Famous readers' libraries
The books famous readers kept on their shelves, from the catalogues libraries and scholars have made of them.
How to use these pagesBooks they have in common →- Books Bill Gates has reviewed and recommendedThe books Bill Gates has reviewed on his blog, Gates Notes, since 2010, and the ones he has named on its summer and holiday reading lists.218 books
- David Bowie's 100 favourite booksThe hundred books David Bowie named as his favourites in 2013, when the V&A's David Bowie Is exhibition opened, from Homer to the Beano.96 books
- Books from Warren Buffett's shareholder lettersThe books Warren Buffett has named in his yearly letters to Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders since 1977, from The Intelligent Investor to Shoe Dog.33 books
- Books Stephen King has recommendedThe reading lists at the back of Stephen King's On Writing, from its first edition and its tenth-anniversary one, and the books he has recommended to his readers online since.240 books
- Books Barack Obama has recommendedThe books on eleven of the summer and year-end reading lists Barack Obama has shared since 2015, and the ones he took on holiday in 2011, which are marked as read.91 books
- Borges's Personal LibraryThe books Jorge Luis Borges chose for his Biblioteca personal, the series he edited and wrote a prologue for each volume of, until his death in 1986. The titles are those of the Spanish series.60 books
- Books Vladimir Nabokov taught, praised and despisedThe novels and stories Vladimir Nabokov taught at Cornell and Harvard, from his Lectures on Literature, Russian Literature and Don Quixote, and the books he singled out in Strong Opinions as masterpieces or as worthless.25 books
- The books in Jane Austen's lettersThe novels, poems, sermons and histories Jane Austen named in her letters to her sister Cassandra and others, from 1796 to 1816, with her verdict where she gave one. Her letters from mid-1811 to May 1813 are missing from this edition.29 books
- The books George Orwell wrote aboutThe novels, poems and polemics George Orwell discussed in his essays and reviews, from Dickens and boys' weeklies to Mein Kampf, with his verdict where he gave a plain one.215 books
- The books Mahatma Gandhi readThe books Gandhi names in his Autobiography, from the law books of his Bar exams to Ruskin's Unto This Last, which changed his life, and the books he recommended at the end of Hind Swaraj (1909).54 books
- Oprah's Book Club picksThe books Oprah Winfrey has picked for Oprah's Book Club since September 1996, on her television show, in Book Club 2.0 and on Apple TV+, as Wikipedia lists them. Some picks from 2012 to 2022 may be missing.122 books
- Charles Darwin's libraryThe scientific books from Charles Darwin's library at Down House, which his son Francis gave to Cambridge University, as H. W. Rutherford catalogued them in 1908. Books Francis added himself are labelled.785 books
- Benjamin Franklin's libraryThe books from Benjamin Franklin's library now at the Library Company of Philadelphia, the library he helped found in 1731: about a third of the 3,700 titles scholars have traced to him.857 books
- John Adams's libraryThe books John Adams gave to the town of Quincy in 1822, now at the Boston Public Library, as listed in the library's 1917 catalogue, with a few later additions by his family.1,049 books
- Herman Melville's libraryThe books Herman Melville and his family are known to have owned or borrowed, from the catalogue scholars have kept since Merton Sealts began it in 1948.679 books
- Mark Twain's libraryThe books from Mark Twain's library now catalogued at the Mark Twain Papers in Berkeley and at Elmira College, with books at Quarry Farm he read and wrote in. His library was sold off after his death, so this is only the part libraries have traced.234 books
- Sylvia Plath's libraryBooks from Sylvia Plath's own shelves, now at Smith College, with the books she owned, signed or marked that stayed in Ted Hughes's library, now at Emory University.214 books
- Virginia and Leonard Woolf's libraryThe books from Monk's House, Virginia and Leonard Woolf's home in Sussex, now at Washington State University, with others of theirs at the Harry Ransom Center in Texas.4,435 books
- David Foster Wallace's libraryThe books from David Foster Wallace's home that went to the Harry Ransom Center with his papers, most of them marked up in his hand.314 books
