ReReading

I am always surprised when I meet someone who says they don't reread books. Growing up, I had no choice but to reread, I only owned so many books and I read at such a speed that my parents would have gone broke trying to keep me in new books. I literally read the entire local library (I have been back since, in college, and they have not gotten much new, I still have read most of the books in the building). Now, rereading is a comfort thing, I often want a specific feeling, or a happy ending, or just to know what is coming next. You can only do this by rereading. If I need a guarantee that a book will have A or be B, I need to read a book I already read and know has A or is B.

As a librarian, I hear one story over and over, "I thought libraries were for school, I was wasting so much money on novels, I never even thought of the library!" I love this exchange, I love having a convert to the library world, but when I say something along the lines of "and if you find a book you love, THEN you can buy it so you can read it whenever", I often get a blank face. So many people don't reread! I guess I'm just curious what qualities make a rereader or not.