I’m so glad I did. To this date, The Mime Order is still one of my all time favourite books. And since I loved it so much, I of course had to read book 3 as well. And before reading that one, I reread the first two books as well. Because I had developed a sieve for a memory by that point and couldn’t remember anything. Strangely enough, this time around, I loved The Bone Season. I’ve actually read it a couple of times since that. So that is one of the reasons I reread: a new instalment in a series is released and because I can’t remember even the main characters’ names, I need to reread the previous books.
All for the Game then showed me that I actually like rereading favourite books. I first became wildly obsessed with the series in 2020 when I buddy read it for a reading challenge. It hasn’t left me since and I reread the entire series at least once a year since then. At least. Listen, I don’t know what it is about these books that just makes me go absolutely feral. Objectively, they aren’t good. Subjectively, they’re some of the best books ever written. So I reread them to enjoy them again and again and again. And that’s reason number two why I reread.
The third reason doesn’t occur that often but sometimes I reread books because I have to. Like, when we read books in book club that I’ve already read. So I read them again for the content to be fresh in my mind and up for discussion. This only goes for classics though, since it’s a classics book club.
The main reason I reread books is simply said number two: I love diving into beloved worlds more than once. Aside from the wizard books that must not be named, the books I reread most are The Bone Season series, The Grisha trilogy, Watership Down and All for the Game. Other books I’ve reread once or twice, too, like The Poppy War or The Green Bone Saga. Even though I technically know these stories and know what happens, it’s still an experience™ to visit the worlds and the characters again. Often, I notice things I haven’t noticed previously. Or I get all giggly because I know one of my favourite scenes is about to come.
Rereading favourite books, no matter if they’re sweet romances, dark fantasies or weird ass sports novels, it’s like coming home. It’s that warm feeling in the pit of your stomach, the anticipation of meeting something or someone beloved. It’s both excitement about being in good company and calm because you know what to expect. Even knowing the content, I still can’t get enough of these stories and I cannot stop reading until the book is finished.
Rereading also gets me out of reading slumps quite easily. I’m in a slump? I pick up The Foxhole Court, read it in a day and gone is the slump. That might not work for everyone, but it definitely does for me. Sometimes my brain’s RAM is stuffed and I can’t process anything new, so I turn to something I know I’ll love. And maybe I’ll like it even more this time around. It’s weird but the more I reread a text, the more I love it. The more details I see, the more foreshadowing I get, the more I realize how deeply I love the characters and how attached to them I am.
These years, I’m rereading a lot. And I enjoy every second of it. A lot. I also started rereading some of my childhood & teen favourites because I forgot so much about them. It’s such a joy for me and I’m so glad I’m able to reread all these wonderful stories.
Do you like rereading books? Why / Why not? Which is your most reread book? If you could, would you let yourself foget everything about a book to experience it again completely new?
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Review of The Mask Falling (TBS 4) | Bone Season Playlist | 26 Books That Shaped My Life | Things I Became Obsessed With
Until next time,
