The To-Be-Read pile is towering higher and higher, new books being released seemingly daily that you can’t wait to read, and not enough hours in the day to get through them all. Sounds familiar, right? What about the guilt you feel when all you want to do is go back to re-read an old favorite rather than chip away at your endless TBR?
I can’t be the only one who experiences guilt when this happens, can I? I can’t be the only one who feels like my TBR pile is staring at me while I curl up with an old favorite for the 100th time. So, the question is, is it ok to neglect all your new, shiny books in favor of a re-read?
Heck yes it is! I’m here to tell you, it’s completely ok to give yourself permission to ignore your insurmountable TBR and re-read your favorite book, series, whatever.
A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to go back and re-visit my favorite triad I’d written (Royal and his men for those of you who read Heathens Ink 😉 ) and getting the chance to spend some time with the familiar characters was like a vacation from my problem. It was almost therapeutic to have the chance to sink back into such a familiar and comforting head space, and re-reading isn’t so different from that. There’s a comfort in knowing what’s going to happen. The best re-reads are also books you can discover new layers to the characters and story when you return to them. The first read through of a book, you’re lost in the world, racing toward the end to make sure they get their Happily Ever After. But, when you get the chance to go back a second time around, you can appreciate smaller details that the author likely slaved for weeks over, agonizing over to the point where they were ready to scrap the entire manuscript and never look at it again.
So, what I’m saying is, if you don’t re-read, you’re basically insulting the author. There, is that enough permission for you to go back and enjoy your very favorite book for the umpteeth time? I know it’s more than enough for me, if you need me I’ll be reading the Housemates series by Jay Northcote again, even though I can practically recite it word for word 😉 .
So, now I want to know…what are your favorite go-to re-reads??
Definitely it’s KJ Charles ‘ society of gentlemen series.
I have several series I like to re-read
Metahuman Files series by Hailey Turner (also Soulbound)
Cut and Run series by Abigail Roux
Tameness of the Wolf series by Kendall McKenna
MAD Dogs series by Brenda Cothern
Flesh Cartel series by Heidi Belleaux and Rachel Haimowitz
THIRDS series by Charlie Cochet
SPECTR series by Jordan L Hawk
An excellent piece, thank you. I re-read many books but my favourite series’ are:
Charlie Cochrane’s Cambridge Fellows;
Amber Kell’s Hidden Magic;
Jordan L Hawk’s Widdershins
Jaime Reese Halfway House
RJ Scott’s Bodyguards Inc & Ellery Mountain Series’
OMG!!! Are you a mind reader? You just wrote a dialog I’ve had in my mind sooo many times. Almost word for word! When my tbr list gets to be more daunting than something to look forward to, I reach for one of my ” friends “. In fact, I’ve been doing just that for the past couple of days. There are So many good authors, books, series and new to me authors I have in my backlog, and I Still buy more. Which are then added to my tbr list! Thank God for my “friends” . They calm my guilty mind and smooth the way to tackle my ever mounting tbr list. Thanks for reaching out and letting me know I’m not the only one who does this. 😏