Copyright © 2026 OyList. All Rights Reserved.
Share
Items19
1
Dolly Parton
Born
Dolly Parton started the Imagination Library in her home county in Tennessee in 1995, inspired by her father, who could not read. It posts a free book every month to registered children from birth to age five, with local partners sharing the cost, and by mid-2026 it had gifted more than 325 million books across the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and Ireland. She remained its public face until her death in August 2026, and the programme continues.
More about Dolly Parton2
LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton hosted Reading Rainbow on American public television from 1983 to 2006, and its "But you don't have to take my word for it" segments, with children reviewing books, sent viewers to libraries for a generation. When the show ended he bought the rights and relaunched it as a digital reading service, backed by a record-breaking 2014 Kickstarter. His podcast LeVar Burton Reads keeps the same idea alive for adults: simply reading good short fiction aloud.
More about LeVar Burton3
Laura Bush
Laura Bush worked as a school librarian before politics, and she brought that training to public life. She founded the Texas Book Festival in 1995, then launched the National Book Festival with the Library of Congress in 2001, which still draws large crowds in Washington. Her Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries has given grants to under-resourced school libraries for over two decades, a quieter but more practical legacy than any speech.
More about Laura Bush4
Oprah Winfrey
Born
Oprah's Book Club began on her talk show in 1996 and quickly showed that one television endorsement could put a literary novel on bestseller lists for months, an influence publishers nicknamed the Oprah effect. She revived it in later years through her magazine, streaming and social media. The club's real achievement is persuading millions of adults who did not think of themselves as readers to try serious fiction, and to talk about it.
More about Oprah Winfrey5
Queen Camilla
Born
Queen Camilla has been patron of BookTrust, the UK's largest children's reading charity, since 2011, and supports other literacy charities including the National Literacy Trust and Coram Beanstalk. During lockdown in 2021 she started an online book club that became The Queen's Reading Room charity in 2023, with a festival, podcast and a medal for local reading champions. Royal patronage is easy to dismiss, but hers is unusually hands-on and long-lasting.
More about Queen Camilla6
Marcus Rashford
Born
Marcus Rashford followed his free school meals campaign with the Marcus Rashford Book Club in 2021, run with Macmillan Children's Books. The model is specific: books are given to pupils to keep through primary schools supported by the charity Magic Breakfast, with classroom resources from the National Literacy Trust. Donation rounds have reached tens of thousands of children at a time, aimed squarely at families who rarely buy new books.
More about Marcus Rashford7
Chris Evans (presenter)
Born
Chris Evans launched 500 Words on his BBC Radio 2 breakfast show in 2011, inviting children to write an original story of no more than 500 words. In its peak years it drew well over 100,000 entries annually, judged with help from librarians and teachers, and the Oxford University Press studied the entries to track how children use language. It turned a radio host's enthusiasm into a national writing habit that schools built into their calendars.
More about Chris Evans (presenter)8
Reese Witherspoon
Born
Reese Witherspoon started Reese's Book Club in 2017, picking one novel a month with a woman at the centre of the story. Unlike many celebrity picks it has a pipeline behind it: her company Hello Sunshine has adapted club titles such as Where the Crawdads Sing and Little Fires Everywhere for screen. For debut authors in particular, a pick reliably means a jump in library holds and sales.
More about Reese Witherspoon9
Jenna Bush Hager
Born
Jenna Bush Hager, a former teacher and the daughter of a librarian, has run the Read with Jenna book club on NBC's Today since 2019, interviewing each month's author on air. She also co-wrote children's books with her mother, Laura Bush, and supports the family's library foundation. Her picks lean towards accessible literary fiction, which makes the club a useful bridge for occasional readers.
More about Jenna Bush Hager10
Emma Watson
Born
Emma Watson launched the feminist book club Our Shared Shelf in 2016, choosing titles by writers such as bell hooks and Margaret Atwood, and joined the Books on the Underground project by hiding copies on the London Tube for commuters to find. The club was participatory rather than promotional, with discussion led by members. It introduced a younger audience, many of them Harry Potter fans, to non-fiction they might not otherwise have picked up.
More about Emma Watson11
Michael Rosen
Born
Michael Rosen, the poet behind We're Going on a Bear Hunt, was Children's Laureate from 2007 to 2009 and has campaigned ever since for school libraries and reading for pleasure rather than for tests. He uses his broadcasting, including years presenting Radio 4's Word of Mouth, and his large social media following to argue the case. Teachers value him because he pairs advocacy with practical ideas for getting children to enjoy poems.
More about Michael Rosen12
Philip Pullman
Born
Philip Pullman's 2011 speech against planned library closures in Oxfordshire, calling the plans a false economy, became one of the most quoted defences of public libraries in Britain and helped galvanise local campaigns across the country. The author of His Dark Materials has kept returning to the cause, including as president of the Society of Authors. His contribution is argument rather than money, and it gave campaigners a language that councils had to answer.
More about Philip Pullman13
James Patterson
Born
James Patterson, one of the best-selling novelists alive, has spent years giving away money to the reading system around his books: grants to school libraries, scholarships for trainee teachers, funds for independent bookshops and donations of books to children. He also writes the Middle School and other series specifically to hook reluctant young readers. Repeated over many years, the giving adds up to sustained support rather than a one-off gesture.
More about James Patterson14
Stephen King
Born
Stephen King and his wife, the novelist Tabitha King, have funded libraries in their home state of Maine for decades through their family foundation, from small rural branches to the Bangor Public Library. The grants are deliberately local and unglamorous: roofs, collections and opening hours rather than naming rights. It is a good example of a famous author treating the library system that made him a reader as something to maintain.
More about Stephen King15
Jennifer Garner
Born
Jennifer Garner has been an ambassador and trustee for Save the Children in the US for well over a decade, focusing on early learning in poor rural communities, including in West Virginia, where she grew up. The programmes she promotes put books into homes and coach parents to read aloud before children start school. She visits and reports on them regularly, which keeps the attention on the work rather than on her.
More about Jennifer Garner16
Sarah Jessica Parker
Born
Sarah Jessica Parker became honorary chair of the American Library Association's Book Club Central in 2017, recommending titles alongside librarians, and she has run her own fiction imprint, SJP Lit, since the same year. The library link is what makes her advocacy useful: her picks point readers to borrowing as well as buying, and her imprint has championed debut and overlooked writers.
More about Sarah Jessica Parker17
Emma Roberts
Born
Emma Roberts co-founded Belletrist with producer Karah Preiss in 2017, an online book club that spotlights an independent bookshop alongside each monthly pick. It has since grown into a production company adapting books for screen. For readers in their twenties and thirties who follow celebrities on Instagram, it made literary fiction feel like part of the same feed.
More about Emma Roberts18
Dua Lipa
Born
Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club, launched in 2023, picks a book each month and pairs it with a long-form conversation in which she interviews the author. The selections range widely in translation and nationality, from Balkan history to contemporary American fiction. It is one of the newer examples here, but it reaches a pop audience that most publishers struggle to find.
More about Dua Lipa19
Andrew Luck
Born
Andrew Luck started the Andrew Luck Book Club in 2016 while he was the Indianapolis Colts' quarterback, with separate picks for adult "veterans" and young "rookies". A star NFL player recommending novels and history openly undercut the idea that sport and reading belong to different kinds of people. Its two-track format, with discussion questions for the younger picks, made it easy for families and classrooms to read along.
More about Andrew Luck
