The Terror of Knowing

Top 5 Wednesday is a weekly project in which a prompt is given and bloggers and Booktubers respond accordingly. It’s a really simple, fun idea and one that I have participated in a couple of weeks back – here and here, if anyone’s at all interested. I don’t have time to film a video since there’s like 20 minutes left of Wednesday where I am so instead I’m mixing it up with a blog post, oooo fancy. Except not really, not at all.

10th December – Top 5 Re-reads

1. Harry Potter and… <insert any of the series here> by JK Rowling
   Over the summer I decided to re-read the Harry Potter series consecutively for the first time in, well, years. I only got as far as the sixth book before I had to head back to university and all steam I had built up disappeared in one fell swoop with required reading lists. However, I’m really glad I did because it helped me to come to two conclusions: Goblet of Fire is a brilliant book. I’ve always overlooked it and used to think it was maybe my least favourite book of the series. It’s not. And conclusion #2 my favourite book is not, as I thought, Order of the Phoenix. It is Prisoner of Azkaban. Because Lupin, need I say more? (PoA is also my favourite film, don’t hate me, I really like what Cuáron did for the story okay??)
2. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
   Do what I did – read this book when you’re, like, 13 and then read this book when you’re 17. You will get such different reading experiences and it’s amazing. This is a book that stands up to re-reads, and what you get from it on any sitting can depend on what you’re looking for. I really do believe that you can read it for the social commentary, the wit, the way that Lizzie realises she’s being a total hypocrite for criticising Charlotte for having the exact same concerns (money/security) as Wickham does, the romance, the mental image of Colin Firth as Darcy – wait, what? My point is, it’s always going to be one of my favourite books and in fact just gushing about it like this has inspired me to pick it up as soon as I get home for the holidays.
3. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
   How are you so funny? Seriously. Never has the coming of the Antichrist and the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse been quite so funny. And the jokes seem funnier every time I read it – I don’t know how that is even possible but it really is.
4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
   This is just turning into my favourite books list isn’t it? No but honestly, similar kind of deal as Pride and Prejudice, read it when I was younger, read it recently (admittedly because I chose to write a project on it but even so) and adored it so much more. You can do so many different critical readings of this novel too that it definitely stands up to many a re-read.
5. Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks
   Ok this is officially my faovurite books list. But, again, similar experience – re-reading it made me appreciate just how hauntingly beautiful some of that prose is. And if you think that second/third/fourth time round it’s not going to make you feel every emotion you felt on that first, fresh, new read? You’re wrong, so terribly wrong. Oops.

And that was my Top 5 Wednesday, blog edition because I’m short on time and have shitty lighting anyway. Also I have no desire to swear at Movie Maker for the remaining 8 minutes of Wednesday. So, this is what we have instead… do you have any thoughts on the list? Any points you disagree on – did you hate Prisoner of Azkaban??? Do you think Good Omens isn’t actually funny at all?? What are you Top 5 Re-Reads, either because of the nature of your re-reading experience or because of the book itself?