5 of Our Favorite Celebrity Book Nerds
It is possible that, in addition to reading War and Peace and all the Austen ever printed, I may occasionally glance at magazines that may feature well-known personages of the stage and screen (and reality television, and other sources of mysterious fame I still do not quite understand). Becuause hey, some of these people star in movies about my favorite books! I must learn about their food choices and nail polish colors—then I’ll know if they really should’ve been cast as the heroine of my favorite postapocalyptic series.
And you know what, after the makeup tips and revelations about how Stars Are Just Like Me, I sometimes find out interesting things. Including the fact that many of these celebrities are avowed and confessed nerds, specifically my favorite kind of nerd: book nerds! Here’s a sampling of celebs who, it turns out, are surprisingly (and not so surprisingly) book nerds:
James Franco
James Franco has made some widely varying choices in his career, from Freaks and Geeks to the General Hospital stint to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to The Interview, he gets a slow clap from me. So perhaps it isn’t so surprising that such an omnivorous actor is also a big reader—and writer. His roles inspired by books or comics include playing poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl, his Oscar-nominated performance in 127 Hours, based on a memoir of the same name, and a role in the forthcoming adaptation of beloved classic The Little Prince. But he’s taken these bookish inclinations even further, having written, directed, and acted in two films based on the works of William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. He is also the director and writer of Bukowski, a forthcoming movie on the writer Charles Bukowski, currently in post-production. And somewhere in there, he found the time to write multiple well-received books himself, including Palo Alto and a collection of poems, Directing Herbert White.
Okay, okay, James Franco! You’ve earned your book nerd credentials and then some! Stop showing the rest of us up!
James Franco
James Franco has made some widely varying choices in his career, from Freaks and Geeks to the General Hospital stint to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes to The Interview, he gets a slow clap from me. So perhaps it isn’t so surprising that such an omnivorous actor is also a big reader—and writer. His roles inspired by books or comics include playing poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl, his Oscar-nominated performance in 127 Hours, based on a memoir of the same name, and a role in the forthcoming adaptation of beloved classic The Little Prince. But he’s taken these bookish inclinations even further, having written, directed, and acted in two films based on the works of William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying. He is also the director and writer of Bukowski, a forthcoming movie on the writer Charles Bukowski, currently in post-production. And somewhere in there, he found the time to write multiple well-received books himself, including Palo Alto and a collection of poems, Directing Herbert White.
Okay, okay, James Franco! You’ve earned your book nerd credentials and then some! Stop showing the rest of us up!
The Lord of the Rings
Paperback
$24.99
$28.00
The Lord of the Rings
In Stock Online
Paperback
$24.99
$28.00
Stephen Colbert
I don’t think this list could be complete without Stephen Colbert! Stephen Colbert, the man behind conservative blowhard parody character “Stephen Colbert,”is a well-known book (and otherwise) nerd, specifically of the sci-fi and high-fantasy type. His love for Tolkien is legendary, and made it into his show in many ways (his nerdery even secured him the coup of having the reclusive Smaug as a guest during his final season). And let’s not forget the famous Colbert Bump! Alongside The Daily Show, The Colbert Report was a reliable place to promote a book. Many authors benefited from Colbert’s star power, and I’m looking forward to seeing even more of Colbert’s bookish side now that he’s removed the quotation marks from his name. The book-nerdiness will remain strong with this one!
Stephen Colbert
I don’t think this list could be complete without Stephen Colbert! Stephen Colbert, the man behind conservative blowhard parody character “Stephen Colbert,”is a well-known book (and otherwise) nerd, specifically of the sci-fi and high-fantasy type. His love for Tolkien is legendary, and made it into his show in many ways (his nerdery even secured him the coup of having the reclusive Smaug as a guest during his final season). And let’s not forget the famous Colbert Bump! Alongside The Daily Show, The Colbert Report was a reliable place to promote a book. Many authors benefited from Colbert’s star power, and I’m looking forward to seeing even more of Colbert’s bookish side now that he’s removed the quotation marks from his name. The book-nerdiness will remain strong with this one!
Eating Animals
Paperback
$17.99
$19.99
Eating Animals
In Stock Online
Paperback
$17.99
$19.99
Natalie Portman
Beautiful, talented actress (Oh, Black Swan, how I loved you). Mother. UN Ambassador. And apparently also book nerd! She has stated that she was a big reader growing up (she loved the Babysitter’s club and Bridge to Terabithia, just like you!) . And apparently that love carried over into adulthood, as when she switched back to veganism after reading Eating Animals. When asked by O Magazine about reading, she had this to say:
“I think it’s so interesting—how we don’t have to get trapped by our own conventions. I studied psychology in school, and the best psychology is in literature. It’s so much easier to understand a character than a theory. You can recognize yourself—or other people—in a different way.”
Anyone who understands so well what books are for most assuredly gets a book nerd card in my book!
Natalie Portman
Beautiful, talented actress (Oh, Black Swan, how I loved you). Mother. UN Ambassador. And apparently also book nerd! She has stated that she was a big reader growing up (she loved the Babysitter’s club and Bridge to Terabithia, just like you!) . And apparently that love carried over into adulthood, as when she switched back to veganism after reading Eating Animals. When asked by O Magazine about reading, she had this to say:
“I think it’s so interesting—how we don’t have to get trapped by our own conventions. I studied psychology in school, and the best psychology is in literature. It’s so much easier to understand a character than a theory. You can recognize yourself—or other people—in a different way.”
Anyone who understands so well what books are for most assuredly gets a book nerd card in my book!
Lolita
Paperback
$15.49
$17.00
Lolita
In Stock Online
Paperback
$15.49
$17.00
Jeremy Irons
Your favorite man-with-the-unforgettable voice (or perhaps your second favorite, if you, like me, are a diehard Alan Rickman loyalist) is also on this list. Although he’s on record saying it’s “only in recent years” that he’s become a big reader, he’s been a pretty constant presence in literary films and plays for years. Can you think of many movies this man has been in that weren’t inspired by literature? (Or literature about history, at the very, very least?) He began his career as a classically trained stage actor, performing Shakespeare and other timeless works. One of his first big breaks was in a production of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the famous postmodernist/Victorian story of an affair gone wrong. He went on to star in a still-beloved adaptation of Brideshead Revisited (a work for which he also did an audiobook narration I highly suggest you check out), a movie about Kafka, and, famously, the remake of Lolita in the late 1990s. (Even the cartoon musical he was in is inspired by literature–here’s lookin’ at you, Hamlet as The Lion King.)
He’s also on record as a great appreciator of the written word, starting with The Bard, of course. He’s said, of Shakespeare: “”One of the reasons why Shakespeare shines as the greatest dramatist of all time is he was writing about the human condition. Jealousy, envy, or unrequited love, or the relationship between family members. It’s something that hasn’t changed. So when we see those plays now they still speak to us, they have a resonance, (while) hundreds of plays written since then don’t.”
Welcome to the book nerd club, Mr. Irons!
Jeremy Irons
Your favorite man-with-the-unforgettable voice (or perhaps your second favorite, if you, like me, are a diehard Alan Rickman loyalist) is also on this list. Although he’s on record saying it’s “only in recent years” that he’s become a big reader, he’s been a pretty constant presence in literary films and plays for years. Can you think of many movies this man has been in that weren’t inspired by literature? (Or literature about history, at the very, very least?) He began his career as a classically trained stage actor, performing Shakespeare and other timeless works. One of his first big breaks was in a production of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, the famous postmodernist/Victorian story of an affair gone wrong. He went on to star in a still-beloved adaptation of Brideshead Revisited (a work for which he also did an audiobook narration I highly suggest you check out), a movie about Kafka, and, famously, the remake of Lolita in the late 1990s. (Even the cartoon musical he was in is inspired by literature–here’s lookin’ at you, Hamlet as The Lion King.)
He’s also on record as a great appreciator of the written word, starting with The Bard, of course. He’s said, of Shakespeare: “”One of the reasons why Shakespeare shines as the greatest dramatist of all time is he was writing about the human condition. Jealousy, envy, or unrequited love, or the relationship between family members. It’s something that hasn’t changed. So when we see those plays now they still speak to us, they have a resonance, (while) hundreds of plays written since then don’t.”
Welcome to the book nerd club, Mr. Irons!
Colin Firth
And I clearly saved the best one for last. Mr. Darcy is a book nerd. That’s right. That Mr. Darcy. Let me repeat this again, so that you may still your heart and make sure you heard this correctly. Mr. Darcy is a book nerd. And what’s more, I don’t even need to tell you anything about how I know. You know why? Because he has more than adequately taken care of that himself:
You are so welcome.
Which celebrity book nerds did we miss?
Colin Firth
And I clearly saved the best one for last. Mr. Darcy is a book nerd. That’s right. That Mr. Darcy. Let me repeat this again, so that you may still your heart and make sure you heard this correctly. Mr. Darcy is a book nerd. And what’s more, I don’t even need to tell you anything about how I know. You know why? Because he has more than adequately taken care of that himself:
You are so welcome.
Which celebrity book nerds did we miss?