Neil Patrick Harris and His Favorite Books
Funnyman Neil Patrick Harris seems to be everywhere these days, hosting awards shows and starring as the charming-yet-egomaniacal Barney on the CBS hit How I Met Your Mother. We talked with Harris and found out that not only is he as funny as the character he plays, he's also just a kid at heart.
KF: We read that one of your favorite books is Bridge to Terabithia.
NPH: Love.
KF: What are some other books that have kind of crept into your top 5 over the years?
NPH: When I was growing up, we were big Roald Dahl fans, so we read James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Great Glass Elevator, just loved those. I'm a big fan of A Confederacy of Dunces, very funny book.
KF: Do you lean more toward humor, drama, mystery, fiction?
NPH: I'm kind of all over the place. Right now, I'm reading a book called Street Gang, which is a biography of the creation of Sesame Street and the Children's Television Workshop, which I find wildly fascinating. I'm a big Jim Henson guy.
KF: I just watched you in "Shoe Fairy" on YouTube.com last night.
What does Harris think about fellow magician Harry Potter?
NPH: I'm also reading a book called Footprints on the Ceiling, which is an old murder mystery where the protagonist is a magician, and I downloaded on my Kindle the new Dr. Drew book about narcissism, and I have yet to read it because I'm not needing to read something like that because I'm such a great person. ... You can't even print that, because the comedy inflection won't come out.
KF: We'll put, "he jokes," in parenthesis.
NPH: No, "the narcissist jokes." I'd read it but I'm so busy looking at myself in the mirror.
KF: We've got to ask—are you a Harry Potter fan too?
NPH: Love Harry Potter. I just finished reading the second to last book. I have the Deathly Hollows left to read.
KF: You're just reading the whole series now?
NPH: No, I read them since it started. I read three of them in a row, and I kind of got overwhelmed, and I read the fourth and the fifth at sometime. I think there's seven, right? And I just read book six. I wanted to read it before the movie came out—and I'm glad I did.
Our top 3 reasons we're excited about this year's Emmys
Watch a clip from How I Met Your Mother
More Q&A with Neil Patrick Harris
KF: We'll put, "he jokes," in parenthesis.
NPH: No, "the narcissist jokes." I'd read it but I'm so busy looking at myself in the mirror.
KF: We've got to ask—are you a Harry Potter fan too?
NPH: Love Harry Potter. I just finished reading the second to last book. I have the Deathly Hollows left to read.
KF: You're just reading the whole series now?
NPH: No, I read them since it started. I read three of them in a row, and I kind of got overwhelmed, and I read the fourth and the fifth at sometime. I think there's seven, right? And I just read book six. I wanted to read it before the movie came out—and I'm glad I did.
Our top 3 reasons we're excited about this year's Emmys
Watch a clip from How I Met Your Mother
More Q&A with Neil Patrick Harris
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