But you don't have to take my word for it

First and foremost, I want to thank those of you who voted for my blog in the blog competition. If you have not voted yet, I would appreciate it if you would! Here's the link. Voting ends tonight at midnight! Now that I have that business out of the way, we can move on (but don't forget to vote! - Ok, I'm done now).

I just finished rereading, for the umpteenth time, one of my all time favorite books, The Bean Trees. Actually, I didn't exactly finish it. I still have five or six pages to go that I can't bring myself to read because I don't want the book to end.

I was first introduced to this book when I was 16 or so and I used to read it once a year because I loved it so much. But this time it had been about five years since I last read it. It meant as much to me this time as all the previous readings, only a bit more. And in different ways. Do you know what I mean? Different parts stand out to me now. But the book is still as amazing as ever.

There's another book I have a history of rereading. It's called Golden Boy's Sister. This book is sort of an inside joke with my sisters and me. We read it out loud to each other when we were young, and we loved it - but in a mostly joking way because it's just awful. It's like reading an after school special from the 80's. We laughed at it for all the wrong reasons. And it became a tradition for us to read this book out loud with each other every so often and laugh together about all our favorite terrible parts.

About a year ago I found our old copy of Golden Boy's Sister and decided to reread it since it'd been so long. This time when I read it I found that for the first time, I could relate more to the mom in the book than the teenage main characters. It was interesting and I'm glad I reread it, even though it's a truly awful book. I'll probably reread it again at some point in the future and find that I relate more to the grandma. But that better not be for at least five more years.

The thing I like about a reread is that it makes you realize things about yourself. You find you relate to the book differently because of things you've experienced since the last time you read it. Different characters stand out to you; different parts touch you. You feel parts of the book more deeply than you used to which causes you to reflect on the things that have changed in your life in the time that has passed.

Besides these two books I've listed, I have several other books I reread from time to time. Part of me thinks it's a waste of time because I have so many new books I'd like to read but another part of me thinks that rereading a book I love is like visiting an old friend. And there's nothing wrong with that.

Do you have a book that you have read over and over again? (If it's by Dr. Seuss, I'm sorry but it doesn't count. Shel Silverstein does count - don't ask me why.)