I’ve been in a funk. A reading funk, a creative funk, an anti-spontaneity funk.

It’s not a totally terrible thing that I’ve been in a funk! I actually have a very good reason to be in a funk. I have a three month old baby. I am nursing for the first time. I also have three other children who have their own needs, and a whole house to take care of, and a husband to relationship with.

In short: I’ve been busy, and therefore tired. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

One of my go-to strategies for times like this is to re-read my favorite books.

So I’ve been re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia – I’m on The Silver Chair now – and The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton and the Harry Potter series. The stories behind my love of these books deserve a post of their own. For now I will say that I have many good memories associated with these books, and even without my nostalgia they are good books. It’s like eating your favorite food cooked by your favorite people, and enjoyed with them too.

My second strategy is to read a new book from an author I’ve read before and liked. This is how I am now in my third, or fourth, book by Wendell Berry. He’s not exactly a new author to me, I just didn’t enjoy his books the first time I read them. I think I had come off the heels of a fast paced thriller, and Wendell Berry’s works are all thoughtful character/place centered pieces. I was just not in the right head space for them. Now, I understand it better and just love it. I want to inhale all he’s written. I just found an audiobook of his read by Nick Offerman and I am so excited. I’m trying to be good and finish what I have started before beginning something new. (This is a discipline I need to work on for myself, and I’m starting to see it in my children.)

A third strategy I have, which I have already hinted at above, is audiobooks. I have to be careful with this one though because I will binge them. Not only that, but I will listen to the books constantly, perpetually having a headphone in my ear and irritated that I’m getting interrupted (and with lots of little people, interruptions are just part of life).

(I listen to almost all my audiobooks on my free library app! Woot!)

Re-reading is a wonderful thing. I have many other books I re-read on a regular basis. Perhaps I should make a list! But that’s another post.

Do you re-read books? What stories do you find yourself coming back to over and over?

Soli Deo Gloria