Daniel Radcliffe’s Favorite Books Will Surprise You

It is impossible to not think of Daniel Radcliffe and harry Potter as one person, For many of us, we grew up watching Radcliffe star in 8 Harry Potter movies. And if you are like me, then you revisit them often.

Today, we will be looking at Daniel Radcliffe’s favorite books to read. You might be sirprised to learn that Radcliffe is a book lover and reads a vairety of book which include ficiton and nonfiction.

Now, Radcliffe can be found on Broadway, starring in Every Brilliant Thing. He has separated himself from Harry Potter over the years but for many people, he will always be the boy who lived.

Like many people, Radcliffe got into reading because of the Harry Potter books. Unlike most people, he was required to read them.

“I think I was definitely one of the kids that Harry Potter got them into reading,” Radcliffe said. “I had read the first two before we started filming. And then after I got the job, I was like, ‘I guess I need to read all of these now.’ And I got into them, and they were great.”

Did Harry Potter get you into reading? Besides the Harry Potter books, Radcliffe has been reading a ton of books, many you might recognize and that may be on your to read list. You can see the full list below!

• The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 
• The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester
• How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr
•  The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

The first book that Radcliffe chose as one of his favorite is The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. Itt is a fantastic retelling of Homer’s The Iliad and one that I recommend eveyrone to read. Seeing it on this list should give you the push to read it!

“The Iliad’s always been one that I’m like, ‘I probably won’t read that in full,’” Radcliffe said. “But reading this amazing interpretation of it, where you feel like you get what I’m assuming is the story of a lot of it — It’s a beautiful love story. It’s so well and compellingly written.”

“Before I read that, I’d read a lot … so I had just got out of one of those books, and then I read Song of Achilles, and it was so nice to not be able to wait to get back to a book again and just be reading it all the time,” Radcliffe added.

A surprise book on this list that few will have heard of is The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester or netter known as The Professor and the Madman in the United States. It tells the inception of the the Oxford English dictionary and not a book that many people would read.

If you should know one thing about Radcliffe, it is that he is a bit of a nerd and loves the dictionary. His video of rapping a complicated song is one that I revisit often. It is really impressive and a talent that few know that Radcliffe has.

Daniel Radcliffe on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

“It’s a brilliant nonfiction book,” Radcliffe said about the book. “If anybody out there is looking for a book for their dad for birthday or Christmas, I recommend this one.”

The third book that Radcliffe chose was How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr, a book about America’s imperialism history. Radcliffe’s selection is all over the place and I love it.

“It’s incredibly educational about America’s history generally, but particularly this little time in American history,” he said. “The way you behaved like a global power at the time was to have an empire, but it kind of goes against everything America was founded on to have an empire … it’s fascinating.”

Lastly, the fourth and final book that Radcliffe chose as his favorite and a must read is The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Personally, I struggled to get into this novel but I might revisit it again and see if I can this time around.

“It’s set in two timelines, one of which is about the devil coming to Moscow in 1925 and bringing this kind of retinue of extraordinary characters with him,” Radcliffe said. “And the other timeline is about the forgiveness of Pontius Pilate for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. And then those timelines meet. It does things that it’s insane that a book can do. It’s so beautiful. It’s so funny. It’s so exciting.”

“I think I read it for the first time as a 17 or 18 year old, and it’s been something that I just think about all the time still, for what the limits of literature can do.”

Conclusion

These are Daniel Radcliffe’s favorite books that he labels as must read. It is a great list and I love how it is all over the place. The list includes classics and also books that few people would have heard of.

Daniel Radcliffe is someone that has been in the spotlight for over two decades and someone that many people would instantly recognize. And yes, many of them might better know him as Harry Potter, Few, however know what he likes to read and I am sure this list just scratches the surface.

How many of these books have you read or plan to read? What did you think of Daniel Radcliffe’s list of favorite books? Let us know in the comments below. Until next time, happy reading!

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