The Benefits of Constantly Re-Reading The Same Novels

I know I know. It seems tedious, unnecessary and boring.

I assure you, it is not.

if anna were alive today...

Let me start by telling you which novels I constantly re-read:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Jane Eyre by Charolette Brontë
3. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
4. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
5. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Now that you can see what I always re-read, can you sense a theme? 

If you didn't notice it, the theme is: GREAT moving literature. Sweeping stories of love, loss, family, duty, morality, and so much more.

There are amazing books NOT on this list that I have re-read, but I am only mentioning those that I re-read frequently and often.

I simply cannot get enough of the novels above. I just keep squeezing, and squeezing the life out of these characters. I feel like I know (were they alive in real life) what each of them would do in certain situations.

They feel wholly real and authentic to me. Endlessly affecting. 

I've been known to

Ignore contemporarily published literature that bookish friends recommend, in order to curl up with Anna Karenina for the umpteenth time.

Have audio, physical, and ebook editions of my favorite novels to pull parts from at all times.

Let library books be due back before reading them in favor of picking up a frequent re-read

What pleasure do I derive from this behavior?

I get to meet old friends on the page. I get to hang out again with Levin. I get to go back with Kitty to the party where she prays that Vronsky will FINALLY ask for her hand in marriage.

I allow myself to be transported back to the dinner table with the Bennets as Mr. Collins compliments the "excellent boiled potatoes".

I get to gasp as Bathsheba Everdene does the wildly feminist thing of turning down Gabriel Oak at first take as she proclaims that she is her own person with her own wishes and being a wife isn't at the top of that list.

A challenge:

I dare you to ignore the "recently published" shelf in favor of a comforting re-read.

I dare you to curl up with a favorite book for a quiet afternoon and I dare you not to be moved by it.

I'll be over here doing my zillionth re-read of Anna Karenina after just finishing my millionth re-read of Jane Eyre.

Sure it's a new year and new shiny titles are the shelves. I read more than one book at a time, so I'll able to read new to me books (though rarely newly published books), AND stay in the company of my beloved classics.

Happy re-reading