You Can Never Read The Same Book Twice
Revisiting your favorite books helps you reflect on how you’ve changed
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Many readers like to return to their favorite books time and time again. Folks often re-read classics, like Pride and Prejudice, or revisit favorite young adult authors like Tamora Pierce or Meg Cabot. And of course, plenty of readers take annual trips to a certain wizarding school.
The practice of re-reading is usually talked about as a form of nostalgia, or comfort. That’s certainly a huge piece of why I re-read certain books, particularly those I will put on audio as I fall asleep, do laundry, or bake. And yet, I can’t help but notice that re-reading books has offered me something else, too.
It’s offered me a chance to reflect on how I’ve grown and changed over the years. I think of that well-known Heraclitus quote, “you can’t step in the same river twice.”
In the same way that the river keeps flowing, throughout our lives we as people grow and shift and change. So, when we return to the books we have loved, the text may stay the same, but we arrive at it as different rivers. We can never read the same book…
