Sometimes, Once Is Not Enough

Study cites most re-read books
Shakespeare, Harry Potter among titles mentioned

The Associated Press
Aug. 5, 2004

Lisa Clemmer, a 37-year-old bibliophile from Richmond, Va., remembers thefirst time she read Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple.” She was in college, atVirginia Commonwealth University, and Walker’s novel introduced her to a worldshe knew nothing about.

“The Color Purple” proved so transformative that Clemmer has read it four times. “I like to go back just to reinvigorate that feeling. I get all tinglyfrom it. It moves me to a different time and place,” says Clemmer, who just a year ago last read Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning story of blacks in rural, segregated Georgia.

Clemmer’s taste is not unique. According to a study by the American LibraryAssociation, “The Color Purple” ranks among the fiction most commonly re-read. Others include the Harry Potter books, the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, JaneAusten’s “Pride and Prejudice” and Shakespeare’s plays.

“I think books that get re-read have characters or scenes or lessons that people want to go back to again and again,” says Neal Wyatt, the head of an adhoc ALA committee that analyzed what books are re-read.

“Some books need repetitive readings just to feel like you got it. And sometimes it’s not even fair to say the books are re-read because you’re a different person each time you read them,” Wyatt said.

Also cited by the committee: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,”Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Laura Ingalls Wilder’s “Little House on the Prairie,” Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and A.A. Milne’s “Winnie thePooh.” The ALA committee was composed of both librarians and editors with the trade publications Library Journal and Booklist.

(Continue reading the article here.)

I must admit that, aside from reference books, I rarely re-read a particular book. If one has made a tremendous impact on me, I'll just clock it as 'a great read' and move on - I don't have a desire to read it again.

I'd like to put it down to a lack of time - I barely have time to read a book the first time around, much less have a go at it the second time. I just find that there are too many books out there which I haven't read that I cannot afford the time to read books that I already have.

What can I say? I'm a voracious reader; just not a re-reader. I envy those who are, though.