When you mentioned people who have too many books to read, in my mind I raised my hand and displayed a sheepish grin. That said, I do think there is value in reading a really good book more than once.

I read Rich Dad Poor Dad twice. The first time I don’t recall getting anything out of it. I thought it was interesting but reading it did not significantly change my behavior or perspective. I read it again recently and got much more from it for a variety of reasons. 

When you read a book, what you get out of it depends significantly on your state of mind and goals you are working toward in that moment. You might fully absorb ideas that are most relevant to you and gloss over the ones that don’t seem valuable in that moment. Years later you might read the book again and have a completely different experience.

Here is a practical example. Suppose you read a book about how to train for and run a marathon. If you are starting from square one, the first couple chapters will be very interesting. At some point, however, you will get to a chapter that outpaces where you are today. While it is nice to know what lies ahead, you won’t have a vested interest in that information until you get to that point. If you are just starting to train, it’s not relevant to you how you should prepare the morning of a marathon. After you run a marathon, if you read the book again you will have a different experience. You might gloss over the beginner information and catch the subtle information that you missed the first time because you did not have the experience to catch it.

Not every book qualifies for a re-read from me; in fact most books do not qualify. But I can imagine a short list of true game-changing books that I would put on a list to revisit in the future.