""But my problem is that I don’t watch many films because I think I enjoy reading a lot more. “It’s a childhood habit with me. Reading is my big passion and my number one hobby. So when I come home, I pick up a book. I am always reading, even right now I am reading, and so I am constantly reading. I rarely ever come home, pick up a DVD and put it on. It is not possible to go to a cinema either. So I don’t end up watching too many films. You will be surprised at the number of films I’ve missed as a result of being a reading fanatic!" "

"[About Raymond Chandler] The seven books he wrote .. comprise to me some of the most important writing of my whole life, and I have read all of his books probably five or six times each. "

Top 3 books recommended by Alan Cumming

Alyson Lee Hannigan is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Willow Rosenberg in the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lily Aldrin on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Anthony Michael Bourdain is an American chef, author, and television personality. He is known for his 2000 book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, and in 2005 he began hosting the Travel Channel's culinary and cultural adventure programs Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations and The Layover. In 2013, he joined CNN to host Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

Atul Gawande MD, MPH, is an American surgeon, author, and public health researcher. He is a general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, professor in both the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. In his work in public health, he is Executive Director of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation and also chairman of Lifebox, a nonprofit reducing deaths in surgery globally.

Top 3 books recommended by B.J. Novak

Top 3 books recommended by Brooke Shields

Bruce Lorne Campbell is an American film and television actor, director, writer, producer and author.

Busy Phillips is an actor who is best known for her roles in Freaks and Geeks, Dawson’s Creek, and Cougar Town.

Cara Santa Maria is a neuroscientist and host of the podcast Talk Nerdy.

Top 3 books recommended by Cary Elwes

"Veronica Guerin was an Irish journalist who, in the early 1990s, wrote about drug dealers and major drug importers in Dublin. She railed against the ineffectual nature of the Irish legal system — how the government couldn't get these guys, who were blatantly guilty and walking into pubs and shooting people. Guerin had a sense of moral outrage, but also I think she loved to be at the center of life, doing something to make a difference. The great tragedy was that none of the laws changed during her lifetime. She had been threatened and beaten up for her writings and was killed in 1996. As a result of her death, there was a lot of marching, Concerned Parents Against Drugs became an important force, and changes finally occurred. What stuck me about Veronica Guerin was that she believed in the power and necessity of writing. I've tried to read popular books — the ones people are all abuzz about — and I can't help but think, "Oh, it's like fashion, where you feel this will be gone in a week." The other thing with a lot of books out now is that they're begging to be turned into films; they're being written with a cinematic eye, and I find it hard to spend time with something that's a bit cynically conceived. The books and the play I've picked feel to me as if they had to be written. They are intimate books, full of issues and characters that need to be heard. "

Chris D’Elia is an actor and comedian best known for his work in Whitney and Undateable.

Christa Miller is an actor best known for her roles in The Drew Carey Show, Scrubs, and Cougar Town.

"I haven't lost myself in a book in a while — I've been in a bit of a dry spell. I usually get books from friends whose taste I trust, and my dad did give me a subscription to the New York Review of Books this year. He likes it and thought I would, too. He's a voracious reader. I have friends who read entire novels in the bath, and I'm not like that — I don't zip through books. But I invest in them completely. And I'm very interested in intimacy — how people relate to each other, what the inherent limitations are of choosing to love someone, and how we are very limited, actually, in our efforts to escape our loneliness. I think there is a strong sense of loneliness in all the stories I've picked. They're full of people who feel a bit abandoned. I don't know why I am drawn to that, but I am. "

Colin Hanks is an actor and director best known for his roles in Orange County, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and King Kong.

Colin Quinn is an actor, comedian, and writer best known as a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Coolio is a rapper, chef, and actor.

Darius Rucker is a musician who was the lead singer of Hootie & the Blowfish and now has a solo act.

David Koechner is an actor and comedian. He is best known for his work in Anchorman and Anchorman 2.

Deb Perelman is a chef and celebrated author of SmittenKitchen.com and The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.

"My favorite book just was chosen for a Pulitzer! THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE. Run, don't walk. "

Deepika Padukone, born 5 January 1986 in Copenhagen, Denmark, is an Indian model & Actress. She is the daughter of former badminton Champion Prakash Padukone. Her mother tongue is Konkani.

Doug Benson is an actor and comedian.

"Convinced that he needed a new direction in life, Carey returned home to Cleveland, where he immersed himself in self-help books, including Og Mandino’s University of Success and Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Your Erroneous Zones; he would later state that "self-help books literally changed his life." "

Eddie Pepitone is an actor and comedian. He has recurring bits on WTF with Marc Maron, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and Conan.

"I like books that aren't just lovely but that have memories in themselves. Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time. "

Emmanuel Sanders is an American football wide receiver for Denver, previously for Pittsburgh.

Eric McCormack is an actor best know for playing Will on Will & Grace.

Fred Willard is an actor and comedian. He is known for his work in This Is Spinal Tap, Best In Show, and A Mighty Wind.

Freema Agyeman is an actor who is best known for her role of Martha Jones on Doctor Who.

Garbage is an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1993. The group consists of Scottish musician Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, and Butch Vig.

Gene Simmons is the lead singer and bass guitarist for the rock band KISS.

George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer. He was the principal architect of P-Funk, the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost innovators of funk music, along with James Brown and Sly Stone. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, alongside 15 other members of Parliament-Funkadelic.

Greg Proops is an actor and comedian best known as a cast member on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Tardar Sauce, better known by her Internet name "Grumpy Cat", is a cat and Internet celebrity known for her grumpy facial expression.

"I have a lot of time to read when I'm on a movie set, and I've been really lucky to have been given some great literary works over the past several years. I have the issue of Poetry magazine in which "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot was first published, and I have first editions of the works of J. D. Salinger. But one of the best gifts came from Ethan Hawke when we were shooting Great Expectations. I was having a hard time because my first big movie, Emma, had just been released, and everything started to change. I had my first crisis. I found myself asking, "What's happening to my world? To my life?" In the middle of all this, I went into work one day and found that Ethan had left me a big cardboard box full of his favorite books: The Stranger by Albert Camus, Motel Chronicles by Sam Shepard, The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, to name a few. Isn't that the best present? He gave the books to me with the intention of taking me outside myself and having me connect with poetry and literature — things he thought would give me perspective and make me feel better. It was such a generous gesture. I remembered his gift last year when I had a birthday party. I told my friends that I didn't want fancy presents — just for each of them to bring me a copy of their favorite book and to write on the first page why it's so special to them. It was a wonderful night, and I had so much fun discovering what my friends thought about each book. In a way, that's what I've done here: On the following page, I've listed seven of my favorite novels and the reasons I love them. "

"He lists "The Iron Will of Shoeshine Cats by Hesh Kestin" as his favorite book on Twitter. "

Harold Perrineau is an actor known for his roles on Oz, Romeo + Juliet, and LOST.

Harry Shearer is an actor, comedian, voice actor, and musician. He is best known for his roles in This Is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind, and for multiple roles on The Simpsons.

Horatio Sanz is an actor and comedian best known as being a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Ina Rosenberg Garten is an American author and host of the Food Network program Barefoot Contessa, and a former staff member of the White House Office of Management and Budget.

IronE Singleton is an actor who is best known for his roles in the film The Blind Side and as “T-Dog” on The Walking Dead.

Top 3 books recommended by James Franco

Top 3 books recommended by Jane Lynch

Jason Alexander is an actor best known for playing George Costanza on Seinfeld.

Jay Pharoah is an actor and comedian. He is currently a cast member of Saturday Night Live.

Jeri Ryan is an actor best know for her role Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager.

John Barrowman is an actor who is best known for playing Captain Jack Harkness on both Doctor Who and Torchwood.

John Leguizamo is an actor best known for his roles in Ice Age, Moulin Rouge, and Romeo + Juliet.

Jonah Ray is an actor, comedian, and writer. He is best known as one of the hosts of The Nerdist podcast.

Judah Friedlander is an actor and comedian best know for his role of Frank Rossitano on 30 Rock.

Judd Apatow is a director, producer, and screenwriter who is best known for The 40 Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and This Is 40.

"A few years ago, a friend gave me a copy of Michael Cunningham's The Hours for my birthday. I hadn't read anything about it, so it was the most exquisite surprise. The writing is gorgeous. These characters are in incredible pain, and the book evokes the difficulty we all have in making decisions about our lives—decisions to be a mother, to be a wife, to be a friend. As isolated as each of these women feels, you eventually learn that their lives are woven tightly together — as are all of our lives, you realize. When I finished the novel, I thought, 'Wow, somebody will try to make this into a movie, but I can't imagine they'll be able to.' A year or two later, I got a phone call and was offered the part of Laura, the character, coincidentally, that I had responded to the most. I was so moved by the way her little boy, Richie, knows his mother and so visibly worries about her, partly because I have a little boy. Children pick up everything from you. When you see your child doing all right, you think, 'Oh, thank God — everything's okay.' Because you know if it weren't, you'd see it all over him. That was what I found so remarkable about their relationship — that even though she struggled to keep her unhappiness from him, her 3-year-old son felt every single thing she was feeling. I've always been intrigued by those kinds of struggles. I seem to have a propensity toward tragedy in fiction and nonfiction. I don't think that's a bad thing, necessarily. What I love most about the books I've chosen is that they reveal how incredibly difficult life is — it's not perfect, it's not rosy — and how what we struggle with is often the best part. "

Julius Thomas is an American football tight end for Denver.

Kari Byron is best known as being co-host of Mythbusters and the host of Head Rush.

Kevin Pollak is an actor and comedian best known for his roles in A Few Good Men, The Usual Suspects, and The Whole Nine Yards.

Kristen Schaal is an actor and comedian best know for her roles on Flight of the Conchords, 30 Rock, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Kristin Chenoweth is an actor and signer best known for her roles in The West Wing, Pushing Daisies, and the Broadway musical Wicked.

Kurt Warner is a former American football quarterback for Arizona, New York, and St. Louis where he lead his team to a championship.

Lance Bass is a singer and dancer. He was a member of the pop band ‘N Sync.

Top 3 books recommended by Lara Spencer

Larry The Cable Guy is an actor and stand up comedian.

Top 3 books recommended by Lena Dunham

Lou Diamond Phillips is an actor best known for his roles in Longmire, La Bamba, and Young Guns.

Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster, No. 1 ranked player in the world and reigning World Chess Champion in classical, rapid and blitz chess. His peak rating is 2882, the highest in history

Marie Osmond is a singer and actor best know for the variety show Donny & Marie.

Marina Sirtis is an actor who is best known for playing Counselor Deanna Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Mark Gatiss is an actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He has written for Doctor Who and Sherlock. He is also one of the co-creators of Sherlock.

Marlon Wayans is an actor and comedian best known for his roles in the Scary Movie franchise, White Chicks, and Little Man.

Top 3 books recommended by Martin Short

Matt Mira is a comedian and writer. He is best known as being one of the co-hosts of the Nerdist podcast.

Matt Walsh is an actor, comedian, and writer best know for his role on Veep.

Michael McKean is an actor, comedian, and musician best known for his roles in Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, This Is Spinal Tap, and many, many more.

Michael Strahan is a former American football defensive end for New York and is now co-host of Live! with Kelly and Michael.

Nick Kroll is an actor and comedian best known for his rolls in The League and The Kroll Show.

Nikki Glaser is a comedian and host of the podcast You Had To Be There.

Top 3 books recommended by Norman Lear

Paul F. Tompkins is an actor, comedian, and writer best known for his work on Real Time with Bill Maher and Best Week Ever.

Paul McGann is an actor. He is best known for his roles in The Monocled Mutineer, Withnail and I, and as the eighth incarnation of The Doctor in Doctor Who.

Paul Christian Scheer is an American actor, comedian, writer, director, and producer. Scheer currently stars on the FX series The League, the ABC sitcom Fresh Off the Boat, and Hulu comedy series The Hotwives, which he also executive produces.

Penn Jillette is best known for being the louder half of the magic duo Penn and Teller. He is also co-host of the Showtime series Bullshit.

"The Godfather will always be cherished by me. All the Godfathers. And books, well, The Little Prince comes to mind. Because that was my first performance ever. I performed the Little Prince in Suffolk Cathedral when I was 17. It was my first time onstage. And anything by Chekhov, Tolstoy, Ernest Hemingway."

Priyanka Chopra is an Indian film actress and singer, and the winner of the Miss World pageant of 2000. Through her successful film career, Chopra has become one of Bollywood's highest-paid actresses and one of the most popular celebrities in India.

"I read a lot. I read biographies. I read every day. I think reading makes your imagination big."

Rebel Wilson is an actor and comedian best known for her work in Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect.

Ann Marie "Ree" Drummond is an award-winning American blogger, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author, food writer, photographer and television personality who lives on a working ranch outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma.

Robert Hepler "Rob" Lowe is an American film and television actor. He garnered fame after appearing in such films as The Outsiders, Oxford Blues, About Last Night..., St. Elmo's Fire, Wayne's World, Tommy Boy, and Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. On television, he played Sam Seaborn on The West Wing, Senator Robert McCallister on Brothers & Sisters and Chris Traeger in Parks and Recreation. Most recently, Lowe played the role of President John F. Kennedy in Killing Kennedy, a made-for-television movie that premiered November 10, 2013 on National Geographic Channel.

Rod Smith is a former American football wide receiver for Denver where he helped them win two championships.

Top 4 books recommended by Sarah Richardson

Scott Aukerman is an actor and comedian. He is the host of the show and podcast Comedy Bang! Bang!

Sean Brock is a chef who primarily works with the Cuisine of the Southern United States. He has been the executive chef at Charleston, South Carolina's Husk since its opening in 2010, as well as a partner at McCrady's Restaurant.

Seth Rogen is an actor best known for his roles in Pineapple Express, Superbad, and Knocked Up.

"I read anything and everything... I read three or four books at a time. I go to bookstores when I’m in London or America. I get a coffee and keep browsing for hours—something I can’t do in India. I come back home with a bagful of books. I’m always stopped at customs as they think I’m carrying some heavy electronic items! "

Shannon Sharpe is a former American football tight end for Denver and Baltimore where he helped his teams win 3 total championships.

The Sklar Brothers are a stand-up comedy duo.

Tom Papa is an actor, comedian, and writer.

Tory Belleci is best known as co-host of Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel.

"Running and reading are the keys to life... The reason that reading is so important, there have mean millions and billions and billions and gazillions of people that have lived before all of us, there’s no new problem you can have, with your parents, with school, with a bully, with anything. There’s no problem you can have that someone hasn’t already solved and wrote about it in a book. "

"The Catcher in the Rye has always had special meaning for me because I read it when I was young – 18 or so. It resonated with my fantasies about Manhattan, the Upper East Side and New York City in general. It was such a relief from the other books I was reading at the time, which all had a quality of homework to them. "

Yotam Ottolenghi is a British-based chef, cookery writer and restaurant owner.

Yvette Nicole Brown is best known for playing Shirley Bennett on Community.