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Forget the latest It bag—nowadays, celebrities are carrying a different status symbol: books. With the recent proliferation of celebrity memoirs, celebrity book clubs, and celebrity memoir book clubs, there’s never been a better time to be literate.
It makes sense, after all: Books carry a social and intellectual cachet. What people read (or, at the very least, appear to be reading) conveys far more than a regular paparazzi shot. Sarah Jessica Parker has turned the set of And Just Like That… into a library. Wearing her costume—a cloud of fuchsia tulle—the actor was spotted toting Patriot, the memoir from the late Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, who died in a Siberian prison earlier this year.
Parker isn’t the only one putting their intellect front and center. Recently, Jacob Elordi proved himself a true cinephile, thumbing through Jean Cocteau’s The Art of Cinema while on holiday in Sardinia. With her heavily annotated books of essays, meanwhile, Kendall Jenner regularly reminds us that she’s far more than just a pretty face.
With that, we ask: Are celebrities actually, genuinely poring over the books they tote around? And does it matter? Where a few of the more voracious readers are surely lurking on secret Goodreads accounts, others may well treat the latest buzzy novel a bit like a trendy accessory. But who’s to say—or to judge!
Here, a survey of the ever-growing list of books that the paparazzi have captured in the arms of celebrities recently. Happy browsing—and reading!
Sarah Jessica Parker
Another famous book-lover (she even has her own imprint!), Parker regularly kills time between scenes on the set of And Just Like That by reading. Most recently, she was spotted carrying Patriot, the 496-page posthumous memoir by Alexei Navalny—the Russian dissident and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin—who died under mysterious circumstances in an Arctic prison earlier this year.
Jacob Elordi
Talk about striking a balance between work and play: the thespian spent his recent Sardinian vacation reading The Art of Cinema by Jean Cocteau. This isn’t the first time the paps have caught Elordi reading, either. He went viral in 2023 for perusing an airport bookstore with a copy of Prima Facie in hand and another paperback in the pocket of his cargo pants.
Kaia Gerber
Whether she’s killing time backstage or taking to Instagram to interview authors like Jia Tolentino and Carmen Maria Machado, Gerber is almost never seen without a book. The devoted reader even recently launched her own book club, Library Science.
Kendall Jenner
The model has been known to shout out books on her Instagram, from Black Swans by Eve Babitz to the not-so-sunny Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, which she brought on vacation. But Jenner seems partial to books of essays written by women—or at least that’s what her paparazzi pics would lead us to believe. She’s been spotted carrying Melissa Broder’s So Sad Today and Chelsea Hodson’s Tonight I’m Someone Else.
Dua Lipa
Another book club curator, Dua Lipa is also something of a literary connoisseur. While she shares her recommendations on her own platform, Service95, she’s occasionally been spotted with a book in hand in the wild. Among them? Sob-fest On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. It comes as no surprised that A Little Life is on her recommended list.
Megan Fox
Sometimes you’ve gotta be your own biggest hypeman. When she published her own book of poetry, Pretty Boys Are Poisonous, Fox subtly showed off her work to the paps.
Jodie Turner-Smith
Everyone has hopped on the bell hooks train at one point or another—including Turner-Smith, who brought All About Love as her companion to Milan Fashion Week.
Addison Rae
Addison Rae was so enthralled by the popstar’s 2023 memoir that she couldn’t even bear to look at the street in front of her. But hey, when Britney Spears calls, you answer!
Bella Hadid
Who would’ve pegged Bella Hadid as a horror fan? You really learn something new every day.
Gigi Hadid
It’s never too late to read the classics!
Camila Cabello
This hilarious tale of a Turkish-American girl’s freshman year of college won Batuman many fans—including Camila Cabello. One question remains: Has she read the sequel, Either/Or?
