In general, I am not a re-reader. There are quite a few books that I will save quotes from to look back on later, but going through and re-reading something cover to cover is a rarity for me. I'm not going to say my memory is good, because anybody around me will tell you that my short-term memory is non-existent, but I find that in the case of books it's one of the few things where I feel like I actually am able to retain details in a significant way, and am able to have meaningful conversations about them even years after I read them. For this reason, I've always felt that there's no point to me personally re-reading a book since I can recall enough details that the experience just never ends up being quite as fun as the first time. And when I have so many unread books staring me in the face, why would I? However, I've come to the realization that there are a few books that I want to read again - and it's ones that I didn't like the first time I read them. I think the book (or rather, play) that gave me the idea to do this was Endgame by Samuel Beckett. Back when I read this, I was still on goodreads and all of the higher rated reviews of it were actually from older people saying that they used to hate this one, but that as they've aged they realized that it's one of those plays where you kinda just have to know to know, and as such enjoy it a lot more now. The fact that this was such a common sentiment in reviews definitely sparked my curiosity and made me wonder if I'm the exact kind of person who would grow to love it as I get older as well, so it's been added to my backburner of things I need to revisit periodically. But this isn't the only case of me realizing a book deserves a second chance. The second instance is After Dark by Haruki Murakami. After Dark was my first Murakami book, so I was really going into it with zero idea of how his novels tend to be. I didn't know at the time that it's honestly one of his best works. I was just comparing it to all the other things I've read before by other authors, and so my opinion on finishing it was a sort of bewilderment and mild disgust. Now that I've read several other of his novels, I feel a sort of nostalgia for After Dark. Even though I cast it off as a disappointment, it's somehow managed to stay within my psyche for several years now as something I reflect on in strange, unexpected moments. So this year, I'm planning to buy a physical copy and re-read it. With all this, it just makes me wonder how many books that I've rated poorly are due to me simply reading it in the wrong mindset at the wrong time in my life, or because I was missing some kind of context to frame it with. And how many will come to haunt me until I finally give in to giving it another chance, I wonder...? In a way, it's kind of exciting to me to think that I might re-read a book that I initially disliked and see it through a completely different lense, like as if there was a veil over my eyes that was clouding my vision and preventing me from seeing what it was really trying to say or accomplish. That you could pick up something you already read and it feel totally foreign, like a completely different book from what you remember. Sigh... books are so mysterious and magical in this way