When Once Just Isn’t Enough: Rereaders

A couple weeks ago, Kurt Andersen came clean on Twitter and Facebook. He admitted that (with two small exceptions), he’s never read a book or watched a movie more than twice. “I wonder how weird this is,” he asked. And we asked you to weigh in: Are you an avid rereader or rewatcher?

More than a hundred of you responded, nearly three–quarters singing the praises of books worth rereading again and again. From this, we compiled the Studio 360 Listeners’ List of the Best Books to Reread and Movies to Rewatch. 

Kurt called one rereader, Michael Barbosa, from Fort Meyers, Florida. He says he’s made it through Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead — which clocks in at 720 pages in many editions — 20 times. (Do the math.) Rereading it, he tells Kurt, “is like seeing an old friend you haven’t seen it in a while, catching up, listening to what they say again, and hearing it with new ears.” An out of work teacher, he returns to the book for reassurance that he’s on the right path. “Basically, if you’re going to believe in what you’re doing … that’s where you find your happiness.”