The Ritual Of Rereading Books During The Holidays

An eyelash falls; you gently place it at the back of your hand to make a wish. The calendar sheds its last page, and you begin writing letters to your future self, setting resolutions with renewed conviction. If there’s one thing we, as human beings, excel at, it’s assigning meaning to things and making them a part of our lives in a way that makes the ordinary feel extraordinary. 

So I wasn’t surprised when choosing a book for the Bengaluru-based book club I run became a bigger decision than usual this December. What should we read as a group to close out the year? December demands a cosy, comfort read, but why not keep pushing ourselves and pick something that we might otherwise overlook —  especially when we’ve committed to doing exactly that every month? The human urge to build meaningful rituals seems to be at its peak when we are at the cusp of a changing year; it’s in moments of transition that we yearn most earnestly for familiarity and hope. 

I was fascinated to learn that there are readers who return to a specific book every year between December and January. I have always found refuge in words, and so the idea of a particular piece of literature keeping someone company on New Year’s Eve every year delighted and intrigued me. I wanted to know the what and the why. What is it about a specific book that calls someone back each year, especially during this time?

Shantanu Kishwar, a writer and a public policy student, rereads Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb every year during December. He first encountered Gottlieb at the end of 2020 — a difficult year for the entire world — and realised that its lingering thoughts perfectly mirrored the ones he wanted to both end and begin a year with. The early rereads were about comfort in familiarity, but over time, he discovered something deeper: the book seems to reveal more of itself as he moves through life.

Ritoja, who goes by charactersreadingbooks_ on Instagram, echoes Kishwar’s sentiment and agrees that her experiences allow her to discover corners of the book she may have missed in previous readings. Every year, she rereads Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet to navigate the bittersweet sombreness one half of the world feels when the other half is busy partying through New Year’s Eve. Ritoja also seeks and savours moments of reminiscence. ‘It feels like I am reliving that point of my life and the feeling that I had the first time around,’ she admits.

The fact that we return to certain books gives me hope. It reminds me that reading isn’t just about racing through cliffhangers, solving mysteries, or waiting for protagonists to finally find their way back to each other. It’s more than that. Even when we know exactly how a story ends, a part of us still longs to take the journey again — not for the destination, but for the new revelations hidden within the familiar.

Deepthi Bavirisetty, a marketer, quotes the Greek philosopher Heraclitus when asked about revisiting books. “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” Bavirisetty goes back to This Is Water by David Foster Wallace every year. ‘Each time I go back to this text, I re-examine my biases and beliefs and vow to become kinder and more compassionate,’ she adds.

There are enough books in the world to never be able to finish in one’s lifetime. Then why would someone choose to read something they have already read? Working on this essay and speaking to readers made this inquiry — that I started the essay with — seem a little futile. Your relationship with a book, especially with the one you love, is not so fleeting. In a sense, your favourite book is a reliable friend. Going into it, you know exactly what to expect and what you are going for, but you are also prepared to be happily surprised. C.S. Lewis summed this up when he said, “I’d never be satisfied to limit myself to just one experience each with my favourite people.”

Sayari Debnath, a culture journalist and a translator who hardly gets any time to reread, also indulges herself and loves to go back to The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger during the holiday season. Debnath believes that this book has one of the most affecting portrayals of the festive season. ‘I really love how he worries about where the ducks go when the water freezes in the Central Park lake. It’s really sweet,’ she adds. 

As readers, we are sometimes so overwhelmed by our TBR lists and the unread books on our bedside table that we tend to forget that the act of reading was never supposed to be a means to an end. We don’t have to finish reading all the books in the world or, for that matter, even on our own bookshelves. Reading is an act of engaging with our lives and the world more deeply, and rereading books allows us to do exactly that. A book expands when we revisit it, not because it has changed, but because we have. And it’s magical that every time we return to our favourite stories and characters, we find a bit of ourselves hidden between the lines, waiting to be discovered and relished.

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