Literary people are those who read books over and over.
Becoming C.S. Lewis p. 210
A chap loses a lot by not reading a magnificent book more than once.
Becoming C.S. Lewis p. 211
It is true that we who reread know the plot. But we do not read to be surprised. We read because a good book by a good author keeps revealing to us new insights. Knowing how a character will end up attunes us to watching that growth or deterioration process, how the choices mattered—choices we may not have seen the first or even second time through.
And then there’s the beauty of it all. The good books take us somewhere we can’t go—usually—and let us experience yet another part of God’s creation, walk alongside another one of God’s creatures—lamenting the brokenness, reveling in the righteousness, relating to the humanness and the joy and griefs and trials and successes—and learning from it all.
And so much of that is lost by reading a good book only once.
Lingering Over Leaves 