EBAs a kid, I re-read books a lot. I’m not talking about classics, either. I’m talking about every Baby-sitters Club book, every Sweet Valley High book, every Nancy Drew book, and on and on to lesser series that no one remembers anymore like Sleepover Friends and The Fabulous Five. The library in my neighborhood was not the greatest (more than once I got books with mysterious smells and substances clinging to them, like the biography of Winnie Mandela that had to air out on my windowsill for several days before I could read it), and my mom put a limit on my book-buying, so it wasn’t unusual for me to read these books two, three, or ten times.
Now, it is extremely rare that I get to re-read a book. Sometimes I’ll read the occasional classic over again for work purposes (this year, I’ve re-read A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and To Kill a Mockingbird), but with so many new books on the horizon that I want to read both for work and for fun, it seems oh-so-decadent to re-read a random novel that I remember enjoying a year ago. But that’s what I’m doing right now with Emily Gray Tedrowe’s COMMUTERS, and it’s awesome!
I first read this book in manuscript form last fall, mostly on a bench at a park in Brooklyn. I didn’t know all that much about it except that one of the narrators was 78, and I wasn’t sure if I would get into that (being honest here!), but I remember being drawn further and further in to this story of three generations of a family, to the point where I kept adding more layers of clothing so I could stay out and finish it. And, of course, it turned out that the 78-year-old was my favorite character.
I picked it up again because I’m interviewing Emily tomorrow night for Book Club Girl on Air and I wanted to have the book fresh in my mind when I came up with my questions. I figured I’d speed through it, jotting down a note here and there. But I’ve totally been savoring it, forgetting to write stuff down because I’m so wrapped up.
This, of course, is making me wonder: should I say to hell with my TBR pile and do more re-reading? What books have you re-read and enjoyed?
