What books does David Bowie recommend?
David Bowie approached reading with the same restless curiosity he brought to reinventing rock, and his book recommendations offer a rare window into the mind of one of the 20th century's most influential musicians. Celebrated for personae like Ziggy Stardust, Bowie left behind a famous list of 100 books; 24 of them are gathered here, drawn largely from his 2013 Top 100 Books list along with interviews and an ALA reading poster. Fiction and literature dominate, threaded with psychology, society and politics, philosophy, and history. The selection spans A Clockwork Orange, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Lolita, and The Master and Margarita, alongside Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Reflecting on his youthful reading, Bowie once recalled being "fairly traditional in what I read: pompously Nietzsche," a nod to the Thus Spoke Zarathustra that shaped his early imagination.
Last updated February 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
byJunot Díaz
2008352 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
bySarah Waters
2002592 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
byMikhail Bulgakov
2016448 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byAnthony Burgess
1962192 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Nineteen Eighty-Four
A Novel
byGeorge Orwell
2003328 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
byAlbert Camus
1989144 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
byVladimir Nabokov
1955336 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and 1 others
byJack Kerouac
1999320 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
Read by David Bowie
byYukio Mishima
1994192 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byDon DeLillo
2009336 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byMuriel Spark
2018160 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
The Leopard
A Novel
byGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
2007336 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
byArthur Koestler
2019272 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
A Book for Everyone and No One
byFriedrich Nietzsche
1961352 Pages“As a teenager I was fairly traditional in what I read: pompously Nietzsche...”
— David Bowie
Source: Time Out Interview (1995)
byFyodor Dostoevsky
1869656 PagesSource: ALA 'READ' Poster (1987)
Read by David Bowie
byHubert Selby Jr.
1964320 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byJohn Kennedy Toole
1980416 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byElaine Pagels
1979182 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
A People's History of the United States
1492 - Present
byHoward Zinn
2015784 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byJulian Barnes
1984190 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byJohn Rechy
1963410 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
Read by David Bowie
byJulian Jaynes
2000491 PagesSource: David Bowie's Top 100 Books list (2013)
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Frequently asked questions
What books did David Bowie recommend?
Of his celebrated 100-book list, 24 appear here, including The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, A Clockwork Orange, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Lolita, The Master and Margarita, and On the Road, a span from dystopian fiction to modernist poetry.
Where did David Bowie's book list come from?
Most titles come from David Bowie's Top 100 Books list, published in 2013, supplemented by interviews such as a 1995 Time Out conversation and a 1987 American Library Association "READ" poster.
What genres did David Bowie read most?
His recommendations are dominated by fiction and literature, with strong currents of psychology, society and politics, philosophy, and history, from Dostoevsky's The Idiot to Elaine Pagels's The Gnostic Gospels.
Did David Bowie mention Nietzsche?
Yes. Recalling his teenage reading, Bowie said he was "fairly traditional in what I read: pompously Nietzsche," a reference to Thus Spoke Zarathustra, one of the philosophical works that shaped his early worldview.
Did David Bowie write a book?
The collection lists one authored title connected to him, Moonage Daydream: The Life and Times of Ziggy Stardust, documenting his most iconic creative persona.
All 24 Books David Bowie Has Recommended
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao · Junot Díaz
- Fingersmith · Sarah Waters
- The Master and Margarita · Mikhail Bulgakov
- A Clockwork Orange · Anthony Burgess
- Nineteen Eighty-Four · George Orwell
- The Stranger · Albert Camus
- Lolita · Vladimir Nabokov
- On the Road · Jack Kerouac
- The Waste Land · T.S. Eliot
- The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea · Yukio Mishima
- Money · Martin Amis
- White Noise · Don DeLillo
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie · Muriel Spark
- The Leopard · Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
- Darkness at Noon · Arthur Koestler
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra · Friedrich Nietzsche
- The Idiot · Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Last Exit to Brooklyn · Hubert Selby Jr.
- A Confederacy of Dunces · John Kennedy Toole
- The Gnostic Gospels · Elaine Pagels
- A People's History of the United States · Howard Zinn
- Flaubert's Parrot · Julian Barnes
- City of Night · John Rechy
- The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind · Julian Jaynes