Some people at the New York Times had some ideas for a new kind of “trend piece.” Trend: celebrities’ bookshelves. During the pandemic, almost everyone is working from home, including celebrities trying to promote their projects, or celebrities merely trying to help our friends at various TV shows. This has led to a mass Zoom/video-conference look inside celebrities’ homes. Most celebrities and journalists are doing it the same way: placing themselves in front of a relatively blank wall or a bookshelf for their Zoom chats. Which led to this trend piece: celebrities read books and put those books on their bookshelves. So what are celebrities reading? The NYT did a detailed look.
Cate Blanchett:
1. “Postcapitalism,” by Paul Mason: Information technology is killing capitalism as we know it. But this could be a good thing.
2. “Moscow 1937,” by Karl Schlögel: A portrait of the Soviet capital at the height of Stalin’s reign.
3. The Oxford English Dictionary: It’s 20 volumes. 21,728 pages. 171,476 words. And she owns them all.Prince Charles
1. “Stubbs,” by Basil Taylor: A biography of the 18th-century English painter best known for his depictions of horses.
2. “Shattered,” by Dick Francis: From the master of the equine thriller, a novel of horse-racing and glassblowing.
3. “Kings in Grass Castles,” by Mary Durack: A 1959 Australian classic about the outback during the 19th century. He probably also owns the sequel: “Sons in the Saddle.”Andy Cohen:
1. “A Little Life,” by Hanya Yanagihara: A tale of New York City unhappiness and quarter-life crises.
2. “Live From New York,” by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales: A gossip-rich, exhaustive oral history of “Saturday Night Live.”
3. “Freedom,” by Jonathan Franzen: A tale of Midwestern unhappiness and midlife crises.Amy Poehler:
1. “Time Zero,” by Carolyn Cohagan: A dystopian novel about a future Manhattan that is controlled by misogynistic extremists who don’t allow girls to go to school. Then comes along a plucky 15-year-old and her rebellious grandmother.
2. “Blitzed,” by Norman Ohler: Did you know the Nazis were high on crystal meth? This 2017 history book was a revelation when it showed how everyone from factory workers to housewives to millions of German soldiers was, well, “blitzed.”
3. “Peeves,” by Mike Van Waes: A children’s book about a boy who accidentally sets loose a bunch of irritating little monsters who wreak havoc.Anna Wintour:
1. “The Nix,” by Nathan Hill: A panoramic novel of social satire that chews off a lot, from 1960s radical politics to Occupy Wall Street, 1940s Norway to Chicago in the ’80s.
2. “Naming Names,” by Victor S. Navasky: The classic account of the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation of Hollywood for its supposed Communist allegiances. It’s all here, the cruelty, the back-stabbing, the moments of truth under the hot lights.Paul Rudd
1. “Code of Conduct,” by Brad Thor: The 15th installment in Thor’s thriller series has counterterrorism operative Scot Harvath uncovering the inner workings of a secretive committee of elites running the world.
2. “Jude the Obscure,” by Thomas Hardy: The classic 1895 novel of a young, working-class man who yearns to become a scholar but is thwarted by society and love.
3. “Slave Day,” by Rob Thomas: From the creator of “Veronica Mars,” this Texas high school drama has a disturbing plot involving teens auctioning off one another. “Clueless” this is not.
I find all of this surprisingly charming. You can tell a lot about a person’s interior life by what books they read and hang on to, and I’m sure some people are making the choice to put certain books on certain bookshelves for their video-conferences too. I mean, no one is showing off the fact that they read dirty sex books or cheap romance novels, you know? I love that Paul Rudd has Jude the Obscure. I love Amy Poehler’s reading habits. I love that Prince Charles reads books about horses and people who paint horses. And Cate Blanchett owns all volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary? She must have some massive Scrabble games.
Photos courtesy of Clarence House, The Late Show.
I kept reading Andy Cohen’s books as belonging to Charles and getting excited.
Charles has 100% read The Thornbirds.
For some reason the thought of Charles reading “Thornbirds” absolutely tickles me.
I’m currently obsessed with the @ratemyskyperoom Twitter. It’s brilliant.
I bet that Cate has read it too. 😀
I love how these were all so interesting, and some of them niche! I half-expected all of them to say they were reading War and Peace, etc. I wanted to ask— does anyone here follow celebrity book clubs? I think Reese Witherspoon has one. I’m always looking for book recommendations. I need to read more contemporary fiction.
I don’t follow any, because generally what they’re into is not what I’m into – I read a lot of fantasy novels and historical novels, but I’ve yet to find a celeb whose tastes really match up with mine. One exception was years ago I used to keep an eye on Oprah’s book club, and that’s how I ‘discovered’ Cormac McCarthy (bad me, I’d never heard of him before The Road.)
If you’re looking for suggestions, I’d say try this trick that I use on Amazon – search for a book that you’ve already read / liked. On that page they’ll often recommend other novels that are in a similar vein, and you can read summaries, reviews, and so on. Also, if you own a Kindle you can download a sample for free. I’ve added The Nix to my ‘Want to Sample’ list just based on the description posted above, haha.
Thanks for the tip!
Now I am interested. I am looking for some good books!
Charles face is completely red.
Does he have rosacea?
Wow, thanks for this, and for the link to the full article — I didn’t even realize we had a “Librarian of Congress”! Carla Hayden sounds amazing, and ‘Minders of Make-Believe’ is an incredible history book for anyone with an interest in children’s literature.
Carla Hayden is awesome for many reasons; she’s also the first woman librarian of Congress and the first African American to serve in that position!
Yes!! And she’s very much a “real” librarian, unlike many of those who held the position before her! She has devoted her life to the library sciences and the edification of others, especially young people. I am a brand new fan!!
My books never show up in my Zoom meetings because my bookshelf is right above my desk, which is where I place my computer. Bit of a bummer, to tell you the truth! My background is always my bed, lol.
I had a Zoom meeting with students last week, and I was surprised by the full and beautiful bookcases of several of them. When I commented on it, they told me it’s actually one of the Zoom background choices now. So they are streaming from their bedrooms or wherever but all we can see are their “bookcases”. I am disappointed I didn’t find this background earlier!
Ugh. I could not read anything deep right now if my life depended on it.
I love seeing books and bookshelves in homes!
I have read two self-published books about GHOSTS on my Kindle — that’s it, that’s all I’ve managed to read, lol!!! There is definitely no shame in being distractible right now.
I’d love to see Wills and Kate’s 🤣
They had those fake looking books on their empty desk. I’m betting that’s all there is for them. They don’t seem to have a lot of curiosity, intellectual or otherwise.
I think a lot of this is performative. These people have big houses/apartments and could set up the camera anywhere.
Oh my god, nobody could persuade me to read Charles’ selection. It’s so fitting though, I love it. I would happily read Cohen’s and Poehler’s.
I have video chats in front of plants by a window, it just looks nice and soothing. My books aren’t organized so you’d see some smutty sh*t sprinkled in.
I love that Paul Rudd has Jude the Obscure too. Thomas Hardy is in my top 5 favorite authors. As a teen I cried and cried as I tried to finish it. Loved it so much.
Same, Hardy’s always good for a cry. George Elliot always makes me cry as well.
Camilla’s bookcase was interesting to me, and now that I think of it it sort of resembles a lot of possible airport purchases that any of us might have. She appeared to have a lot of popular & mass market titles (hard copy versions though!), JK Rowling and Philippa Gregory and Peter James, plus some sentimental hardcovers & a bird guide…
Cate Blanchett definitely put the Oxford English on her shelves and those aviators on her nose to impress you with her faux english luvvy amazingness. The Ego is strong with this one.
There’s this twitter feed called Bookcase Credibility I started following. It critiques different peoples bookcases from their zoom feeds.