The Pleasures of Rereading

"Teddy Bears Reading Group 09." Photo courtesy of jonno259's photostream (from Flickr Creative Commons)

I just started rereading The Lord of the Rings, inspired by having given my eleven-year-old dragon-loving nephew a nice hardback set for Christmas. Before that I went through the 7-volume corpus of Harry Potter (in preparation for the movie, though I was only partway through v. 6 when it came out). I was interested to see a discussion thread in Goodreads comparing the two series and asking folks which one they like the best.

I said it was like asking a parent which is their favorite child. Some books are just special, and special in different ways, and those are the ones I like to reread. For me, the question of whether I will want to reread a book once I've finished the first time is an important one. First, if I don't want to reread it, I might as well just borrow it from the library. (Hey, I know, I know. I'm a writer, too, and I want people to buy my books, but there's only so much money and space in the house.) Now with ebooks becoming so cheap and prevalent, they may become the new option for just reading one time. And for writers, that's all to the good.

I like to read just before going to sleep, but too often a new book is going to keep me awake, turning the pages, wondering how it comes out. And I'm getting too old for that. I need my sleep, especially when it's cold and the days are short. In winter, I become a hibernating animal (or wish I could). That's when I trot out the old favorites, Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, and for something completely different from those, good old reliable Barbara Pym, who makes the most mundane lives somehow intensely interesting. Classics like A Tale of Two Cities and Jane Eyre.

I could go on and on.

What are your favorite rereads, books to stay cozy in bed with on these long winters' nights?