On Rereading, Marginalia, and a Lifelong Reading Practice
Why Rereading Matters
Think about picking up a favorite book and feeling its familiar cover in your hands. As you open it, you might notice the smell of old paper and ink. Rereading a book brings a special sense of comfort and confidence.
That confidence comes from not always needing something new. When you return to a book you know, you’re not looking for surprises—you’re looking for recognition.
Some people think rereading is boring or a waste of time, especially when there are so many new books available. I knew someone who read Pride and Prejudice every year, and her friends never understood why she didn’t move on. Yet each time she reread it, she discovered something new—or something newly comforting.
Rereading isn’t about stagnation.
It’s about noticing movement.
The book stays the same.
The reader changes.
A book you read at twenty feels different at forty. The words are identical, but your life is not. That is the quiet power of rereading.
The Role of Marginalia in a Lifelong Reading Practice
This is where marginalia enters the conversation.
Writing notes in the margins—underlining, questioning, disagreeing—captures who you were when you first encountered a text. Marginalia transforms reading from consumption into participation.
As we transition from annotating to interpreting, some people think writing in books is disrespectful. Others see it as a dialogue with the author. There is no single right way to approach marginalia, but leaving notes makes your reading visible to your future self.
Reflecting on these interactions over time, you may find that when you pick up a marked book years later, you meet an earlier version of yourself. Sometimes you agree with those notes. Sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you can’t remember writing them at all.
Ultimately, Marginalia creates layers of memory within a book.
Rereading is not about productivity; it’s about permission — something I explore more directly in What It Means to Read Without Rules.
Building a Lifelong Reading Practice
A lifelong reading practice isn’t built on speed or quantity. It grows through return.
Some books are read once.
Some are never finished.
Some are reread across decades.
Together, rereading and marginalia challenge the idea that reading is a one-time transaction. At the same time, in a culture obsessed with what’s next, rereading reminds us that depth matters more than novelty.
Over time, your bookshelf becomes an archive of your evolving self. Bent corners, highlighted sentences, scribbled notes—these are records of attention.
Forgetting parts of books is normal. Reading is not about retention. It is about presence.
Books that invite rereading often become the kind that linger — the ones I’ve written about in Books That Linger.
To reread is to trust that meaning deepens.
To write in the margins is to claim your place in the conversation.
To read for a lifetime is to accept that understanding is never complete.
Books remain.
We change.
And in that space between permanence and transformation, rereading leaves its deepest mark.
