I was watching the BBC miniseries of Brideshead Revisited and thinking about how I couldn’t possibly have picked up on everything in my first reading of the novel. There’s so much beauty in there; it begs to be read again. But that got me thinking of the other books I should reread too.

So, a list of novels I would like to reread to squeeze out every last ounce of meaning:

Brideshead Revisited
Wuthering Heights
Lithium for Medea
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Play It As It Lays
The End of the Affair
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Madame Bovary
Jude the Obscure
Slaughterhouse-Five

I’ve reread parts of some of these books, sure. But the only book that I can promise you I’ve definitely read twice is To the Lighthouse. And that opened up a whole new world. It was like reading a different book, the second time around. Have I been missing out? Do our favorite novels demand a second reading?