Recently I've been trying to better organize my online bookshelves on both Goodreads and LibraryThing. I went and made shelves for most genres and I'm slowly filtering through my lists of books and putting them in the correct genre. On Goodreads I'm just working on the books I've marked as 'Read' since my 'Want to Read' shelf is totally out of control and full of books I don't own and probably never will. LibraryThing is easier since I scanned in all my books over the summer, so my 'Library' list is pretty under control. However going through all the books has made me realize how many of them I want to re-read.
There was a time, mostly when I was in college, that I always read books twice, just to make sure I fully grasped the plot and the characters and everything the author was trying to get across to the reader. In recent years I've given up on reading twice, which is a bit of a shame and something I intend to try to change, at least a little bit. There are a few books that I really want to read again. This doesn't mean I'll get to them any time soon. Maybe it's a challenge for another year? But here is a list of the books I most want to re-read.
1.
The Name of the Wind &
The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss - So this is two books. The first two books in the King Killer Chronicles series. The third book, Doors of Stone, is not out yet and as far as I know does not have a release date yet. Rothfuss is following in George R.R. Martin's footsteps as far as keeping his readers waiting for an insane amount of time, as it's been over five years since The Wise Man's Fear came out. However, the first two books were awesome, I'm still excited for book 3 and I really want to re-read these gigantic books. These books follow the life of Kvothe, our hero, who has yet to kill a king. They have a really dark background, lots of war, and fear, and death but they're full of magic, and mystery, and are just really great reads.
2.
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - I read this a few years ago and loved it. It is set
during WWII, in Britain. A boy, named David, goes through his mother's death and his father getting remarried and having a baby with his new wife. David is angry, and lonely, and still grieving his mother. He retreats more and more into his imagination and when a bomb lands on the countryside property his family is staying at, David finds his way into a world full of fairy tales characters, who aren't exactly what you'd expect. This whole book was not what I expected it too be in the very best way and I can't wait to pick it up again.
3.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt - In this book we follow Theo, who lives with his mother in New York. His mother is killed in a terrorist attack on a museum and in his shocked/concussed state Theo tries to help a dying man
and 'rescues' a painting. We follow Theo as he moves from his friends uptown apartment to Las Vegas with his estranged father, and back to New York again. All the time bringing with him the 'rescued' painting that he never found a proper way to return. There are some amazing characters in this book. Boris, the friend Theo makes in Las Vegas, is one of my favorite characters of all time. Boris is just amazing. The reason I most want to reread it is that this book is a chunker. I believe it was just over 900 pages. I feel like reading it once, and really quickly at that, was just not enough to really grasp the details, to really understand the characters and the story.
4.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - I don't remember a whole lot of details about this book. I know there is a 'game' being played by two magicians using their apprentices as pieces, and a love story between those two apprentices, but I read it so long ago that the details escape me. What I do remember, is the otherworldly feeling, the ethereal writing, the darkness, and the beauty of this book. This was my first real 'book hangover' and I did not experience another one like it until I read A Court of Mist and Fury (which I'm obsessed with right now). It left me stuck in the world of this book for days after I finished it, stuck with the feels these characters and story left me with. It was glorious and I have been meaning to reread it for a while.
5.
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - This book is about a woman, a witch who hates her magic, who is doing research in the library at
Oxford and finds an ancient book, a book that is also being sought by a vampire. She has to team up with said vampire for...something? I honestly did not like this book the first time I read it. In fact as soon as I was done with it I gave it away. But I have had a feeling I should read it again for a while now. The first time I read it I loved the beginning. Misty, rainy fall days at Oxford. Hot tea and big sweaters. But then it turned into a Twilight level vampire obsession thing, with the main female character seeming pretty weak and needing to be protected and coddled and I hate that. However, I spotted a copy of it at the used book store last week and I've been fighting the urge to go buy it again. I'll probably go pick it up on Saturday.
6.
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy - I read this book in a tenth grade English class. I remember almost nothing of it except the ending and even that is vague. The teacher of the class was incompetent at best; when we did Hamlet we never actually read any of the play, we watched one scene from the Lawrence Olivier version of the movie over and over again for a week, I had to borrow the book from another teacher so I could read Hamlet. However, for Tess of the D'Urbervilles Mr. Incompetent actually passed out copies of the book, so I went ahead and read it while the rest of the class was waiting for Mr. Incompetent to get his act together. (He never did. He got fired after having an affair with one of the librarians and telling his sixth hour class all about it.) But for as much as I don't remember the story, I remember how I felt after reading about Tess. It was the first book that me go 'WOW! I love this!' I mean, I loved reading before then because it was an escape, I read mostly Young Adult or middle grade fantasy back then and this was the first time I read what I guess would be considered a Classic on my own. I want to reread so I can maybe remember the story this time.
Those are just six of the many books I want to reread. Maybe, if I'm doing well with the RMSC I can do a mini-challenge later this year, just for rereads! There are quite a few series I want to finish that would require rereading earlier books also, but that is another post! What books are you planning to reread?
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