Every Book on Emma Watson's Reading List
Every Book on Emma Watson's Reading List
Like her beloved characters Hermione Granger and Belle, Emma Watson LOVES to read. She loves it so much she started a global, monthly Goodreads book club of feminist texts. She's recruited a team to hide books for people to find all over the world. She once took a year off from acting to read more (really!). She even allows everyone to keep tabs on her growing reading list. Here, we round up some of her favorites:
1) 'The Vagina Monologues' by Eve Ensler
This was her January/February 2017 selection for her Goodreads book club, Our Shared Shelf.
2) 'Women Who Run With Wolves' by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
"Estes' ideas are both ancient and completely new. She points to storytelling, our ancient narratives, as a way for women to reconnect to the Wild Woman all women have within themselves, but have lost," Emma shared when she selected this book for March/April 2017.
3) 'My Life on the Road' by Gloria Steinem
She read the book in January 2016 for Our Shared Shelf.
4) 'The Color Purple' by Alice Walker
"I am trying to choose works that cover as much ground as possible and are diverse," Emma wrote to her book club in February 2016, "I've heard amazing things about this book from a person that I trust."
5) 'How to Be a Woman' by Caitlin Moran
"I read it on a plane from London to New York and I laughed out loud and cried so much I think the whole of my cabin, airline staff included, thought I was losing my mind," Emma wrote in March 2016.
6) 'All About Love: New Visions' by bell hooks
Emma chose this as her March 2016 choice for Our Shared Shelf after bell hooks interviewed her for Paper. "It's been on my list for a while," she said.
7) 'The Argonauts' by Maggie Nelson
On reading this book, Emma wrote in April 2016, " It might require a bit of work but The Argonauts rewards us with an expansive way of considering identity, caretaking, and freedom—along with a liberation from, what Maggie calls, 'the demand that anyone live a life that's all one thing.'" She said, "Maybe it will change the way we think and speak about others and ourselves?"
8) 'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi
"As Iran enters another important period of change, with relations re-opening with much of the world, I think this is a particularly good time to pick up Persepolis," Emma wrote in June 2016, "Satrapi's deceptively simple, almost whimsical drawings belie the seriousness and rich complexity of her story–but it's also very funny too."
9) 'Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl' by Carrie Brownstein
Emma selected this book as her July/August 2016 Our Shared Shelf pick.
10) 'Half the Sky' by Sheryl WuDunn, Nicholas Kristof
In August 2016 Emma suggested this book which, she writes, helps readers "learn that the key to enabling change and economic growth is in unleashing women's potential."
11) 'Mom & Me & Mom' by Maya Angelou
"This is perhaps the greatest window into what shaped Angelou as a writer and poet and a fitting end to a lifetime of amazing works," Emma wrote in her review when she selected this book as her November 2016 read.
12) 'His Dark Materials' by Philip Pullman
This fantasy trilogy's main character Lyra Belacqua is one of Emma's favorite female fictional characters, as she Tweeted in October 2015.
13) 'A Thousand Splendid Suns' by Khaled Hosseini
While interviewing Malala Yousafzai in November 2015, the two agreed on enjoying this book.
14) 'The Opposite of Loneliness' by Marina Keegan
Emma tweeted about the book in February 2015, "I had to tell you about this book. If you've already read it tell me what your favourite bits were."
15) 'Wild,' 'Torch,' and 'Tiny Beautiful Things' by Cheryl Strayed
"It's been less than 3 weeks and I have devoured Torch, Tiny Beautiful Things, and Wild," Emma wrote in a January 2015 tweet thanking author Cheryl Strayed and Reese Witherspoon, who played her in the movie Wild.
16) 'Love Letters to the Dead' by Ava Dellaria
"Dear Ava, I loved your book," Emma tweeted in March 2014.
17) 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'
When a follower on Twitter asked for a book recommendation in March 2014, she shared this one.
18) 'The Queen of the Tearling' by Erika Johansen
"I had kind of said I would never do a franchise again, so I was desperate to hate it," she told Wonderland in 2014, "Unfortunately, I didn't sleep for about a week because I couldn't put the bloody thing down. It would be fair to say I became obsessed with the role and the book. Now I am executive producing it."
19) 'Quiet' by Susan Cain
"I'm kind of an introverted kind of person just by nature, it's not like a conscious choice that I'm making necessarily," Watson told Rookie after reading this book in 2013, "Coming to realize that about myself was very empowering."
20) 'The Fault in Our Stars' by John Green
"I stayed up til 4 finishing your book last night," Emma tweeted to the author in September 2013.
21) 'The Fountainhead' by Ayn Rand
Some may consider this a controversial book, but Emma told Marie Claire in 2012, "I know, it's a cult. I'm not going to take it too far, but I did enjoy it."
22) 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower' by Stephen Chbosky
Also obviously, considering she starred in the 2012 movie. She's said the book was the only one to get her excited to do a different role after Hermione.
23) 'Just Kids' by Patti Smith
"I have had Patti Smith's Just Kids on my bedside forever," Emma told Savoir Flair in 2012. Back in 2011 she elaborated, "The book was so honest and brave. I loved the way she sees the world. I really felt that life was more beautiful after I read it, and I felt more hopeful."
24) 'The Remains of the Day' by Kazuo Ishiguro
In 2011, she told Harper's Bazaar UK this book was one of her favorites.
25) 'The BFG' by Roald dahl
"My dad read me The BFG by Roald Dahl when I was younger. I'm really fond of that book," Emma told TIME in 2010. "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."
26) 'The Shadow of the Wind' by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
While promoting Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix in 2007, she told Scholastic this was her favorite book.
27) The 'Harry Potter' Series, by J.K.Rowling
Obviously. She's read each of the books three or four times.
The actress is a major bookworm.