Who says beautiful people can't be nerds at heart? Plenty of celebrities love to read, and they have been pretty open about their favorite books. From classics like The Catcher in the Rye (beloved by just about everyone) and The Secret Garden (Anne Hathaway still loves this childhood tale), to collections of poetry and funny essays, you'll find plenty of celebrity book recommendations on this list.
Beyond the more famous reads, the list also includes more obscure titles like The Master and Margarita (Daniel Radcliffe's go-to read), A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again (Zooey Deschanel 's fave) and Replay (Olivia Munn's top pick). So if you're looking for something to read, heck out these celebrities' favorite books and curl up on the couch just like the famous people do!
40+ Celebrities Reveal Their Favorite Books,
Bill Murray
“Well, my 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. But my favorite book is a two-parter by Laurens Van Der Post, A Story Like the Wind and A Far Off Place. My favorite book used to be The Plague by Albert Camus.”
Daniel Radcliffe
"[The Master and the Margarita is] now my favorite novel -- it's just the greatest explosion of imagination, craziness, satire, humor, and heart."
Emma Watson
"Le Petit Prince [by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]. I like books that aren't just lovely but that have memories in themselves. Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time."
James Franco
"Essentially, [As I Lay Dying] is a bunch of smaller, linked episodes. I really love the interior lives of the characters and the multiple perspectives—they have inspired my own stories."
Michelle Obama
"One of the books that I loved — one of the first books that I loved and read cover to cover in one day — not because anybody made me read it but because the book was good — it was called — it was a book called Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. And that book helped me love reading, because before then reading was kind of like something you did when you had to do it. But that book, it like grabbed me and pulled me and I just kept reading and kept reading."
Neil deGrasse Tyson
"The Bible [to learn that it's easier to be told by others what to think and believe than it is to think for yourself]; The System of the World (Newton) [to learn that the universe is a knowable place]; On the Origin of Species (Darwin) [to learn of our kinship with all other life on Earth]; Gulliver's Travels (Swift) [to learn, among other satirical lessons, that most of the time humans are yahoos]; The Age of Reason (Paine) [to learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world]; The Wealth of Nations (Smith) [to learn that capitalism is an economy of greed, a force of nature unto itself]; The Art of War (Sun Tsu) [to learn that the act of killing fellow humans can be raised to an art]; The Prince (Machiavelli) [to learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it]. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world."
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. 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.”
Robin Williams
“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.”
Anna Kendrick
"All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut; and The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. They're classics because they're f**king great."
Kit Harington
"Well, my favorite book is 1984 by George Orwell."