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Caught Read Handed – Celebrity Readers

By September 6, 2015February 7th, 2019Literature, Reading Habits

Bookworms come in all shapes and sizes and from all areas of society. From binmen to ballerinas, from paupers to presidents you can find someone who loves nothing better than to lose themselves in a  good book.

I’ve been on the hunt for famous bookworms, below are listed just some of them and links to the books they were snapped reading.

Not just a pretty face, English fashion model, Television presenter and Vogue contributor Alexa Chung is snapped enjoying Just Kids by Patti Smith.

“In Just Kids, Patti Smith’s first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies.  An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work—from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.”

Just Kids

And here we have Lebron James taking some time out from the Basketball Court to enjoy The Hunger Games.

“In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.”

The Hunger Games

Marilyn Monroe was often pictured with a book when not on set or entertaining the president at a party. Here she’s reading Ulysses by James Joyce.

 

“Initially deemed obscene in England and the USA, this richly-allusive novel, revolutionary in its Modernistic experimentalism, was hailed as a work of genius by W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway.

Scandalously frank, wittily erudite, mercurially eloquent, resourcefully comic and generously humane,Ulysses offers the reader a life-changing experience.”

 

Ulysses

The eternally young and beautiful James Dean was another unlikely bookworm. Often pictured with his head in a book, here he is reading The Complete Poetical Works of James Whitcomb Riley.

“Few lives have left so vivid an impression upon a native environment as that of James Whitcomb Riley, the Hoosier Poet. His folksy, down-home rhymes are still enormously popular in his native state and beyond. This publication brings back into print the complete Riley repertoire of more than 1,000 poems, including such all-time favorites as “Little Orphant Annie” (far and away the best-loved of all Riley characters), “The Raggedy Man,” “Our Hired Girl,” “A Barefoot Boy,” “The Bumblebee,” “Granny,” and “When the Frost Is on the Punkin.””

The Complete Poetical Works

No celebrity Bookworm list would be complete without the divine Emma Watson. Here, in her usual flawlessly casual manner, she makes sure she’s prepared for all eventualities by bringing her current read out with her.

“Chicken Soup for the Soul continues to open the heart and rekindle the spirit Celebrate the twentieth anniversary with the classic book that inspired millions -. reinvigorated with bonus stories of inspiration! You will find hope and inspiration in these 101 heartwarming stories about counting your blessings. thinking positive. and overcoming challenges.”

Chicken Soup For The Soul

Barack Obama is well known for his voracious and wide ranging reading habits. Here he is reading a rather dauntingly titled Duty, Memoirs of Secretary at War.

“After serving six presidents in both the CIA and the National Security Council, Robert M. Gates believed that he had left Washington politics behind for good—but when he received the call from the White House in 2006 to help a nation mired in two wars, he answered what he felt was the call of duty.”

Duty Memoirs of Secretary at War

Elvis Presley was an avid reader and owned a fairly extensive personal library, here he is pictured with The Omen.

“A classic tale of the Antichrist come to Earth in the form of a young boy.”

The Omen

Paris Hilton may be considered vacuous by many but her reading choice would seem to dispute that fact.

“Despite technological advancement, this ancient Chinese text is still the definitive work of military strategy. In the last 2,500 years, Sun Tzu’s military treatise has transcended its role as a battlefield guide and has been used as a foundational text for business, leadership and more.”

The Art Of War

And here we find Snoop Dogg salving his soul with a copy of The Book Of Mormon.

“The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel. The Prophet Joseph Smith translated this record by the gift and power of God and first published it in March of 1830 as the Book of Mormon”

The Book Of Mormon

Willem Dafoe showcases his favourite reading position.

“In this highly polished and slightly twisted moral tale, a man pulls back from the brink of suicide when his application to buy a gun with which to shoot himself is delayed. Instead of throwing his life away, he decides to spend all his time and effort disposing of those who he feels deserve to die. Targeting a bureaucrat in the Veterans’ Administration, he devises an ingenious method of murdering people without trace. With a renewed zest for living he embarks on a joyful killing spree”

Waiting Period

Here Olivia Wilde is seen reading Keith Richards‘ Autobiography; Life.

“With The Rolling Stones, Keith Richards created the songs that roused the world, and he lived the original rock and roll life. Now, at last, the man himself tells his story of life in the crossfire hurricane.”

Life

Ahhhh the divinely delectable David Bowie; is he really caught reading? Or is he just comparing himself to Buster’s image on the front cover?

“Here is the story of Joseph Frank “Buster” Keaton, the director, producer, writer and star-the sad-faced little man who was one of the prime masters of silent film comedy.”

Keaton

Angelina Jolie is seen here reading a rather serious tome, perhaps she was brushing up before an important meeting in her role as Special Envoy and Goodwill Ambassador.

“More than 140 distinguished experts from the media, military, law, and human rights groups examine recent conflicts in light of international humanitarian law, including: Afghanistan (Patricia Gossman), the Congo (Gerard Prunier), terrorism (Anthony Dworkin), Guantánamo (Mark Huband), Darfur (John Prendergast and Colin Thomas-Jensen), occupation (George Packer), independent contractors (Peter Singer), war and insurgency (John Burns), and detention and interrogation (Dana Priest). Christiane Amanpour writes on Bosnian paramilitaries, Jeremy Bowen on Chechnya, and Gwynne Roberts on Saddam Hussein. Through case studies, definitions of key terms, and explanations of what is legal and what is not―illuminated by 150 stunning duotone photographs―Crimes of War reveals what every citizen should know about war and the law.”

Crimes of War

The Boss, Bruce Springsteen is caught reading Examined Lives, a book about philosophers and philosophy.

“In Examined Lives, James Miller returns to this vibrant tradition with short, lively biographies of twelve famous philosophers. With a flair for paradox and rich anecdote, Examined Lives is a book that confirms the continuing relevance of philosophy today–and explores the most urgent questions about what it means to live a good life.”

Examined Lives

The King of modern Horror, Stephen King reading a book entitled When Will There Be Good News? 

“On a hot summer day, Joanna Mason’s family slowly wanders home along a country lane. A moment later, Joanna’s life is changed forever…
On a dark night thirty years later, ex-detective Jackson Brodie finds himself on a train that is both crowded and late. Lost in his thoughts, he suddenly hears a shocking sound…
At the end of a long day, 16-year-old Reggie is looking forward to watching a little TV. Then a terrifying noise shatters her peaceful evening. Luckily, Reggie makes it a point to be prepared for an emergency…
These three lives come together in unexpected and deeply thrilling ways in the latest novel from Kate Atkinson, the critically acclaimed author who Harlan Coben calls “an absolute must-read.””

When Will There Be Good News

Pamela Anderson enjoying Lost Days whilst topping up her tan.

“For as long as she can remember, Hayley Wilkins has been oddly fascinated by her uncle Crew, the one everyone else in the family says is a bit “touched.” After her parents’ divorce, fifteen-year-old Hayley moves with her mom and brother into her grandparents’ house, where Uncle Crew lives in a room over the garage. It’s there she learns the source of her uncle’s trauma: when he was just four years old, Crew was lost in the woods of Lake Roosevelt, Washington, for over a year. He’s tormented by those lost days, and so Hayley makes it her mission to find out the truth about what happened to him so many years before.”

Lost Days

Renowned bookworm Natalie Portman during the filming of (one of the) Star Wars movies, reading John Irving.

“Richly comic, as well as deeply disturbing A Widow for One Year is a multilayered love story of astonishing emotional force.  Both ribald and erotic, it is also a brilliant novel about the passage of time and the relentlessness of grief.”

A Widow For One Year

Ok so he’s not reading it yet but he is buying it. Johnny Depp seen here with Damien Echols’ Life After Death.

“The New York Times bestselling memoir by Damien Echols of the West Memphis Three, who was falsely convicted of three murders and spent nearly eighteen years on Death Row—Life After Death is destined to be a classic of explosive, riveting prison literature.”

Life After Death

Mike Tyson takes time out from chewing people’s ears to read American Gangster.

“For decades the Mafia controlled the flow of heroin onto the streets of Harlem. Frank Lucas changed all that. Born in rural North Carolina, he came to New York and rose to power under notorious mobster Bumpy Johnson. When Bumpy died, Frank moved to take over the drug business. Caught in a squeeze play between the Mafia and the street dealers, Frank got creative. Instead of being a tool of the mob, he went straight to the source–Cambodia–and set up his own unique distribution system.”

American Gangster

Che Guevara is seen here with the obligatory Cuban cigar and reading Faust.

“Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend. He is a scholar who is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, so he makes a pact with the Devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasures.”

Faust

In this modern digital age, where everyone has a camera on their phone and all of us has the ability to become a member of the ‘paperazzi’,  images of celebrities caught in private moments are more and more common and less likely to be staged. It is so nice to see so many of the Glitterati still enjoying the delights to be found in a good book.

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