Only Once

Something that was recently brought to my attention is that I do not
read books more than once. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever read any book
twice, unless I happened to have read a book for school beforehand. I was
talking with a friend about a sci-fi book we had both read a while back, and I
did not remember many of the events that took place in the book. While I did
remember the key points and crucial events of the story, I did not remember
some of the sub-plots that took place in the book. I asked him how he could
have possibly remembered so much of the book, since it had been a while since
we had read it. He told me that he had actually re-read the book recently in
preparation for the sequel, and that I should do that same. It was then I told
him that I don’t read re-read books. He asked me why, and I had never really
given much thought as to why I don’t re-read books. I told him that I just
never had any incentive to re-read a book, even if I enjoyed the book a lot,
and that if I wanted to remember what happened in a book, I would just read a
summary of it online. I guess the true reason of why I don’t read a book twice
is because I already know what’s going to happen, which is funny, because I
re-watch movies all the time. For me, it’s just not the same reading about
something you’ve already read versus watching a movie I’ve already seen
countless times. The magic of reading the book is lost. Maybe one day, though,
I’ll bring myself to re-read a book.