BookSense

Famous readers' libraries

The books famous readers have in common

We matched the libraries and reading lists of 19 famous readers, 9,157 books in all, to the same Open Library records. These 212 books turn up in two or more of them.

In 4 libraries

In 3 libraries

The authors on the most shelves

Authors with books in four or more of the 19 libraries, counting any of their books.

In 2 libraries

How we counted

  • Each library comes from a catalogue or list named on its page: a scholarly catalogue of what the writer owned or borrowed, or the books the person named themselves.
  • Every title is matched to its Open Library work, so different editions and translations of a book count as one book.
  • A relative's copy doesn't count, and neither does a book the person said they disliked (Nabokov's list of books he despised, for example).
  • The libraries aren't alike: Woolf's runs to thousands of books and Austen's to a few dozen, so larger libraries turn up more often.

The libraries

Citing this page

BookSense, "The books famous readers have in common" (2026), https://www.booksense.net/libraries/in-common