I am a chronic re-reader.
There I have admitted it.
There are very, very few books that I have read only once, never to pick up again.
I could wax philosophical about the new depths that open to me with each additional reading, how passages seem to change meaning over time, or how I learn about myself by how I react differently to books that I once loved and maybe don't as much any more.
But it is actually much simpler. I just like re-reading. It's like visiting with old friends. There is comfort and security in knowing where the story is going. There are friendly faces with every page turn. Familiar streets to wander down, familiar forests to explore.
I have always loved stories that make me feel like I am inhabiting the world that they describe. That's why I like series, I'm sure, because I learn more and more about the worlds as time goes on, and I don't have to leave quite so soon. Re-reading lets me get back into the worlds, to see them again.
I suppose it is the same personality quirk that keeps me vacationing in the same spots over and over again, and the reason why I still live in my hometown. I always say that I want to travel, and there is a part of me that does. That wants to see new places and new horizons. But the rest of me doesn't want to leave my favorite haunts in the past. I want to return to them over and over, see how they have changed, relish how they have stayed the same.
I am a nostalgic soul.
