I’m always slightly irked at the number of books Goodreads says I’ve read each year. In 2024, the app says, I’ve read 52 books but that’s incorrect. I’m sure I’ve read at least twenty-five more books but they’re all re-reads which don’t count.
I love re-reading beloved books. I find them comforting. In the past two weeks, I re-read Liz Carlyle’s Wicked All Day, Adele Ashworth’s Stolen Charms, Loretta Chase’s Your Scandalous Ways, and Kristen Callihan’s The Hook Up. (Of these, my favorite was Stolen Charms which I’d completely forgotten and was great fun.)
I’d hazard that about a third of my reading is re-reading. How about you? Are you a re-reader? If so, why? What have you re-read lately?
I’m not a big re-reader. I have a group of books that I term “comfort re-reads”. They are more “dip-in-able” than start-to-finish re-reads. If I’m between books or feeling like no new books are grabbing me, I’ll grab a comfort book and scroll through to re-read favorite passages. But, in general, there just seem to be so many good new books being released, it’s hard to squeeze in re-reads, as much as I liked the book originally. The last two books I re-read start-to-finish were BASS-ACKWARDS (an underappreciated gem that I found out about here at AAR) and SEASON’S CHANGE (an m/m hockey romance with a teammates-to-lovers set-up).
Ditto and for the exact same reasoning. I can’t recall the last time I re-read a book all the way through. I do re-read fairly often but typically because I want to read for 15-20 minutes before bed and don’t want to start a new book. I will pick a comfort read and read some of my favorite passages. If I do re-read an entire book, I’m skimming through to my favorite parts so probably only reading up to a third of it.
I find myself doing a lot of rereading at bedtime. I want something I know is not going to give me nightmares and something familiar so I won’t have to stay up all night to find out what happens. Lately it’s been Heyer’s The Quiet Gentleman. I don’t quite know why it’s one of my favorites, but it’s long enough to lull me to sleep for a week or more.
Exactly! I don’t want a book that will give me nightmares. I reread a lot. I keep a list with grades (yes, I was a teacher), date of reading, where I got it (kindle, library, bought the print edition), and my comments, so when I want a good book with humor or wonderful heroine/hero, I go there. I started this list because I didn’t want to buy the same book twice. Rereading is like spending time with an old friend who tells you a story you already knew. You still laugh.
I do reread. If I see a book recommended in steals and deals and I realize I own it, that could trigger a reread. If someone has a new book coming out, I might want to go back and read the previous books. I just finished Stella Riley‘s Shadows books and that sent me back to the Rockcliffe series. The good news about getting older is that I often forget what I read.
I forget what I’ve read all the time – I’ll sometimes by midway through a book before it starts to feel familiar LOL.
I reread all the time. And it would be easy to say that’s because I can’t find new authors I like nowadays but I’ve always reread favorite authors a lot.
If I have plenty of rereading books lined up (I wait 5 years between reads), over half (as I DNF less rereads than new reads).
I hardly ever re-read romance, except a quick dabble before bedtime like some others here. I’ve re-read a lot of 20th century mystery and suspense in recent years but that’s after a gap of decades, in order to compare my experience with my teenage self now that I notice the writing style and social history so much more. But I know romances I read 20 years ago are unlikely to hold up because my tastes have changed so much. If I do re-read the odd romance it’s likely to be a book from the last few years that I may have inhaled the first time around and want to savour this time.
I do very little re-reading – probably 90+% of the books I read each year are ARCs for review, which means I don’t have a lot of time to read other stuff – and when I do have time, there are enough new books I want to read to fit into those slots.
But I do a fair bit of re-listening – sometimes I want to listen to a particular favourite narrator (most of my audiobook listening and purchasing decisions are narrator-led) or I want something I won’t have to concentrate on too much because I’m already familiar with the story – or if I’m unwell/can’t sleep, I want a listen I can doze off to without worrying I’ll miss something.
Same! I think I’ve listened to the Magpie Lord series by K.J. Charles 3 times now, and her other audiobooks at least 2x each. But I rarely have time to reread written books, the only exception being if I’m reading a series and it’s a while since the last one came out, I might reread to catch up.
For a long time, my rereading was about 1/3 of my reading, but that percentage has gone down in recent years. Below are romance-only counts from annual spreadsheets. I noticed a lot more F&SF than romance rereading in some years.
2024 to date: 1 of 64 = 1.6%
2023: 8 of 151 = 5.3%
2022: 13 of 218 = 6%
2021: 12 of 224 = 5.4%
2020: 22 of 189 = 11.6 %
2019: 30 of 179 = 16.8%
2018: 13 of 178 = 7.3%
2017: 12 of 210 = 5.7%
2016: 14 of 205 = 6.8%
2015: 18 of 169 = 10.7%
2014: 21 of 151 = 13.9%
2013: 10 of 174 = 5.7%
2012: 10 of 190 = 5.3%
2011: 24 of 185 = 13%
My all-time romance re-reads are 0,19% of my total romance reads.
I’d say mine is around 20% as well.
I don’t do a lot of re-reading – maybe just a handful of books each year. But you can definitely get Goodreads to count each of your multiple reads – you just have to go to the book and switch it to “currently reading” from “read” and it will log it as a separate new read. It will also track each of your reads and how long it took.
Got it. Thanks!