Julie's Journal : Are you a re-reader?

Lately, I have been in a bit of a reading slump.  I am having the hardest time finding something new to read that I like.  I have read several books in the last couple of weeks, but none of them have really struck a chord with me.  In fact, to finish up the last few, I have found myself skimming large parts of the story, just so I could see how it ended and be done with it.  I think I may need to change my reading criteria because even the books that sound really good when I read the synopsis end up leaving me disappointed. 

However, when this happens, I like to go back and re-read some of my favorite books and authors.  I know that not everyone does this.  In fact, in my time working at the library I've had a chance to observe the reading habits of lots of people and my observation tells me that not many people enjoy re-reading books.  Many of our patrons actually mark our books with a small symbol in the back pages so that they know that they've read a book and don't accidentally check it out again.  (We don't mind.) 

I actually googled re-reading and found countless discussions about the pros and cons.  Readers seem to be firmly entrenched on one side or the other.  The main argument on the con side seems to be that there are so many books to read that a reader just doesn't have time to go back and re-read, which I certainly understand.  The argument on the pro side is that books have many different nuances that may need to be re-read to be properly digested. 

For me, re-reading is about knowing what book suits my current mood, and any discovering of new nuances is just a bonus.  I love knowing that if I loved a book the first time around, I can always go back and fall into its world again.  Some of my favorite books to re-read are:

The Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery,

Anything by Grace Livingston Hill,

 

and of course the Harry Potter series.

 

Of course, I only re-read books that I truly loved the first time around.  Which camp are you in?  Are you a re-reader, or do you read a book once then never again? What types of books do you re-read?  For me, fiction lends itself to re-reading much more than non-fiction, but I'm sure other people have the opposite opinion.  Do you wait years between re-reads or can you re-read almost immediately?  Let me know in the comments below.