20 Celebrities Favorite Books Worth Checking Out

It’s not just moms and nerds who enjoy reading. Many of your favorite celebrities love nothing more than curling up on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea. Celebrities favorite books encompass all genres, from literary classics to modern-day thrillers. You’ll also learn from the collection of books below that many celebrities enjoy less-known books that you might not have heard of before. 

To encourage you to read and go on your own journey of book discovery and not be like non-reader Kanye West (who recently said he has “never read a book” and compared reading to “eating Brussels sprouts”), here are some of our favorite celebrities favorite books you can get stuck into. 

20 Celebrities Favorite Books Worth Checking Out

1. Anna Kendrick 

Actress Anna Kendrick has a hankering for the classics. As she revealed to Glamour, Kendrick is a big fan of  “All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien.” The reason why these books make her favorites list: “They’re classics because they’re fucking great.” Hard to disagree with that logic. 

2. Constance Wu

Finding fame with the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat before exploding onto screens around the world in Crazy Rich Asians, Constance Wu is a vivacious reader. She’s also recently released her own book, Making a Scene. While promoting the book she chatted with Elle about some of her favorite novels, including Gilead by Marilynne Robinson, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, and Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay.

3. Zooey Deschanel 

Zooey Deschanel’s favorite book is actually a collection of essays from David Foster Wallace, one of the preeminent essayists of his generation. Speaking about her favorite book and author, Deschanel told Glamour; “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again [is] a book of essays by David Foster Wallace. One is about a cruise that turns out to be terrible. It’s delightfully astute.”

4. Bill Murray

Bill Murray has several books he considers his favorite. In an interview, he described Laurens Van Der Post’s A Story Like the Wind and A Far Off Place as his modern-day favorites. He also explained that his “favorite book used to be The Plague by Albert Camus” and that his “favorite author is Mark Twain. He’s smart and funny. Huckleberry Finn, especially the chapter all the purists hate, in which Tom Sawyer stages an elaborate rescue of Jim, is a writer having as much fun as possible.”

5. Emma Watson

It’s no surprise Emma Watson is a book nerd. The Harry Potter star took time away from acting to finish her degree in English literature and has spoken openly about her love of books. In a recent interview with Time, Watson listed Le Petit Prince by Antonie de Saint-Exupéry as her favorite book. For those not in the know, it’s about a young princess who is traveling through space and focuses on themes of friendship, love, and loss. 

“I like books that aren’t just lovely but that have memories in themselves,” Watson said. “Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time.”

6. Michelle Obama

The wife of former President Barrack Obama posts her “best books” list every year and is often interviewed about her reading habits. She has listed lots of really amazing books, but one that sticks out is Sony fo Solomon by Toni Morrison. Not only is it an impactful coming-of-age drama, but it’s a book Michelle Obama has read more than once, telling Welcome To the Writer’s Life that “I’ve now read Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon three times.” 

7. Olivia Munn

“My favorite book is Replay by Ken Grimwood, about a man who replays his life and the decisions he’s made over and over,” actress Olivia Munn told Glamour. “The takeaway for me was that no matter what life you’ve led or the choices you’ve made, there will always be great love and great sadness – you can’t escape those two things. I think that’s a great lesson.”

The book is a great premise for a movie, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if Munn ended up starring in an adaptation of this book one day. 

8. Kit Harrington 

The Game of Thrones star has a pretty simple and common answer when asked about his favorite book. “Well, my favorite book is 1984 by George Orwell,” he told Interview Magazine. A solid book that is loved by many and def should be on the list of 100 books to read before you die. 

9. Jessica Biel

Jessica Biel is another who loves the classics, singling out Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. “I’ve read it quite a few times and just love it,” she told Glamour. “It’s tragic, and I think tragedies might be good for you: You read them and think, maybe I’m not doing so bad – I’m doing OK!”

10. Robin Williams

The great Robin Williams revealed his favorite books while doing a Reddit AMA nine years ago. The books in question are part of a science fiction series known as the Foundation series. “Oh my god, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy. It’s one of the greatest books of all time, and the greatest character is the Mule,” Williams wrote. 

If the name sounds familiar, that’s because Apple TV adapted the trilogy as a TV series. So far only one season has aired, but the show was renewed for a second season that should screen in early 2023. 

11. Daniel Radcliffe

If you were expecting Harry Potter to be one of his favorite books, you’ve sadly been mistaken. Daniel Radcliffe enjoys a lot of classic novels, including The Master and Maragarita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

“It’s now my favorite novel – it’s just the greatest explosion of imagination, craziness, satire, humor, and heart,” Radcliffe told CNN. “There are passages that have become everyday Russian sayings. For instance, ‘Manuscripts don’t burn.’ If it had ever come out that this book was being written, Bulgakov would likely have disappeared permanently. That phrase stands for the fact that nothing is more powerful or more indestructible than the written word.”

Some of Radcliffe’s other favorites include Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson, Germinal by Emile Zola, and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

12. Lena Dunham

Making her name with Girls, Lena Dunham is one of the more controversial people on this list. Some of her views and takes aren’t always above board, but she does have great taste in books.

Discussing some of her favorites, Dunham had this to say; “The Most of Nora Ephron by Nora Ephron, and Toni Morrison’s Sula, which tackles what it’s like to be a woman and not see yourself. I also love Minor Characters: A Beat Memoir by Joyce Johnson. It’s set in a time when women couldn’t be the artist, only the muse.”

13. Alan Cumming

Along with acting, Alan Cumming has written several children’s books along with his own memoir, Baggage: Tales From a Fully Packed Life. In an interview with One Grand, he revealed his top ten favorite books. Topping the list is The Trick Is To Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway. 

“This is like a Scottish Catcher in the Rye. You actually feel you’re inside this women’s head, it is that visceral. And having experienced a downward spiral myself, I so admire her accuracy in every detail.”

14. Keira Knightley

British actress Keira Knightley has two favorite authors, Somerset Maugham and Jeanette Winterson. “I’ve pretty much read every one of Somerset Maugham’s books,” she told Glamour. “And I love everything by Jeanette Winterson – The Passion is my favorite.”

15. Rachel McAdams

Talking with Oprah Mag, Rachel McAdams let it be known she’s a big fan of American humorist David Sedaris. “It’s not often that a writer makes me laugh out loud, but [David] Sedaris does. He brings me to tears. It’s to the point where I can’t read his writing in public because people think I’m having some kind of meltdown. In this collection of essays, [When You Are Engulfed in Flames] he has a way of finding humor in the strangest and most painful moments, like a week with a creepy babysitter, or the death of his mother.”

16. Donald Glover

Also known as his musical alter ego Childish Gambino, Donald Glover is a successful musician and rapper. When talking with GQ he revealed that two of his favorite books are The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. 

“I have an obsession with books about kids with Asperger’s syndrome. I like the way they think – it suits me. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon is great. That and [Jonathan Safran Foer’s] Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close – they’re on a separate bookshelf. They don’t understand what the other books are saying by their facial expressions, but they’re perfectly lined up.”

17. Dolly Parton 

Country singer Dolly Parton is much more than meets the eye. Smart, funny, and with a thirst for knowledge, she is a big reader who counts The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper as one of the formative books in her life. “Well, to be honest, it’s the first little book that’s in the [Imagination Library] program. It’s The Little Engine That Could,”  Parton told Southern Living.

“Because I’m the little engine that did. I always say that ‘I thought I could, I thought I could’ and ‘I think I can, I think I can, and I still think I can.’ So I think that’s a great little inspirational book. It really kinda sums me up pretty good.”

18. Oprah Winfrey

As someone who runs a book club as part of her media empire, Oprah Winfrey has read a ton of books. She lists her favorites every year and is always giving recommendations. She recently posted about her favorite books of the past decade, headlined by Discover the Power Within You by Eric Butterworth. 

Yes, it’s a self-help book that ties in with Christianity but is still an interesting read and will surely provide you with some form of guidance. 

19. David Mitchell

A successful writer himself, David Micthell is the man behind the best-selling novel Cloud Atlas. As a writer, he has many great picks when it comes to best books, but one of his all-time favorites is The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively. 

“As a child, I had a bookshelf of impactful novels which I read over and over again,” Mitchell told the Irish Examiner. “Today, I’ll cite The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively, about a boy who releases the bottled ghost of an alchemist and has to handle the impossible consequences. I still remember scenes and lines 45 years later. What a wonderful book.”

20. Jon Hamm

The new Fletch is an avid reader who enjoys both fiction and non-fiction and counts Michael Chabon, Jonathan Lethem, and Jonathan Franzen as some of his favs. He also has a lot of time for Arcadia by Tom Stoppard. 

“I love reading plays. Part of the reason I became an actor was that I would read one and think, ‘Ah, it’d be fun to be in that.’ Arcadia is about the discovery of certain theories of physics and math, but it’s also a love story – a sad love story – infused with ideas of early feminism and the Industrial Revolution. The action bounces back and forth between the early 1800s and modern times stylistically and smoothly. And the words are just beautiful. Stoppard has an amazing command of the English language. He moves the plot along in such a way that if you’re not paying close attention, you won’t catch the five or six things that are going on. This is probably my favorite play – it’s got this weird combination of excellent dramatic writing and math and science. It sounds kind of nerdy, but there you go.”