Every Book Emma Watson Has Ever Recommended
A version of this article originally appeared on ew.com.
Emma Watson loves to read.
The actress has that in common with her brainy Harry Potter character Hermione as well as bookish Belle, who she plays in the much-anticipated film Beauty and the Beast, out March 17. In addition to being a bookworm, Watson is also an outspoken feminist and as well as a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador and promoter of the organization’s HeForShe movement, which is dedicated to recruiting men into the movement for gender equality. As a response to her work with the UN, she launched the feminist book club Our Shared Shelf on Goodreads in January 2016, encouraging members to read alongside her. The actress also frequently recommends books on social media and in interviews.
Over the years, she has recommended 76 books, including literary classics, feminist must-reads, and trendy titles. Take a page out of Watson’s book when looking for your next page-turner and enjoy this complete list of every book that Emma Watson has ever recommended.
Our Shared Shelf Selections:
Watson’s book club has been going strong for just over a year, and they’ve conquered nine books so far, from recent memoirs by amazing women such as Gloria Steinem and Carrie Brownstein to contemporary classics like The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Their current title is The Vagina Monologues. Watson also uses her social media to share pics with the Our Shared Shelf selections for inspiration.
1. The Vagina Monologues, Eve Ensler
2. My Life on the Road, Gloria Steinem
3. The Color Purple, Alice Walker
4. All About Love: New Visions, bell hooks
5. How to Be a Woman, Caitlin Moran
6. The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson
7. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
8. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, Carrie Brownstein
https://twitter.com/statuses/755128768847421440
What She Read in 2016:
In December, Watson used her Goodreads page to share the impressive list of books she read in 2016. These included the Our Shared Shelf books, of course. She finished classics like George Orwell’s 1984 and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, feminist reads including Feminism Is For Everybody by bell hooks, non-fiction books about love and economics, and more. She notably read Dave Eggers’ The Circle, the text on which her next film is based. See the lengthy list below:
1. Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
2. Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks
3. Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks
4. The Circle by Dave Eggers
5. Self-Made Man by Nora Vincent
6. We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love by Robert A. Johnson
7. The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter
8. Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
9. Brave Enough by Cheryl Strayed
10. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered by Ernst F. Schumacher
11. Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
12. Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
13. Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
14. Prime Time by Jane Fonda
15. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
16. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
17. Sex and World Peace by Valerie M. Hudson
18. 1984 by George Orwell
19. The Way of the Actor: A Path to Knowledge and Power by Brian Bates
20. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
21. Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid
22. In the Body of the World by Eve Ensler
23. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity by David Lynch
24. The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time by Arianna Huffington
25. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
26. What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey
27. Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina
28. Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
29. Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
30. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
31. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate-Discoveries from a Secret World by Peter Wohlleben
Twitter Recommendations:
Watson has used Twitter to update fans on which books had her enthralled over the years. They are:
1. Natural Beauty by James Houston
https://twitter.com/statuses/314522313196457985
2. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
https://twitter.com/statuses/384550225844928512
https://twitter.com/statuses/384710214609821696
3. Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
https://twitter.com/statuses/445861847091400704
4. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
https://twitter.com/statuses/445884730613850112
5. Torch by Cheryl Strayed
6. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
7. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
https://twitter.com/statuses/551336461673713664
8. The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
https://twitter.com/statuses/564487498479714304
9. The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman
https://twitter.com/statuses/652519747100143616
10. Rookie Yearbook Four by Tavi Gevinson
https://twitter.com/statuses/666937010461024256
Recommendations from Interviews:
Emma Watson is one of our most famous bookworms, so it’s no surprise that she gets asked about books in interviews all the time. The books that have come up include the Harry Potter books and Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which she starred in on the big screen. Here’s what she told reporters she loves:
1. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
In addition to her role in the Harry Potter movies, Emma Watson is a self-proclaimed “geeky Harry Potter fan” and has read each of the books three or four times.
2. The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
The actress said that Rowling’s post-Potter book was on her reading list.
3. A Path Appears: Transforming Lives, Creating Opportunity by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
Watson mentioned reading A Path Appears, the sequel to her book club pick Half the Sky, in her interview with the authors Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Before starring in the 2012 film, she fell in love with the script for The Perks of Being a Wallflower and quickly devoured the book.
5. Just Kids by Patti Smith
Watson cites reading this music memoir in an interview.
6. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Watson calls The Remains of the Day one of her favorite books.
7. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
She mentions reading this book when she was little.
8. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Watson cites this book while being interviewed by Tavi Gevinson for Rookie.
9. The Richard Burton Diaries by Chris Williams
Watson also mentions the late actor’s diaries in her Rookie interview.
10. The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
Watson mentions reading the first book in this fantasy novel in an interview. She was at one point slated to star in a film adaptation.
11. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The star mentioned liking this classic when speaking to Marie Claire.
12. The BFG by Roald Dahl
13. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Watson talked about reading these two children’s classics in an interview with Time.
14. The Twilight series by Stephanie Myers
Watson cited the vampire series as one of her guilty pleasures in an interview with Elle UK.
15. Siddartha by Herman Hesse
Watson mentioned reading this book to Savoir Flair
16. The Magus by John Fowle
She also told Savoir Flair that Noah co-star Russell Crowe gave her this book.
17. Strangeland by Tracey Emin
Watson told Australian Women’s Weekly that she checked this book off her reading list.
18. Lolita by Vladmir Nabokov
19. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
20. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
She also told the Australian publication that these three books were among those on her reading list that she has yet to tackle.
21. Metamorphoses by Ovid
Watson told Vanity Fair she was taking a course about this book at Brown.
22. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Watson told Scholastic this was her all-time favorite book.
23. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
She told Marie Claire that she was currently reading this novel.
24. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
When Watson interviewed Malala Yousafzai, the two women agreed on the greatness of this bestseller.
Authors
Watson has professed her love for these authors in interviews, although she didn’t name any specific titles.
1. William Blake
2. Oscar Wilde
Watson told Savoir Flair that these two authors have influenced her.
3. T.S. Eliot
4. John Keats
5. Percy Bysshe Shelley
6. The Brontë sisters
7. Jane Austen
Watson told Madame Figaro that these were her favorite authors.
8. Zachary Lockman
Watson told Stylist that she was reading this author in her history of the modern Middle East course in college.
9. Robert Frost
Watson compared Belle to Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” in her EW cover interview.
Miscellaneous:
A few more for good measure. Watson had made these recommendations elsewhere on the internet.
1. I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
2. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Watson’s old website emmawatson.com listed these three books among her favorites, along with titles named above.
