The Joy of Rereading: How Revisiting Books Nurtures Mental Well-Being

It’s not by far the most original idea—this act has long been considered as involuntary as breathing—but rereading books is extremely personal. A quick  Google search will lead you to a plethora of articles from creatives to book lovers doing the same thing.

But why reread when your TBR (to be read) piles are just waiting for your eager hands to pick them up?

Here are some of the reasons why:

The Reading Slump is Slumping

If you’re a lifelong reader, you might have heard this term so often it feels like a lingering ache. It’s the most annoying thing in the world. Imagine picking up a bestseller, but your mind starts to wander—not within the universe the book is trying to create, but somewhere else entirely, outside the realms of the pages.

But fret not.

All you have to do is pick up a very familiar book – the one you dog-eared in lieu of a proper bookmark, annotated with copious remarks and translucent tabs, and cried yourself to sleep with. Yes, that book. Say, for instance, Charlotte’s Web by the inimitable E.B. White. By the time Charlotte the spider scrawls her message in the web to save Wilbur the pig, you’re already on your way to finishing it—with the sort of reading speed you’ve missed all your life.

You are Not the Same Person When You Read the Same Book Twice

Inevitably, the moment you reread a favorite book, you’re no longer the same. Your plane of existence before—your idiosyncrasies, your state of mind—are all different now. So you appreciate what you’re leafing through in a new way. You may even catch details you’d forgotten.

In an article in The Guardian, the author used to think that “life was too short to read the same book twice,” only to end with: “not anymore.” They pointed out the irony of owning a ridiculous amount of unread books, neglected all this time, and declared: “No longer.”

An article on the Daily Stoic counters that “no man ever reads the same book twice,” because “things have changed since that reading,” only to suggest: “Go pick up that book and read it again.”

This calls to mind what Heraclitus once said: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river and he is not the same man.”

Good for Mental Health, Too

The familiarity of the unfolding scenes—plus the idea that you know how things end, thus giving you a semblance of control—shows how rereading can benefit your mental health.

As reported in Yahoo Life, Dr. Shira Gabriel-Klaiman, a psychology professor at the University of Buffalo, said: “Rereading books can give us a sense of connection to the characters and social worlds within the books. Rereading can make you feel less lonely and better about your life.”

But proceed with caution: read only the most comforting books and stay away from anything that could be triggering. You don’t want to relive some dark passages. You don’t want to subject yourself to the same trauma again.

The next time boredom gets the best of you and nothing seems to pull you out, find the joy in rereading books. That itch to acquire new titles—only for them to end up in your TBR piles—might soon become just a memory. Because, as you’ll realize, book buying is totally different from book reading.