I learned this week that some people feel guilty about re-reading. Apparently, they feel they ought to be spending their reading time reading new things.

I suppose there’s some sense to that.  The problem for me is that the pleasure of re-reading is different than the pleasure of first-reading, and it’s a pleasure I’m not willing to forgo. Well, and there’s also the fact that I don’t read like a fiend because it’s good for me. I read because I love to read, or at least need to read.

Right now, I’m re-reading Meljean Brook’s Demon Moon, which is a prime candidate for re-reading. Brook trusts the reader to figure things out, which means you have to figure it all out, and that means it’s entirely possible I missed stuff the first time around. When you know the story, and there are layers and depths, prior knowledge adds richness. And that’s the kind of thing I re-read for.