The pressure to read more, to always be moving to the next book, the next article, the next piece of content, is a trap. It treats reading like a race. It treats the number of books on your “finished” list as a score.
But you are not competing. There is no leaderboard.
Rereading is the opposite of waste. Rereading is how you actually absorb a book. The first read is reconnaissance. You learn the shape of the thing. The second read is where understanding begins. You notice what you missed the foreshadowing, the recurring motif, the sentence that seemed ordinary the first time but is actually the key to everything. The third read is where the book becomes yours.
I used to feel embarrassed about rereading. Like I should be spending that time on something new. But I have learned more from the books I have read three times than from the books I have read once and forgotten.
You do not need to finish every book you start. But if a book is worth finishing, it is worth finishing again.
The best sentence in a book is often invisible on the first pass. Only rereading reveals it.
So slow down. Go back. Reread.
The book will not run out of pages. But you might run out of chances to see what was there all along.