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[darchildre]

My coworker was talking about lilacs this morning, which led to me attempting to explain the Glorious 25th of May. I quoted the bit about Truth, Justice, Freedom, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hardboiled Egg and she looked at me, amazed, and asked me how I remember things like that. I told her that I'd read the book several times and listened to the audiobook even more times and she boggled at me again and told me that she doesn't reread books. Which was my turn to boggle, because what? I don't even buy books unless I've already read them and loved them. What is the point of buying books if you don't plan to read them again?

I don't know how common either of our ways of doing things is, though, so I figured I would do a poll.

Poll #10491

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 23

View Respondents

I reread books I like...

View Answers

Frequently
13 (56.5%)

Sometimes
6 (26.1%)

Rarely
3 (13.0%)

Never
1 (4.3%)

Comments

[ex_mrs260625]

Wait -- is the question how often I re-read a book I like, as in, "I re-read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes frequently"? Or how often I re-read books I like, as in "I re-read all/some/few/none of the books I like"?

I re-read almost all the books I like (so frequently), but I would say I do that re-reading sometimes or rarely.

[darchildre]

My apologies - that is unclear. My question is more "do people reread books" than "how often do you do that rereading".

[ex_mrs260625]

I have changed my vote accordingly. :0)

[ysobel]

I don't reread everything of course, but I also definitely have books that I'm wearing out with all the rereading :) It's like comfort food.

[zhelana]

I was debating between rarely and never. I did reread the harry potter books, but the second go through was in Spanish and was more an exercise in using my Spanish than in reading the books. I think that's the only books I've reread within say 5 years of reading them the first time. Actually, I can't think of another book I've reread at all. hmm.

[scribbled_lore]

I have a list of go-to books based on what I want out of the experience; for example if I'm down and out I go to Mercedes Lackey for her 500 Kingdoms and fairy tale re-tellings because they're silly and ridiculous (to me). My criteria for re-reading books is based on the question "Are the details of the story fuzzy to me or have I completely forgotten huge swaths of the story? Yes? It's time to read it again!" This usually takes about six months per book.

And! If I've checked a book out more than three times from the library I add it to the to-buy list and keep an eye out for it at used bookstores, yard sales, flea markets and friends of the library sales for somewhere between 6 months and a year. (Each book on the list is dated when I put it on there.) If I can't find it within that time period I will buy it new from a bookstore or online if necessary.

I actually re-read books so often that I have to make a point of adding new authors to my regulars.

As a side note, I rarely re-read fanfic.