I am a person who re-reads. I will read a book over and over again if I love it, whenever I need something familiar and comfortable, when I want to escape into a favorite place or remind myself of something that I think is important and meaningful. The details of these stories become part of the fabric of my own life, they weave themselves in in sometimes unexpected ways. This month, I decided I need to read something magical and transporting and very, very familiar: I picked up Harry Potter again.

I’ve read all seven Harry Potter novels so many times it’s actually a little embarrassing. What can I say? At least I know I’m not alone. Reading Harry Potter has become a certain kind of custom for me, in some ways. I appreciate re-reading these books for so many reasons: for the story, but also for the things it makes me remember, and even for the aesthetic experience of lifting each heavy volume off the shelf smoothing the pages. I even love the fonts, dude. I’m a dork.

Sometimes, reading Harry Potter makes me crave strange sorts of foods. British foods, like treacle tart and mince pies. I’ve never even had these things, but I think the idea of eating a mince pie while reading about Harry’s near-death experiences sounds lovely. This time around, somewhere in the beginning of book three, I found myself desperately wanting a strawberry peanut butter milkshake.

It’s at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlor where we first hear about strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice cream. And there are a lot of people out there who have carefully concocted strawberry-and-peanut-butter ice cream in their own kitchens (there is actually a whole cookbook dedicated to the foods of HP, if you weren’t aware). But I didn’t really want to get into all that. It would take away important time that I could be reading. So I decided that my perfect reading treat was a milkshake.

This was a total child-like joy. The flavor combination is killer; J.K. Rowling was clearly on to something. If you’re looking for a sweet indulgence on a hot afternoon, use the last of this summer’s perfect strawberries to mix this up. Then sit down with your favorite book and do a little re-reading. Do you have a book that you find yourself coming back to again and again?