What books does Guillermo del Toro recommend?
For the Academy Award-winning filmmaker behind The Shape of Water and Pinocchio, book recommendations from Guillermo del Toro amount to the source code of his imagination. His 41 titles are gathered from a prolific Twitter feed, Penguin Classics introductions he has written, and interviews with outlets like Netflix Tudum, and they are steeped in gothic and horror sensibility, weighted toward fiction and literature, psychology and human behavior, and philosophy. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein sits at the center; he calls it 'the Bible' and says 'I've lived with Mary Shelley's creation all my life.' He also reveres Juan Rulfo's Pedro Paramo, 'a book that I read and reread,' along with Charles Dickens's Bleak House and H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness. Del Toro is himself a novelist, co-author of The Strain trilogy and creator of Trollhunters.
Last updated March 2026 · Every recommendation cited to its original source.
Frankenstein
The Modern Prometheus
byMary Shelley
2018288 Pages“I've lived with Mary Shelley's creation all my life. For me, it's the Bible.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Netflix Tudum Interview
byJuan Rulfo
1994128 Pages(185,000)
“It is a book that I read and reread. It is a book that I think is essential to understanding Mexico.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Introduction to Penguin Classics Edition
byCharles Dickens
18531017 Pages“I would say Bleak House... is an absolute masterpiece truly transcendent.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: YouTube Interview 'Guillermo Del Toro | My Favourite Books' (Penguin Books)
byStephen King
1983416 Pages“Unrelentingly dark and emotional. Compulsive reading. Would kill to make it on film.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT)
byH.P. Lovecraft
2005224 Pages“One of my favourite stories by Lovecraft... the concepts and themes of Lovecraftian stories tend to be difficult to pull off in a visual medium.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Multiple Interviews on unproduced adaptation
byCharlotte Brontë
1847624 Pages“An absolute masterpiece truly transcendent... it becomes the model of so many things.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: YouTube Interview 'Guillermo Del Toro | My Favourite Books' (Penguin Books)
byOscar Wilde
2003256 Pages“I find it such a reflection of aesthetics and existence and the fleeting breath of life.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: YouTube Interview 'Guillermo Del Toro | My Favourite Books' (Penguin Books)
byCarson McCullers
2000359 Pages“Made me feel very deeply... so good.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: YouTube Interview 'Guillermo Del Toro | My Favourite Books' (Penguin Books)
byArthur Machen
1894176 Pages“It is a rare breed of fabulist who transcribes and records – rather than invents – a reality invisible to most of us.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Introduction to 'The Great God Pan' (Penguin Horror)
byJames M. Cain
1937314 Pages“One of his strangest, most baroque books. Full of fevered images and delirious twists. Odd duck.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
byKenneth Grahame
1908240 Pages(532,000)
“It was a beautiful book... I went to meet with the executives and they said, 'Could you give Toad a skateboard?' and that's when I said, 'It's been a pleasure.'”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Rotten Tomatoes Interview on Pinocchio/Classic Animation
byLord Dunsany
190594 Pages(2,400)
“His very first, miraculous, book. Dunsany is a poet, a conjurer and a master fantasist.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
Printer's Error
Irreverent Stories from Book History
byRebecca Romney, J.P. Romney
2017384 Pages“Funny and entertaining... takes us on a journey through the oddly humorous history of Western printing.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
byEmily Carroll
2014208 Pages“The stories Carroll creates have a deep, literary-grounded feel but they are entirely original.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT)
Violenzia
And Other Deadly Amusements
byRichard Sala
2015144 Pages“Breathtaking... Sala takes the conventions of Golden Age comics like Dick Tracy and The Shadow and updates them for the digital era.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: HTMLGIANT Review by Guillermo del Toro
byHoracio Quiroga
1997144 Pages“Quiroga is one of the very best storytellers and you will never forget his otherworldly images and gut punch endings.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Recommendation
byLloyd Alexander
1964224 Pages(83,600)
“Taran dreams of adventure... but nothing exciting ever happens to an Assistant Pig-Keeper.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
The Professor and the Madman
A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
bySimon Winchester
1998256 Pages“Hidden within the rituals of its creation is a fascinating and mysterious story.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
Five Came Back
A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War
byMark Harris
2014511 Pages“He gives us something even more remarkable: the untold story of how Hollywood changed World War II.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
byJohn Wyndham
2008256 PagesSource: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
byJohn Wyndham
1955200 PagesSource: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
byJohn Wyndham
1957240 Pages“A classic tale of alien infiltration, exploring how our society responds when confronted with superior beings.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
byMichael Ende
1979448 PagesSource: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
Animal Man
30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Book One
byGrant Morrison
2018368 Pages“One of the best comic book issues. Perfect cover. Perfect story. Check it out.”
— Guillermo del Toro
Source: Official Twitter (@RealGDT) Book of the Day
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Frequently asked questions
What books does Guillermo del Toro recommend?
His 41 recommendations include Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo, Bleak House by Charles Dickens, and At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft, a list rich in gothic and horror literature.
What is Guillermo del Toro's favorite book?
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He calls it 'the Bible' and says 'I've lived with Mary Shelley's creation all my life,' describing it as a lifelong influence that runs through nearly all of his filmmaking.
Where do Guillermo del Toro book recommendations come from?
They come from his official Twitter feed, the introductions he has written for Penguin Classics and Penguin Horror editions, and interviews with outlets such as Netflix Tudum and Rotten Tomatoes.
Has Guillermo del Toro written any books?
Yes. He co-authored The Strain vampire trilogy, comprising The Strain, The Fall, and The Night Eternal, and created the Trollhunters series and the Netflix anthology Cabinet of Curiosities.
What genres does Guillermo del Toro read most?
His recommendations favor fiction and literature, especially gothic and horror, alongside psychology and human behavior, philosophy, and history, mirroring the dark fairy-tale tone of his films.
All 41 Books Guillermo del Toro Has Recommended
- Frankenstein · Mary Shelley
- Pedro Páramo · Juan Rulfo
- Bleak House · Charles Dickens
- Pet Sematary · Stephen King
- At the Mountains of Madness · H.P. Lovecraft
- Jane Eyre · Charlotte Brontë
- The Picture of Dorian Gray · Oscar Wilde
- The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter · Carson McCullers
- The Great God Pan · Arthur Machen
- Serenade · James M. Cain
- The Wind in the Willows · Kenneth Grahame
- The Gods of Pegāna · Lord Dunsany
- Printer's Error · Rebecca Romney
- Through the Woods · Emily Carroll
- Violenzia · Richard Sala
- Stories of Love, Madness, and Death · Horacio Quiroga
- The Book of Three · Lloyd Alexander
- The Professor and the Madman · Simon Winchester
- Five Came Back · Mark Harris
- The Day of the Triffids · John Wyndham
- The Chrysalids · John Wyndham
- The Midwich Cuckoos · John Wyndham
- The Neverending Story · Michael Ende
- Animal Man · Grant Morrison
- Little Lulu: Working Girl · John Stanley
- The Book of the Damned · Charles Fort
- Zothique · Clark Ashton Smith
- Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things · Lafcadio Hearn
- Something Wicked This Way Comes · Ray Bradbury
- The Vampire Tapestry · Suzy McKee Charnas
- Deathbird Stories · Harlan Ellison
- The Woman in White · Wilkie Collins
- The Aleph and Other Stories · Jorge Luis Borges
- The Book of Imaginary Beings · Jorge Luis Borges
- If on a Winter's Night a Traveler · Italo Calvino
- The Damned Thing · Ambrose Bierce
- The Haunting of Hill House · Shirley Jackson
- Don't Look Now · Daphne du Maurier
- Losing the Light · Andrew Yule
- Hellboy, Vol. 1: Seed of Destruction · Mike Mignola
- Donald Duck Adventures · Carl Barks