Yes

This is like revisiting a museum or a city or a park that you enjoy--why have the experience only once when you know you are almost guaranteed a good experience the next time around? And with art, such a good book (especially a novel) or a movie, the experience often changes based on what's going on in the reader/viewer/audience member's life at the time. And sometimes rereading a book or rewatching a movie scares up feelings you were having last time you read/watched... All good reasons to revisit a beloved book or movie.

Stephanie

Seattle, WA

Yes

I have just begun to be an avid rereader, and have found it very rewarding to refresh my memory on the characters, plot, and language that made me so intrigued by a book in the first place. Three that were particularly satisfying rereads were 100 Years of Solitude, As I Lay Dying, and The Great Gatsby. They become more rich as my understanding of life has deepened since my first reads. In fact, I have a mental roster of books that I have set aside for rereading (No Ordinary Time and Rubicon head the list) as soon as I finish them.
On the other hand, I am tempted but hesitate to reread others because I fear that they will lose some of the luster that my memory has given to those works based on my initial reads during my youth (such as books by Herman Hesse). I enjoy those hazy good feeling too much that I don't want to risk disturbing or dissipaing that warm aura .

Jeff

Plainview, NY

No

I don't usually re-read because I feel like I'm losing time by not reading something new. There are just so many I want to read. But I'd like to try re-reading more because I'm sure some of the books I loved in the past might strike me differently now.

Kate

Brooklyn, New York

No

I have a pile of new books and a maxed out Netflix queue to get thru...I did recently go back and watch some old horror movies after reading Shock Value. Some I hadn't seen before but some I had, but not since I was a teenager.

Tanya

Brooklyn, NY

Yes

For the most part I think life is too short and art is too long to reread or rewatch; indeed, at this point in my life I may not make it through Proust once. But as I kid, I watched "Bananas" and "Duck Soup" enough to commit them to memory; I recited long scenes from "Cuckoo's Nest" to a ticket taker, in hopes I would be let in without parental supervision. Every Veterans Day I pull out "Breakfast of Champions" and remind myself why it was sacred, back when it was Armistice Day. I find comfort in "The Royal Tennenbaums" (and the fifth set of the 2008 Wimbledon Mens Final) I keep on my iPod: known quantities of greatness that will never disappoint. That's the main point, I guess, the flip side of where I began: life is too short to read (or watch) crap even once. Better to commit "Lear" to memory than give Danielle Steele a try.

Jonathan

Rockville, MD

Yes

I see something new and get a better understanding.

Favorite book: "A Good Man in Africa" by William Boyd (the movie was terrible except for Sean Connery). I've read it at least 10 times.

Favorite film: Dr Strangelove - Peter Sellers and Stanley Kubrick at their peak. I notice something different each time. And the old jokes like "Bat" Guano always crack me up. Seen about a dozen times. Plus it is chilling because the film is not far from real events.

Allan

Tokyo

Yes

There are 3 books that I reread every year actually: the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I have reread this series every single year since I was 11 years old, 23 years ago! For me, there is something in the series that captures a sense of nostalgia for me that I long for during the holidays every year. It is amazing, you would think after 23 times of reading the same book that I would get bored with it, but the truth of it is, I find something new with every rereading. There are parts that I love dearly, but those moments of discovery in the language or the nuance are what make the rereads a true joy and make it exciting. But I have to admit, there is something to be said for the truly familiar parts as well. There is this one part in Fellowship of the Ring where Bilbo and Frodo sit next to each other by the fire and Bilbo recites a poem. Part of me knows that the poem is trite. I am not an expert on poetry, but this stanza gets me every time:
"For still there are so many things that I have never seen:
In every wood in every spring there is a different green."
And in some ways, to me this truly exemplifies what I am talking about. At first thought, you would think that you would need to explore a lot more to find that new "green". But what I think it truly means is that you have to be an excellent observer and sometimes that means finding something new out of something you are intimately familiar with. I imagine Bilbo wandering down the same path he always wanders down with a keen ear out for Otho and Lobelia. I imagine him stopping and examining a tree branch with an especially beautiful leaf. The truth is, books that are reread become like dear friends. Treasured and irreplaceable, they become essential to your life and add...well joy along with the tradition. I actually added it to my will that I want that poem from the Fellowship of the Ring read as part of my eulogy. The book has truly become a part of me. In fact, I think I might reread it a little early this year. I just went and pulled it off the bookshelf!

Janet

Shawnee, Kansas

No

Yes movies always you see something different every time.
No book. but Im sure if I read something again I would see something different every time.
!

Stacy

brooklyn, ny

Yes

Not so much with books anymore (I used to do that when I was younger), but I love to rewatch films on DVD. I love it even more if I can watch the film and then watch it a second (or third) time with the commentary, often after reading about the film in a David Thomson book. Thomson's books I'll reread, btw -- one film essay at a time. It was reading his _New Biographical Dictionary of Film_ and _Have You Seen. . ._ that pushed me from mere movie lover to cinephile.

Kelly

Sterling, VA

Yes

I fell in love with Gene Tierney (at 14) in LAURA (1944).
She has that dark beauty and mystical quality about her. The plot is intriguing. The acting great. Superb lighting that is not practiced anymore. Great editing.
The only negative (context of the times) is that all the actors are lighting a cigarette every five minutes.
Every time it comes back on TV, I watch and fall in love all over again. I have seen the movie at least a dozen times.

Philip

Downingtown, PA

Yes

I fell in love with Gene Tierney (at 14) in LAURA (1944).
She has that dark beauty and mystical quality about her. The plot is intriguing. The acting great. Superb lighting that is not practiced anymore. Great editing.
The only negative (context of the times) is that all the actors are lighting a cigarette every five minutes.
Every time it comes back on TV, I watch and fall in love all over again. I have seen the movie at least a dozen times.

Philip

Downingtown, PA

Yes

Every time I rewatch one of my favorite movies, reread a favorite book or relisten to a favorite album I get more out of it, I peel another layer off the onion. Haven't got to the core yet. Favorite rewatch: The Best Years of Our Lives. Favorite reread: The Grapes of Wrath, The Lord of the Rings. Favorite relisten: Allman Brothers live at Fillmore East, Derek and the Dominoes' Layla and other love songs.

Anthony

West Columbia, Texas

Yes

I re-read or re-watch to reconnect with an idea. It's almost like wanting to take a second, or third, look at the Mona Lisa. And that idea is tied to other images, so by re-reading or re-watching something, I am restarting an idea cycle.

There are too many to recount.

Sean

Washington, DC

No

I'm with Kurt -- just too many new books, and I'm not a fast reader. My shelves are full of books I'm dying to get back to in some imaginary time when I have more time. If I ever do getting around to re-reading, first up will be Pnin by Nabokov.

David

Studio 360

Yes

I rewatch Taxi Driver every few years. It's such a savage commentary on how we perceive violence and every time I watch it, it seems so prescient.

I re-read Confederacy of Dunces, too, much as an earlier commenter. The characters are all so well constructed and familiar, it's comforting, even though the story is somewhat tragic. I also reread Charles Portis' few novels every few years for a similar reason. Like listening to old records, I remember where I was when I first read each of the novels and they bring back all kinds of memories.
Finally, I reread Living Poor by Moritz Thomsen. Nobody I know has ever heard of this book--or read it--but it's one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read and, having done Peace Corps, it's very poignant. It reminds one of how most of the rest of the world lives and why they live the way they do. It teaches rage and humility. It's frustrating and heartbreaking and beautiful--especially given the author's own story. Really though, this book functions like a primer on how to engage with the rest of the world. It's easy to forget the rest of the world, living in America, so I reread Living Poor.

Jesse

Oxford, Mississippi

Yes

Pride and Prejudice. I read it to try to imbibe brilliant writing, but that purpose gets lost as I fall in love with the plot and the story all over again, every time. It's a cliché book to reread, but I find it brilliant.

Another book I've reread into destruction is my copy of Memoirs of a Geisha. That book began my love affair with traditional Japanese culture, and even though I've discovered that it's inaccurate on so many levels, I don't care. It's such a luscious tale I can't help falling in love with it over and over again.

Frankie

Makati City, Philippines

Yes

I have read "Swimming to Cambodia" by Spalding Grey (originally performed as a long monologue) four or five times, often aloud with friends. Otherwise, two times is usually my number of reads if i really love a book. I grew up in front of a television and we had cable so there are many movies I've seen more times than I can count. "Edward Scissorhands" and "Beaches" both come to mind.

Sharon from Studio 360

New York, NY

No

the world is evolving and life is too short to limit oneself to being wrapped in a familiar cocoon. you need to allow yourself to be exposed to new ideas or even new approachs to old ideas. that is not to say that you should never re-read, just that you should not become trapped in the old at the expense of the new. taken to its extreme, the re-reading argument would suggest that once you have read a certain number of books, you never need read a new book for the rest of your life.

Scott

Brooklyn, NY

Yes

Three favorite books I've re-read:
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins @least 3X (It's just fun & it seems every time I read Tom I find an answer to an important "Life" question I usually didn't know I had)
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card @least 3X(The intricate telling of the political & human toll on youngsters keeps me spell bound each time, I also gave it to my father who claimed it was the best book he ever read)
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk 4X so far(Distopian, futuristic, magic, adventure, philosophy to create a better world. I get more out of it every time & it's in my line-up to read again soon)

Tim

Seattle Wa,

No

Like Mr. Andersen, I feel like there are far too many titles on my shelves to invest the time necessary to re-read anything. Nor do I often re-watch movies. Although the investment in time is obviously the same, rewatching what I've already seen seems a waste of time nonetheless. I was surprised that a negative response to your inquiry was so rare! Music , in contrast, normally does not command the attention demanded by Dostoyevsky or Heidegger.

Zain

Seattle