Wednesday Words: Rewind and Reread

There's a line from a song that we used to have to sing when I was in Brownies: "Make new friends, but keep the old." Sure it works on people, but since this is a book blog, let's apply it to reading. In recent years, I've become much more selective when it comes to buying books. Sure I have a handful of authors whose works I will buy pretty much no matter what, but more often these days I'll read a book from the library first and only buy it if I think it's something I'll want to revisit again.

But then time passes and it's easy to get forget about them. Sure they stare at me from my shelves, begging to be curled up with and devoured, but there are also the ARCs for books to come, books I've won or been sent from publishers, books I've been given as gifts. I'll never run out of new things to read, and sometimes I feel like I'm always playing catch-up.

However, this week I've taken a step backwards. The to-read pile stays as big as ever while I'm reimmersing myself in early WWII Germany through the words of Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. I love this book. It haunts me. It's poetic. It's subtle and obvious and powerful and the film version is coming out soon so I want to be fresh on the story. I haven't read this story in years, and I was well overdue for a reread.

Balancing my own authorial aspirations with the tales of others is hard, as is figuring out time to fall in love with some books again. The holidays are coming up and can be hectic (I'm putting it mildly). So even though I'll have some time off work and could use this to make a dent in my reading and writing, I know that for my sanity, it's also a great time to visit old characters and worlds. Let It Snow is at the top of that pile, ready to launch me into the Christmas spirit, along with a book or two that will remind me of summer at a time when outside my car is covered in frost.

So here's to rereading, to rediscovering, to taking in pages you've visited before and maybe learning that even though the story is the same, you have changed. Also, here's a vote for Goodreads making it possible to mark a book as "currently re-reading" - I think that it should totally count towards my yearly reading goal! (Plus, I'd be interested to keep track of how many times in my life I've actually read Pride & Prejudice).