it's been a long while since i've last reread books. i remember when i was in primary two and a friend gave me roald dahl books for my birthday. i read 'matilda', 'the witches' and 'the bfg' back to back at least 4 times each, and i loved every bit of it. as a cry baby who hated going to school, for every five school days that i managed to keep my eyes dry, my dad would take me to the bookstore to get an enid blyton book. i mean, between a book and releasing my emotions, it was a pretty tough fight. i'm not gonna lie – the floodgates won almost 85% of the time.
ever since i was in secondary school, i would save up my allowance to buy more books. i started out with jodi picoult at the second hand bookstores. you could buy it for a fraction of a cost, and then sell it back to the shop for a small amount. it was great, but then i wanted to own my books. so i got my books first hand, and i would get my mum to wrap them with clear wrapper so the pages don't get dog-eared. it was near impossible to borrow books from me, not even siblings were spared. nobody could treat my books as well as i could, and not even a cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die promise was good enough for me.
fast forward ten years later, i'm not able to buy books as and when i want. except now i have to split the cost between my clothes, shoes, bags, make up and miscellaneous/nonsensical knick knacks.
and because i can afford to buy as many as i want, i tend not to reread books. not just cause i have at least 3 unread books at any time, but also cause i don't like to repeat books when the story is still fresh in my head. i'd tend to skim over the words cause i already know the ending. and i don't like that feeling :/
this year hasn't been a good year for me, books-wise. i seem to make bad choices; the books all seem boring to me and i struggle to finish them. cause of this, i decided to take out an old book that i'd recently recommended to someone as a must-read: the help by kathryn stockett. i got it an the airport on the way to bangkok, mostly because the cover caught my eye (yes i judge a book by a cover). but boy was i glad i made the purchase. i love the book so much that once we came home to singapore, i made danial watch the movie with me. and yknow what? the movie was as good as the book!!!! this almost never happens.
i'm bad at book reviews – the last time i did one, it was probably for an english lesson in primary school – so i'm not gonna try. but i did talk to a friend about it, and we both agree we liked the book. and yknow, i'm actually rereading it right now, paying attention to the details i may have missed before.
and i think if a book is worth picking up a second time within a year, i'd say that book is really good.
either that or it's a really tough read and you're giving yourself (and the book) a second chance hahaha.
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