Ever wonder what your favorite celebrities (or for that matter, the celebrities you disdain) might recommend in the way of books? Well, retired librarian Glenna Nowell of the Public Library in the little town of Gardiner, Maine has been compiling lists of just this phenonema for over 15 years. To whet your appetite, here's a few I thought most interesting:
Stendahl's The Red and the Black was the favorite book of Howard Cosell; Barbara Mandrell chose Corrie Ten-Boom's The Hiding Place; Tony Blair's two selections were The Lord of the Rings trilogy and Scott's Ivanhoe; Mel Gibson (in 1998) chose Fahrenheit 451; Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (who was also a big fan of Gilbert & Sullivan) recommended the collected works of Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, Shakespeare and Noel Coward; Norman Schwarzkopf selected White Fang by Jack London; famed Celtics coach "Red" Auerbach loved Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs and the Tom Swift books.
Charlton Heston chose the works of Shakespeare and Huck Finn by Mark Twain; Buzz Aldrin goes for all of Tom Clancy's books. George W. Bush (in 1999 when he was still governor of Texas) went for, among others, The Raven: A Biography of Sam Houston by Marquis James, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and the Just So Stories of Rudyard Kipling. Furthermore, then-Governor Bush added this comment: "When I was growing up, I preferred reading biographies about historical figures and baseball players. I still enjoy books about history, especially Texas history. I also like studying forces that helped shape today's economy and social structure."
Among the celebrities who suggested the Bible as their favorite book were: Loretta Lynn, Annette Funicello, Dyan Cannon, Debbie Reynolds, Billy Graham, Clint Black, Mike Ditka, and Pat Boone. Significantly different as a guide to morality was The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand which was the favorite reading of such seemingly diverse folks as Jerry Lewis, Martina Navratilova, Patti Page and Hugh Hefner. Anyhow, if you want to scan the lists on your own, just hit the title to this post.
