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I re-read for the same reasons I watch a movie more than once, or listen to a piece of music more than once ... I get something new out of each visit. There will always be some nuance that I missed on the first go through. Or, I will have changed in my outlook from the first time I experienced that book, movie, song .... you name it.
It really doesn't matter that I already know the ending. With a movie, I enjoy the acting, the special effects, the characters. I've certainly seen Hamlet enough times to know who killed who and why they did it. It doesn't really matter to my enjoyment. I could know every word to a song, and still get lost in the singer's performance or the music. With some authors, I simply love the way they write. There is a poetry in their prose ... and the words just roll over my soul. I've read and re-read Jane Austen's works so many times, I know much of them by heart.
Reading, for me, is more than just words on a page and a plot. It is an experience which involves my mind and my imagination. As such, the "performances" of the characters changes as my experience and imagination alters them. You might as well ask me why I would ever have sex with the same person twice ... after all, it's not like there's going to be something "new" about the experience ... and I pretty much know the ending. But ... it's all about what happens in your mind .... you either make the experience fresh there ... or start pulling out the toys and inviting strangers in to play. Books are something that, if it's a good book, I can make the experience fresh time after time after time.
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