I don't have a lot of free time these days to read. Which is a shame because for as long as I can remember, I have loved reading--traveling to new worlds, getting lost in other people's lives, catching a glimpse of a time centuries before I was born or decades after I die. There is nothing more exciting to me than opening a brand new book and starting a new journey. Meeting new characters. Discovering new places. The race to the end of the book because I just can't wait to find out how it all ends. These are the reasons that, even though I am not reading as much, I still buy a TON of books. My TBR pile is like the leaning tower of Pisa.
Oddly, when I do get some down time, however, I find that I never go to that enormous TBR pile anymore. No, instead, I reach for my comfort books. The ones that I've read so many times that I can recite entire passages from memory. The ones that I've spilled coffee on. The ones that Phi Phi has chewed the corners of because I fell asleep holding the book instead of her (she's my poodle). The ones where the characters feel like real friends that make you want to laugh, cry, and, at times, throw them across the room. The ones where you want to ask the author why he/she dressed his/her main character in a blue dress in that obscure scene when you, the reader, really feel as though the character is a green dress sort of girl. Not a blue dress sort of girl, as they, the author and creator of said character, implied by putting them in the blue dress.
For me, these are usually books I REALLY enjoy, but, strangely, not my absolute favorites of all time--with one or two exceptions. Yes, I have a lot of all-time favorites. For a long time I have wondered why this is. Why is it that The Parable of the Sower is my favorite book ever, yet I've only read it once? As where there are some that I read over and over and over and over again that I only sort of like. I won't name names. But I'll say this: There is a certain, long-running series with a female investigator that while I LOVED the first couple of books, the last like 20 have only been so-so. Still, I have read each one at least 12 times.
Is it because, like with an overplayed song on the radio, I am afraid that I will wear out the book's appeal by reading it too many times? Is it because I'm worried that if I read it too many times and too closely that I'll discover even the tiniest flaw in the plot or invent one that doesn't exist, thus ruining its appeal to me forever.
I don't know. But I promise if I ever figure it out, I'll let you know.
I am the same way with television shows and movies. I have my go-to shows that every so often I start at the beginning and binge watch all twenty-two episodes of all eight episodes. I'll even stay up all night watching these shows that I've seen multiple times--why, you ask? I couldn't tell you. I know how they end. I know who dies, who gets married, who has a scandalous affair with her English teacher, even who provided the infamous key for the after-hours pool party at their prep school. Still, I watch, just as hungry for more as I was the first time around.
At my last book club meeting I talked about this very issue with one of my friends, and she said she has two series that she comes back to time and again when she doesn't know what else to read. Maybe she was just being nice by saying so, but one of the two is the Talented Saga :-) The other is the Sweet Evil Trilogy by Wendy Higgins (if you haven't read these, you totally should).
So my fellow fangirls (and fanboys), what are your go-to series? Or are you not into rereading books? Leave your answers in the comments. I am always looking for my next book obession!
Happy Reading!
Sophie