Books

11 Books You Never Get Tired of Rereading

by Crystal Paul

Some say that you haven't really read a book until you've reread it. And it's true; you get so much out of a second read of a good book — new understandings, new ideas, details, and themes you might have missed the first time around. There are some books that just have to be reread to even begin to really understand them. And then there are those books that you just can't help but reread again and again and again and again!

When you reread those really, really good books that you just never get tired of diving into, you still feel anxious for the hero or heroine even though you already know what happens. No matter how many times you’ve already gone through the story, you still get sucked in and have all the feels when your favorite character dies. There are some books that you just never get sick of revisiting. You know the ones: those with a thousand cracks in the spine, yellowed pages, and a cover held on by some combination of Scotch tape and willpower.

These are the books that make you skip the bookstore and instead take a trip to your own bookshelves and pick up that tattered copy of Things Fall Apart one more time (you know you’ll be back again soon). Because rereading is always worth it when the book is that good.

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

It's just so good, and the style is perfectly unique and magical, and after the first five rereads you finally start to get the hang of all those Aurelianos and Jose Arcadios without even having to look at the family tree.

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Dragonriders of Pern Series by Anne McCaffrey

I mean, the warriors are called "dragonriders"... because they ride freaking dragons! And then of course there's that whole baby dragons imprinting on them thing. How could you ever get tired of reading about baby dragons? But if you're not comfortable admitting that you reread it every year because baby freaking dragons, then remember that this is the series that won McCaffrey both the Hugo and the Nebula awards, making her the first woman to win both. So, you know, it's a historically significant work. You just have to reread it.

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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Sometimes you just gotta get your classic on... again... and again. Reading Anna Karenina the first time is a magical experience. There's all the feels, and then there's all the brain candy and quotables. None of these is even remotely diminished with each reread.

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Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

It's sort of like listening to your favorite song on repeat for a month. When a book is this beautifully written and this brilliant, you just want to never stop reading it.

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Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

It never gets old, it only gets better. Invisible Man is such a unique book that it's really the only book that can fill that uniquely Invisible Man-shaped hole in your book-loving soul.

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Because reading it feels like frolicking with the gods, albeit in the middle of a kind of scary magic war... but still frolicking and gods.

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The Unwritten by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

It's just book-nerd porn. I mean, stories literally come to life and the heroes badassery is a direct result of their booknerdery. It just doesn't get any better than that. What book nerd wouldn't want to reread a book that basically contains all of your own book-nerd-a-licious fantasies?

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The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

If only to keep your Elvish in good shape.

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Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Because sometimes you just need a good cry, and this one is a shortcut straight to the tear ducts.

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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

You'll find new depths every single time. Also, best Halloween time read ever.

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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

You're never too old for this one, and it never stops being just the thing you need before bed.

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Image: UnknownNet Photography/Flickr