The Reread Book Tag

How many people actually reread books?

I used to be someone who reread books all the time: if I ever felt bored or upset, I would grab one of my old favorites from my shelf and dive into the familar pages. Now I prefer to spend most of my time reading new books, although tags like this threaten to change my mind.

Thank you to Sweaters and Raindrops for nominating me for this tag! (back in July. I am almost three months late posting this… I’m sorry!) Go check out her book blog!

The Rules:

• Link back to the creator (Brianna @ Brianna’s Books and Randomness)
• Tag as many or as little readers as you like
• Feel free to use my graphics!

The Questions:

1. A childhood favorite you could read 100 times and still love

The Harry Potter series. I was hardcore obsessed with Harry Potter in elementary school. To put this in persepctive: my friends and I called ourselves the “Harry Potter Club”, played Harry Potter every single day at recess, and were the sworn enemies of the “Anti-Harry Potter Club.”

I read the series 10 times. I’m not kidding, I actually read all of the books 10 times (maybe more) In fifth grade I used to be able to name the chapters of each book in order from memory. In short, I was absolutely crazy. It was the pinnacle, fangirl-wise, of my life.

2. A book you DNF’d but would be willing to give a second chance to

As a general rule, I never DNF books. No matter how bad it is, I always power through. Which makes this kind of a tough question because the books I hate, I really hate. I guess, if I had to give one of my one-star books another chance, I would choose Stargirl by Jerry Spinneli. If you want a general idea of what this book is like, this quote from the synopsis will suffice: “After 15 years of home schooling, Stargirl bursts into tenth grade in an explosion of color and a clatter of ukulele music, enchanting the Mica student body.”

I believe I mentioned this book in one of my other posts recently. I read it in eighth grade and just found it terribly cringey, but maybe if I re-read it with a more open mind, I’ll better appreciate the perhaps unintentionally saccharine message.

*EDIT- yes I did mention this book in one of my recent posts… I chose this book for “a book you wish you hadn’t read” in the folklore book tag in August. Well, it looks I changed my mind.

3. A newer favorite you would reread

I’m breaking the rules and nominating more than one book for this. Forgive me as I once again mention the same books I always talk about. You know the drill:

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Salt to the Sea and Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

4. A book you hated and never want to read again

Another foray into the one-star recesses of my Goodreads read list yields… The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. I read this book in seventh grade because it was nominated for a book award in my state. Though it was in the grades 4-6 category, I liked to read all of the nominees in all of the categories and assumed that it would be good even if it was meant for elementary schoolers.

The story is essentially about a robot who gets stranded on an island and then makes friends with all the animals and learns about its feelings. The robot’s feelings. The robot has feelings. And talks to animals. I know this was supposed to be cute, but it was… I was not a fan.

4. A classic you read in school but want to try again

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury– I don’t even remember why I rated this book 2 stars, but I suspect it had something to do with the copious busywork we were assigned along with it. I loved my freshman year English teacher and her class, but for some reason, this book didn’t get on my good side.

It might have also had something to do with the characteristic stuffiness of books written in the 1950s. Please tell me someone knows what I mean by that. It’s like the stereotypical 20th century American announcer voice- but in writing- and it has a very distinct feeling.

Seriously, though, I really should have liked Fahrenheit 451. It’s about books and it’s a dystopia and it’s frequently compared to 1984 (one of my favorite books!). I definitely need to read it again.

5. An author you would reread anything from

Ruta Sepetys. I only just discovered her books this year, but I’ve already read all of them.

6. A series you want to reread for the fun of it

The Hobbit/The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I read The Hobbit when I was seven and LOTR when I was eight/nine. I thought The Hobbit was okay, and LOTR was extremely boring until Part 3 (Books 5-6). I am not really a fan of fantasy, but I want to reread these soon to see if I would like them more.

7. A series you want to reread for an adaption

Probably everyone is choosing this, but I’m going to have to go with The Babysitters Club by Ann M. Martin. I don’t even watch Netflix… I don’t think I’ve ever watched Netflix, actually, but I’m curious about the adaptation they are doing of this series.

EDIT- I just learned something brand new while I was answering this question: adaption and adaptation are two spellings of the SAME word. I never knew this.

8. A book you’ve read but want to listen to the audiobook

I recently found out, to my dismay, that my class will not be reading any books this year in English because of the time constraints of online school. (I’m taking AP English Language in the spring, so because of the way this year is set up, we just have to cram for the exam and there won’t be time for books…). We were supposed to read Hamlet this year, so I’m going to nominate it for this category. I have it downloaded on my Kindle, but plays are always better when you listen to/watch them!

Oh wait… this question says a book you have already read (Duh… this is the reread tag) In light of this development, I’ll choose Macbeth then because I read it last year and loved it.

I tag:

Your Paper Hearts

Writings From a Farm Girl

Reading on a Star

My Days in Montana

A Literary Latte

That’s it for today’s post! I was originally planning to post something today for Banned Books Week, but this morning I woke up earlier than I have woken up for the past seven months and spent five hours sitting in a stuffy room taking the SAT. Consequently, I’m really tired right now and I just didn’t have time to write a full-fledged article that would actually be of sufficient quality. (I will try to write one for next week or some time soon, though, because book banning is a topic I really want to blog about and I have so much to say on the subject!)

I am trying my best to keep writing blog posts once a week, but I have been feeling super overwhelmed. I have severely overcommitted myself this year, and that’s why I haven’t been very active on WordPress lately! I don’t even know how I am managing the sheer number of things on my plate because there are so many I can’t even think of all of them at once.

(Also, I am not doing a September wrap-up post just because it doesn’t make sense to post one with my new one-post-a-week schedule. I will probably do a combined wrap-up for September and October. )

Anyway, thanks for reading today’s post. Feel free to do this tag if you so desire!