I have read so many books over my lifetime, because like the question yesterday about being a lifelong learner, I am also a lifelong reader. I don’t even remember when I first started to read. As far as I can tell, I’ve always known how to read. The thing is though, I don’t re-read books. I can watch a movie a thousand times until I can recite the dialogue without the movie being on, but I cannot re-read a book. It takes too long. I know what’s going to happen next, but I’m too impatient to read all the words to get to the part that I know is coming. Movies are quick, I can handle multiple rewatches.
But now, let’s not forget that I was a teacher for 18 years. I taught 3rd grade for about eight years, 5th grade for five years or so, and 6th, 7th, and 8th grade for the rest of the time. I had books that I read with my students every year. This could be a very long list of books. I tried to instill in my younger students a love of the same books and authors I loved when I was a kid. R. L. Stine and his Goosebumps series. The Babysitter’s Club, which saw a resurgence in popularity when graphic novel versions of the original books came out not long ago. The Berenstain Bears were a particular favorite of mine. I put my own copies of those books into my class library but quickly took them back because they were getting as much love as I gave them when I was a kid. Not such a good thing when they’re paperback. But I believe those books are still in print so I could have always replaced them. I want to say there are even new stories that came out at one point.
Of course, I can’t write a post about re-reading books without Gary Schmidt Y’all! I love him. I do. I discovered him when I first started teaching middle school English. I could read The Wednesday Wars every other month and still love it as much as I did every time I taught it to a new group of 7th graders. I buy all of his new books. In fact, there are two on my shelf now that I need to read. They’re YA books so they read fast, but the stories touch the heart in a beautiful way. Seriously. Go buy one of his books. Any book. Actually, you really do need to start with The Wednesday Wars. Many of the characters in that book end up with books of their own afterwards, or as minor characters in other books that are set years later. So while their kids in that book, you find out what they became as an adult in other books. You’d only catch that if you read the OG. I have emailed him fan girl letters twice and got a lovely response each time. Of course, I kind of did some stalking to find his email address–his bio says what college he teaches at, so a Google search brought up his work email address. I think in his books now he has a dedicated fan email address.
Anyway, all of that is to say…since I am no longer a kid or a teacher, I don’t read books more than once. But that’s o.k. I have plenty of new books on my shelves at home that need reading for the first time.
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