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Why You Should Reread Great Books

The benefits are more than you think.


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Teronie Donaldson

2 years ago | 2 min read

Remember that feeling you get when you watched your favorite movie or video. The same can happen with your favorite books.

Just because you read it already doesn’t mean you won’t enjoy or benefit from it again.

With the plethora of reading material out there, reading books is good, but rereading great books is better.

According to a recent study, people underestimate how fun it is to do the same thing twice — reading is amongst those things. If a book is valuable, you will always make discoveries even though you have read it many times.

Rereading your best books is helpful because the problems you deal with change over time. What didn’t matter to you before may be relevant now. As it’s natural for different sentences to reach you depending on the point you are at in life — adolescent, adult, or elder years.

As you read the same book, you never reread it the same way.

Here is some interesting info on rereading;

1- Scholars have declared the act of rereading throughout history as the only way to understand a text truly.

Any major book that stands the test of time gets reread thoroughly. Think about the Bible, Koran, or other influential texts. Scholars for centuries devoted their lives to constantly rereading to complete comprehension.

2. Rereading helps you understand a text well enough to build good critical arguments.

Sometimes the points go over your head on the first go-round. However, by thinking over the material, reading other books, and rereading your intended text, you can now formulate critical questions and ideas about the material. 

3. Without rereading, it may be difficult to appreciate a book’s intricate ideas and themes — the ones you miss on a first read.

When you read a book for the first time, you learn the terrain, characters, what the book is about, and the author’s intentions; Include your motives as to why you are reading, and this stands between you and the artistic appreciation.

So much gets revealed after each subsequent read that only by rereading will you see the writer’s crafty talents or comprehend a text’s complex ideas and themes.

4. Rereading is an act of self-reflection.

The book itself doesn’t change, but you do.

You can measure this progress against time to re-examine yourself and the changes you have undergone since the initial reading. For example, the person you are at 15, 25, 35, etc., all get different messages from the material which speaks to your experiences.


Remember, even if you didn’t get something new out of each reading, it is still important to revisit great books because ideas need to get repeated for you to remember.

When you only learn something once, chances are you don’t fully understand it — at least not well enough to change. We get inspiration but quickly fall back into years of habits and conditioning that preceded the new behavior. So returning to great ideas cements them in our minds.

So next time you read a great book, consider giving it a reread sometime in the future. The benefits will be more than you can imagine


Let me know some books you are rereading now.

And any other suggestions.

If you want more great info on the benefits of reading, check out my TikTok page where I give out daily reading tips.

Enjoy

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Teronie Donaldson

Writer | Motivator | Reading Habits Coach | Content Creator. Around Me, Everyone Wins!


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