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The actor also revealed how he first started reading the ‘Harry Potter’ series as a kid in a new 'Bustle' interview
NEED TO KNOW
- Daniel Radcliffe is sharing his list of must-read books
- In a March 10 interview for Bustle's "One Nightstand" series, the actor opened up about his four favorite books, which included novels and nonfiction reads
- Radcliffe also discussed reading the Harry Potter series as a kid
As the face of the Harry Potter franchise, Daniel Radcliffe has always had a connection to the literary world. But in a new interview, the actor revealed that his connection to books runs even deeper.
Radcliffe, who is currently starring in the Broadway play Every Brilliant Thing, spoke with Bustle editor-in-chief Charlotte Owen for the outlet’s “One Nightstand” series, where celebrities share their favorite books.
Radcliffe opened up about his early reading roots in the March 10 interview. Before he took on the role of boy wizard Harry Potter across eight blockbuster films, he was a fan of the series of novels by J.K. Rowling that the franchise was based on.
“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.”
His love of literature, however, didn’t stop there. Today, one of Radcliffe’s must-read books is Madeline Miller’s novel The Song of Achilles, an epic and romantic reimagining of Homer’s The Iliad.
“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," he added of the BookTok staple.
Radcliffe also recommended The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester, titled The Professor and the Madman in the United States. The book details the inception of the Oxford English dictionary — particularly, the working relationship between editor James Murray and contributor Dr. William Chester Minor.
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“It’s a brilliant nonfiction book,” Radcliffe said. “If anybody out there is looking for a book for their dad for birthday or Christmas, I recommend this one.”
Radcliffe then chose How to Hide an Empire by Daniel Immerwahr, which analyzes America’s imperialism history, and its control over territories including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.
“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.”
Finally, Radcliffe highlighted The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. The satirical novel was written in secret between 1928 and 1940 in the Soviet Union.
“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.”
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“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.”
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