Do You Re-Read?

Do you like to read books over and over? If you're like me you have a favorite book that when you can't sleep in the middle in the night you pull it out and it makes you feel all better. Or how about those books you've either been forced to or chosen to read several times over the course of your life? For example, I must have read To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee at least four times: first in high school, then college, then when both my kids had to read it their freshman year in high school. The thing with that book is that every time I've read it I've gotten something different from it: in high school it was the mere injustice of the situation, in college it was being a person who will stand up to injustice, with my first child it was how to live as a person of integrity in all aspects of your life and the last time around it was how to be a parent (or rather, how to raise a child--face it, those children were raised). But I enjoyed it and it spoke to my life no matter what my age. On the other hand, I tried to re-read The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger when my daughter was reading it for Junior English. I had to stop--I just don't think it's a book that goes beyond adolescence. While my daughter and her classmates were relating to Holden (as I remember doing at their age), I just couldn't relate. So how about it--are there books you read over and over and get something from each time? Or can you think of some that you loved as a teenager but are just not as enjoyable when you read them as an adult? What's your favorite comfort book for those middle of the night episodes when you need something friendly to re-read? Let's hear about all the re-reads in your life!

Find To Kill a Mockingbird at Adrian Public Library
Find Catcher in the Rye at Adrian Public Library