I’ve decided that for autumn and winter 2017, I’m only going to read books that I already own or have already read. I’m hoping this will allow me to do more re-reading, but given the length of the list of books I own and haven’t read (below), I’m not sure how much I’ll get to in the near future…
Why? I really value re-reading. Even putting aside the question of whether you need to re-read certain books to fully understand them, I find that when I’m re-reading, the pressure is off; I feel I can go as slow or as fast as I like, and I don’t have to think all the time about how much I’m enjoying the book or what I should say in my review. I stop worrying so much about the literaryness or otherwise of the novel I’m reading. It’s a way of reading that I discovered in my late teens, and it’s something I’d like to return to.
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TBR Pile
The Hate Race: Maxine Beneba Clarke
Hild: Nicola Griffiths
Swallow: Sefi Atta
Mrs Dalloway: Virginia Woolf
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms [short stories]: George R. R. Martin
The Many Days [poetry]: Norman MacCaig
Harmless Like You: Rowan Hisayo Buchanan
The Things I Would Tell You [short pieces] ed. Sabrina Mahfouz
The Start of Something [short stories]: Stuart Dybek
The Vegetarian: Han Kang
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics [non-fiction]: Carlo Rovelli
Our Endless Numbered Days: Claire Fuller
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock: Imogen Hermes Gowar
Lincoln in the Bardo: George Saunders
Laura Tisdall 
Re-reading is like spending a day with old friends; you know you don’t have to put a show on, they will accept you in your old jeans and sweater. Just occasionally, though, as with some old friends, I do find that in the time since we last met I have moved on and the experience isn’t what I was hoping for. It doesn’t happen often but I go into a re-reading a little more wary these days.
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True; you have to choose carefully!
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