"Libraries gave us power", proclaimed the Manic Street Preachers, and it's true that the written word continues to inspire and instruct. In fact, we're sure that a future Prime Minister will cite the ShortListInstant Improver section as the catalyst for their rise to power one day.
To that end, we decided to delve into the world of celebrities to find out what their favourite work was; some opted for a childhood favourite, others a weighty and classic tome. Others went for the unexpected (naming no names Gordon Brown and Noel Edmonds). And one confirmed his suspected god-complex...
Images: All Star/Rex
Barack Obama
Favourite book: Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Stephen King
Favourite book: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Kate Winslet
Favourite book: Therese Raquin by Emile Zola
Tom Clancy
Favourite book: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Dermot O'Leary
Favourite book:The Bottoms by Joe R Lansdale
James Nesbitt
Favourite book:The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger
George Clooney
Favourite book:War & Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Sir Michael Caine
Favourite book:The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Martin Sheen
Favourite book:The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Steve Coogan
Favourite book:The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne
Rob Brydon
Favourite book:Collected works by Dylan Thomas
Emma Thompson
Favourite book:Odyssey by Homer
Gary Lineker
Favourite book:The Famous Five by Enid Blyton
Gordon Brown
Favourite book:The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson
Alec Baldwin
Favourite book:To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
Will Smith
Favourite book:The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo
Chevy Chase
Favourite book:Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Steven Spielberg
Favourite book:The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
Drew Barrymore
Favourite book:Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E Frankl
Morrissey
Favourite book:By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
Anne Hathaway
Favourite book:The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Noel Edmonds
Favourite book:Born to be Riled by Jeremy Clarkson
Jim Carrey
Favourite book:Crime & Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pierce Brosnan
Favourite book:The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Mel Gibson
Favourite book:1984 by George Orwell
Matt Damon
Favourite book:A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Sir Alex Ferguson
Favourite book:Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
Megan Fox
Favourite book:Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
Tom Hanks
Favourite book:In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Kate Moss
Favourite book:The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Jose Mourinho
Favourite book:The Bible
Daniel Radcliffe
Favourite book:The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Owen Wilson
Favourite book:The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Danny Wallace
Favourite book:The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith
Donald Trump
Favourite book:The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vicent Peale
Natalie Portman
Favourite book:The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
John Travolta
Favourite book:Airport by Arthur Hailey
Robert Green
Favourite book:The Iliad by Homer
Simon Cowell
Favourite book:DisneyWar by James B. Stewart
Wayne Rooney
Favourite book:Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J.K. Rowling
OUR BEST SELLING ITEMS
![3. Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Complete Box Set [Blu-ray]](https://www.shortlist.com/media/imager/202004/47769-product_widget.large.png)
