Re-reading more

A thing that was triggered by my opening boxes or getting a whole shelf out to get them entered in LT (about half done i think) is I seem to have lots of "oh, that one was great, must reread it" or "did i ever finish this?" (more in non fiction) or even "i can't remember reading this"

So my to-read list is accumulating books i have already read years ago, and books I have owned but can't remember reading.

A very good side effect, you'll all agree.

I see the people who have a "50 book challenge" I think i could create a "50 reread challenge". After all why own the things if you're not going to reread them?

You're welcome to come over to 50 Book Challenge and do a Reread Challenge. We don't have strict rules :)

I have actually had the opposite experience. Between keeping track of what I read (which I started last year, before I joined LT, actually), all this talking about books and finding new books to read, and buying new books, I have started rereading significantly less than I used to.

Message 2: bluesalamanders -- all this talking about books and finding new books to read, and buying new books, I have started rereading significantly less than I used to.

You have put into words my exact shameful thoughts! It's killing me. I need to hide the laptop.

3 kageeh -

It's not that I have been reading less. I haven't. I'm well on my way to reading as many books as I read last year, if not more. I'm just REreading less. I'm reading more new (to me) books than I've read...probably since high school (which wasn't all that long ago, but still). I used to be able to pick up any old reread off my shelf and read it once more, but I can't anymore.

I spend a lot of time on the computer anyway. LT gives me something to do for a little more of it :)

Me, I'm actually reading less. OTOH, I'm finding stuff that I SHOULD be reading....

The last four weeks I spent a lot of time cataloging, re-discovering my books and finding out about the order on different shelves. Since I moved a few times in ten years, they have been in and out af boxes a lot. It seems a neverending job improving their order now....what I find cool about this work is how the books start to network....by the tags...all the connections to the other books...the new connections to the books in LT. Rereading them, I group them first and read parallel: comparing different writers, or books from the same country, on the same subject....LT helps me to set new focus, also by looking at other libraries. Before entering this extremly time-consuming world of LT( someone else making this experience?) ...I was much more concerned about finding a book (out of 3000? 4000?) and I had all these notions on how they look, the size, the color, the weight....the date I bought them...I had become a detective in my own library, now I feel much more like a guest in a 5 star reading- palace-hotel (besides being an overworked cataloguer)
My family will soon hide my laptop....and then I have enough time to reread..

I mostly agree with AsYouKnow_Bob (#5) -- reading less, finding more to read, but I'm not entirely sure that I'm reading books any less as I spend more time on LT. I definitely am not reading the newspaper as carefully, and I'm way behind on magazines, but I keep finding more and more books to read and am trying to squeeze them in.

This past week, when I had some big work deadlines, I actually cut back on LT and tried to keep up my reading. There may be hope for me yet!

#6 yes, that's a bit how it feels.

I think the re-read more "second honeymoon" phase comes when you first put your books in the system. Maybe 6 months after that you get the new book bulimia phase... eventually reaching a stable stage when your "unread" pile reaches uncomfortable levels.

I'm clearly at the second honeymoon phase

I have a lot of books which were put in boxes 2 years ago in preparation for transformation work which is still unfinished, so opening the boxes to scan them really feels like a discovery.

Before that I would reread more as the books were all over the place, shelves in every room etc. I would handle them at least monthly for dusting, and think "oh, havent read that a while"... Then they disappeared in boxes and got, well, forgotten.

Now i scan them in and am trying to remember when i last read them. If i can't, they get the "reading list" tag. If i can but think "oh that was a good book must reread it" they get the re-read tag. All in all i'll probably have 300 books with one of the other when i am done...

PS: for some reason i have a very good memory for books I read. Where i got them (which store, library) when i read them sometimes even where, what the book looks like etc. I wish i could remember phone numbers half as well as I can remember the bookshop where i grabbed a book 10 years ago and the name of the bookseller etc.

Well, I have to say I'm reading wayyyyy more since starting LT. Because I am finding authors and books that I wouldn't have looked at twice before LT. Now I go to the second hand bookstore with a list of titles and authors in my hands. Trouble is, people seem to mostly get rid of the crappy books. They keep all the prize winners and good authors on their bookshelves and send the junky ones to the second hand bookstore. Since I started LT I've read five yes 5 bankers boxes full of books. I don't know the number of books, but I had to buy boxes and pack them away because I have only a small bookshelf in my bedroom and that holds squat so I have to find another place for them or start parting with some of the not so good ones. Except almost all of them are wonderful because they came to me recommended by people in the groups that interest me. So the people have similar tastes and the books generally are great if a friend say in the WWII History section recommended it.
It really cuts down on the uncertainty about picking out books. I can take my trusty list and shop quickly and efficiently.

I suspect it will reduce my re-reading for two reasons. a) the vast attarction of swathes of new authors that I should at least try. b) I'm now reviewing books once I've read them and whilst I have always rememebred my favourite books, those that were less good sometimes got re-read on the grounds of not remembering anything about it. With a review I'm less likely to do that.

It's fair to say that I have added several books to my "to be re-read" list ... but I haven't actually gotten to them yet. Most of my additions didn't come from cataloging my own books, though. They came from reading these boards and being reminded of books that I read years ago and either don't own or haven't cataloged yet.

I am re reading more. I am givintg them to the local library as I have such a small home to store. They don't do any good in a box.

Reading more generally, but re-reading a little bit less. Mainly because finding the books on the shelves is so difficult, and because I have a large amount of books still to read. Plus, as books come in from BookMooch, it's always tempting to read the ones that have just come in. Then I try and read either highly wishlisted ones, or experiments ones first, so I can list them and get them back out of the house. I think should I ever have the luxury of putting a single alphabetical sequence together (rather than arranging books by size and triple stacking to get maximum shelf use), I will re-read more once again. I don't get rid of a huge number of books, so I'm always expecting to re-read a lot.

#1 I thionk it's a great idea to start a 50 Reread Challenge. I'd certainly
join it since I love to reread some of my favourite books and Authors:

Anne Rice
Ruth Rendell a.k.a. Barbara Vine
Catherine Aird
Stephen King
Clive Barker
J.R.R. Tolkien
J. K. Rowling
Anne McCaffrey
Ray Bradbury

And there's probably even more Authors I could even add to the above list too. In fact this year I've already reread some Anne Rice, Stephen King and right now I just started rerading Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings The Return of The King. In fact I think I could easily come up with a list of 50 books to read. I hope you'll decide to create the 2011 50 Reread Challenge. Besides it would be real interesting to see what other would be rereading.

Beatles1964