Re-Reads

You know how sometimes you just get that craving for a certain book? One that you've already read, I mean.

I never used to. It used to be that once I was done with a book, I was done, no matter how good it was. Those are days of the past. Re-reads make up about a fifth of my bookshelf space now, and not all of them are books that I particularly loved the first time around. Lots of them are, but some are just ones that, even though they weren't my favorite book, they still stuck in my mind somehow until I finally broke down and re-retrieved them from the library.

Part of me still hates re-reading books though. Mostly the part that thinks there are so many books out there that I still haven't read. Why waste time on a story that you already know when you could be using that time for a completely new one, right?

But this is not true. I've found that reading a book for the second time allows you to go deeper into the story. Since you already know what happens, you can focus on other things, including little hints the author leaves about future plot twists that you see the second time around. You can also bypass previous expectations because you already know what to expect, and actually find the book more enjoyable.

Like Jessica's Guide to Dating on the Dark Side, for example. The first time I read this book, I was sorely disappointed with it. I think a lot of it was that I had such high expectations for the book, and not just in quality. I had expectations for how the story was going to go, how the male lead was going to act, and how the story was going to end. The story met none of these expectations, and I think I was so focused on the story that wasn't being told that I forgot to focus on the story that was.

So when, for some unknown reason, I started itching to the read the book again, I thought I would skip around the pages a lot. You know, satisfying the itch without really delving into the disappointing book again.

And then I found myself hooked from page one. It was like I was reading an entirely different story, and a really great one at that. I loved it! It was funny, action-packed, and I completely fell for Lucius. What I probably would have originally given an overall rating of 3/5 has turned into a 5/5, hands down.

This seems pretty similar to when I read New Moon by Stephenie Meyer, too. I remember reading somewhere that Meyer asked people to read the book twice becasue the first time around, the only thing people can focus on is the complete lack of Edward in the story. Now New Moon is my favorite of all four books. How many people do you know that can say that?