Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

December is almost here, a time for tinseled trees, fuzzy slippers, hot chocolate, and end-of-year lists. My own list of bookish favorites will be posted in a few weeks, but there’s one category I’ve never featured—the books that seem to always get overlooked on year-end roundups: rereads.

Rereads are the epitome of comfort—old favorites you slip into like a cozy winter robe. They’re always there when you need them, and because you already know how the story ends, they never let you down. In honor of these faithful treasures that humbly stand by while newer novels revel in the shine, here’s a list of the best books I reread in 2021:

Watership Down by Richard Adams

A stone-cold classic. Like most of my generation I was introduced to this novel through the brutal and haunting 1978 animated film. I will never forget seeing it for the first time—a child expecting a lighthearted movie about bunny rabbits soon mesmerized by the terrifying image of a field flowing with blood. It stayed with me, this beautiful, violent film of perseverance, courage, survival, and friendship, and sometime in my teens I discovered the novel and have read it many times since. As an adult I have a much greater appreciation of Hazel’s visionary leadership, but it’s Bigwig—stubborn, arrogant, steadfast, brave—who remains one of my favorite characters in all of literature.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This is one of those books I came across later in life, reading it for the first time in 2015. The imagery I’d associated with the novel through various film adaptations (none of which I’ve seen) had led me to believe it was a romance. Tormented, impassioned lovers! Isolated, windswept moors! Imagine my shock when I read of ghosts, wrists scraped bloody over broken glass, neglected children, dark obsessions, abusive lovers, and cold revenge. Sounds pretty bleak, but I love it to pieces and will continue to visit this Gothic masterpiece again and again.

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Reading Ray Bradbury’s dark fantasy about a sinister traveling carnival spreading evil in a small Illinois town is like falling into a dream. The story is told in prose that’s more like poetry, with sentences that ebb and flow with perfect rhythm and hypnotic dread. If you’ve never invited the Dust Witch to haunt your dreams, if you’ve never watched in horror as Mr. Electrico jerks and jitters back from the dead, if you’ve never felt the pulse of Mr. Dark’s living Illustrations beat in your throat, now is the time. I envy you that it will be your first.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

The older I get, the more I read, the more I appreciate Harry Potter. In 2018 I reread the series for the first time, and it was absolutely delightful. With respect to the movies, which are wonderful and provided years of escapist joy for my children (and me!), the books are so much better. It’s not just the characters, who have more depth (Hermione is hopelessly flawed at times, and Harry is way cooler and not at all boring), it’s the details, the cleverness, the originality, the humor, the fun. I read a lot of middle grade and I’m trying to stay interested in YA, but nothing in recent children’s literature compares to the sprawling, immersive magic of Harry Potter. Which is why I’ll return to Hogwarts in 2022.

The Stand/Pet Semetary/Firestarter by Stephen King

I revisit a few classic King books every year. That golden age between 1974 and 1990 produced some of my favorite books of all time. The first tale I read by the Master of Horror was IT, way back when I was eleven or twelve, and I promptly became a devoted Constant Reader. Throughout my teens and early twenties I devoured everything Stephen King (and most things Richard Bachman): Cujo, The Shining, Misery, Firestarter, The Dead Zone, Different Seasons, The Stand. So much of my own personal journey is wrapped up in these timeless novels; like a childhood song, they are transportive and nostalgic, and they simply never get old.

What are some of your favorite rereads?