The Pleasures of Rereading | Newsweek Books | Newsweek.com

The Pleasures of Rereading | Newsweek Books | Newsweek.com: "Most of the 'joys of rereading' pieces you come across tuck in an obligatory apology for indulging in the 'childish' pleasure—this is a bad thing?—of 'obsessive' repetition. You often hear a distinction made between strictly literary rereading, the kind of close study scholars and writers undertake, and the 'comfort' reading relegated to the beach, the bathroom, and the bedroom."

I'll tell you now, that I like rereading. Many people will listen to their music over and over again, and movies will be re-watched time and again.
Some people need the new, and can't stand to go back to something they've done before, fine, enjoy it. That is not me.

We read very quickly and you know what there are not a lot of works out there that are engaging for us. We like going back to the Lord of the Rings, The Belgariad, Harry Potter and the like because they are actually long enough to be satisfying. Short one-off stories are fine but they are like an appetizer good enough for starters but not a meal on its own.

For some people the problem may be their reading speed, The Harry Potter audiobooks run around 24 hours long. Most people can read about twice as fast as a person can talk so that still takes up a huge amount of time for them.

You go back to a restaurant that you like, re-reading is much the same.