15 New Yorkers' Favorite Books
New York may be the city that never sleeps because there's so much to read! Here are 15 famous New Yorkers' favorite books.
Amy Poehler
"When I was growing up, I was a voracious reader; I loved sitting in my house and jumping into new worlds. But more important, I loved meeting new people. Reading was a way to make friends or enemies, a way to discover how all these different people exist in the world and to rub shoulders with them." —Amy Poehler, actress and comedienne
Books that made a difference to Amy Poehler:I Like You by Amy Sedaris Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles DickensAway by Amy Bloom
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Nora Ephron
"The state of rapture that occurs when I read a wonderful book is one of the main reasons I read, but it doesn't happen every time, or even every other time, and when it does, I'm truly beside myself with joy." —
Nora Ephron, writer and director
Books that made a difference to Nora Ephron:Personal Velocity by Amy Bloom The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery Emma and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Liz Smith
"I grew up Texas-style, listening to Walter Winchell on the radio, yearning for bright lights or something undefinable. My education came largely from the local movie theater, which saved my life during the Great Depression. Having learned early on to read anything the Fort Worth Public Library would let me take out, at age 16 I stumbled onto two books that changed my life." —Liz Smith, author and gossip columnist
Here's how Liz Smith read her way out
Samantha Bee
"I'm a little obsessed with stories about middle-aged men who can't grow up. I'm interested because I don't want to be blindsided by aging. I don't want to wake up one day and say, 'Wait a second! Who is this person looking back at me?'" —Samantha Bee,
The Daily Show correspondent and author
Books that made a difference to Samantha Bee:The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan DidionA Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Natalie Portman
"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." —
Natalie Portman, actress
Books that made a difference to Natalie Portman:The Ministry of Special Causes by Nathan EnglanderSun Under Wood by Robert Hass
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
What Is the What by Dave Eggers
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
Gwyneth Paltrow
"Last year when I had a birthday party, I told my friends that I didn't want fancy presents—just for each of them to bring me a copy of their favorite book and to write on the first page why it's so special to them. It was a wonderful night, and I had so much fun discovering what my friends thought about each book." —Gwyneth Paltrow, actress
Books that made a difference to Gwyneth Paltrow:Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontëCrime and Punishment by Fyodor DostoevskyThe Sheltering Sky by Paul BowlesFranny and Zooey by J.D. SalingerGoodnight Moon by Margaret Wise BrownThe Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Ethan Hawke
"The great power of literature is to expand our vision.
Go Tell It on the Mountain is a case in point. You feel as if Baldwin bled over this book, that this book hurt to write. It's not a memoir; it's somebody taking very real feelings and turning them into art. He writes evocatively, but you don't need to have a graduate degree to understand his books—you just need to have a heart." —Ethan Hawke, actor and author
Books that made a difference to Ethan Hawke:Go Tell It on the Mountain by James BaldwinAll My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers by Larry McMurtryCruising Paradise by Sam ShepardAnd There Was Light by Jacques LusseyranThe Grapes of Wrath by John SteinbeckMoby-Dick by Herman MelvilleNotes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Philip Seymour Hoffman
"'Journalism always moves along a horizontal plane, telling a story,' Capote said in an interview, 'while fiction—good fiction—moves vertically, taking you deeper and deeper into character and events. By treating a real event with fictional techniques...it's possible to make this kind of synthesis.' I feel like Joan Didion, who started out as a novelist, does that. Jon Krakauer and some of the other writers on my list do it, too." —Philip Seymour Hoffman, actor
Books that made a difference to Philip Seymour Hoffman:The Sportswriter and Independence Day by Richard FordRevolutionary Road by Richard YatesInto the Wild by Jon KrakauerA Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Anderson Cooper
"Some people grow up in homes where sports are important; I grew up in a home where reading and writing had great value. As a child, I had a problem reading. I had a mild form of dyslexia where I would see some letters backward, and I had to go to a special reading instructor. One way she helped was to encourage me to find books that I was really passionate about." —Anderson Cooper, CNN anchor and journalist
Books that made a difference to Anderson Cooper:A Death in the Family by James AgeeThe Quiet American by Graham GreeneDry by Augusten BurroughsFamilies: A Memoir and a Celebration by Wyatt CooperIt Seemed Important at the Time by Gloria VanderbiltThe Journey Is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon edited by Kathy Eldon
Diane Keaton
"I was reminded of how inspiring books of photographs can be during a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art a few years ago. I literally stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the picture of a woman's back on the cover of a book called
The Waking Dream. The photograph was taken in 1862, yet at that moment, the distance between the past and present collapsed." —Diane Keaton, actress
Books that made a difference to Diane Keaton:Women Photographers edited by Constance SullivanUntitled by Diane ArbusPhotographs, Twenty-Five Years by Keith CarterPhotographs from Storyville, the Red-Light District of New Orleans by E.J. BellocqDreamland: America at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century by Michael Lesy
Liev Schreiber
"Books were a way of immersing myself in the world of an author. Because a writer gives a reader ownership of his story, you are allowed to feel as if you belong to something. I love the authors who share the knowledge that we're all in the same boat, especially when they do it with humor. They can, through a character or a scene, show you how absurd your own neuroses are. It becomes clear that while other people may look as if they're all going along well, they're likely to be just as neurotic as you are. That's very comforting." —Liev Schreiber, actor
Books that made a difference to Liev Schreiber:Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran FoerA Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy O'TooleThe Way to Freedom by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama of TibetOur Man in Havana by Graham GreeneThe Shakespeare First Folio edited by Doug MostonDeath of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy
Published 05/27/2010
