Can you help me stop the Voices? Musing Monday Did Not Help.

...forgot it was Monday for a moment. But then my head cleared and I stumbled over to Just One More Page to find out today's question....

Have you ever finished a book, then turned around and immediately re-read it? Why? What book(s)?

I am not a re-reader. I think that may put put me in a minority in the blogsphere, but that's me! There are just so, so many good books, great books out there, waiting to be read, that it just seems wasteful of our limited and undetermined time here on earth to spend it with a book I have read already. I have mentioned that I have a To Be Read Pile, haven't I? I do believe so.

I know for a fact that I have never immediately turned around a re-read a book I just finished. No matter how much I loved it, I don't actually get that. I would like it to sink in, think about it. I could see maybe going back and re-reading a few pages, maybe to clarify something. Maybe re-read the beginning or the end...although off hand I don't think I ever have. And I can see, maybe after a period of time...years...re-reading something I really loved and that left a lasting memory...but I don't think I ever have.

At least not as an adult. Ok, when I thought about it for a bit...because I do actually muse about the Musing Monday question...I started to remember that as a young, not totally formed wee caite, I had re-read books. See, that was before I realized the above mentioned two things. First, that there were so many great books waiting for me (and at that point I did not actually own them, certainly not in any numbers, piled in the corner, double stacked in my bookcases, calling my name) and second, I did not realize, really know, that our time here on earth was limited. In theory, I am sure I had heard of the fact, but as in the way of so many young people, teenagers, I assumed I was immortal. Let me clarify. I do actually believe we are immortal, our souls, our true selves, but not our book reading selves. Unless, as I can only hope, that after a lengthy stint in purgatory, I end up in heaven to find that it is full of Earl Grey tea, puppy dogs, and books.

If I should happen to die before you all, I will try and send ya all a message back if that is the case!

But be that as it may, as a youth, I did re-read to a degree. I know I read The Hobbit several times, as well as the massive Lord of the Rings. See, I though there was no limit to our time! I re-read To Kill a Mockingbird, more than once, (one I could be tempted to re-read even now, non re-reader, well aware of my mortality that I now am), and The Seven Storey Mountain. Then there was Salinger. I went through a big Salinger phase, especially, Franny and Zooey and the stories. Yes, I read them several times.

But then I reached adulthood and I gave up my foolish, re-reading way. I had to. I can't drown out the sound of all the other books in the world calling out, in a wild, cacophonous, deafening Voice, "Read Me...No, Me!!"

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