Anniversary Video: Reading Brings Us Together
On May 23, 1895, The New York Public Library was founded. To honor our 125th anniversary, we asked 125 people to tell us about a book they love or a book that inspired them. This video follows the release of our new anniversary list, 125 Kids Books We Love, featuring children’s titles that inspire those both young and young at heart to #LoveReading. Explore the list here.
Join a wide array of booklovers—from acclaimed authors to actors, musicians, and our own expert librarians—to celebrate the power of reading to bring us together, even when we’re apart. Check out what they had to say below and find out how you can join in on the fun.
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Find out what else these cultural luminaries had to say about the power of reading here. We'll be adding more videos throughout our anniversary, so check back for updates.
We want to hear from you! Join the festivities by adding your own video telling us about a book that inspired you to #LoveReading. Post your video to social media with the hashtag #LoveReading and tag @nypl, and we'll share some of our favorites.
What book made you #LoveReading?
Find a selection of these titles on the Library's free e-reader, SimplyE. Download SimplyE for iPhone/iPad or Android!
Abi Daré: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Al Roker: The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
Alan Cumming: The Trick Is to Keep Breathing by Janice Galloway
Alison Stewart: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Amor Towles: Moby Dick by Herman Melville
André Aciman: In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
Angela Yee: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Anna Chlumsky: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Annette Gordon-Reed: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin
Anthony Doerr: The Odyssey by Homer
Arden Myrin: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
Ayelet Waldman: The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis
Bill T. Jones: Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Bobby Berk: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Brian Lehrer: Don't Know Much About History by Kenneth C. Davis
Bruce Coville: Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt
Carl Heastie: The Beautiful Ones by Prince
Carla Hayden: Bright April by Marguerite de Angeli
Carole Radziwill: Manhattan, when I was young by Mary Cantwell
Chelsea Clinton: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Chuck Schumer: The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto
Claire Danes: Anagrams by Lorrie Moore
Clemantine Wamariya: Haben by Haben Girma
Colum McCann: Ulysses by James Joyce
Corey Johnson: Here is New York by E.B. White
Cynthia Nixon: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Dagmara Domińczyk: All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor
Darren Walker: The Soul of America by Jon Meacham
Deborah Roberts: Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats
Desus Nice: Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite by Paul Arden
Elizabeth Levy: Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry
Elizabeth Strout: For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Ellie Kemper: The Easter Parade by Richard Yates
Ethan Hawke: The Animal Family by Randall Jarrell
Francis Ford Coppola: Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton
Frederick Wiseman: Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries by Helen Vendler
Gale Brewer: Evicted by Matthew Desmond
Hillary Clinton: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Hugh Dancy: Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence
James Oddo: Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
Jason Robert Brown: American Composers on American Music by Henry Cowell
Jeffrey Siger: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Jelani Cobb: Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois
Jenna Ushkowitz: When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Jennifer Egan: The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Jenny Xie: Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life by Yiyun Li
Jess Kidd: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys
Jill Kargman: Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery
Jonathan Lethem : Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Karan Mahajan: This Is Not That Dawn by Yashpal
Kevin Young: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Logan Browning: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Mahogany L. Browne: Black Girl in Paris by Shay Youngblood
Martha Plimpton: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
Maurice Carlos Ruffin: The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
Michael John LaChiusa: My Life with Jacqueline Kennedy by Mary Barelli Gallagher
Michael Stipe: Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet
Miriam Shor: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
Monique Truong: The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
Nicole Dennis-Benn: Beloved by Toni Morrison
Ocean Vuong: The Enigma of Arrival by V.S. Naipaul
Padma Lakshmi: The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher
Patrick Wilson: The Lullaby of Polish Girls by Dagmara Domińczyk
Roger Clark: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Rubén Díaz Jr.: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Sloane Crosley: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Stacy Schiff: Amy & Isabelle by Elizabeth Strout
Sunny Hostin: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Susan Minot: Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
The Kid Mero: The Pearl by John Steinbeck
Tim Gunn: The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
Vincent Piazza: Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger