The bookshelves of 18 extraordinary people (Infographic)
Editor’s note: This article was reviewed and updated in July 2026 to meet Expert Editor’s latest editorial standards.
What do Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, the Duchess of Cambridge and Noam Chomsky all have in common? Apart from being extraordinarily successful, they love to read.
Research studies have long confirmed that reading is an important neurological activity that can strengthen the brain and improve well-being, and the reading lists of 18 remarkable people bring this to life.
And we aren’t talking thick, super-intense non-fiction (though Noam Chomsky has some pretty heavy titles in his must reads); novels also play an important role.
Reading fiction is known to improve a reader’s ability to put themselves in another person’s shoes and to trigger the imagination in a way that is similar to the visualisation of muscle memory in sports. The 18 successful people profiled below seem to know this instinctively — novels appear on nearly all their bookshelves.
Barack Obama reads Moby Dick with as much vigour as titles by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Bill Gates (who reads around 50 books a year) values The Catcher in the Rye alongside The Man Who Fed the World. Even the COO of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, likes dog-eared copies of the Harry Potter series as much as Now, Discover Your Strengths and Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values.
Unlike the 42% of US college graduates who will never read a book again after graduating or the 80% of the population who didn’t buy a book in the last year, these 18 people consistently choose reading over other pastimes, treating books as a gateway to learning, knowledge and personal power.
What do game changers such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, and Barack Obama have in common? They not only read books regularly, but books have genuinely shaped who they are. Do you share any favourite books with them? Perhaps their lists will inspire your next read.
Elon Musk
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk oversaw the first launch from NASA’s historic Launch Pad 39A in early 2017 — a milestone, but hardly a surprise for someone who has been fascinated by rockets since childhood. He first got into rocket building at age 8 by reading how-to books on the subject. He told a reporter that he was “raised by books” and credits reading as fundamental to his success. Some of his favourite books include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants, and Einstein: His Life and Universe.
Mark Zuckerberg
He adores books. So much so that in 2015, he hosted a book club on his Facebook account, making a recommendation to his followers every two weeks for the entire year. He focused on books that explored new cultures, histories, and technologies. Some of Zuckerberg’s favourite books include Why Nations Fail, The New Jim Crow, Genome, and The Varieties of Religious Experience.
Gretchin Rubin
Rubin is the author of four New York Times bestsellers: The Four Tendencies, Better than Before, The Happiness Project, and Happier at Home. Her nightstand is always crowded with books. According to Rubin, the books you won’t find there are ones built around the theme of “unjust accusation”. “No ‘Atonement,’ ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ or ‘Othello’ for me,” she says. Her favourites include The Habit of Being, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Life of Pi.
Bill Gates
Gates loves to read so much that he brings a duffle bag full of books on every vacation. Gates says that he reads around 50 books a year. He tends to avoid starting any book he doesn’t think he’ll finish, and advises everyone to dedicate at least an hour at a time to serious reading — pausing to reflect on the material, he says, adds real value. His favourite books include How to Lie with Statistics, The Catcher in the Rye, and How Asia Works.
Jeff Bezos
The founder, chairman, and CEO of Amazon, Bezos was recognised as the wealthiest person in the world in early 2018, with a net worth reported at $112 billion at that time — figures that have shifted substantially since. His favourite book is The Remains of the Day.
Barack Obama
The former President of the United States posted his favourite books and music of 2017 on Facebook. In 2013, Obama said “Reading is important. If you know how to read then the whole world opens up to you.” His favourites include The Souls of Black Folk, Gilead, and Moby Dick.
Pope Francis
The 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church was an avid reader throughout his papacy. Although the Bible was his favourite book, he also enjoyed Dostoevsky’s classics such as The Brothers Karamazov. Other books on his list included The Major Works and Quo Vadis.
Oprah Winfrey
The Oprah Winfrey Book Club has encouraged millions of people to open up their lives to reading. Books have played an important role in Oprah’s life, and she is a fervent advocate for literacy. Her favourites include East of Eden, A New Earth, and The Known World.
Noam Chomsky
The American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist is a prolific author in his own right. He enjoys reading nineteenth-century literature in his free time. Some of his favourite books are The Theory of Power, Bad Samaritans, and Whose Crisis? Whose Future?
Larry Page
The computer scientist and co-founder of Google was deeply affected by Nikola Tesla’s autobiography when he was 12 years old. As of April 2018, Page had a reported net worth of $48.3 billion — a figure that has grown substantially in the years since. He invented PageRank, Google’s core search ranking algorithm, an achievement that earned him the Marconi Prize in 2004, together with co-founder Sergey Brin. His favourite books include What Do You Care What Other People Think? and The Pleasure of Finding Things Out.
Janet Yellen
The economist served as Chair of the Federal Reserve from 2014 to 2018 and later as US Treasury Secretary. Yellen is known for spending her summer vacations with a suitcase full of economics books, reading on the beach with her husband rather than swimming. Her favourite reading includes The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert Gordon and The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee.
Sheryl Sandberg
The former COO of Facebook (now Meta) prefers paper books to a Kindle, largely because she likes to dog-ear pages and judges how much she enjoyed a book by how many corners end up turned down. Her reading list ranges widely, from Bossypants by Tina Fey to A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.
Donald Trump
The 45th and 47th President of the United States has named The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale as a favourite, saying the author was a friend of his father’s and that the book helped him through a difficult period early in his career. His reading list also includes The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Machiavelli’s The Prince.
Taylor Swift
The Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter reads to escape the pace of her schedule, and has served multiple times as guest speaker for Scholastic’s “Read Every Day” program. Her favourites include the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer, and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Hillary Clinton
The former US Secretary of State says she finds it impossible to pick a single favourite book, given how many stories have shaped her life, and that reading books builds empathy. During her 2016 presidential campaign she reportedly still found time to read roughly 30 books. Her list includes Wild Swans by Jung Chang and The Color Purple by Alice Walker.
Kate Middleton
The Princess of Wales has been spotted browsing bookshops for her own reading, and has named Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery as a childhood favourite she still returns to as an adult. Her list also includes The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins.
Sarah Jessica Parker
The actress, producer, and fashion designer describes herself as a lifelong book lover who reads on flights and shares recommendations through her own book club. Her favourites include The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Purity by Jonathan Franzen, and The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell.
Bradley Cooper
The Academy Award-nominated actor says The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is the book that first made him fall in love with reading, and he still makes time for books between film projects. His list also includes The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov.