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I think it depends on what might potentially be wrong with said old favourites.
For older books written in a different time when casual use of racial slurs, sexual stereotyping, and blatant bigotry were more societally acceptable and showed up in the book in question (I've heard that the original Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books had this problem), then unless one's personal attitudes haven't changed since then, those would probably be a pretty uncomfortable and definitely tarnishing re-read.
You could still do it, but you'd have to accept that your childhood memories are kind of retroactively tainted and be willing to move forward from there.
For books whose problem is probably that they just might not be very well written/plotline not as awesome as remembered, I say go for it and give at least a few chapters a try.
If it happens that those chapters aren't very good, then stop and leave it there and pretend that the story got exponentially more awesome in the back half and still lives up to your nostalgic memory.
And if it happens that those chapters are as good (or nearly so) as you remember, then keep going and you'll have the joy of reacquainting yourself with an old favourite which you can possibly introduce to new friends.
You never know until you try. And if there seems to be reasonably low risk to it, you might as well try (unless trying will cost you $$$, in which case I'd advise holding off until you're almost certain you really will enjoy it again at that price).
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