Being wary of the reread

I love rereading books. I think I reread a book for every four new books I read. I planned to reread every one of the 1,711 books (at last count) I have stashed in every nook and cranny of our house. Yea right, if I live to be 182 maybe. I may have to rethink that plan though. A few months ago I dug out some of my old favourites in an attempt to at least start on this gigantic feat. I started off with Til Dawn Tames the Night by Meagan McKinney in honour of pirate time. Loved it the fourth time around. The previous three rereads were all years ago. Next up was Honor’s Splendor by Julie Garwood. Many years ago I loved her writing and went on a major glom in order to make sure I had her entire backlist. I drove all over the city to every bookstore there was in search of them. And I did it. I found them all. I was a happy little Garwood camper. I read them and reread them and eventually moved onto other books. They were put away in the corner of the basement, kind of like the Velveteen Rabbit. When I went searching through her section for a reread of course the one I chose was Honor’s Splendor. It was terrible. I hated it and wondered what on earth I ever liked about it the first time around. I tried analyzing what had happened; that a book I once loved so much, I now loathed. Was it that I had aged in the fifteen or so year since I last read it? (well of course I have chronologically), but was it that I had matured so much that I could no longer enjoy nincompoop heroines or was it really that bad all along and I just didn’t know it. Judging by the number of recommendations she still gets from other readers, there are still a lot of people who enjoy her writing so I don’t think that’s it. It must be me. More and more I enjoy less and less the sweet little young (oh gawd so young) nincompoop heroines. Have my reading tastes changed that drastically? Now I don’t quite know what to do with the rest of my Garwood’s I hunted so hard to find. They were all printed in the late 80’s and early 90’s. They have been reprinted a number of times so I would never get my money out of them at a UBS. And do I even want to get rid of them? I know I won’t read them again, but they brought me so much pleasure at the time.
And another question I have. Do I really want to go back and read the books I loved so much from so many years ago? What if this happens again? On the one hand I loved the McKinney book. It was a very good visit. It can happen again with my old favourites. On the other hand though, how many of them will I not be able to finish? Many of the other older books I dug out of my pile from the basement have remained in a pile upstairs – somewhere.
Most of the books I reread have been written in the last five to seven years. However some are much older. Susan Anderson’s Exposure was written in 1993 and I reread that one not to long ago and it still held up over time. I think my old Putney’s will too. I’m kind of leery about my old McNaught’s though.
Well, I guess I will just have to try them and see – one book at a time (yea right)

And while I have your attention, can anyone help me with showing links to other blogs? I would love to add links to the other blogs I read and enjoy but have no idea how to do it.