It's no secret that I love reading. Some of my relatives might say that I was born with a book in my hand. According to Goodreads, I read 70 books in 2017. So yeah, it's safe to say that every year I consume many new stories and get to know countless new characters.

Something that I also love to do, that I feel is really underrated in the book world, is to revisit books that I've already read in the past.

When I was in middle school, I remember rereading books almost as much as I read new ones. I read the Harry Potter series once or twice a year. The amount of times I followed Percy on his adventures in Rick Riordan's books is impossible to know. In seventh grade I revisited The Emerald Atlas countless times; one because it's a great book, and also because it was the only way I could cope with the fact that it was the first book in a series and I had to wait two years for the sequel to come out.

Part of the reason I probably reread so much was that this was before I was expected to have a job and the only way I could get new books was by either my parent's generosity or with Barnes and Noble gift cards I got for my birthday and/or Christmas. Also, there wasn't a library that was walking distance from my house. Now it's a lot easier for me to get new books whenever I want. Now that I have a debit card and a bank account, all I have to do is go on Amazon, pick a couple books off my wishlist, and a few clicks later new books will appear in my mailbox. Now that I have my license and a car, I can drive to the bookstore myself; I don't have to beg mom or dad to drive me.

As much as I love having easy access to all kinds of new books, and having a never-ending, always growing to be read pile, I do also miss rereading as much as I used to. In fact, in 2016 I don't think I reread any book. Once I got to high school, and the workload increased with honors classes, I didn't have as much time to just sit down for hours and read. In high school, the only book I fully read multiple times was "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green (it got to the point where one of my friends in homeroom yelled at me to read something else).

It wasn't until recently that I remembered how much I truly love rereading books. Last year I read "Radio Silence" by Alice Oseman for the first time (which is an amazing book everyone should read). As soon as I finished it, I wanted to read it again. Never mind the next book I had planned to read, all I cared about was the story and characters "Radio Silence" had to offer. Before 2017 concluded, I had fully read the book two more times. I remembered the joy of revisiting favorite lines, noticing subtle foreshadowing I hadn't the first time I read the book, crying again over certain scenes. Ever since then, I've reopened some old favorites, such as "The Fault in Our Stars," and remembered why I fell in love with them the first time.

Sadly, I don't think I'll ever have the time to read like I did in elementary and middle school (at least until retirement maybe). But I've realized that even rereading passages is just as satisfying.