Why I Love Re-Reading

(read: me and books I love)

Last year, I read 104 books. Of those books, 19 were re-reads (in fact I read The Fault in Our Stars twice last year).

Why do I do this? I have so many new books that I could be reading, so many more amazing books to fall in love with. But I will always return to the books I love: Harry Potter and The Fault in Our Stars and so many other books that I will always love.

Mostly to justify it to myself, here are the reasons I re-read books:

1)      I already know they’re good

This is probably just laziness on my part, because it means I don’t have to spend long amounts of time struggling on a book I hate. I already love these books (mostly), so I can just focus on enjoying them again.

(basically, my love for Harry Potter)

2)      They’re so popular I feel like I missed something the first time

For example, I didn’t really like The Perks of Being a Wallflower the first time I read it. But since it was so popular, I decided to give it another go, and loved it.

3)      I’ve forgotten most of what they’re about

I’ve read Harry Potter so many times I’ll never forget a single sub-plot, but for other books, like The Solitaire Mystery, I remember loving them but not much else. I don’t want to read too many of my childhood favourites for fear that I won’t like them anymore, but this one I really had to read again.

4)      I’m sad and I want something familiar

Reading always makes me happy. Reading Harry Potter makes me even more happy, because they are characters I’ve been around almost my whole life. The familiarity is so relaxing.

5)      There’s a new book coming out in the series

I read Anna and the French Kiss again this year, because Isla is coming out this year. If I’m a big foggy on what’s happened so far in the series, I’ll read it again just to refresh.

I guess some people think it’s a waste of time to re-read books when there are so many NEW books being published (and believe me, I know. My physical TBR pile is about forty books, and that’s not including ones I want to add to it!). But I NEVER want reading to become a chore. I want it to be something I enjoy, something that doesn’t become work.

For all these reasons, then, I love re-reading books. What about you? Do you re-read books often? Why or why not?

The Fault in Our Stars Trailer: My Reaction, Minions and GIFs

Lately I’ve used a lot of animated GIFs to express my thoughts. I’m going to continue the trend with minions, who seem to be a lot like me in that a) they’re amused by small things, b) they are ridiculously attractive and c) they are always EXCITED.

And I am EXCITED about the TFIOS trailer. And I am a mess. And I will not survive this movie without approximately 453453 buckets to put my tears in.

If you haven’t done so already (HOW?), you can watch it here:

Things that are awesome about the trailer:

1) Hazel is wearing her cannula the whole time (diversity FTW)

2) They are ADORABLE. (“The beautiful couple is beautiful”)

3) We got to see the Lonely, Vaguely Paedophilic Swing Set

4) We got to see Isaac for a little bit, and the awesome car-bombing scene

5) I recognised HEAPS of quotes from the book

A little bit of a disappointment:

1) I recognised HEAPS of quotes from the book

And yes, you did just read that again. I mean, I love the quotes. I just feel like some of them don’t work as speech??? Like they sound awkward or something???? But it might just be like that because there’s no context. I will reserve my judgement for the actual movie.

But yeah, um. I loved it. I teared up when Hazel says she’s a grenade, because the music stops and it’s this awful heart-wrenching moment, and for some reason it makes you think about your own family, and your own imperfect world, and how there is so much fault in our stars that sometimes it’s difficult to breathe…even for people without a cannula.

The beauty of The Fault in Our Stars is that everyone who values it does so in a different way. I can’t say why I love it so much – it’s just one of those things. I can review books I hate, and books where I can point out good writing, but books like Harry Potter and The Fault in Our Stars? Impossible. I just hope the movie will be the same.

So here are my final reactions, in GIF form:

What about you guys? Did you like the trailer? Hate it? Share your thoughts below!