Jolabokaflod Advent Calendar 2025

There are some books that arrive in our lives once.
And there are others that stay.

They wait patiently on the shelf. They age with us. And when we return, they somehow know exactly who we have become since the last time we met. Re-reading is not repetition. It is reunion.

I used to think that re-reading meant I was avoiding the unknown. That I should always be pushing forwards into something new. But one winter, almost by accident, I opened a novel I had loved years earlier. The story was the same. I was not. And in that quiet difference between then and now, the book revealed entirely new truths to me.

That is the hidden gift of re-reading:

The story stays still so we can see how we have changed.

When December grows busy and the world pulls at us from every direction, returning to a familiar book can be an act of deep self-kindness. There is no pressure to keep up. No anxiety about comprehension. No need to prove anything. You already belong to the story — and it belongs to you.

Re-reading is also a way of reclaiming time. In a culture that constantly urges forward momentum, choosing to go back is quietly revolutionary. It says: this mattered once, and it matters still.

Today, on Day 7 of our Jolabokaflod Advent Calendar, I invite you to revisit a book that once felt like home. It does not have to be profound. It only has to be yours.

📖 Today’s Reading Picks — “Books Worth Re-reading”

Comforting companions that reward every return:

• Pride and Prejudice — Jane Austen
• Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell
• The Handmaid’s Tale — Margaret Atwood
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams

Each of these reads a little differently every time — because we read them differently every time.

You can explore the full Advent Calendar titles here:
👉 Visit the “Advent Calendar” collection on Bookshop.org

And for more timeless companions:
👉 Visit the Jolabokafloð Classics Shelf

• A Bear Called Paddington – Michael Bond: Gentle humour, kindness, and quiet charm for readers of all ages
• Heidi – Johanna Spyri: Quiet Alpine life, kindness, nature and emotional warmth
• Anne of Green Gables – L. M. Montgomery: Optimistic, lyrical and deeply comforting for all generations.
• Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame: Peaceful riverbank adventures with timeless charm.
• Little Women – Louisa May Alcott: Family, character, resilience and moral growth in a calm narrative style.
• Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe: A calm, powerful classic from Nigeria that opened world literature to many readers.
• The Tale of Genji (abridged versions) – Murasaki Shikibu: Gentle, reflective Japanese court life; the world’s first great novel.
• One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel García Márquez: Lyrical, dreamlike and deeply readable in spirit despite its scope.
• Call Me By Your Name – André Aciman (modern classic): Quiet, emotional, and reflective Mediterranean coming-of-age story.
• The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho: Simple, spiritual, and universally readable across cultures and ages.
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee: Calmly written, morally powerful and accessible to teens and adults.
• Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck: Short, gentle in tone and emotionally profound.
• The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett: Healing, nature and transformation for all ages.
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith: Tender, hopeful and quietly life-affirming.
• The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway: Spare, calm, and meditative with universal themes of dignity and endurance.

Tonight, choose a book you already know.
Let it meet you where you are now.
And discover how familiar stories still know how to surprise us.